Preludes: Rare and Unreleased Recordings is a two-CD compilation of music and interviews, including unreleased outtakes and demos, by singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon

Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...

, who died in 2003.

A few months after Zevon's death, his son, Jordan

Jordan Zevon

Jordan Zevon is an American singer, musician and songwriter. He is the son of rock musician Warren Zevon. Following his father's death in 2003, Jordan, his half-sister, Ariel, and longtime Zevon collaborator Jorge Calderón accepted Warren's two posthumous Grammy Awards for Best Rock Vocal...

, drove out to one of his father's storage spaces in the San Fernando Valley

San Fernando Valley

The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...

 to begin the process of sorting through old recordings. He discovered over one hundred unreleased outtakes and demos in a piano-sized touring case.

Preludes features sixteen of the newly discovered recordings, including six unreleased tracks: "Empty Hearted Town", "Going All The Way", "Steady Rain", "Stop Rainin' Lord", "Studebaker" and "The Rosarita Beach Café". All of the songs were recorded before 1976. The album also includes previously unreleased versions of "Werewolves of London

Werewolves of London

"Werewolves of London" is a rock song composed by LeRoy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, and Warren Zevon and performed by Zevon. Included on Zevon's 1978 album Excitable Boy, it featured accompaniment by bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac.The single was released by Asylum as...

" and "Accidentally Like A Martyr". The second disc includes a radio interview with Zevon, conducted by Jody Denberg in 2000.

The album was released by New West Records

New West Records

New West Records is a record label based in Los Angeles, California, Austin, Texas, and Athens, Georgia. It was established in 1998, and has been home to several indie rock and alternative country bands as well as representing the PBS show Austin City Limits...

 in 2007 in a deluxe two-CD package in a hardbound slipcase. It includes a 44-page booklet with previously unpublished family photos, integrated with excerpts from the memoir I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon is a biography/oral history of rock musician Warren Zevon compiled by his ex-wife Crystal Zevon and published May 2007 by Ecco Books....

by Crystal Zevon.

Disc One

1. "Empty Hearted Town" – 3:04
2. "Steady Rain" – 4:18
3. "Join Me In L.A." – 2:27
4. "Hasten Down The Wind" – 2:30
5. "Werewolves of London
   Werewolves of London
   "Werewolves of London" is a rock song composed by LeRoy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, and Warren Zevon and performed by Zevon. Included on Zevon's 1978 album Excitable Boy, it featured accompaniment by bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac.The single was released by Asylum as...
   
   " (LeRoy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel
   Waddy Wachtel
   Robert "Waddy" Wachtel is an American musician, composer and record producer, most notable for his guitar work...
   
   , Zevon) – 3:36
6. "Tule's Blues" – 3:02
7. "The French Inhaler" – 3:31
8. "Going All The Way" – 2:15
9. "Poor Poor Pitiful Me
   Poor Poor Pitiful Me
   "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" is a rock song written by Warren Zevon.-Content:In keeping with Zevon's sardonic lyrical style, the song's verses deal with a failed suicide, domestic abuse, and a brush with sadomasochism. The song appeared first on Zevon's 1976 self-titled solo album...
   
   " – 3:09
10. "Studebaker" – 2:34
11. "Accidentally Like A Martyr" – 3:05
12. "Carmelita
    Carmelita (song)
    "Carmelita" is a rock song written by Warren Zevon. The song was originally recorded by Canadian singer Murray McLauchlan on his self-titled album of 1972. Zevon himself recorded it four years later, in 1976, on his self titled album...
    
    " – 3:56
13. "I Used To Ride So High" – 2:43
14. "Stop Rainin' Lord" – 2:11
15. "The Rosarita Beach Café" – 4:08
16. "Desperados Under the Eaves
    Desperados Under the Eaves
    "Desperados Under the Eaves" is a song written and performed by Warren Zevon from the 1976 album Warren Zevon. The song describes the narrator's growing alcoholism and laments that no matter what occurs, he will wind up paying the bill for his low rent digs at the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel...
    
    " – 3:44

Disc Two

1. "I Was In The House When The House Burned Down" – 3:02
2. "Warren speaks on songwriting and the early days of his career" – 7:14
3. "Musings on mortality, song noir and The King of Rock n' Roll" – 5:07
4. "A chat about producers and the stark sounds on the album Life'll Kill Ya
   Life'll Kill Ya
   Life'll Kill Ya is an album by American singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, released in 2000. . The album was recorded in 1999.-Themes:...
   
   " – 5:09
5. "Back in the High Life
   Back in the High Life Again
   "Back in the High Life Again" is a 1987 single written by Steve Winwood and Will Jennings and performed by Winwood. The single was included in his album "Back in the High Life" and included backing vocals by James Taylor. "Back in the High Life Again" was Winwood's second number one on the Adult...
   
   " (Will Jennings
   Will Jennings
   Wilbur H. "Will" Jennings is an American songwriter who is popularly known for writing the lyrics for "My Heart Will Go On", the theme for the film Titanic .-Life and education:...
   
   , Steve Winwood
   Steve Winwood
   Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...
   
   ) – 3:11
6. "Warren's take on Winwood's classic and Warren's inspirations" – 3:58
7. "Talk of TV, movies, acting and performing" – 5:14
8. "Don't Let Us Get Sick" (solo acoustic) – 3:10
   • Recorded live December 3, 1999 at Austin City Limits Studios for 107.1 KGSR Radio Austin 9th Anniversary Concert

Production

• Producers: Peter Jesperson, Jordan Zevon
  Jordan Zevon
  Jordan Zevon is an American singer, musician and songwriter. He is the son of rock musician Warren Zevon. Following his father's death in 2003, Jordan, his half-sister, Ariel, and longtime Zevon collaborator Jorge Calderón accepted Warren's two posthumous Grammy Awards for Best Rock Vocal...
  
  , Cameron Strang, Danny Goldberg
• Mastering: Gavin Lurssen at Lurssen Mastering, Hollywood, California
  California
  California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
  
  
• Family Photos: Jordan and Crystal Zevon
• Still Life Photography: Susie Delaney
• Art Direction and Design: Kat Delaney
• Legal: Ken Anderson