10 Immersive Songs That Would Make Killer Movies

8. Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4-pexSVWzM Warren Zevon was a breath of fresh air in the music scene of the 1970s. The California music scene was crawling with such artists as Jackson Browne, Laura Nyro, and the Eagles; in other words, the scene was dominated by artists who seemed to be devoted to recording emotional tunes that were meant to make you think while making you feel comfortable. Zevon's work made you think and they were emotional, but Zevon was out to make his listeners uncomfortable. Zevon possessed a dark sense of humor that his contemporaries lacked, allowing him to produce funny, warped tunes that packed a powerful punch. (By the way, Jackson Browne must also have had a dark sensibility hiding inside of him, since he produced Zevon's two best records: "Warren Zevon" and "Excitable Boy.") "Excitable Boy," one of Zevon's many great story songs, comes from his third album, which shares its title with our song in question. The song tells the story of a teenage boy with uncontrollable impulses. The boy's impulses grow more intense with each verse: the first verse details a family dinner, during which the well-dressed boy grabs the pot roast and smears it on his chest. His loving family shrugs off this strange incident, terming the young man as an "excitable boy." The boy becomes even more excitable in the second verse, where he attacks a movie theatre usher. His family pretends that this event never happened. The young man's actions become harder to ignore, however, when he rapes and murders his prom date. The boy's family sends him to a mental institution, saying that he's nothing more than an excitable boy. After ten years, the boy's released from the institution. Upon his release, the young man goes to the cemetery, steals his prom date's body and builds a cage with her bones. We leave the boy's story here, with the echoes of the family's standard excuse, "excitable boy," ringing in our ears. In most recording artists' hands, "Excitable Boy" would have been a grim tune about murderers and their psychological underpinnings. Zevon, however, pairs the lyrics with a jaunty rock n' roll melody that turns the song into a danceable, funny tune. Any film adaptation would have to tread the line between humour and horror. I'm thinking that "Excitable Boy" would be a perfect project for the Coen brothers; the style of such films as Raising Arizona, Fargo, or O Brother, Where Art Thou? would jibe perfectly with the style of Zevon's music.