Interlude No.1 and Interlude No.2 on the album – only about a minute and a half in total – were composed by Zevon and played by The Sid Sharp Strings, the most in-demand string section in Los Angeles. At the time, Zevon, who had played classical music as a child, was listening to Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. “Unifying classical music and popular song”īad Luck Streak In Dancing School, which was dedicated to the mystery-writer Ken Millar, is experimental and ambitious. They eventually co-wrote the version that appears on Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School, and a performance of the song, at The Roxy, in Los Angeles, became a highlight of Zevon’s 1980 live album, Stand In The Fire. “You like it so much, why don’t you write it?” replied the rock star. The track was released as a single and reached No.57 on the Billboard Hot 100.īruce Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau casually mentioned a long-forgotten 1972 Springsteen demo called Janey Needs A Shooter to Zevon, and though he misheard the name as “Jeannie”, Zevon loved the title so much that he repeatedly asked Springsteen about the song. “Jorge is my oldest friend and closest collaborator,” Zevon commented. Zevon’s zestful version featured Jackson Browne on backing vocals and Jorge Calderón, a musician who always added an intimate quality to his work with Zevon, on guitar. The more straightforward A Certain Girl, written by New Orleans great Allen Toussaint under the pen name Naomi Neville, had been a hit for Ernie K-Doe in 1961 and was later covered by The Yardbirds. “This woman’s group got up in arms that it was saying that we were going to mow down these ballerinas with a gun, and I had to go to Asylum Records to defend the album cover,” Jimmy Wachtel told Crystal Zevon for her book, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life And Times Of Warren Zevon. The back cover photograph shows a ballerina’s pointe shoes, along with an Uzi machine gun and bullet casings. The dancers included actress Kim Lankford, who starred in the TV hit Knot’s Landing. The photograph shows a room full of leotard-wearing ballet dancers who are warming up, without paying any attention to Zevon, dressed in a suit and tie and standing by the window. “I find myself writing about violent subjects”Ī dancing school, incidentally, was a 17th-century euphemism for a brothel, and the theme dominates the controversial album cover, with a photograph taken by Jimmy Wachtel, older brother of guitarist Waddy, who played on the album.
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