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Best of 2025: Delicate Steve Was Really Into Warren Zevon

Steve Marion on why Excitable Boy was his favorite record of the year.

9:00 AM EST on December 26, 2025

Excitable Boy by Warren Zevon was my favorite of the year. Warren Zevon is a great songwriter. This is a great album. Warren knows how to do it. When an album has this many great songs on it — "Johnny Strikes Up the Band," "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," "Excitable Boy," "Accidentally Like a Martyr," "Veracruz," and "Lawyers Guns and Money," and the outtake "I Need a Truck"... They’re all top level. “Werewolves,” too. 

The writing is so fundamentally sound, like a brick house that's very old and will hold up for years to come. It's also cheap and filthy as a trashy tabloid rag with a bunch of junk stories in it. But it's certainly not disposable like an Instagram video of something very important or funny.

I need a truck to hold my pain
I need a truck just to haul around my name
I need a truck to haul all the women from my bed
I need a truck to haul my body when I'm dead

I need a truck to haul all my guns to town
I need a truck to haul my bad thoughts around
I need a truck to haul my Percodan and gin
And I need a truck to haul all my trucks in

Delicate Steve's latest record, Luke's Garage, is out now. 

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