Warren Zevon ‎ Excitable Boy 1978 Asylum Records Original Vinyl LP w/Insert
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Excitable Boy Studio album by  Warren Zevon Released January 18, 1978 Recorded 1977 Studio The Sound Factory (Los Angeles) Genre Rock Length 31:29 Label Asylum Producer

  • Jackson Browne 
  • Waddy Wachtel
Warren Zevon chronology Warren Zevon
(1976) Excitable Boy
(1978) Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School
(1980) Singles from Excitable Boy
  1. "Johnny Strikes Up the Band"
    Released: 1978
  2. "Excitable Boy"
    Released: 1978
  3. "Werewolves of London"
    Released: January 18, 1978
  4. "Nighttime in the Switching Yard"
    Released: 1978
  5. "Lawyers, Guns and Money"
    Released: 1978

Excitable Boy is the third studio album by American musician Warren Zevon. The album was released on January 18, 1978, by Asylum Records. It includes the single "Werewolves of London", which reached No. 21 and remained in the American Top 40 for six weeks. The album brought Zevon to commercial attention and remains the best-selling album of his career, having been certified platinum by the RIAA and reaching the top ten on the US Billboard 200. A remastered and expanded edition was released in 2007.

Music and lyrics

"Excitable Boy" and "Werewolves of London" were considered macabrely humorous by some critics. The historical "Veracruz" dramatizes the United States occupation of Veracruz. It was the first song Zevon wrote with Jorge Calderón. Likewise, "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" is a fictionalized account of former mercenary David Lindell's experiences in Africa. "Lawyers, Guns and Money" is a tongue-in-cheek tale of a young American man's adventures in Cold War-era Latin America. In addition, there are two ballads about life and relationships ("Accidentally Like a Martyr" and "Tenderness on the Block"), as well as the funk/disco-inspired "Nighttime in the Switching Yard".

Critical reception

Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating AllMusic Christgau's Record Guide A− The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Music Box PopMatters 9/10 Rolling Stone (favorable) Uncut 9/10

Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote:

The further these songs get from Ronstadtland, the more I like them. The four that exorcise male psychoses by mock celebration are positively addictive, the two uncomplicated rockers do the job, and two of the purely 'serious' songs get by. But no one has yet been able to explain to me what 'accidentally like a martyr' might mean—answers dependent on the term 'Dylanesque' are not acceptable—and I have no doubt that that's the image Linda will home in on. After all, is she going to cover the one about the headless gunner?

The Globe and Mail panned the album, writing that Zevon's famous friends contributing to "this improbable collection of tunes is a testament to the constant in-breeding among the California types that have so deteriorated the scene out there."

Track listing

All writing by Warren Zevon. Additional writers as noted.

Side one No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "Johnny Strikes Up the Band"   2:49 2. "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" David Lindell 3:47 3. "Excitable Boy" LeRoy Marinell 2:40 4. "Werewolves of London" Marinell, Waddy Wachtel 3:27 5. "Accidentally Like a Martyr"   3:37 Side two No. Title Writer(s) Length 6. "Nighttime in the Switching Yard" Jorge Calderón, Lindell, Wachtel 4:15 7. "Veracruz" Calderón 3:30 8. "Tenderness on the Block" Jackson Browne 3:55 9. "Lawyers, Guns and Money"   3:29


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