WARREN ZEVON
Stand in the Fire [Reissue]
Rhino Records 2007
www.warrenzevon.com

What’s the 4-1-1?
The classic Zevon live recording makes its debut appearance on CD with four bonus live cuts and two liner notes essays.

Genre
Rock / Classic Rock / Singer-Songwriter

The Good
The Stand In The Fire CD opens with the title cut, which at the time was a brand new song Zevon was using in the live set. It’s a track that encapsulates the entire vibe of the album. It captures everything that made the manic energy from Zevon on this night so utterly mesmerizing. The version of “Excitable Boy” here has a much more pronounced guitar presence, particularly early on in the song. “The Sin” is the second of the two “new at the time” songs performed, and is markedly more aggressive in both tempo and the ferocity of Zevon’s vocals.

I am normally not a fan of changing around lyrics of a song during a live performance, but the way Zevon did that very thing with “Werewolves Of London” made it that much more humorous and winning. I would love to know if it was planned or something he did on the spur of the moment. The four bonus tracks are all excellent inclusions. “Johnny Strikes Up The Band” is a nice up-tempo track. “Play It All Night Long” has some really bitter and sarcastic lyrics (no surprise that the song is one of my all time favorite Zevon tracks). “Frank And Jesse James” and “Hasten Down The Wind” are decidedly slower in delivery. The latter song was performed with just Zevon and piano and it gives the listener that much more of a striking poignancy in relation to the song.

“I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” comes out as one of the best songs on the disc, it’s just one of the best live recordings of the song I’ve hear. However, from the very first time I heard this CD, the original closing track “Bo Diddley’s A Gunslinger/Bo Diddley” has been just an amazing song. The chunky guitar sound comes off well in the song at the beginning, and the big backing vocals on the chorus make it sound that much “bigger.” The big attacking leads at the end of the song are just as sweet to the ears.

The Bad
There’s not a dang blasted thing wrong with this recording.

The Verdict
This is one of those examples people always here about, the night an artist just explodes with that can only be described (with apologies to Mr. Straczynski) as one moment of perfect beauty. Okay, given the rough edged vocals, perhaps it is a ragged form of beauty, but I think you understand quite well. This is an album that is still talked about with awe from Zevon fans. In my various travels around the Net talking about Zevon, a lot of people were always asking when this album would get a CD release. As amazing as it seems, it has only been available on cassette, and usually only after a long search. It took me a few years and eBay to find a never before opened cassette.

On this night at the Roxy, the insanely energetic performance from Warren Zevon and the entirety of the band captured that elusive lightning in a bottle. Any artist with a long enough career invariably records a live album. It’s a cliché/stereotype thing to do. What makes this recording stand among the best live recordings of all time is the devil may care/ take no prisoners approach to the concert. This is rock and roll performance art in all the best sense. You simply cannot go wrong with the combination of down and dirty riffage and the throaty yelps and growls from the one and only WARREN ZEVON!

Did You Know?
The backing band, save for lead guitarist David Landau, was the Colorado club band Boulder. They specialized in Zevon cover songs.

Rating: out of 5

Related Reviews:
Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy [Reissue]
Warren Zevon - Reconsider Me: The Love Songs
Warren Zevon - Mutineer

-- Jay Roberts