
Fowley supplied the title track, which is still suited to Zevon’s vocal, even where double-tracked. “Hitch-Hiking Woman” also drives a simple riff into the ground, but the first real showcase for his talent is “She Quit Me”, which had already been covered for the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack, and here is just his acoustic guitar, voice, and wailing harmonica. (Thankfully, he’d back off from the vibrato in the future.) “Calcutta” is another dirty blues, supposedly written by one Xavier Fletcher and something of a prediction of the first Crazy Horse album. And then there’s his cover of “Iko Iko”, wherein his signature piano flair is drowned out by kids singing along playground-style.
On side two we get music that most resembles his later work, from the lyrics to the arrangements, though some of the embellishments on “Traveling In The Lightning” are a bit much. “Tule’s Blues” is a mostly country strum with all the instruments mixed high, which is also the case with the darkly humorous spoof “A Bullet For Ramona”, though somebody else supplied the lyrics. “Gorilla” is more sludge over mostly one chord that kills three minutes on an already short album, whereas “Fiery Emblems” is an intricate instrumental with changing time signatures, a swirling coda, and what sounds like backwards drums throughout.
While he did have his champions at this early stage, Wanted Dead Or Alive did have enough of an original sound, nor the industry clout, to make much of an impression. Much like Harry Nilsson’s debut album, it remains a curio.
Zevon Wanted Dead Or Alive (1970)—2½
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