:smack:
I probably listened to “I Fought the Law (and the Law Won)” a few dozen times -in versions by the Bobby Fuller Four, the Clash, and John Mellencamp before realizing the hook “robbin’ people with a (bam-bam-bam…) six gun” had six drum beats.
Huh ? I count seven in the version you linked. Pretty sure the *Clash *cover also has seven, although there might be the tiniest pause-for-emphasis between the first six and the last (which might suggest the protagonist emptied his gun, then The Law seized the opportunity to retort).
Heh. The Bobby Fuller version sure enough has seven. I count six on the Clash (which is actually where I noticed the 6 beats). I also count six on the Green Day version and on the original Cricketsversion. And despite my mention of Mellencamp I guess he just used the song as as a take-off for the Authority song, but didn’t record it.
Listening to both the Bobby Fuller and the Clash versions, I think the 7th beat you’re hearing is just the kick drum playing the normal downbeat it does through the rest of the song.
Interestingly, on top of those six beats, Buddy Holly clearly sings “zip gun”, not “six gun”.
Continuing the slow stagger toward accuracy: The Crickets version was recorded after Holly’s death, with (according to Wiki) Sonny Curtis (the writer) on guitar, and Earl Sinks on vocals.
The actual Bobby Fuller single is more clearly six beats than the live-ish version linked to above.
I also hear “Zip gun” in the Crickets’ version. What’s up with that…?
As was mentioned in the recent Songwriter Salute thread, Sonny (actual first name) Curtis also wrote the Love Is All Around theme song for the Mary Tyler Moore show. And he wrote the Everly Brothers hit, Walk Right Back to Me This Minute.
A zip gun is a crude homemade pistol.
Yup, and apparently somewhat commonly used by small-time criminals at one time. I suppose if [del]that was[/del] the actual songwriter was in the band in the Crickets version, we can assume that was the correct, original lyric, and that later singers changed it for some reason. Maybe the term “zip gun” had fallen out of use by then, or perhaps Bobby Fuller didn’t know what a zip gun was so either thought he heard “six gun” (Westerns were popular at the time) or changed it deliberately.
Yeahbut, but since zip guns are normally single shot devices that means there’s no significance to the six hard beats. They just liked the way it sounded.Coulda been three. Coulda been four. Coulda been five.
I don’t know how exactly zip gun evolved into six gun, but it was probably the right move. Not only does it give the hook a better context, but it makes the narrator more of an archetypal Western character, rather than a ugly little punk with a homemade gun. It also ties in better with another of the song’s hooks --the rhythm guitar solo-- which has a Western cowboy feel to it.
I can tell you that the term “zip gun” was in standard usage in the 1950s. While I was alive back then, I was too young to have much to do with them myself. But they kept making appearances in my father’s old Mad magazines of the period. Seem to have been a weapon of choice among juvenile delinquents.
That or perhaps it’s the sound-alike connection between mislaid and slayed.
Do we know who James James Morrison is? Upon re-reading, it looks to me like King John is calling Mr. Morrison a bastard.
Mr. Mojo Risin’?
Sorry for the months-late response, but Troy Donahue was not gay. You’re thinking of Tab Hunter.
:smack: You’re right, of course.
There’s also a very cool big-band/gangster number called Zip Gun Bop (YouTube link). The muted trumpet siren is not to be missed!
Well, since Milne was English and died in 1956, it’s unlikely. However, upon reading the entire poem, I see that my interpretation is also unlikely.
My friend Mark recently pointed out the comments made by the Librarian in Pratchett’s series are: “Oh, okay”. I read ook (yes I did) throughout the series. I need a re-read now.
Given that he says OOK and EEK. I would go with “ook” not “oh, ok”.
Given that he’s a [del]mon-[/del] ORANGUTAN, Ook and Eek are thoroughly appropriate. I will have to check if “Oh okay” makes any sense, but I suspect that is projection. He says a lot of complicated things with “Ook ook eek ook eek.”
Don’t say the m word.