"Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School" - Warren Zevon (1980)

Warren Zevon

Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School

1980

Welcome to the 1980's, Warren. Life sure comes at you fast. This album, the follow-up to the very successful "Excitable Boy" and benefitted a little off the fumes of that release. It is, however, different from Excitable Boy, but not the more dramatic change that would soon come in Warren's songwriting career. This album features a pop-rock cover on an R&B tune. A co-write with Bruce Springsteen. Guest appearances from Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt once again and every member of The Eagles at the time is featured on various songs throughout the album.

Dancing School (the term, an old euphemism for a brothel) did present a significant shift in Warren's sound, nevertheless. On his self-titled release and Excitable Boy,  the songs are primarily piano-driven. This album has a much more prominent electric guitar presence. In a 2000 interview by Jody Denberg on radio station KGDR Warren regretfully admitted that he never had as much fun playing the piano as he did the guitar. To him, because he took lessons as a kid and had to learn to be technically proficient and got a job as the piano player of the Everly Brothers he associated the piano with work.  The guitar was more liberating. He didn't have to be perfect and he could move on stage, which he did a lot of around the time after this album came out. In this interview, he also notes that he did not own an acoustic piano from about 1984 on and noted that it was hard for him to really develop a relationship with an electronic keyboard no matter how fancy it is.  I know I'm skipping ahead, but if you're familiar with Warren's work beyond this album you know there's not a lot of "Excitable Boys" or "Roland's" or "Hasten's" or  "French Inhalers" coming down the pipeline.  I will post the aforementioned interview below.

"A Certain Girl", a cover song previously recorded by Ernie K-Doe and The Yardbirds, was the lead single and peaked modestly on the Billboard 200 at #57.  The song is fine, but I don't feel it really fits Warren. Sometimes cover tunes can surprise you. Metallica took a low tempo, light rock Bob Seger tune and made it their own. Ghost took a Beatles song and did a very good job making it their own as well. I don't feel this one worked that well. It's not bad, but I think its chart position rates this song about where it should be. A modest hit single, but nothing strong enough to carry the album.

The album features some fun rock tracks. The album leads off with the title track featuring a prominent lap steel track by David Lindley. "Jungle Work" is one of Warren's more hard rock tracks. My personal favorite songs are "Play It All Night Long" and the Springsteen co-write "Jeanie Needs A Shooter".  Play It All Night Long begins with the line "Grandpa pissed his pants again, he don't give a damn", so of course that's a favorite. In my opinion, Jeanie Needs A Shooter should have been the lead single. Its bright, has a good radio-ready rock feel to it. It rocks, but its also a bit of a ballad as well.  I feel this song represents the album and Warren as an artist much better.

Dancing School was a good effort but did not live up to its older brother Excitable Boy. I enjoy this album, but even I as a hardcore fan of Zevon's work, do not enjoy it as much as the more commercially successful album before it.  I do recommend this album, but it may be a little bit of a grower for some classic rock fans. Warren did not write with hit chasing in mind so some of his stuff is out there... Yeah, if you think this album is "out there" we are just getting started.

My final rating for this album is a fine, respectable 7.5/10  Not one of my favorites by WZ, but certainly worth a good listen every now and then. A nice little bit of personal trivia, this album was released on my birthday, so that's pretty nice.  I can't be biased over that, though. I enjoyed the previous two albums more. "The Envoy" comes next. Will I like that one more than Dancing School? We'll see. 

Here's the interview mentioned earlier. Thanks for reading, everyone and God bless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jseKHl8lOa8

Warren Zevon - "Excitable Boy" (1978) Review

Excitable Boy (1978)

Well, he went down to dinner in his Sunday best... Warren Zevon's follow-up to his self-titled breakthrough album features some of his most well-known work. For the most part, if you hear a Warren Zevon song on traditional FM radio these days, chances are it is going to be a song from this album. "Excitable Boy" peaked at #8 on the Billboard charts, the highest album chart position of his career and this is also the best-selling album of Warren's career.  While his previous self-titled release got him some notoriety as a singer-songwriter out of Los Angeles during a time where the scene was rife with talent, this album would cement bring him commercial success and more radio relevance. Excitable Boy would be certified Gold about 4 months after its release. In 1997 it was re-certified as a platinum record. That is the most recent certification.

