in 1978, zevon released his most popular and critically acclaimed album "excitable boy". radio stations often played the songs off the album, especially "werewolves of london." "werewolves of london" and "excitable boy" were both examples of black humor (jokes about bad things). the album also had the songs "roland the headless thompson gunner" and "lawyers, guns and money," which were both deadpan humor songs about geopolitics.