4 Incredible Songs That Warren Zevon Wrote With Unusual Collaborators

Few songwriters have ever wandered the strange and unusual path quite like Warren Zevon. Considering that the guy’s biggest hit was about a killer lycanthrope, we shouldn’t really be too surprised by anything he ever attempted.

Warren often wrote with collaborators who weren’t generally in the songwriting game. Here are four excellent examples of that unique Zevonian phenomenon.

“Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner”

Zevon’s chances of recording another album seemed remote after Wanted Dead Or Alive, his 1969 debut, flopped. It took him seven years to get back to the point where a record label took another chance on him. In the interim, he collected material for his comeback. That included a stint hanging out at a bar in Catalonia that was owned by David Lindell, a former mercenary. Warren took Lindell’s stories about his wartime escapades and spun them in a supernatural direction. Excitable Boy, the album that contained the “Roland The Headless Gunner”, featured several outlandish, even macabre, tracks just like it. That LP helped set Zevon apart as a songwriter with no guardrails.

“Seminole Bingo”

Carl Hiassen is one of the most successful modern American authors. And although he has branched out into different territory now and again, he’s most famously known for his stories set in the Florida area. Those tales generally feature down-on-their-luck characters trying to get rich quick through illicit methods. Hiassen collaborated on a couple of songs with Zevon. “Seminole Bingo”, the opening track on Zevon’s 1998 LP Mutineer, might be the best example of their chemistry. The song tells the tale of a “junk bond trader” hightailing from SEC officials. But instead of hiding his gains somewhere, he spends his night at the titular establishment looking to parlay them into an even bigger score.

“You’re A Whole Different Person When You’re Scared”

My Ride’s Here, released in 2002, was recorded before Zevon’s terminal cancer diagnosis. You might not realize that based on the death rattle that occasionally hangs about this wonderful LP. Zevon used a wide variety of co-writers on the record, including Carl Hiassen (again) and Irish author Paul Muldoon. Perhaps his boldest “get” on the co-writing front was Hunter S. Thompson. It seemed a natural fit that the celebrated yet notorious journalist would be friendly with Zevon, who knew his share of infamy. The moody, lyrically minimal “You’re A Whole Different Person When You’re Scared” fits in well with the gloomy vibe of the album.

“Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)”

Zevon also found room on My Ride’s Here for an offbeat sports song. Deciding one day that it was a travesty that no one had ever written a decent song about hockey, he connected with Mitch Albom. Before he was selling millions of books with Tuesdays With Morrie, Albom earned renown as a top sportswriter. Albom and Zevon concocted a tale about a so-called “goon.” For those who don’t know the sport, that’s a player who focuses on fighting and physically intimidating the other team’s finest players. Except the guy in “Hit Somebody!” harbors bigger dreams. David Letterman, Zevon’s biggest supporter, plays the role of an angry fan out looking for blood.

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