Not even six months after the death of Warren Zevon, it almost
\nseems like it’s sacrilege to say anything negative about the late
\nsinger-songwriter. To dare call any of his work anything short of a
\nmasterpiece is akin to dancing an Irish jig on his grave.<\/p>\n
Yet Zevon himself would have probably welcomed criticism of
\nWanted Dead Or Alive<\/i>, his 1970 debut release (which was
\nremastered and re-issued in 2003). Yet for all the weaknesses on
\nthis disc, there are moments of sheer magic which even Zevon
\nhimself would have been hard-pressed to ignore.<\/p>\n
Granted, if you go into this disc looking for songs along the
\nlines of “Werewolves Of London” or “Mr. Bad Example,” you’re gonna
\nwalk away shaking your head in displeasure. There’s a reason why
\nZevon took about six years off before the release of his second
\nalbum — namely, the need for growth in his songwriting.<\/p>\n
So it’s not terribly surprising that you find songs such as the
\ntitle track and “Hitchhikin’ Woman” which sound like they’re works
\nin progress, but desperately needing another coat of paint or two.
\nThe surprisingly sparse instrumentation doesn’t really help matters
\ntoo much, either. And despite its ties to the film
\nMidnight Cowboy<\/i>, I just can’t really get into the song “She
\nQuit Me”. Maybe if I had been born in the ’50s and was of the age
\nof reason in 1969 (rather than still being a glint in the milkman’s
\neye), I’d be able to connect to this original version more.<\/p>\n
But to write off Wanted Dead Or Alive as a period piece or even
\nan album for Zevon fans only is to ignore the successes captured on
\nthis disc. And, surprisingly, there are many. Despite the liner
\nnotes all but writing off Zevon’s version of “Iko Iko,” it is
\nsomewhat enjoyable, quite possibly because Zevon gets in, delivers
\nthe message and gets out. Without the drawn-out faux-party
\natmosphere to the song, you get its essence — and it’s pretty
\ngood.<\/p>\n
It is when Zevon’s work takes on the slightly bent edge —
\nalbeit in the musical form rather than lyrical – that this disc
\nshows its true magic. “Gorilla” has a primitive sound that is
\nabsolutely enchanting, while the closing instrumental “Fiery
\nEmblems” says the most about Zevon’s musical and songwriting
\nskills. Likewise, you can’t help but enjoy the frantic piano solo
\non “Calcutta,” almost sounding like it belongs on another
\nsong\u2026 but it works.<\/p>\n
\nWanted Dead Or Alive<\/i> is not your typical Zevon album, if
\nonly because Zevon himself didn’t know how to make a typical Zevon
\nalbum. At times, this works to his advantage; at other times, it
\ndoesn’t. But it sure makes for an interesting trip, and one which
\ndoesn’t fully deserve the bad rap it’s gotten over the years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5674],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-38006","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-warren-zevon","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38006"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}