Warren Zevon: Mr. Bad Example : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

You can screw everybody I've ever known/But I still won't talk to you on the phone," sings Warren Zevon on "Finishing Touches," the track that opens Mr. Bad Example. At forty-four, Zevon clearly wants us to know he's still got something of the excitable boy in him. Let's remember, though, that the singer-songwriter – who was covered by Linda Ronstadt, accompanied by members of the Eagles and produced by Jackson Browne prior to his commercial breakthrough in the angst-ridden late Seventies – has always been more of a jaded minstrel than a snide punk. For all of the witty irreverence he's shown in songs like "Werewolves of London" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money," Zevon has also allowed an almost folklike earnestness to poke its head through some of his most biting diatribes.

That earnestness is occasionally expressed without benefit of freshness or restraint on Mr. Bad Example. On "Renegade," a dauntless Confederate's pledge of faith, Zevon wastes a fetching melody and a lovely, fiddle-laced arrangement on platitudes like "Some prayers never reach the sky/Some wars never end/Some dreams refuse to die." "Searching for a Heart" is equally catchy and its lyrics – "They say love conquers all/You can't start it like a car/You can't stop it with a gun" – equally banal.

Redeeming irony is offered by the title track, a rollicking ode to amorality ("I'm thinking of retiring from all my dirty deals/See you in the next life – wake me up for meals"), and by "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead," which alludes slyly to Elvis Costello ("Home is just a place to hang your head").

Zevon's gentle vocals and delicate imagery on "Suzie Lightning" prove that he's still capable of delivering a graceful lament. But Mr. Bad Example can be so whiny at times that when Zevon fantasizes in "Model Citizen" about driving his Winnebago into a lake, one isn't quite sure whether to take him seriously or to be grateful for the joke.