But the song is also a fairly neat summation of 20th-century American foreign policy south of the border, or of American behavior anywhere: вЂњLawyers, Guns and Money,вЂќ as our history tells us, is the true meaning of вЂњIn God We Trust.вЂќ In the same way, вЂњLawyers, Guns and Money,вЂќ a quick sketch of an excitable boy who keeps looking for ever more elaborate forms of trouble (вЂњDad,вЂќ he wires from a casino in Havana, вЂњget me out of thisвЂќ), really is just a joke, just as sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. вЂњIвЂ™d like to meet his tailor.вЂќ What? вЂњHis hair wasвЂ¦ perfect.вЂќ This is Randy Newman without rationalism. вЂњBetter stay away from him/HeвЂ™ll rip your lungs out, Jim,вЂќ the singer says of his monster. вЂњWerewolves of LondonвЂќ is funny if itвЂ™s really about ZevonвЂ™s urge to run amok and eat people, itвЂ™s still funny, and whatвЂ™s funny about it is that itвЂ™s queer it makes no sense. This isnвЂ™t to say that Zevon, or anyway his songs, belongs on a criticвЂ™s couch. Zevon suggests that he knows a secret, but canвЂ™t-or wonвЂ™t-tell us exactly what it is: for our own sake, or for his. Listening to ZevonвЂ™s deep, raving voice, you feel his chest is about to burst from all heвЂ™s holding in. Zevon does the same with the dust-toВ-dust tone in which he tells the story of Roland the headless gunner (a mercenary recruited by the CIA in Norway and eliminated by his employers in the Congo), with the headlong plunge onto the railroad tracks in вЂњPoor, Poor Pitiful MeвЂќ on Warren Zevon, with the cavalry-charge cries of вЂњHah!вЂќ he uses to sign many of his best tunes. RottenвЂ™s whole persona was based on the illusion that he suppressed nothing that was how he generated tension, made you squirm. What it is-and itвЂ™s also what makes Zevon kin to Rotten-is the suppressed violence of ZevonвЂ™s singing. There is something thatВ convinces you that the perfect rocker, вЂњWhen Johnny Strikes Up the Band,вЂќ is about a smack dealer, not a bandleader, and that вЂњRoland the Headless Thompson GunnerвЂќ is much more than a gloss on the Irish war ballad. There is something that invites one to go beneath the fey surface of вЂњExcitable BoyвЂќ (вЂњAnd he raped her and killed her, then he took her homeвЂ¦ Well, heвЂ™s just an excitable boyвЂќ-all to the tune of pretty oo-wahs by Linda R.) or the sentimental surface of вЂњVeracruz,вЂќ the plaint of a rich Mexican family squeezed by American troops on the one side and Zapata on the other. Excitable Boy could just as well have been titled Red Harvest. You wonвЂ™t get to the bottom of Excitable Boy simply by noting that its subject matter includes contract killing, the Congo civil war, revenge murder, psychos, the Mexican revolution, rape, the Symbionese Liberation Army, necrophilia, and mutilation, but you wonвЂ™t completely miss the point, either. Right below the surface-with Zevon, the surface is usually a joke-ZevonвЂ™s songs speak of a fascination with violence as a means to life, of a need to touch it, to come to terms with it. If Zevon openedВ his first Asylum album hanging himself with the same corny rope (in вЂњFrank and Jesse JamesвЂќ), he cut himself down by the end (in вЂњDesperados Under the EavesвЂќ). ItвЂ™s not the outlaw-myth pseudo-violence the Eagles popularized on Desperado, either. What Zevon-as-Sex Pistol comes down to is violence even counting the unrecorded вЂњBelsen Was a Gas,вЂќ thereвЂ™s more violence in ZevonвЂ™s repertoire than there was in RottenвЂ™s. Which simply means that the affinities running through rock and roll today are not as obvious as they seem.

The people who inhabit the commercial context in which Zevon makes his music arenвЂ™t merely integrated into the system the Sex Pistols were out to fuck up, they are the system. studio mavens-no creampuffs, but no troublemakers, either. Both records are on Asylum, a famous home for self-pitying narcissists they include contributions by most of Fleetwood Mac, Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagles, Ronstadt, and other L.A. On paper, heвЂ™s a protГ©gГ© of Jackson Browne, who produced Warren Zevon, along with Graham ParkerвЂ™s Heat Treatment the strongest rock and roll album of 1976 working with guitarist Waddy Wachtel, Browne also produced ZevonвЂ™s new Excitable Boy. singer-songwriter his rent is paid by Linda RonstadtвЂ™s covers of his tunes. When I heard Johnny Rotten had left the Sex Pistols, my first thought was that Warren Zevon should replace him.

Warren zevon excitable boy