Warren Zevon humor to wed geopolitical subtexts to hard-boiled narratives. Tracks from this album received heavy FM airplay, and the single release "Werewolves of London", which featured Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, was a relatively lighthearted version of Zevon's signature macabre outlook and a No. 21 success. The critic Dave Marsh, in "The Rolling Stone Record Guide" (1979), called Zevon "one of the toughest rockers ever to come out of Southern California". "Rolling Stone" record reviews editor Paul Nelson called the album one of the most significant releases of the 1970s and placed him alongside Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and Bruce Springsteen
A Quiet Normal Life: The Best of Warren Zevon his third album "Excitable Boy". Although "Excitable Boy" sold well, Zevon had a difficult time capitalizing on the success of the album. The follow-up album "Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School" features Zevon's cover of Ernie K-Doe's "A Certain Girl" and while the single did chart, it was not included on "A Quiet Normal Life". "Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School" peaked at #20. Later albums fared even worse with the album "The Envoy" peaking at #93 in the Billboard Charts. That album is represented here by three songs including "Looking for the Next Best Thing". Zevon's last album under