Personnel includes: Warren Zevon (vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano, electric piano); David Lindley (guitar, slide guitar, banjo, fiddle); Waddy Watchel (guitar); Jackson Browne (slide guitar, piano, background vocals); Jai Winding (piano, organ, synthesizer); Bobby Keys (saxophone); Bob Glaub, Marty David, Roy Marinell (bass); Larry Zack, Gary Mallaber (drums); Phil Everly, John David Souther, Lindsay Buckingham, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Jorge Calderon, Bonnie Raitt, Rosemary Butler (background vocals).
Recorded at Elektra Sound Recorders and Sunset Sound Recorders, Los Angeles.
Zevon actually released a record prior to his celebrated self-titled "debut," a record so bad that he took to touring with the Everly Brothers. Whatever he did on the road with them paid off. He returned to recording with bone-rattling West Coast tales of prostitutes, heroin addicts, outlaws and suicidal bar hoppers. Thus, Zevon went, with one record, from playing piano on "Bye Bye Love" to becoming supreme chronicler of L.A.'s underbelly.
Easily his richest and most consistent album, this is arguably the best place for the uninitiated to start. The deranged romp of "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" and the tongue in cheek masochism of "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" introduced the world at large to the darkly sardonic edge of the singer's muse. From the romanticized "Frank and Jesse James" to the starkly beautiful "Desperadoes Under the Eaves," the album rolls with an insightful (albeit sometimes crazed) sense of purpose.
- Format: Vinyl
- Genre: Pop
