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• Original recording remastered

Editorial Review:

It's really too bad that Warren Zevon had to die before hearing how spectacular his albums sounded in these latter-day remasters. Excitable Boy remains his best-known document, awash with blood and guts (especially on the horror-laden title track) and a famous, phenomenal touch of lycanthropy. The trick is in Zevon's ironic distance, his dispatch of killer narratives that touch on mercenary internationalism and undeserved indulgence in due course. Zevon's writing is musically simple--pianos and guitars and mid-tempo pacing--and those touches here only underscore how crisp the remastering sounds. To wit: The raucous undertow of "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" is delirious and ironically rhapsodic. As for "Werewolves of London," it's here twice (once in the expanded rack of four additional tunes) in all its tilted glory. As for the other extra content, "I Need a Truck" is the short gem, a 50-second a cappella litany of Zevon's raffish ways: "I need a truck to haul my percodan and gin" and one to "haul the womens from my bed," he sings... followed by this apt note, "I need a truck to haul my body when I'm dead." He had a mordant side. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

• A Zevon smash
  I've long been a Warren Zevon fan. After reading his biography, authored by his late wife Crystal, it brought me even closer to the material and gave me greater insight into the man and his music. Buttressed by the fantatic musicianship of legendary LA session men Waddy Wachtel, Leland Sklar, Rick Marotta, et al the music excites, inspires and sets your feet tappin'. Zevon was a favorite of Dylan, Springsteen, Jackson Brown and coutnless others. Listening to his music leaves no doubt as to why. If you don't... more info

• Incredible stuff - one of the best albums from one of the best songwriters
  This is an outstanding and powerful album. The entire first half unfolds one masterpiece after another, although the whole lot are superb. This CD has bonus tracks too, including the haunting "I Need A Truck." Buy this, you'll thank me.

• Strike Up The Band
  This is an absolutely brilliant album that is bolstered by the remastered CD and four bonus tracks.
  Warren Zevon flexes his solid storytelling through the quirky Excitable Boy and Werewolves of London, the brutal politics of Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner, Veracruz and Lawyers, Guns And Money & the rocking Nighttime In The Switching Yard.
  But it's the tale of the everyman hero - Johnny Strikes Up The Band - and love coming of age - Accidentally Like A Martyr and Tenderness On The Block -... more info

• Learned this album through a wall
  When I was a college freshman in 1984, my next-door neighbor was a sophomore who would blast this album almost every day, and scream the lyrics to every song along with Warren Zevon. Within a few weeks I was singing out loud along with both Warren and my neighbor (I knew the words by heart already). When Christmas vacation came, and I had time to do something other than study, this album was my first purchase. I loved it the first time I heard it (in chorus...), and I love it today. It's irony, humor,... more info

Tracks:

1. Johnny Strikes Up The Band
2. Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner
3. Excitable Boy
4. Werewolves Of London
5. Accidentally Like A Martyr
6. Nighttime In The Switching Yard
7. Veracruz
8. Tenderness On The Block
9. Lawyers, Guns And Money
10. I Need A Truck (Outtake)
11. Werewolves Of London (Alternate version)
12. Tule's Blues (Solo Piano Version)
13. Frozen Notes (Strings Version)