Warren Zevon Warren Zevon 1976

I've written a couple of "Perfect (Or Near Perfect)" entries, and there's been plenty of lists of things I love. Nothing can really atone for the omission of this Warren Zevon record from among those lists.

Zevon had a varied, and mostly unsuccessful (commercially, not artistically) career. After the debut Wanted Dead or Alive that sold maybe 500 copies in 1970, this was for most of us, our introduction to Warren Zevon. Produced by Jackson Browne with Waddy Wachtel hanging around, and featuring guest appearances from everybody: Browne, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Phil Everly, Jorge Calderon, Rosemary Butler, Bonnie Raitt, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Carl Wilson, the record sounds great. And the songs, oh my, the songs.

There are so many great songs. Hasten Down The Wind, with a beautiful harmony from Phil Everly, outshines even the excellent Linda Ronstadt version. I can't say this enough. Listen to Everly's harmony. It is breathtakingly gorgeous. 

Mamma Couldn't Be Persuaded, Poor Poor Pitiful Me, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and Join Me In L.A., all rock hard with super arrangements, killer playing, and whip smart, often sardonic, lyrics. And then there's Mohammed's Radio (an ode to the power of music), Carmelita (a sad ode to heroin addiction), and Desperados Under The Eaves (a sad ode to alcoholism), three beautiful ballads on side two.

Frank and Jessie James is a sympathetic spin on the outlaws, Backs Turned Looking Down The Path is a gentle love song, and The French Inhaler is a scathing put-down of an ex lover. There really isn't a bad (or even middling) song.

The music is performed by A-list SoCal professionals brought together by Browne and Wachtel. It's as close to perfect as anything needs to be, and closer than Zevon ever came, although Excitable Boy 1977 is almost as good.