Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon. The album was released on February 15, 1980, by Elektra Records. Three singles were released from the album, one of which charted: "A Certain Girl" (a cover of a song previously recorded by Ernie K-Doe and the Yardbirds) reached No.57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Zevon's second and final hit on that chart.
The album was dedicated to Ken Millar (1915–1983), popularly known as mystery writer Ross Macdonald, who had assisted Zevon in fighting through substance abuse addiction and successfully completing related treatment.[1]
In an essay on the album, journalist James Campion would note Zevon's desire to escape from traditional rock arrangements and embrace his classical music training; comparing Zevon's string arrangements in the album to an unpublished symphony Zevon would work on throughout his life.[8] Campion also noted the unusual instrumentation in the album achieved by Zevon firing a .44 Magnum (the same pistol that had been featured in the centerfold art of Excitable Boy) into a barrel of sand inside the recording studio to achieve the short rapid percussion noises at the start of the album's title track.[9] The album title was derived from both Zevon's practice of ballet to keep in shape and a quip Warren made about "bad luck streak in dancing school" after falling off stage in Chicago during a 1978 show.[10]
Record World said of the single "Gorilla, You're a Desperado" that "Zevon paints a picturesque fantasy of LA upper middle class absurdity."[11] In 2024 Far Out Magazine praised "Play it All Night Long" as a reaction to the perceived feud between "Southern Man" by Neil Young and "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, by stating: "Zevon’s ‘Play It All Night Long’ was his tongue-in-cheek way of basically saying, “Who cares? It’s a pointless feud, and both songs suck anyway."[12] "Play It All Night Long" has been covered by alternative country band Drive-By Truckers who released the track in 2009's The Fine Print: A Collection of Oddities and Rarities, including elements of Zevon's "Ain't That Pretty At All" along with modified lyrics referencing Zevon's death due to cancer in 2003.[13]
"Jeannie Needs A Shooter" would draw attention for being developed based on the title of a then unreleased demo track from Bruce Springsteen'sBorn to Run sessions, with Zevon once describing the track by stating "there may be a whole other version of a song recorded with good musicians, and then I toss it out because I hear a whole other song with the same title.”[14] In 2020 Springsteen released his finished track "Janey Needs A Shooter" on his album Letter to You drawing comparisons between Springsteen's and Zevon's differing songs.[15]
Track listing
All songs written by Warren Zevon, unless otherwise indicated.
Jackson Browne – guitar, slide guitar on "Gorilla, You're a Desperado"; backing vocals on "A Certain Girl", "Play It All Night Long" and "Gorilla, You're a Desperado"
↑ "How to buy Warren Zevon". Uncut. October 2023. p.71.
↑ Campion, James (2018). Accidentally Like a Martyr: The Tortured Art of Warren Zevon. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Backbeat Books. p.80. ISBN978-1-61713-672-6.
↑ Campion, James (2018). Accidentally Like a Martyr: The Tortured Art of Warren Zevon. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Backbeat Books. p.85. ISBN978-1-61713-672-6.
↑ Campion, James (2018). Accidentally Like a Martyr: The Tortured Art of Warren Zevon. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Backbeat Books. p.87, 89. ISBN978-1-61713-672-6.
↑ "Single Picks"(PDF). Record World. May 17, 1980. p.16. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
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