Warren Zevon - Discography (1969-2008) [FLAC]

Warren Zevon - Discography (1969-2007) [FLAC]

Genre: Pop/Rock
Styles: Singer/Songwriter, Album Rock, Hard Rock
Source: CD
Codec: FLAC
Bit Rates: ~ 800 - 1,000 kbps
Bit Dpeth: 16
Sampling Rate: 44,100 hz

1969 Wanted Dead or Alive
1976 Warren Zevon
1978 Exictable Boy
1980 Stand in the Fire (Live)
1980 Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School
1982 The Envoy
1987 Sentimental Hygiene
1989 Transverse City
1991 Mr. Bad Example
1993 Learning to Flinch (Live)
1995 Mutineer
2000 Life'll Kill Ya
2002 My Ride's Here
2003 The Wind
2007 Preludes

Few of rock & roll's great misanthropes were as talented, as charming, or as committed to their cynicism as Warren Zevon. A singer and songwriter whose music often dealt with outlaws, mercenaries, sociopaths, and villains of all stripes, Zevon's lyrics displayed a keen and ready wit despite their often uncomfortable narrative circumstances, and while he could write of love and gentler emotions, he did so with the firm conviction that such stories rarely end happily. Though he frequently worked with luminaries of the Los Angeles soft rock scene, Zevon was always the odd man out, someone who shared their exacting musical standards but not their smugly satisfied view of the world around them, and he remained a cheerful pessimist right up to the moment he met a fate that could have visited one of his own characters.

Warren William Zevon was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 24, 1947, and the facts of his early life read like a picaresque novel. Zevon's father, a Russian émigré, was a professional gambler who spent most of his time on the road, while his mother was a devout Mormon who looked after the family. When Zevon was young, his family moved to Fresno, California, and as he developed a precocious interest in music in his early teens and learned to play the piano and the guitar, young Warren became acquainted with the author and orchestra director Robert Craft. Craft in turn introduced the youngster to the noted composer Igor Stravinsky, who befriended Zevon and welcomed him into his home several times. While Zevon would remain fascinated with classical music, he also developed a passion for folk and rock & roll, and not long after his parents finally divorced, the 16-year-old Zevon quit high school, hopped in a car his father gave him, and headed for New York City, where he intended to become a pop star.

Zevon fared better than most starry-eyed would-be rock & roll sensations; he paired up with an old-school friend, Violet Santangelo, and formed a folk-rock duo called lyme & cybelle (they insisted the name be spelled in lower case), who scored a recording contract with White Whale Records and released a single, "Follow Me," which made it to 65 on the Billboard pop charts in 1966. However, after a second 45, Zevon quit the duo to move to Los Angeles, and over the next few years, he struggled to support himself as a contract songwriter (two of his compositions, "Outside Chance" and "Like the Seasons," were recorded by White Whale's best known act, the Turtles), composing commercial jingles, and as a session musician. In 1969, noted producer, talent scout, and eccentric Kim Fowley, impressed by Zevon's songwriting, offered to produce an album for him; as Zevon once told a reporter, "Fowley called me up one day and asked very simply, 'Are you prepared to wear black leather and chains, f--- a lot of teenage girls and get rich?' I said yes." For good or ill, the virtue of the young women in question remained unchanged, as did Zevon's bank account; the album, Wanted Dead or Alive, was a critical and commercial flop.

After the failure of his first album, Zevon joined the Everly Brothers' touring band as pianist, and following the duo's acrimonious split in 1973, he would work with both Don and Phil as solo artists. However, an attempt to complete a second album failed to get off the ground, and in frustration, Zevon left the United States for Spain, where he spent a summer playing in a small tavern and writing songs. By the fall of 1975, he had returned to Los Angeles, and after sharing a home for a while with a pair of struggling pop performers, Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Zevon had already struck up a friendship with Jackson Browne, who was on the cusp of major stardom and one of the most well-respected songwriters on the West Coast. While Zevon and Browne's styles were very different, Browne greatly admired his new friend's talent, and not only helped Zevon land a deal with Asylum Records, but also produced his first album for the label. Simply titled Warren Zevon, the album (which featured Zevon's former roommates Buckingham and Nicks, who had since found stardom in Fleetwood Mac, as well as Bonnie Raitt and several members of the Eagles) didn't sell especially well but won rave reviews, and Linda Ronstadt would give Zevon her seal approval by covering three tunes from the album.