If you are a Zevon fan. This is a great album. Well worth the price

If ELTON JOHN had an evil twin, it would have been Warren Zevon. A

great lyricist who sang with a snarl, Warren would sing about the glass

half empty. Mercenary ghosts, werewolves, compulsive killers, rich kids

in trouble on foreign shores, Warren painted a canvas on the dark side

of life. Every song is great on this CD, no filler on the original

tracks, this was his masterpiece.... Werewolves of London, Excitable

Boy, Johnny Strikes Up The Band, Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner,

Lawyers, Guns, & Money, Accidently Like A Martyr, were brilliant songs.

His songs were funny, twisted, cynical; like dry ice sitting in a glass

of expensive wine, meant for a select audience who shared a secret with

him. Warren you will be sorely missed.

Most of you reading this should already know how good this album is. I bought this remastered version to enjoy the improvement in sound quality and wasn't disapointed. I usually do not like other tracks tacked on to the end of the original tracks, but in this case I enjoyed all of them, especially the alternate version of "Werewolves of London". I
almost like it more than the originally released version on the album !

The liner notes are also excellent, giving some interesting insights into the man himself, as well as his music.

Now all I want is his 1976 self-titled album to be REMASTERED too.

Zevon become famous with "Werewolves of London," a satirical critique of the world's womanizers (past and present), but as true Zevon fans know, there was much more to this man than "aaaaaoooo, werewolves of London" and a three-chord progression that is as infectious as it is cutesy. The true Warren Zevon was a poet of sorts, a man who tackled difficult subjects ("Excitable Boy," for example, with a final verse that still gives me shivers), but still remained a sensitive man at heart ("Accidentally Like a Martyr," for example; don't deny, it moves you).

From the you-know-what hitting the fan in "Lawyers Guns and Money," to the purely delightful recitation of "I Need a Truck," to the heart-wrenching "Tule's Blues," to the rockin' romp of "Nighttime in the Switching Yard," to the world's most famous undead Thompson-gun toting anti-hero in "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," EXCITABLE BOY remains a rock 'n roll classic. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's a staple rock album. It is by far wittier and more creative than most rock albums ever produced; sure, there aren't too many screaming electric guitars (oh my God, is that guy playing a PIANO???), but EXCITABLE BOY is quite simply one of the best rock albums ever made. Warren Zevon was a folk/rock artist like none before him...and, it's safe to say, like none we will ever see again.

...to further pontificate on what all the other esteemed reviewers have said here would be simply redundant. But if there truly IS a "rock and roll heaven," Warren is THERE, just merely on the basis of "Werewolves Of London." I like what "CD Universe" had to say about him, that he "came roaring out of the mid seventies touchy-feely with one hand on the piano, and the other with a gun." Let's face it, folks, Rock and Roll, as WE know it, DIED, Aug. 16, 1977 - but this album and (on the other coast), The Ramones, were doing their very best to keep disco & punk from interbreeding. But they did, and "popular music" limped off to its dirt bath under the name "New Wave," and left the likes of Huey Lewis, U2, Prince, ad nauseum...

More than anyone else in the whole El Lay songwriter movement of the late seventies, Warren Zevon had absolutely no problem with getting a good laugh at the expense of the insularity of it all. And on his second proper album, he took the whole scene and turned it properly on its backside. "Excitable Boy" threw in a mix of werewolves, mercenaries, drug abusers and paranoid spoiled brats, yet while frequently offering exceptional tenderness and insight. It was easy to see why Jackson Browne was his mentor and Linda Ronstadt his patron angel.

A song as reckless as the album's title track could come from nothing less than genius. The chirpy sweet background vocals and sugary melody buoy the dark tale of a murderous high school student who kills on the night of his junior prom. "Hotel California" this most certainly wasn't. At the same time, "Accidentally Like a Martyr," with its stately piano line, encompasses the horror of a sunken love affair in barely three and a half minutes. These juxtapositions carry all the way through "Excitable Boy," with only one misstep in the CD's nine songs (the forced funk of "Nighttime In The Switching Yard").

Warren Zevon made several other great albums, but "Excitable Boy" was the moment that his youthful exuberance and a mind uncluttered by too many foreign substances produced a stunner. As a document of the California Sound that Elektra/Asylum records was known for in the seventies, this is indispensable.

The remaster is stunning. The piano to "Accidentally Like A Martyr" just leaps out of the mix (where before it seemed kind of flat). The same can be said for "Nighttime In The Switching Yard." What originally sounded compressed now sounds so much livelier. The bonus tracks are only so-so, with the alternate take of "Werewolves" being somewhat interesting and "I Need A Truck' humorous but unnecessary. What you really want here is the original album, and "Excitable Boy" is worth the remastered wait.

Warren Zevon's best album, EXCITABLE BOY, is finally getting the respect it deserves via a remastering which adds several previously unreleased demos and outtakes to the original album. Although learning to take teasing like the lyrics on this CD can make you a stronger person, the cold, hard truth is that Zevon was no novelty act, as several of his songs on other albums, such as the recovering-addict tales "Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School" and "Detox Mansion" prove. Get this CD as soon as you can.

A great twisted album by Warren Zevon, "Werewolves of London" Zevon's break through still sounds great today. The hit single "Werewolves of London" is still a twisted track and augmented by great remastering "Excitable Boy" proves every bit as memorable from the title track that calmly documents (with killer--pardon the pun--harmonies provided by Linda Ronstandt and Jennifer Warnes)a disturbed killer and the excuses that society makes for him. It's a tour de force track topped only by the other witty and often touching songs included here.

"Lawyers, Guns and Money" continues to be a masterpiece perfectly capturing the innocent abroad theme. The ballads "Accidently Like a Martyr" and "Tenderness on the Block" (co-written with Zevon's patron saint Jackson Browne)are deft, melodic trips down the streets of romance and memory respectively. Although the overall impression is great, "Excitable Boy" is a very different album from his debut lacking some of its depth but it makes up for that lack of depth with Zevon's deadpan humor.

The reissued/remastered version of "Excitable Boy" sounds very good. The bonus tracks include the previous issued "Frozen Notes" (which Zevon once described as a still born composition. It may lack the power of some of his finest work but is still noteworthy), an early, earthy, funky and rehearsal version of "Werewolves of London" than the final version that should have been released before now. It's only flaw is that Warren's voice is so low in the mix. "Tule's Blues" and "Frozen Notes" (this version scored with strings)are low-key songs that would have fit better on the album preceding this than this one(it's still a welcome addition and Zevon fans will want this simply for these three tracks. "I Need a Truck" is a humorous a capella fragment documenting many of Zevon's vices).

We also get booklet notes by Rolling Stone writer David Fricke (he seems to write these for everyone lately)that are interesting and reveal some of the turmoil from Zevon's life at the time. Although lacking the subtly of his second album "Warren Zevon", "Excitable Boy" captures Zevon's wit and dark humor in fine form making a perfect top 10 album (it rose all the way up to #8 on Billboard's Album Charts just on the strength of the first single). Twisted and still fun, "Excitable Boy" is still a lot of fun. 4 1/2 stars I'd also recommend Warren ZevonThe WindBad Luck Streak in Dancing School