The best album not on CD…is finally on CD. Rhino Records rescued Warren Zevon’s classic live album from Asylum’s vaults and released an expanded and remastered version in late March.
This album isn’t just live; it’s ALIVE — a vicious assault on songs taken (mostly) from Zevon’s first (and best) two albums. Almost without exception, the versions on Stand in the Fire are more inspired, more resonant and more entertaining than the studio recordings that preceded them.
Since its 1981 release, SITF was a commercial footnote, though critics consistently raved about it; even with its muddy sound, blurry cover, and limited availability (a long OOP cassette), it thrived as a cult favorite among fans who worshipped it in secret.
What elevates SITF above other obligatory concert albums is the personnel. For these small club gigs, Zevon abandonded the safety net of the L.A. session players who propelled his music to that point. Instead, he opted for a hungry band of unknowns from Boulder, CO. Along with Zevon friend/lead guitarist, David Landau, the group recast Zevon’s early catalog into some of the hardest rocking, thrilling live music of the waning Classic Rock era. An eruption of machine gun guitars and impassioned invention.
Zevon, himself, was even more dialed in. If he was sedate and studied in the studio, on stage he was possessed. By the time of these 1981 shows, Zevon had overcome his storied addictions, but he hadn’t mellowed. This night he was boiling with emotion, and his typically mordant wit was as keen as ever; fueled by the prescription painkillers he was taking for a strained nerve, he peppers his lyrics with comical adlibs about Jackson Browne, James Taylor and Prez Carter. At one point, he summons his road manager to the stage: “Get up and dance, or I’ll kill ya! And I’ve got the means!” he exclaims. He was so volcanic, you believe he’d try it.
The 2007 CD reissue celebrates this madness in a grand way. Needless to say, the remastering is significantly better than the muffled sound of my worn out cassette. And the bonus cuts are especially crucial; the four extra tracks are as important to the concert as the original ten. “Johnny Strikes Up the Band” is so good, its exclusion from the 1981 issue is mystifying.
I haven’t been this excited about a reissue in a long while. I think Stand in the Fire combines the guitar moxie of At Fillmore East and the pop perfection of Live at Leeds. And it only took 26 years for the record company to figure it out…
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