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Rating: In 1987, the great Warren Zevon, backed by artists of the caliber of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, R.E.M., Brian Setzer, and David Lindley, recorded one of the cornerstone albums of his career, imbued with those innate skills in his songwriting, namely the proverbial irony and the innate ability to create splendid atmospheres that are accompanied each time by stunning vocal tones hidden under a seemingly apparent discomfort.
The album in question is further characterized by a splendid production highlighted particularly by a remastered edition featuring two unreleased tracks (the instrumental "Nocturne" and the Spanish language version of "Leave My Monkey Alone").
Through ten splendid tracks, inner torments, thoughts, and reflections are then unfolded of what would become the "Mr. Bad Example"; the two initial songs are truly gems of Zevon's output: the title track embellished by the superb solo by the Canadian loner and the hard-blues'n'roll style of "Boom Boom Mancini", one of the most beautiful songs ever regarding a boxing episode, refresh a singer-songwriter scene which was really stagnant at the time. "The Factory" is reminiscent not only in the title of a song by his friend Bruce Springsteen and features Dylan, who is in top form, on harmonica. "Trouble Waiting To Happen" and the slow and moving "Reconsider Me" are two songs that evolve from purely personal perspectives to present themselves as "universal warnings."
The powerful rock of "Detox Mansion" is perfect to describe the risks deriving from alcoholism, one of the problems that led Warren to physical ruin and precedes "Bad Karma" which already in the title alludes to reincarnation, emphasizing what is predestination to bad luck and unwinds in an almost homemade finale based on a sitar solo. "Even A Dog Can Shake Hands" is a song of lively hard-rock that, in its structure, mocks the vacuous Hollywood world and precedes two entirely antithetical songs from a musical aspect, namely the bluesy ballad of "The Heartache" made even more poignant by Jennifer Warnes' backing vocals and the pure funky of "Leave My Monkey Alone" produced by George Clinton, a song where the role played and still played by the figure of the British Empire is addressed.
Ultimately let yourself be carried away in the whirlwind of emotions that this artist was able to gift in a career cut off far too soon. Enjoy listening.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Sentimental Hygiene (05:06)
written by Warren Zevon- c. 1987, Zevon Music Inc. BMI
Every day I get up in the morning and go to work
And do my job--whatever
I need some
Sentimental Hygiene
Everybody's at war these days
Let's have a mini-surrender
I need some Sentimental hygiene
Everybody's had to hurt about it
No one wants to live without it
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene
Every night I come home exhausted
From trying to get along
I need some
Sentimental hygiene
Some nights I drive my car
Up and down the boulevard
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene
Everybody's had to hurt about it
No one wants to live without it
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene
Some nights I drive my car
Up and down the boulevard
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene
Sentimental hygiene
I need some Sentimental hygiene
02 Boom Boom Mancini (04:54)
Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon
Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon
From Youngstown, Ohio, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini
A lightweight contender, like father like son
He fought for the title with Frias in Vegas
And he put him away in round number one
Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon
Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon
When Alexis Arguello gave Boom Boom a beating
Seven weeks later he was back in the ring
Some have the speed and the right combinations
If you can't take the punches, it don't mean a thing
Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon
Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon
When they asked him who was responsible
For the death of Duk Koo Kim
He said, "Some one should have stopped the fight
And told me it was him."
They made hypocrite judgements after the fact
But the name of the game is be hit and hit back
Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon
Hurry home early hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon
03 The Factory (02:45)
Written by Warren Zevon
c. 1987 Zevon Music/BMI
I was born in '63
Got a little job in the factory
I don't know much about Kennedy
I was too busy working in the factory
We got a kid that's two, we got another one due
We get by the best we can do
The factory's got a good medical plan
And, cousin, I'm a union man
Saying, Yes sir, no sir, yes sir, no sir, yes sir, no sir - Work !
I was born in Mechanicsburg
My daddy worked for Pontiac 'til he got hurt
Now he's on disability
And I got his old job in the factory
Saying, Yes sir, no sir, yes sir, no sir, yes sir, no sir - Work !
Early in the morning I feel a chill
The factory whistle blows loud and shrill
I'd kill my wife or she'd kill me
But we gotta go to work in the factory
Six days a week at the factory
Up early in the morning at the factory
I've been working in the factory
Johnny, I've been working in the factory
Kickin' asbestos in the factory
Punchin' out Chryslers in the factory
Breathin' that plastic in the factory
Makin' polyvinyl chloride in the factory
05 Reconsider Me (03:09)
written by Warren Zevon 1987 Zevon Music Inc. BMI
If you're all alone
And you need someone
Call me up
And I'll come running
Reconsider me
Reconsider me
If it's still the past
That makes you doubt
Darlin', that was then
And this is now
Reconsider me
Reconsider me
And I'll never make you sad again
Cause I swear that I've changed since then
And I promise that I'll never make you cry
Let's let bygones
Be forgotten
Reconsider me
Reconsider me
You can go and be
What you want to be
And it'll be alright
If we disagree
I'm the one who cares
And I hope you'll see
That I'm the one who loves you
Reconsider me
Let's let bygones
Be forgotten
Reconsider me
Reconsider me
And I'll never make you sad again
'Cause I swear I've changed since then
And I'll never make you sorry if you'll try
And I'll never make you sad again
'Cause I swear that I've changed since then
And I promise that I'll never make you cry
06 Detox Mansion (03:15)
written by Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderon 1987
Zevon Music Inc. BMI/ Googoplex Music BMI
Well, I'm gone to Detox Mansion
Way down on Last Breath Farm
I've been rakin' leaves with Liza
Me and Liz clean up the yard
Left my home in Music City
In the back of a limousine
Now I'm doin' my own laundry
And I'm getting those clothes clean
Growin' fond of Detox Mansion
And this quiet life I lead
But I'm dying to tell my story
For all my friends to read
Well, it's tough to be somebody
And it's hard not to fall apart
Up here on Rehab Mountain
We gonna learn these things by heart
Well, I'm gone to Detox Mansion
Way down on Last Breath Farm
I've been rakin' leaves with Liza
Me and Liz clean up the yard
What goes on in Detox Mansion
Outside the rubber room
We get therapy and lectures
We play golf in the afternoon
Well, it's tough to be somebody
And it's hard not to fall apart
Up here on Rehab Mountain
We gonna learn these things by heart
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