The standard Warren Zevon biographies and discographies refer to Warren Zevon's 1969 debut album "Wanted Dead Or Alive" as a botched effort, a record that never should have been made, a disaster, or sometimes use even less flattering descriptions. Certainly Zevon himself felt that way, and had it not been for the efforts of his pal Jackson Browne, that may have been the end of his solo career. For the next few years, Zevon went off to obscure bars in Spain and occasional jobs as musical arranger. It wasn't until he was "discovered" again in 1976 that his career began anew. A couple of listens to this CD may not convince you that this is his best album, but it will be a unique and valuable early foray into Zevon's deranged universe.

"Wanted" was Zevon's first release as a solo artist after briefly flirting with the psychadelic sound as one-half of the duo Lyme & Cybelle in the mid-1960s. (You can find a couple Lyme & Cybelle tracks on the CD compilation "Happy Together: The Very Best Of White Whale Records".) His song noir style and the classic hapless and impulsively self-destructive characters that Zevon nurtured to perfection over the years began to blossom on this album. The title track highlights the desperation of a man on the run who can't seem to hide because "they say I have an outlaw face." "A Bullet For Ramona" is about a man who tried to let go of a failed relationship, but when he saw her with a drifter, "I knew right then Ramona had to die." "She Quit Me" finds Zevon wondering "where did she get the nerve to say goodbye?" This track, when it was included with modified lyrics on the "Midnight Cowboy" soundtrack of the same year, became his first commercial success, albeit through a different artist and style.

Some of the other tracks, like "Hitchhikin' Woman" and "Tule's Blues," are wistfully pleasant songs. "Iko-Iko," the album's low point, seems to be a parody of itself, with Zevon leading a chorus of girls into a chaotic series of silly shouts of "Iko!" "Traveling In The Lightning" and "Gorilla" explore some of the novel studio effects of the day, and have a frenetic energy to them. "Fiery Emblems" is an early Zevon instrumental.

The biggest criticism of the album has always been the production. Good production highlights the music - poor production focuses on the effects. Some of the double-tracking of Zevon's voice, like on the title track, can get tiresome. The instrumentation is often quite good, and in some cases outstanding, but the mixing tends to muffle the sound or accentuate the wrong elements of the song. All in all, the production's rough qualities lend a certain simple charm to his first solo work.

This album has been repeatedly criticized as a throw-away, but to dismiss Warren Zevon's first album without giving it a listen would be a mistake. This is essential Zevon.

IMPORTANT NOTE: On May 6, 2003, Capitol Records released a remastered version of Wanted Dead Or Alive. Originally, this CD was supposed to be issued in early April with extra tracks covering an entire unreleased album, Leaf In The Wind. There was a lot of excitement raised about the extra tracks. As it turned out, there were problems releasing these tracks (possibly from WZ himself), and the release date was delayed into May. It now turns out that the Leaf In The Wind tracks were removed from the CD, meaning its track listing is EXACTLY THE SAME as the One Way release from 1996. If you are planning to buy the new Capitol version for the extra tracks, don't throw your money away.

Rather amazing isn't it that the powers-that-be have made this available on cd while "The Envoy" and "Stand In The Fire" have never been released on cd, and "Mr. Bad Example" and "Transverse City" are now out of print. Oh, well. We Zevon fanatics will have to take what we can get.

Unfortunately, Warren's humble beginnings were just that. There is not a lot of truly memorable music on this one. "She Quit Me" is a hard blues number, interesting mostly because of its appearance in the film "Midnight Cowboy" (not Warren's version). "A Bullet For Ramona" offers a glimpse of the brilliantly deranged music to come, and one of these songs ("Gorilla"?) contains the riff that would later become "Jungle Work".

If you are new to Zevon, do not start here. This is a curio for fans like me who just can't get enough.

Most fans of Warren Zevon probably know that he would have been just as happy if this album dissappeared from the face of the earth completely. I can sort of see why, although it is a rather, uh, interesting listen. The most annoying thing about this album is the way he uses his voice. While he does have that familiar deep rich voice Zevon fans know and love, he sings with vibrato way more than he should, making him sound as if he had been cross bred with Joan Baez (actually put your Joan Baez albums on the turntable and turn the pitch as flat as it could go, and you would have a pretty good idea of what to expect from "Wanted Dead Or Alive."). Only for the curious and completists.

Get this only if you are really into Warren and want everything. Past that, there are a couple nice moments here and there, but if he had put out more albums like this one, we wouldn't care.

And it is because "Wanted Dead Or Alive" is an album of an artist still defining himself. "Bullet For Ramona," for example, was carried from the Lyme and Cybelle sessions (see the "First Sessions" CD) and was given yet another reworking before it wound up in the "Midnight Cowboy" movie. There's even a song called "Gorilla," which hints at a favorite topic of WZ's (think "Gorilla You're a Desperado" or "Leave My Monkey Alone"), the animal traits we hide in ourselves.

But like John Mellencamp's "Chestnut Street Incident," "Wanted Dead Or Alive" trapped an artist with a record he probably wishes he could scorch from the face of the planet. Not that it's bad, just that it's a poor representation of who Warren Zevon, in another five or six years, would grow into as a musician. If you really want to hear where Warren found his voice, start with "Warren Zevon" and listen to "Carmelita" and "Frank and Jessie James."