A Little Baby Exciteable Werewolf. or Something.

[Note: Now that the Favorites Coountdown is done, it has been decreed by straw poll of my internet friends that the next theme here is 'Early Recordings,' or records made by prominent artists before they became famous. I've had incredible fun researching and hunting down these songs over the years, and I hope you'll have fun listening to and reading about them]

Before Warren Zevon became the most twisted singer/songwriter in L.A. , he had to travel a long and tortured journey. Hell, maybe that's a big part of what made him so twisted. A classically trained pianist bitten by the rock and roll bug, he initially joined forces with a high school freind and vocalist named Violet Santangelo (she later spent years in musical theatre and is currently a realtor in New York). They formed a Sonny & Cher-style duo and renamed themselves Lyme & Cybelle, scoring a minor hit with the sprightly flower-pop gem 'Follow Me,' Zevon's role was more in the instrumental realm  and Santangelo's vocals dominate, both on 'Follow Me' and the poppy, horn-laden cover of Bob Dylan's 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now' also included here.

After the duo split, Zevon recorded a solo album entitled Wanted Dead Or Alive in 1969, produced by Kim Fowley, the self-styled svengali behind The Runaways, of all people. The sound is somewhat murky, which dosen't do the album any favors. Zevon's playing (on guitar and bass as well as his usual piano) is solid throughout, and the outlaw ballad title track points the way towards his future fascination with violence and desperate outlaws. He also does a cover of the New Orleans classic 'Iko Iko' which mixes weirdly with Warren's quirky enunciated vocal style, but that's a really difficult song to ruin, so it's still good.The album went exactly nowhere commercially and he was dropped from his label. It'd be seven more years and a lot more knocking around before we'd hear from him again, but these tracks provide a great glimpse of a warped genius' development.