My awareness of Warren Zevon begins and ends with his classic ‘Werewolves of London,’ released on the 1978 album Excitable Boy. That song got a lot of airplay when I was young, and really got a boost when Martin Scorsese had Tom Cruise peacock around a pool table to it in 1986’s The Color of Money.
That was Zevon’s third of 12 studio albums, in a career that spanned 24 years and saw him collaborate with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, David Letterman and R.E.M.
When it comes to music in movies, it’s usually the songs I don’t know well that have the biggest impact on me. That way the music and images arrive all of a piece without prior associations. Sometimes when a song I know well is used in a movie it’s jarring and actually takes me out of the film.
One big exception was the use of Cat Stevens’ ‘The Wind’ in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. I knew this song very well and loved it, having worn out my copy of Teaser and the Firecat during high school and college. So when the opening notes kicked in during the kite scene in Rushmore, it could easily have gone wrong.
Meet Me In Montauk 