‘Excitable Boy’ shows Zevon at his coolest

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Sept. 23, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

Warren Zevon once wrote a song titled "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead," but it wasn't until his death two years ago that many music fans actually woke up to his music.

The passing of a popular musician often sparks a surge in curiosity about his or her work, but in the case of Zevon -- a singer-songwriter most have heard of but relatively few have actually heard -- posthumous interest ran unusually high.

Sure, most folks are familiar with Zevon's lone enduring classic-rock standard, "Werewolves of London," but how many actually bothered to track down the album that housed it prior to the 56-year-old's losing battle with lung cancer?

Anyone who still hasn't ought to do so now. "Excitable Boy" might not be Zevon's most critically acclaimed project, but more than 25 years after its 1978 release, it remains one heck of a good listen, the sort of start-to-finish CD for which the "repeat" button was invented.

From apt opener "Johnny Strikes Up the Band" through standout closer "Lawyers, Guns and Money," Zevon offers tales of heroism, heartache and horror, all via his trademark dry, sardonic delivery.

But while the vocalist might sound detached from his subject matter -- touchstones include Patti Hearst, Woodrow Wilson and Emiliano Zapata -- "Excitable Boy" retains a surprisingly emotive, heart-swelling quality.

It's present on chilling war story "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner." And on American imperialist satire "Veracruz." And, most of all, on stirring ballad "Accidentally Like a Martyr."

Not that "Excitable Boy" is a downer. Far from it, the album features plenty of sing-along fun, most notably in the fantastical worlds of "Werewolves" ("I saw a Werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's / And his hair was perfect") and the title track.

On the latter, Linda Ronstadt and Jennifer Warnes pleasantly "woo-ah-oo" in the background even as Zevon sings of the poppy ditty's psychopathic lead character: "He took little Susie to the junior prom / And he raped her and killed her and took her home."

Lyrically adventurous and musically solid, "Excitable Boy" demands a spot in any substantial rock collection. It's a shame it took the man's death to open so many ears to it, but you get the feeling Zevon would have enjoyed one final irony.

Artist: Warren Zevon.

Title: "Excitable Boy."

Year of release: 1978 (Asylum Records).

Tracklisting: "Johnny Strikes Up the Band," "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," "Excitable Boy," "Werewolves of London," "Accidentally Like a Martyr," "Night Time in the Switching Yard," "Veracruz," "Tenderness on the Block," "Lawyers, Guns and Money."