Best of 2025: Delicate Steve Was Really Into Warren Zevon

Steve Marion on why Excitable Boy was his favorite record of the year.

Excitable Boy by Warren Zevon was my favorite of the year. Warren Zevon is a great songwriter. This is a great album. Warren knows how to do it. When an album has this many great songs on it — “Johnny Strikes Up the Band,” “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner,” “Excitable Boy,” “Accidentally Like a Martyr,” “Veracruz,” and “Lawyers Guns and Money,” and the outtake “I Need a Truck”… They’re all top level. “Werewolves,” too. 

The writing is so fundamentally sound, like a brick house that’s very old and will hold up for years to come. It’s also cheap and filthy as a trashy tabloid rag with a bunch of junk stories in it. But it’s certainly not disposable like an Instagram video of something very important or funny.

I need a truck to hold my pain
I need a truck just to haul around my name
I need a truck to haul all the women from my bed
I need a truck to haul my body when I’m dead

I need a truck to haul all my guns to town
I need a truck to haul my bad thoughts around
I need a truck to haul my Percodan and gin
And I need a truck to haul all my trucks in

Delicate Steve’s latest record, Luke’s Garage, is out now. 

Delicate Steve, aka Steve Marion, is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter based in LA. His latest record, Luke’s Garage, is out now. 

(Photo Credit: Sheva Kafai)