The Regular Friday Post

Rando Lyric: Everything'll work out right

Nov 15, 2024

Last week’s rando lyrics: The lyric, “Time out of mind” is from the song "Accidentally Like A Martyr”, written by Warren Zevon - the song is Track 5 on Side 1 of the album “Excitable Boy” released in January 1978 (It’s also Track 11 on the compilation album (Link)>“I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead (An Anthology)”. Producers: Jackson Browne & Waddy Wachtel

Welcome to The Regular Friday post!

I admit my lyric choice “Time out of mind” was intentionally obscure and you were in good company if you thought the Rando Lyric song would be from Steely Dan or Bob Dylan. The choice this week came about as a result of a comment I wrote on a Substack that I follow that had something to do with “Name an artist who deserved more attention than they had received during their career”. I had simply replied, “Warren Zevon”. Mr. Kevin Alexander (who wasn’t the Substack writer who conducted the poll - can’t remember who that was…), who authors the fabulous Substack , “On Repeat Records”, that I follow (you should, too) commented on my comment, writing something like, “Mr. Zevon was great, but most people really only know him for “Werewolves Of London””. That’s a sentiment I heartily agree with but Mr. Zevon was truly a great artist, he left behind an amazing discography and he deserves more credit than he receives. One reason I chose “Accidentally Like A Martyr” was that, to me, it refutes the notion that the album “Excitable Boy” was somehow weak (see this Wikipedia article for a list of the artists contributing: Excitable Boy).

This is priceless:

“The Globe and Mail panned the album, writing that Zevon's famous friends contributing to "this improbable collection of tunes is a testament to the constant in-breeding among the California types that have so deteriorated the scene out there." ^[8]^{(source at this link)}

Stuff like that is hilarious, and I laughed out loud for real at this blah-blah-blah:

“The further these songs get from Ronstadtland, the more I like them. The four that exorcise male psychoses by mock celebration are positively addictive, the two uncomplicated rockers do the job, and two of the purely 'serious' songs get by. But no one has yet been able to explain to me what 'accidentally like a martyr' might mean—answers dependent on the term 'Dylanesque' are not acceptable—and I have no doubt that that's the image Linda will home in on. After all, is she going to cover the one about the headless gunner?” ^[3]^{(source at this link) …}

… I think the “Ronstadtland” comment is very unfair, especially since she is credited with vocals on the song “Excitable Boy”. Indeed the list of credited performers on the album is practically a who’s who of American pop/rock at the time. Take a look at this list:

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Personnel
    Warren Zevon – lead, harmony and backing vocals, piano, organ, synthesizer
    Jorge Calderón – harmony and backing vocals, Spanish vocals on "Veracruz"
    Danny Kortchmar - guitar, percussion
    Russ Kunkel – drums

Additional personnel
    Karla Bonoff – harmony vocals on "Accidentally Like a Martyr"
    Jackson Browne – guitar, harmony and backing vocals
    Luis Damian – jarana on "Veracruz"
    Kenny Edwards – bass guitar on "Veracruz", "Tenderness on the Block" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money"
    John McVie - bass on "Werewolves of London"
    Mick Fleetwood – drums on "Werewolves of London"
    The Gentlemen Boys (Jackson Browne, Jorge Calderón, Kenny Edwards, JD Souther and Waddy Wachtel) – backing and harmony vocals
    Arthur Gerst – Mexican harp
    Bob Glaub – bass guitar on "Roland the Headless Gunner", "Excitable Boy" and "Nighttime in the Switching Yard"
    Jim Horn – recorder on "Veracruz"; saxophone on "Excitable Boy"
    Greg Ladanyi – bells on "Nighttime in the Switching Yard"
    Rick Marotta – drums on "Veracruz" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money"
    Jeff Porcaro – drums and percussion on "Nighttime in the Switching Yard"
    Linda Ronstadt – backing and harmony vocals on "Excitable Boy"
    Leland Sklar – bass guitar on "Johnny Strikes Up The Band" and "Accidentally Like a Martyr"
    JD Souther – backing and harmony vocals
    Manuel Vasquez – requinto* on "Veracruz"
    Waddy Wachtel – guitar, synthesizer, harmony and backing vocals
    Jennifer Warnes – harmony vocals on "Excitable Boy"

