Great American Music About Guns
LaserWolf
Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
Lets leave hip hop out of this.Tin Pan Alley Guitar Slim (?)El Paso Marty Robbins32-20 Robert JohnsonMama Tried Merle HaggardHey Joe everyoneElectric Chair Bessie SmithRaymond Scott song about wife shooting her husband.Bruce Springsteen song about shooting a highway patrolman.I know there are lots more.I can't think of any jazz, or Great American Songbook titles. (Unless you include the Bessie Smith.)Please add. Love them or hate them, they are part of Americas culture.Dan
Comments
Machine Gun - Jimi Hendrix
And thus the short rapper's fascination with big guns was born.
Saturday Night Special (best gun cover imo)
Yes.
and Cocaine Blues
He cocks and shoots between three and four
He aims it at the sailor
Shoots him down dead on the floor
Oh, you shouldn't do that
Don't you know, you'll stain the carpet?"
Sonny and Cher - Bang Bang
Nancy Sinatra version is the shit
not american, but a great song:
Guns Don't Argue - Dennis Alcapone
"Knock, knock, knockin on heavens do-oahhhh, Ai, Ai, AI-Ye-AIIIII!! YEah!!!"
Tom Waits Small Change got rained on by his own .38.
these guys kick ass
Oh ain't it lonely
When you're livin' with a gun
Well you can't slow down and you can't turn 'round
And you can't trust anyone
You just sit there like a butterfly
And you're all encased in glass
You're so fragile you just may break
And you don't know who to ask
Oh ain't it lonely
When you're livin' with a gun
Well you can't slow down and you can't turn 'round
And you can't trust anyone
You just sit there like a butterfly
You're well protected by the glass
You're such a rare collector's item
When they throw away what's the trash
You can hang suspended from a star
Or wish on a toilet roll
You can just soak up the atmosphere
Like a fish inside a bowl
When the ghost comes round at midnight
Well you both can have some fun
He can drive you mad, he can make you sad
He can keep you from the sun
When they take him down, he'll be both safe and sound
And the hand does fit the glove
And no matter what they tell you,
There's good and evil in everyone
Don't know about that, but he did make a song about the incident in NYC where four cops shot a black kid something like 20 times because they mistook his wallet for a gun.
I was wrong. I thought for sure that the Nebraska lp had a song about killing a cop. But I just read all the lyrics and it's not there. Plenty of guns and cops on that record, but no cop killing.
Dan
TOM JOAD
Woody Guthrie
dowloaded from the Folksong Data Base
Tom Joad got out of the old McAlester Pen
There he got his parole
After four long years on a man killing charge
Tom Joad come a walking down the road, poor boy
Tom Joad come a walking down the road
Tom Joad he met a truck driving man
There he caught him a ride He said: "I just got loose from
McAlester's Pen On a charge called Homicide, A charge called
Homicide."
That truck rolled away in a cloud of dust,
Tommy turned his face toward home,
He met Preacher Casey and they had a little drink,
But they found that his family they was gone,
He found that his family they was gone.
He found his mother's old fashion shoe
Found his daddy's hat.
And he found little Muley and Muley said:
"They've been tractored out by the cats,
They've been tractored out by the cats."
Tom Joad walked down to the neighbors farm
Found his family.
They took Preacher Casey and loaded in a car
And his mother said "We got to git away."
His mother said 'We got to get away."
Now the twelve of the Joads made a mighty heavy load
But Grandpa Joad did cry.
He picked up a handful of land in his hand
Said: "I'm stayin' with the farm till I die.
Yes, I'm stayin' with my farm till I die."
They fed him short ribs and coffee and soothing syrup
And Grandpa Joad did die.
They buried Grandpa Joad by the side of the road,
Buried Grandma on the California side,
They buried Grandma on the California side.
They stood on a Mountain and they looked to the West And it
looked like the promised land. That bright green valley with a
river running through, There was work for every single hand, they
thought, There was work for every single hand.
The Joads rolled away to Jungle Camp, There they cooked a stew.
And the hungry little kids of the Jungle Camp Said: "We'd like to
have some too." Said: "We'd like to have some too."
Now a Deputy Sheriff fired loose at a man
Shot a woman in the back.
Before he could take his aim again
Preacher Casey dropped him in his track.
Preacher Casey dropped him in his track.
They handcuffed Casey and they took him to Jail
And then he got away.
And he met Tom Joad on the old river bridge,
And these few words he did say, poor boy,
These few words he did say.
"I preached for the Lord a mighty long time
Preached about the rich and the poor.
Us workin' folks got to all get together,
Cause we ain't got a chance anymore.
We ain't got a chance anymore."
The Deputies come and Tom and Casey run
To the bridge where the water run down.
But the vigilante they hit Casey with a club,
They laid Preacher Casey on the ground.
They laid Preacher Casey on the ground.
Tom Joad he grabbed that Deputy's club
Hit him over the head.
Tom Joad took flight in the dark rainy night
A Deputy and a Preacher lying dead, two men,
A Deputy and a Preacher lying dead.
Tom run back where his mother was asleep
He woke her up out of bed.
Then he kissed goodbye to the mother that he loved
Said what Preacher Casey said, Tom Joad,
He said what Preacher Casey said.
"Ever'body might be just one big soul
Well it looks that a way to me.
Everywhere that you look in the day or night
That's where I'm gonna be, Ma,
That's where I'm gonna be.
Wherever little children are hungry and cry
Wherever people ain't free.
Wherever men are fightin' for their rights
That's where I'm gonna be, Ma.
That's where I'm a gonna be.
Thats British.