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
Warren Zevon played Zevon's songs throughout the night. Zevon stated previously that his illness was expected to be terminal within months after diagnosis in late 2002. However, he lived to see the birth of twin grandsons in June 2003 and the release of "The Wind" on August 26, 2003. Owing in part to the first VH1 broadcasts of Nick Read's documentary "Warren Zevon: Keep Me in Your Heart", the album reached number 12 on the U.S. charts, Zevon's highest placement since "Excitable Boy". When his diagnosis became public, Zevon wryly told the media that he just hoped to live long enough to