(*Ed - From Wikipedia: "The term requinto is used in both Spanish and Portuguese to mean a smaller, higher-pitched version of another instrument. Thus, there are requinto guitars, drums, and several wind instruments. ")

Technical
    Jackson Browne, Waddy Wachtel – producers
    Greg Ladanyi, Dennis Kirk – engineers
    George Ybarra, Serge Reyes – assistant engineers
    Jimmy Wachtel – album design, photography
    Crystal Zevon, Lorrie Sullivan – additional photography

While Mr. Greg Ladanyi has been a subject on this Substack, as well as Mr. Brad Kyle’s Substack, “Front Row and Backstage”, before, I’m especially interested in “The Gentlemen Boys” who appear to have formed and called themselves that solely for the purpose of performing on Warren Zevon recordings. See link: The Gentlemen Boys. That’s a lot of talent in one place, as is the entire list of “Additional Personnel”….

Some Stuff

The “biz”:

Spotify Billions - 250M users/$1.5Billion profit - I may not like how little they give back to artists (me), but there’s no arguing with success…

End To TikTok Ban? You'll never guess who....

OpenAI lawsuit? Conceivable! I think that word means what I think it means!

Other Voices

New Voice: Check out this fiction writer on Substack :

John Hirst

Lobredo- Chapter 1

This story was, as I’m sure many before it also were, a seemingly never ending work-in-progress. A few years (my pride won’t allow me to say exactly how many) went into starting, stopping, restarting, erasing, starting again, finally finishing, editing, and re-editing before I said, “Enough.” And that doesn’t even include all the time spent querying a…

9 days ago · John Hirst

And for some great poetry and commentary, don’t miss the really cool Substacker “no one” (@n01ne) -

More Stuff:

New addition at my house - sweet “Vintage Cherry” Gibson SG from “Mike’s Gear” in Billings, MT via Reverb.

A Song To Play…

Lyrics

(From Genius) Link><

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[Verse 1]
The phone don't ring, no, no
And the sun refused to shine
Never thought I'd have to pay so dearly
For what was already mine
For such a long, long time

[Chorus]
We made mad love, shadow love
Random love and abandoned love
(Ooh) Accidentally like a martyr
The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder
We made mad love, shadow love
Random love and abandoned love
(Ooh) Accidentally like a martyr
The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder

[Instrumental Break]

[Verse 2]
The days slide by, should've done
Should've done, we all sigh
Never thought I'd ever be so lonely
After such a long, long time
Time out of mind

[Chorus]
We made mad love, shadow love
Random love and abandoned love
(Ooh) Accidentally like a martyr
The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder
We made mad love, shadow love
Random love and abandoned love
(Ooh) Accidentally like a martyr
The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder

[Instrumental Outro]

Some Links For Today:

(If the link description sounds interesting , click on it. No charge….)

"The Gentlemen Boys"

*From Blues Guitar Unleashed, Mr. Griff Hamlin:

"Picking"

"Playing In Position"

*From CD Baby:

Booking Gigs For Indie Artists

*From Songtown:

Unleash Your Creativity

Songwriting Roles

*From Disc Makers:

Overseas Music Promotion

Using "Sus" Chords

ED. None of these result in compensation to me in any way, and I’m not endorsing any of them, but some of my readers may find them as interesting as I did…

The “ME!” Section…..

What I’m Listening2: “Safety In Numbers”

Shameless Self Promotion Section:

My song is out! Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

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Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention. Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

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This Week’s Conversation With Mika, The Cat:

Mika: “Treat time, human….”

Me: “Hmmm…Maybe we need to have the whole Daylight Savings Time vs Pacific Standard Time discussion. Again….”

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”