Zevon’s 1976 major label debut saw him stabled alongside Asylum’s other star turns (The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Tom Waits) and, though he took something from each, Zevon’s portraits were less polished than his contemporaries’. It’s as if he relished getting up to mischief once everyone had gone to bed.
Not yet reaping the financial rewards of Asylum’s big hitters, he perfectly defined the lot of the struggling artist on Desperadoes Under The Eaves and mocked his own shortcomings on Poor Poor Pitiful Me. Always articulate yet economical, Carmelita borrowed heavily from The Rolling Stones’ earlier song of drugs desperation, Dead Flowers, but managed to say twice as much in half the time.
Four tracks from this album were covered, nay sterilised, by Linda Ronstadt, though the visceral and often vulgar truths expressed in the words can only truly be heard here, arguably even more potently on the demo versions of the bonus disc. There would be no dulling of Zevon’s nib as time went by, but it’s perhaps surprising that the caustic attitude and uncomfortably forthright eloquence were so fully formed so early on.
