Excitable Boy

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced thirteen new members this week, and I felt very old reading the list (that's because I am old.*) I applauded the choices of Link Wray (why did it take so long?) and the Spinners (ditto) but was mystified by some others because (*see above). 

I am accustomed to the angry and bitter tenor in the weeks that precede the announcement of new members to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Baseball fans are, to use the technical term, lunatics. Often, all that teeth-gnashing leads to exactly zero inductees. The (possibly) best player of all time, Barry Bonds and the (possibly) best pitcher, Roger Clemens, are essentially banned by the writers over suspicion of steroid use (the suspicions are very likely true, but without absolute proof, how do you leave them out?) 

Sorry for the digression. This was supposed to be about the Rock Hall. Anyway, I was saddened that, nearly twenty years after his death, Warren Zevon was once again passed over. He had a long and critically acclaimed career, with the commercial highlight his 1978 album, Excitable Boy. That album featured the FM smash, "Werewolves of London," and other sardonic songs such as "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," "Lawyers Guns and Money," and the title track, which contains the romantic lyrics:

After ten long years they let him out of the home

Excitable boy, they all said

He dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones.

Well, he's just an excitable boy

How do you leave a guy like that out of the Hall of Fame?

 

Song of the Day:  You probably know Linda Ronstadt's version of this song. Warren's is a lot harder edged. Listen to the last verse. Very different from Linda's.

I take solace in the fact that if Zevon was alive, he wouldn't give a shit about being skipped over.