Warren Zevon’s Excitable Boy
Warren Zevon born January 24, 1947, an American singer, songwriter, and musician went throughout his career with little success, despite working alongside some of the biggest artists during the sixties and seventies. He started with a single written by him and his high school girlfriend, then started writing for The Turtles and The Everly Brothers, he also toured with The Everly Brothers as their keyboardist, bandleader, and musical coordinator. In 1975, he returned to L.A. from a summer in Spain where he stayed with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac. Here he would meet and work with Jackson Browne who would produce his first self-titled album in 1976. In 1978 Zevon released the most successful album he ever had Excitable Boy produced by Jackson Browne and Waddy Wachtel. This album will be our focus today, we’ll cover each song in the order of the album.
Zevon starts the album off on a sweet and somber note with Johnny Strikes Up The Band, a beautiful tribute to Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show, recalling a simpler time in Zevon’s and America's life. The second verse of the song;
And Johnny is my main man
He’s the keeper of the keys
He’ll put your mind at ease
He’s guaranteed to please
Back by popular demand
Look around, my little friend
Jubilation in the land
Freddie gettin’ ready, rock steady
When Johnny strikes up the band.
Beckoning to the sentimental side in everyone by lending us his, Zevon does a great job with this song placement on the album, it’s sweet, vulnerable, and when it ends you can’t wait to hear the next song. The transition between this song and the next, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, is effortlessly smooth, and in this next song, we get a better view of Zevon’s Gothic and macabre writing style.
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner starts certainly somber once again leading to the smooth transition from the earlier song. In this song, Roland is the re-imagining of Charlemagne’s paladin Roland who when betrayed by another paladin his head explodes, and he is viewed as a martyr and hero forever after. In the first verse;
Roland was a warrior
From the Land of the Midnight Sun
With a Thompson gun for hire
Fighting to be done
The deal was made in Denmark
On a dark and stormy day
So he set out for Biafra
To join the bloody fray.
Zevon paints a picture that Roland was a simple mercenary, reveling in the death and gore of war, throughout the song, this is more and more clear. In the final verse;
The eternal Thompson gunner
Still wandering through the night
Now it’s ten years later
But he still keeps up the fight
In Ireland, in Lebanon
In Palestine and Berkeley
Patty Hearst heard the burst
Of Roland’s Thompson gun and bought it.
Zevon establishes that Roland is carrying his betrayal and death through the years, and appears at any war zone, ready to take action with the highest bidder. He ends with a social commentary about the kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the SLA and her joining them two months after. Heavy subject for the second song of the album right? The next song is easily one of the best songs, the transition into Excitable Boy is pretty good, Roland fades out and you hear the iconic snare hit that starts off the classic song.
Excitable Boy is where we really get shown the depths of Zevon’s dismally dark humor and his views on where society is heading. The first verse refers to the outlandish silly actions of the protagonist and the explanation everyone gives him of being an excitable boy. In the second verse we see an escalation of the excitable boy;
“He took in a 4 A.M. show at the Clark
“Excitable boy,” they all said,
And he bit the usherette’s leg in the dark
“Excitable boy,” they all said”
the Clark is a famous movie theater in Zevon’s native Chicago, likely a porno theater in this context. At the show, he bites a worker on the leg, but he’s just an excitable boy. The protagonist continues to escalate to new heights in the next verse;
He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom (Ooh, ah-ooh)
“Excitable boy,” they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy)
And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home (Ooh, ah-ooh)
“Excitable boy,” they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy)
Well, he’s just an excitable boy.
The “excitable” boy has committed two horrendous crimes now, yet he is still viewed by everyone as simply excitable. This final verse explains how the boy was “punished” for his crimes;
After ten long years, they let him out of the home
“Excitable boy,” they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy)
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones
“Excitable boy,” they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy)
Well, he’s just an excitable boy.
After committing rape and murder society put him into a mental asylum or some such facility, and ten years later release him as “just an excitable boy”. Zevon clearly shows the boy hasn’t changed at all telling us he built a cage with her bones after desecrating her grave, but what is he? Just an excitable boy. A great third song for the album and preceding the most popular song Werewolves of London.
Werewolves of London was written as a joke while watching bad horror movies in just 15 minutes. Zevon was not a fan of this song and didn’t want it on the album, but the song would be his only top 40 hit. The song can be interpreted a couple of ways, but in knowing Zevon's songwriting style and personality it's clear that the song is about predatory men preying on wealthy women.
First verse: I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of SoHo in the rain
He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook’s
Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein
Second verse: If you hear him howling around your kitchen door
You better not let him in
Little old lady got mutilated late last night
Werewolves of London again
In the first and second verse, he points out the werewolf he sees prowling the street looking for something to eat, metaphorically a wealthy woman to exploit for his own gain. He continues on this stream of consciousness calling out the fancy men drinking piña coladas’ at the fancy bars and restaurants. As much as Zevon didn’t like the song it does make for nice work on the album and for the true fan it fits well as well. Following the happy and fun dance hit comes a slow and meaningful track, Accidentally Like a Martyr.
Accidentally Like a Martyr compares the end of a relationship to dying over religious beliefs.
