Excitable Boy Excitable Boy Excitable Boy is the third studio album by American musician Warren Zevon. The album was released on January 18, 1978, by Asylum Records. It includes the single "Werewolves of London", which reached No. 21 and remained in the American Top 40 for six weeks. The album brought Zevon to commercial attention and remains the best-selling album of his career. A remastered and expanded edition was released in 2007. "Excitable Boy" and "Werewolves of London" were considered macabrely humorous by some critics. The historical "Veracruz" dramatizes the United States occupation of Veracruz; likewise, "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" is
Warren Zevon engaged to Philadelphia disc jockey Anita Gevinson and moved to the East Coast. After the disappointing reception for "The Envoy", Zevon's distributor, Asylum Records, ended their business relationship, which Zevon discovered only when he read about it in the "Random Notes" column of "Rolling Stone". The trauma allegedly caused him to relapse into serious alcoholism and drug abuse. In 1984, he voluntarily checked himself into an unnamed rehab clinic in Minnesota. His relationship with Gevinson ended shortly thereafter. Zevon retreated from the music business for several years, except for playing live solo shows, a period of time during which he