![]() The verse finds its singer stranded in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel as he stares into his coffee cup, hungover, short of funds: “Desperadoes Under the Eaves” is the album’s masterpiece, an existential anthem that celebrates and ridicules Hollywood itself as it captures Zevon at a moment in hiding. The album’s finale brings Warren Zevon full circle with the reflective instrumental motif that opened the album as introduction to “Frank and Jesse James,” transposed here from piano to strings to cinematic effect. Dropping out for a sojourn in New York City as a folk singer, he followed with 1970’s overlooked Wanted Dead or Alive before finding traction as keyboard player and bandleader for the Everly Brothers while crafting his own catalog of original songs. By junior year at Hollywood’s Fairfax High, he was notching his first songwriting credits, releasing singles as the leading half of prescient psychedelic pop duo lyme and cybelle (lower case courtesy of e. An early immersion in classical music was fortified by tween encounters with his idol, Igor Stravinsky. Music had been Zevon’s adolescent refuge from a dysfunctional family as he shuttled between Fresno and Los Angeles. Related: Our Album Rewind of Excitable Boy That self-titled 1976 LP shares its sequel’s dark humor and brute-force rock, yet overall, it’s musically and thematically more varied and ambitious, reinforced by producer Jackson Browne’s emphasis on Zevon’s more literate music and lyrics. There’s no arguing with that album’s lean and hungry attack, yet a closer survey of the Chicago-born Californian’s four-decade career suggests its predecessor, his Asylum label debut, offers a more revealing portrait. Twenty years after his death, Warren Zevon’s legacy is still dominated by 1978’s Excitable Boy, spurred to platinum by “Werewolves of London,” the absurdist monster mash-up that pitted his stomping piano against Fleetwood Mac’s strutting rhythm section. Cat Stevens Returns With New Studio Album, ‘King of a Land’.Kiss’ ‘Destroyer’: Where the Music Finally Equaled the Image.Prince’s Epic Performance at George Harrison’s Rock Hall Induction.Beach Boys’ Mike Love Talks ‘Pet Sounds’.Disgraced Rock Star Returns to Prison Just Weeks After Release. ![]() Jim Gordon, World-Class Drummer for Clapton, Cocker & More -And Convicted Killer-Dies.Nancy Wilson Talks About the Moment She Knew Heart Had Made It.Def Leppard Joins Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on ‘Drastic Symphonies’.The Who’s ‘Face Dances’: After Tragedy, Transition.The 5 Album of the Year Grammys From 1970-1974.David Johansen Documentary From Martin Scorsese, ‘Personality Crisis,’ Coming.Ten Years After Reissue ‘A Space in Time’ For 50th Anniversary.Ian Hunter New Album Features Jeff Beck and All-Star Cast.Talking Heads’ ‘Stop Making Sense’ Concert Film Restored For Theaters, Vinyl.John Sebastian in Conversation: Recapturing the Lovin’ Spoonful ‘Magic’.Joni Mitchell’s ‘Ladies of the Canyon’: Painting the Canvas. ![]()
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