Mix Tape: "Basket Case," by Warren Zevon

When I was in college, I had the thankless task of editing and publishing the residential college newsletter, and I think I poked fun at a colorful homeless character who used to hang around our gates. One woman approached me one day to tell me the humor was in bad taste. I suspect she would not find "Basket Case" by Warren Zevon amusing in the least.

Here's a wonderfully off-kilter tune that marries a story about a romance with a "bipolar mama in leather and lace" with a jaunty guitar lead and background harmonies. As you can tell from the lyrics, it's not a Top 40 romance tune, but rather something to help peel the paint off of normal conventions. As such, it's vintage Zevon - the same scribe who penned classics such as "Excitable Boy" and "Desperados Under the Eaves."