Chorus: We made mad love, shadow love
Random love and abandoned love
(Ooh) Accidentally like a martyr
The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder
We made mad love, shadow love
Random love and abandoned love
(Ooh) Accidentally like a martyr
The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder
Second verse: The days slide by, should’ve done
Should’ve done, we all sigh
Never thought I’d ever be so lonely
After such a long, long time
Time out of mind
After the first verse where he explains the deep depression and isolation the chorus comes in and calls the memories of good times in the relationship, but ending with abandon and hurt. Like a martyr possibly making the realization of how foolish it is to die for a belief with no guarantee much like relationships. Following the chorus, the second verse explains his second-guessing of every action and the intense loneliness he never imagined he would experience. The song is so empathetic to the nature of how we feel after a breakup it holds you captive to the narrative and identifying with the hurt. This leads into the funk-fueled Night Time in the Switching Yard blasting away the sadness felt in the last song and replacing it with an unstoppable beat and rhythm that has you humming along and tapping your foot.
Night Time in the Switching Yard is unique to this album as it has no story or meaning behind it. It seems to wholly exist as a fun and catchy song that gets you to move your feet and belt the chorus along with the song. It is possible however that the song is using double entendres to refer to the switching yard as a place full of drugs and prostitutes and anything else a degenerate would love to find at night. Or as a euphemism for doing heroin.
Get it out on the mainline
Listen to the rhythm of the train go by
Get it out on the mainline
Listen to the rhythm of the train go by
Listen to the train whistle whine
Listen to the train whistle whine.
This is the sole verse of the song and the mainline could refer to trains or to the vein you would shoot heroin into. You could simply listen to the trains go by or it could be the feeling of doing heroin. It is unclear which is intended, but this wouldn’t be the first time Zevon made a song about drug use, so it’s up to the listener to decide what the song is about. Whichever meaning is decided on, it’s a great song that you can’t help but move to. The album slows down again after this track as it transitions into Veracruz.
Veracruz is a song about the occupation of, well, Veracruz towards the end of WW1. The song is fairly short with only three verses and a bridge sung in Spanish.
Verse 1: I heard Woodrow Wilson’s guns
I heard Maria crying
Late last night I heard the news
That Veracruz was dying
Veracruz was dying
Verse 2: Someone called Maria’s name
I swear it was my father’s voice
Saying, “If you stay you’ll all be slain
You must leave now, you have no choice”
Take the servants and ride west
Keep the child close to your chest
When the American troops withdraw
Let Zapata take the rest
Verse 3: I heard Woodrow Wilson’s guns
I heard Maria calling
Veracruz is dying
And Cuernavaca’s fallen
The song refers to aspects of the Veracruz occupation including the revolution headed by Emiliano Zapata, in the final line of the second verse. This was not outside of Zevon’s wheelhouse to comment on international issues, but this was the first song he had said anything about foreign affairs and not just a social commentary. It’s in a completely different style from every other song on the album as well, done in Mexican boleros style to match the time and setting in which the song takes place. This showcases Zevon’s instincts in composition as well as songwriting. The final style and tempo change happen in the next song, Tenderness on the Block.
Tenderness on the Block revamps the energy of the album with a quick piano riff and ballad feel that would ultimately set the tone for the eighties pop. Lyrically this song is about a father's love, a father's fear, and a father's journey in learning to trust his daughter.
Verse 2: Daddy, don’t you ask her when she’s coming in
And when she’s home, don’t ask her where she’s been
She’s going out, she has a young man waiting
She’s going out, can’t keep her young man waiting
Chorus: She’ll be okay, let her have her day
’Cause it’s a long way, it’s a long walk
But she’ll find true love
And tenderness on the block
In the first verse of the song Zevon sings my personal favorite first lines of the album, “Mama, where’s your pretty little girl tonight? Trying to run before she can walk, that’s right.”. This gives a great example of a father's nervousness about his baby girl going out, the denial of the inevitable, and a dry curtness to the whole idea. In the second verse the mother is telling him what not to do when the daughter returns followed by the chorus that changes a little each time it’s sung, always ending with, “But she’ll find true love and tenderness on the block”. Great song I think almost anyone can relate to. If you find yourself as a dad that won’t let your daughter go you might need this next track Lawyers, Guns, and Money.
Zevon ends this exciting, roller coaster of emotions album with an absolute banger. Lawyers, Guns, and Money is upbeat, has fun guitar riffs and solos throughout, and an excellent story behind it. While in Cuba with his manager, they were in a taxi that went a different way than they were expecting and the driver got out of the car and ran into a house. After a few moments, the driver came running out with a woman and got back in the car a sped off with others from inside the home shooting at the taxi. Zevon’s manager looked at him and said, “Call my father, tell him to send lawyers!” and Zevon responded, “Guns and money too!”. When they got back from Cuba, they wrote this song.
Verse 2: I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Dad, get me out of this
Ha!
Verse 3: I’m the innocent bystander
And somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I’m down on my luck
Zevon takes the general idea of the story and runs with it, making this song as lyrically enjoyable as all his work is, but he went the extra mile with this song and made it a real rock song. This song has nuances of Fleetwood Mac, Zeppelin, even The Beatles. It’s a great song to end the album with, leaving you excited to listen to it again and looking forward to what he will do next.
