Customer Reviews

Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School

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There were, for a time, stories that Warren Zevon was working on a concerto for strings. If there was, we are sadly unlikely to ever hear it. But snippets from it appeared on his third Elektra/Asylum album, "Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School." Given a taste of rockdom via the surprise success of "Werewolves Of London," his ambition soared along with his excessive living. So the album opens with both beauty and brutality, a crescendo of strings ending with a pair of gunshots. And so it goes throughout the album, as Warren weaves tales of betrayal in "Jeannie Needs a Shooter" (I always wondered what Springsteen's version of this song would've sounded like), heartache with Linda Ronstadt on the gorgeous "Empty Handed Heart" and a sublimely funny look at the Los Angeles life as he trades places with "Gorilla You're a Desperado," and the monkey ends up in "Transactional Analysis."

As with his previous two albums, the playing is top drawer. It always amazed me that Zevon could take the usual stable of LA's Mellow Mafia and make them sound tough. The cover of "A Certain Girl" all but leers from force, with the call and response of "What's her name? I can't tell you!" taking on a near psychotic energy by the song's end. Zevon's literary humor is in fine form as he describes the mercs of "Jungle Work." It is a subtle prankster who can pair lines like "We parachute in, we parachute out" without going after a sledgehammer to pulverize the joke, but he manages to do exactly that.

The album's last two songs were the "Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School's" finest moments. "Bed Of Coals" and "Wild Age" are Zevon's most mature songs to that point. As a lover watches his life collapse, he realizes that he can't be a reckless child anymore, and immediately follows with the longing of "Wild Age," which fades out with The Eagles smooth harmonies and Zevon's desperate, joyous yelping for a time that he knows is no longer there. It cemented Warren's reputation as a songwriter of unflinching emotional capability.

Warren Zevon is back with another successful addition to his quirky but solid rock'n'roll output. Exploring `boy meets girl' is the common subject for popular music, but Zevon adds his personal bent. Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School is more like `boy with a gun in his pocket meets girl.' Hey, he may be a sociopath, but he's sociopath with a heart of gold. On the inside cover is a photograph of a Mack-10 with spent cartridges and an empty pair of ballet shoes lying on the floor. Death and beauty.

In the opening cut (Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School) Zevon promises to end his wicked ways and fly straight. The remaining eleven compositions break his promise. Mercenaries cause mayhem in `Jungle Work,' `Play It All Night Long' cures all the world's ills with loud music, and Zevon loses his girl to a hairy bully in `Gorilla, You're A Desperado.' Of course, all the songs were not written by the patients of `One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.' Warren Zevon and Linda Ronstadt are beautiful and romantic in `Empty-Handed Heart.'

Bad Luck Streak is backed by Elektra's killer session band including David Lindley, Rick Marrota and Waddy Wachtel. Usually heard on releases by Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt, Zevon lets then cut loose. Top pick: "Wild Age' is one of the best teen anthems of the 1980's.

Tracing Warren Zevon's career from his self-titled "first" album, to this one, you can certainly see some slippage. "Warren Zevon" represented the fruits of several years of writing songs in obscurity -- great songs, as it turned out. "Excitable Boy" didn't have as many good songs, but it had enough, and it was zesty and captured its moment, bringing the pugilistic spirit of Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson or Ernest Hemingway into rock for the first time. "Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School" is actually a better album than "Excitable Boy," but at the time it came out it was treated like a disappointment. Musically, it is as sophisticated as "Warren Zevon." The string interludes are actually quite beautiful. The sad ballads "Empty Handed Heart" and "Bed of Coals" are quite affecting and artful. "Gorilla You're a Desperado" and "Play it All Night Long" are two of his funniest lyrics, and the title tune is efficient and cinematic in its depiction of a loser running out of luck in an unlikely place. "Bill Lee," about a maverick baseball player of the 1970s, is a brief song in three parts, a perfect little profile in music and words. The two weakest songs are "Jungle Work," which strikes me as a rehash of the great "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," and "Jeannie Needs a Shooter," which is supposedly a collaboration with Bruce Springsteen (but I don't believe it.) But they are listenable -- you don't skip them. I love the final track, "Wild Age," a hard-rocking meditation on the fear parents have that their kids might go bad and never come back. Can't help but think he was worrying about himself as well as his kids, because as we know, he was trying and failing to deal with his alcoholism at this time.

Like "Excitable Boy" and a few of his other albums, this one is full of guest musicians, rock royalty of the late 70s. The best of them are Linda Ronstadt, a lovely duet partner on "Empty Handed Heart" and part of the background chorus on "Bed of Coal," and David Lindley, who fires up several songs here with his broad-gauge slide guitar.

This is a record that will grow on you. It doesn't fulfill the promise of that first album (the one with "Poor Pitiful Me" and "Desperados Under the Eaves," but it's his attempt to get back there, and when it works, it's fine.

Warren Zevon is one of the most overlooked musicians of the past 20 years. His song writing is top-rate and his choice of musicians to accompany him are excellent. Many know him solely for Werewolves of London, which is a great song, but just one of many great Zevon songs. I've always felt this was one of Zevon's best albums, something that has been overlooked over the years. For those who can appreciate Zevon's view of the world and its ultimate absurdity, this album is a don't miss.

