Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy

Warren Zevon
Excitable Boy
Asylum K53073
£1
Filed between Young Fresh Fellows 'This One's For The Ladies' and The Zombies 'Odessey And Oracle'.

October 1995, close to Halloween, at the Engine Room in Camden for the famously difficult music quiz. Frequented by NME & Melody Maker journalists, the only time we ever won a prize was for best team name (on the day Britain’s biggest boyband split up we went for ‘Take That And F**k Off’).

On this particular night the themed intros round had so far included the likes of ‘The Monster Mash’ and ‘There’s A Ghost In My House’ when this mid-tempo, piano-led intro kicked in. To my surprise and confusion all my fellow team-mates immediately went for ‘Werewolves Of London’ by Warren Zevon, a song I’d never heard. I was convinced they were wrong – it was surely ‘One Of Those Things’ by Dexys Midnight Runners. No question about it. Okay, so it didn’t fit the theme for the round whereas their answer did but ... it WAS Dexys.

Once the answers were revealed they were proved right – and on subsequent re-issues of ‘Don’t Stand Me Down’, the Dexys track now carries a co-credit to Zevon (the lifting is also noted in Kevin Rowland’s sleevenotes for the Director’s Cut edition).  

I’ve heard ‘Werewolves Of London’ numerous times since, and back in 2004 a BBC poll saw its opening lyrics voted the best of all-time.

I still defend my answer though ...

Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching For The Young Soul Rebels

Dexys Midnight Runners

Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
EMI/Fame FA 3032
£1
Filed between The Damned ‘The Light At The End Of The Tunnel’ and Dexys Midnight Runners 'Too Rye Aye'


"I'm just searching for the young soul rebels, and I can't find them anywhere. Where have you hidden them? Maybe you should welcome the new soul vision, welcome the new soul vision, welcome the new soul vision ..."

Thanks for some fairly hefty recent airplay for Dexys our 5 year old can regularly be heard humming the main hook from 'Geno', so it's possible they've replaced the Ramones as his favourite band.

Dexys Midnight Runners – Geno

Dexys Midnight Runners

Geno

EMI EMS196
£1.50 + P&P

Filed between The Damned ‘The Light At The End Of The Tunnel’ and Dexys Midnight Runners ‘This Is What She’s Like’.

Good little compilation, in that amongst its limited number of songs you get the original 'Dance Stance' (later 'Burn It Down'), a pre-fiddle 'Plan B' and a smattering of b-sides that replace those lost when I sold a few of their singles.

Dexys Midnight Runners - This Is What She's Like

Dexys Midnight Runners
This Is What She's Like
Mercury DEXYS1312
£1.00
Filed between The Damned 'The Light At The End Of The Tunnel' and The Dogs D'Amour 'The (Un)Authorised Bootleg Album'.

Bearwood. The Little Nibble. 'You weren't talking about me were you?'

From the album that killed off their career (the Stone Roses should have taken heed when they similarly disappeared into the wilderness) but is now lauded as a classic, 'This Is What She's Like' is, well, what can I say? The Italians have a word for it ...

I had the album (Don't Stand Me Down) back in 1985 and it pretty much went straight over my head. It was a long way removed from its predecessors, which was no big surprise as Kevin Rowland had a tendency to re-invent himself. It wasn't an album aimed at 14 year olds (such as I was at the time) but even so I knew there was something in there. 'Listen To This' had the most in common with the Dexys I knew and although at the time I didn't appreciate aspects of 'This Is What She's Like' I immediately liked the latter parts of it.

It was an album I would go back to over the years. And as I got older more and more of it made sense. By the time the band (or a new incarnation of it) surfaced in 2003 it was a staple part of my collection and something that I would merrily force people to listen to.