Album of the Day

Warren Zevon may have written songs for The Turtles and led a band for The Everly Brothers, but upbeat pop-rock was just his day job. To judge from 1976's WARREN ZEVON, the singer-songwriter's real passion was for richly detailed, somewhat acerbic character sketches. His singular talent along those lines wasn't lost on the Southern California music community; Jackson Browne produced Zevon's Asylum debut, recruiting members of Fleetwood Mac, The Beach Boys and Eagles to lend a hand. The arrangements provide bright frames to dark portraits of “Frank And Jesse James,” “Desperados Under The Eaves” and others (though not so dark as to scare Linda Ronstadt off; she covered “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” and “Hasten Down The Wind” to great success). Warren Zevon passed away on this day in 2003, and this outstanding album makes a fitting epitaph – smart, memorable and not the least bit sentimental.