[2] Fleetwood Mac members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are also featured on this recording,[3] as are Bobby Keys, Bob Glaub, and Waddy Wachtel.
By one telling, the title of the song was inspired by a Halloween parade Zevon witnessed in Aspen, Colorado in 1973.
[6] The song has been interpreted by other artists as well, most notably by Linda Ronstadt on her 1978 album Living in the USA, a track that gained airplay on album-oriented rock radio formats.
Music critic John Rockwell devotes pages to the song – both the Zevon original and the Ronstadt rendition – in his contribution to the Greil Marcus-edited 1979 collection of essays Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island, where among other things Rockwell describes it as "an artistic breakthrough" for Ronstadt.
[5] A number of other books have yielded significant commentary on the song such as Philosophy Americana: Making Philosophy at Home in American Culture,[7] Rolling Stone Interv - Rolling Stone Magazine,[8] [4] All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul Briefer references note that the song inspired an independent film in 1995 of the same title,[9] and critic Dave Marsh put it near the top of a list of "best songs about radio".