The album begins with what would also be the first single, "Johnny Strikes Up The Band".  Not a bad song, but I don't think it was a strong choice for a lead single. I don't think it was a great choice as a lead-off track on the album, either.  The more upbeat and catchy title track would have been a fine opener, in my opinion, but something like that doesn't make or break an album for me. "Johnny..." is a nice easy tune that goes into one of Warren's finest songs "Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner".  

While I'm nitpicking track listing, I think Roland would have served better in the center of the album instead of the 2nd track. Kind of like how it is on the live "Learning To Flinch" album. Again, that's not a huge deal, though.  According to Rolling Stone, Warren met co-writer David Lindell in Spain who was operating a bar after working as a mercenary in Africa.  The two would collaborate on this song about a mercenary. The song references the Nigerian Civil War and the Congo Crisis while singing about a fictional character named Roland. 

Since I'm no expert in internal African conflicts of the late 60's, much of the story went over my head, but I've always loved this song. It also has the distinction of being the last song Warren Zevon would ever perform in front of a live audience during an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman.

From "Roland" we go into the title track "Excitable Boy". A catchy, upbeat song with a doo-wop chorus with a carefree tale about rape and murder.  He raped and killed her and built a cage with her bones. "Excitable boy", they all said.  This track is drenched with that trademark dark Zevon humor. These days, a line like that might get him canceled by the torch-wielding Twitter mob because no one understands sarcasm and subtlety anymore, I guess. Excitable Boy is a good tune, but I find myself enjoying the officially released live versions on Stand in the Fire and Learning To Flinch even more.  There's also a live performance from 1982 at the Capitol Theatre with a hot band and a lead guitarist by the name of John Wood who rips and awesome solo at the end of this song. Search that one out.

Track 4 is the big one. Warren's lone top 40 hit "Werewolves of London".  Werewolves peaked at #21 on the charts. This means Warren was technically a one-hit-wonder which sounds pretty crazy since he is known for multiple songs even on this album alone, but hey, Jimi Hendrix was technically a one-hit-wonder too so I guess he's in good company.  If you happen to be reading this without any knowledge of Warren's work, chances are you've heard this song somewhere before.  It features Mick Fleetwood and John McVie of the band Fleetwood Mac on drums and bass respectively. 

"Werewolves..." was actually the third single on this album. It was the record company's choice for the lead single, but Warren insisted it should either be Johnny Strikes Up The Band or Tenderness on the Block.  The latter of which would not become a single at all on this album that released 5 singles, which surprises me because I think Tenderness on the Block had way more potential as a radio hit than Johnny Strikes Up The Band. This time, though it seems the record label was right in choosing this song to represent the album. Much like the title track, it is catchy, upbeat and features some dark, humorous and memorable lyrics.  

The album closes with what would become another fan-favorite and live setlist regular "Lawyers, Guns and Money".  A bright hard rock tune that closes the album out nicely. The album is peppered with catchy songs and Lawyers is no different. In conclusion, Excitable Boy is a very fine, complete, solid album.  If you're not a hardcore Warren Zevon fan, but a fan of classic rock and 70s singer-songwriters you need to give this album a listen. I consider this essential for any classic rock listener. If I were to introduce a potential new fan to Warren's music I would likely show them this album... however, it's 2020 and I could easily just make a playlist of 25 of my favorite tracks and say "here ya go", but nevertheless, Excitable Boy is an important record and a great effort by Warren to firmly cement star status in the music industry in 1978.

With all that said, I give this album a 9.5/10 both for its great music and its commercial success.  No, commercial success isn't the driving force in my ratings, but it does matter to me. Songs and albums that click with a mass audience may happen with a bit of luck, but they don't happen on accident and I'm not going to go the elitist snob route and turn my nose up at one of my favorite songwriter's albums just because it happened to be the most popular with a casual radio audience. 

Thanks for reading, everyone.  Warren's rebooted solo career is off to a great start. I'll see you here for the next one. Take care and God bless.