Mild language advisory.
Lawyers, Guns and Money:
As aficionados of the blog have perhaps noted, I’ve been wont to quote some song lyrics here and there. I’m pretty plebian [that's not a word? It should be!] in my tastes; I like some crappy pop/country.
I’m thinking of another feature — Monday Manly Men. (Wednesday Womanly Women?). And Warren Zevon might be a feature there.
Like most men he ignored pain until he was forced to face it, and recognize he was dying from asbestos-induced cancer. 20 Years without a doctor’s visit. Manly. Perhaps stupid, and terribly sad, but manly.
So this song, which is most American. Z, you might like it. The late Warren Zevon’s Lawyers, Guns and Money. Dunno:
I went home with the waitress The way I always do How was I to know She was with the Russians, too I was gambling in Havana I took a little risk Send lawyers, guns and money Dad, get me out of this, ha I'm the innocent bystander But somehow I got stuck Between a rock and a hard place And I'm down on my luck Yes, I'm down on my luck Well, I'm down on my luck Now I'm hiding in Honduras I'm a desperate man Send lawyers, guns and money The shit has hit the fan
It’s a love/hate relationship with those lines. “I went home with the waitress”. Note: he’s specifying a definite article. Quite interesting. Implication that it’s not some random bimbo. The betrayal of “with the Russians” speaks more strongly.
Yet “too”?
Obviously, it’s a tone poem as we see when we move into “Gambling in Havana” — something Americans haven’t done since the 1950’s — or 60’s if you’re a Kennedy.
It’s obviously a statement about America. And a powerful one that resonated, unintentionally, into the 1980’s.
Lawyers Guns and Money. Yeah.
Good song. Says a lot.
-wolfe