I think that being a performing artist is a tough job. Aside from having to produce art, your personal changes are chronicled and discussed publicly. Warren made this record during his "tumultuous" period. Sometimes times of crisis give birth to incredible product that would have been impossible to create absent the madness. Look again at Rolling Stones' Black and Blue, a ridiculously great and underrated collection that was recorded during Keith's worst times. Personally I put Warren Zevon in a musical brilliance and accomplishment class with Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, and Louis Armstrong. Recognized or not, Warren laid it down. This record is from the early phase and is volatile and full of wonder. Empty-Handed Heart is perfect and might have merited inclusion on Genius and the Anthology. Warren of course evolved in his later, sober years into the musical giant who created Mutineer, Life'll Kill Ya, and My Ride's Here. But you don't get those until you've lived with this one, Excitable Boy, the Envoy, and Sentimental Hygiene. The ride's the point, and Warren is the American master.

The title track with its chorus of "Down on my knees in pain" lets you know that this is going to be one more trip through pain and struggle with Warren Zevon. You'll be hard pressed to find a lot of happiness on this CD, even "A Certain Girl" deals with the pursuit of love that may not pan out. With a visit to Roland's world of mercenaries ("Jungle Work") to a topical reference to one of baseball's strangest players ("Bill Lee") Zevon creates a world where things don't always work out (Jeannie Needs A Shooter" "Gorilla, You're a Desperado") but you can't stop trying("Empty-Handed Heart") The real question is how did "Play It All Night Long" escape the heat that Young's "Southern Man" received?

A couple of years ago, some friends and I were talking about the top 3 albums we would want if we were stranded on a desert island (with power, of course). My #1 choice would be "Bad Luck..." Zevon's classical training shines here, colliding with his off-the-wall lyrics, resulting in perfection.

Snippets of what could be Warren's missing symphony mix well into ten great songs that are pure Zevon. Full of vitality, it's a great example of how absurd ("Gorilla, You're A Desperado"), beautiful ("Empty Handed Heart") or angry ("Play It All Night Long") he could be, while also including the greatest sports-related song ever, "Bill Lee". Oh, yeah, and the Toussaint cover, "A Certain Girl", rules! Hey, they all rule!

This was Warren's follow-up to his breakthrough record Excitable Boy. This is also a very strong effort from start to finish, but there are a couple real stand out songs. Contains my favorite "I lost her" Zevon song - "Empty-Handed Heart." Although written with professional baseball in mind, "Bill Lee" speaks to anybody who works anywhere where politics rules. "Gorilla, You're A Desperado" is about a gorilla who switches place with a yuppie, and the ape gets "very depressed." Even the weaker-by-comparson moments - "Wild Age" and the gotta-write-a-mercenary-song "Jungle Work" - are well done. Will not disappoint.

Warren Zevon is on a par with Randy Newman as rock's master satirist;and,like Randy,is criminally ignored by all but a few here in Australia.This is a strong followup to EXCITABLE BOY and should have been just as popular.

1)BAD LUCK STREAK IN DANCING SCHOOL - Driving opener that turns lessons learnt at dancing school into dangerous asssault courses. Good slide guitar work.

2)A CERTAIN GIRL - A cover of a garage rock classic.There's a girl whom our hero lusts after,but he won't tell his friends the whole details until he's won her.Clever answering vocals on the coda.

3)JUNGLE WORK - A stirring tale of jungle mercenaries doing what they're paid to do.Hard guitar and strident vocals makes it sound like you're right in the middle of a jungle battle and the mercs are descending from a chopper.

4)EMPTY HANDED HEART - It amazes me how Zevon can write love songs that can say much more than the simple "I love you" or "I've lost you".This ballad almost breaks my heart with lines like: "Girl we've had some goood times,but time will not stand still;rolling like a rockslide down a hill".Lush background orchestration.Superb backup vocals by Linda Ronstadt.

5)INTERLUDE NO.1 - A classical piece.

6)PLAY IT ALL NIGHT LONG - A biting,cynical look of live down on the farm.Swarming guitars compliment angry vocals.Gives a kick to the head of a certain Southern Boogie Band.

7)JEANNIE NEEDS A SHOOTER - A western epic about a cowpoke falling in love with a sheriff's daughter only to have her(and daddy)double cross him with fatal results.Co-written by Bruce Springsteen.

8)INTERLUDE NO.2 - Another classical piece.

9)BILL LEE - A short tale of an anti-social,lazy guy.Piano,vocal, and harmonica only.

10)GORILLA,YOU'RE A DESPERADO - A funny song about an escaped gorilla who steals Warren's glasses,BMW,and lifestyle.Biting satire on the LA consumerism,helped on by backup vocals by certain Eagles members.Sounds like track was recorded on a California beach.

11)WILD AGE - Album closer;telling you to live your life and always be free,even though you'll probably be running 'til the day you die.