Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

A couple from Warren Zevon:

"Accidentally Like a Martyr"is from "Excitable Boy," Zevon's 1978 breakthrough album which also had "Werewolves of London" on it...probably his most famous hit.  Sadly so, coz he did SO much better stuff, and a lot of it.  "Desperados Under the Eaves" is from the self-titled album of 1976... my all-time favorite Zevon album and my all-time Zevon fave in the single song category.  I discovered Zevon in the '77 -'78 time frame and he's been a favorite of mine ever since.  I last saw him in Houston in 2000, a little over three years before he died.  That was a couple o' years before the mesothelioma diagnosis and he put on a hellaciously great show.

I don't understand why Zevon never achieved superstar status.  He seemingly had it all... good voice, adequate chops on his chosen instruments, brilliant writer, and a great stage presence.  He also assembled some of the best sidemen in the bid'niz at the time to play on his albums and all the cool kids on the El Eh music scene loved him (see: Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, various Beach Boys, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and MANY others).  He also went through a whole helluva lot of addiction problems, which seems to be one way to achieve lasting fame in these United States.  But he didn't.  As a matter of fact, Zevon has been dead nearly seven years and has yet to be inducted into the R'n'R Hall of Fame (ptui!), while people who have NOTHING to do with rock 'n' roll have made it there.  There ain't no justice...