Lawyers, guns & money

Send lawyers, guns and money, the s— has hit the fan. The incredibly talented Warren Zevon immortalized that line with his hit song on his 1978 “Excitable Boy” album, one of my Top Five albums of all time. The album was certainly Zevon’s all-time best-selling album, with great songs like “Excitable Boy,” “Werewolves of London,” “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” “Roland the headless Thompson Gunner,” and “Accidentally Like a Martyr.” The album exudes machismo, frowned on in today’s world where we denigrate the Alpha-male. Alpha males make mistakes, we all do, but they do not walk into a school and shoot kids or murder people at a dance party. Zevon’s songs are universal, understood in Montana and in California, at least for people who celebrate the natural order of things.

As I’ve said before, my kids know well that “Werewolves” is a full volume, belt out loud song if I’m in the car. For me, getting the perfect timing of “nit” is celebratory. The song started as a lark. Phil Everly (Everly Brothers) had seen a 1935 movie, “Werewolf of London,” and suggested Zevon write a song about it. Fifteen minutes later, with the help of friends, the song was ready. Werewolves that mutilate little old ladies would normally not be feted to dinner at Lee Ho Fook’s, but in Zevon’s song everything makes sense. Warren had more friends than most, and John McVie and Mick Fleetwood played instruments on the song.

“Excitable Boy” is macabre for sure, but curiously hysterical at the same time. Linda Ronstadt did background vocals! You know I think she is the bomb! If she can sing about using little Susie’s bones to build a cage, how bad is it really? “Roland the headless Thompson Gunner” is about a mercenary who gets his head blown off by an adversary but gets his revenge on his assassin. Just listen to the song.

But for me, in a tie for the most quoted line from a song I use in daily life, is the ubiquitous song “Send Lawyers, Guns and Money.” Obviously being a lawyer inspires both the hiring and money part of the song. Add to that my unrepentant love and defense of the Second Amendment, it is the perfect song. In light of current worldwide tensions, the line: “I went home with the waitress, the way I always do.

How was I to know, she was with the Russians, too?” is timely. As a high school senior, I was infatuated with a waitress at a Krispy Kreme, now owned by Shaq (soon to reopen after burning down). Never made it past asking her for another donut, but I like Zevon’s aplomb.

All told, Zevon’s “Excitable Boy” is just as relevant, even vital, to our world as it was when released. Zevon was not one to hold back, if it needed saying, he said it. But sadly, he did not care much for doctors. “I might have made a tactical error by not going to a physician for 20 years,” he said. He died of mesothelioma, a rare lung cancer, but gave the world the great line, in response to David Letterman’s request to give us all advice in light of impending death, “Enjoy every sandwich.” Zevon’s humor, intelligence, and perspicacity are missed.

P.S. The other most quoted line in my daily life is from Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good,” when he says, “I can’t complain but sometimes I still do.” What, really, do we have to complain about?

Kelly Burke, attorney, former district attorney and magistrate judge, writes about the law, rock’n’roll, and politics or anything that strikes him. Contact Kelly at dakellyburke@gmail.com to comment on this article or suggest articles that you’d like to see, and visit his website at www.kellyrburke.com to view prior columns.

HHJ News