By that point, he would later tell Rolling Stone, ``The road, booze and I became an inseparable team.'' In 1969, he had put out his first album, ``Wanted: Dead or Alive,'' on One Way Records, but it was largely ignored (it was, however, reissued this past March on Virgin Records). After some more false starts, Zevon and his then-wife, Crystal Zevon, became embittered about L.A. life and moved to Spain in 1975, but a short time later they returned. Jackson Browne, Zevon's close friend, had championed his cause to music mogul David Geffen and the result would be ``Warren Zevon,'' a 1976 release from Asylum Records that would make the singer a darling of the critics. Browne produced the album, which included ``Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,'' a major hit a year later for Linda Ronstadt.

The album boasted an impressive crowd of contributors, among them Henley, Glenn Frey, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Carl Wilson, Bonnie Raitt and J.D. Souther. The assembly showed that Zevon was part of the loose circle of Southern California musicians that forged a defining sound in 1970s rock. But while the Eagles and others were minting platinum albums, Zevon was making far more ominous music that failed to click in a big way with the wide public. That would form the pattern of his career, and it both haunted and inspired him — he longed for the audience but also reveled in the role of intellectual and uncompromising maverick.

He did have one song cut through in a big way — ``Werewolves of London'' from 1978 became an ominous novelty with its lyrics about a werewolf who enjoyed socializing but also mutilated little old ladies. ``I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's,'' the song memorably offered, ``His hair was perfect.'' By the early 1980s, Zevon's notoriously wild ways had wrecked much of his personal life and he went into a rehab program, which he would later memorably mock in ``Detox Mansion.''...