# Songs about tough guys or badasses **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 25, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310 "2012-07-25T02:03:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/21 "2012-07-25T07:50:48Z")
How about this blast from the past… [Iron Man](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CGO5imNLPc)– Sir Mix A Lot ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/22 "2012-07-25T07:56:02Z")
[A badass group of men](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=765019771919333912) ---
**Author:** ![azraiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/23 "2012-07-25T08:32:39Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I apologize for misinterpreting _your_ post. > > And yeah, Snakefarm rocks. I’ve linked to them in several threads over the years, not least in part because they do the best interpretation of [St. James](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuzrgu55lkA) Infirmary Blues yet conceived. _nubs_ Yeah, I love the hell out of Snakefarm, and I can’t explain why I enjoy the album so much. I hate individual components (e.g. drum machines) but love the whole. I don’t know why… Anyway, I’m going to drop a archetypical example of badassery and then head to bed. Beyond the song, [Boys from the County Hell](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2M7snEx1zs) wins for best title, hands down. And the badassedness of the song is indisputable. ETA: While the line “My brother earned his medals at Mai Lei in Vietnam” is hard enough, the original (and hard to find) lyric is “My brother earned his medals raping gooks in Vietnam” ---
**Author:** ![azraiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/24 "2012-07-25T08:42:18Z")
Missed the window: And by badassedness, I mean hard, violent, horrible, and irredeemable. ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/25 "2012-07-25T08:45:59Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > [Shaft](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwTtl8IydcA) Also [Son of Shaft by the Bar-kays](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE4dGkk6GS8) ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/26 "2012-07-25T10:42:08Z")
Warren Zevon’s _Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner_. I’ll also nominate _Mr Bad Example_, but the protagonist more bad than badass. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/28 "2012-07-25T12:29:45Z")
> [@Quint](#): > > I’m going to nominate AC/DC’s **Problem Child** > [Cop this > I’m hot, and when I’m not > I’m cold as ice > Get out of my way > Just Step aside > Or pay the price > > What I want I take > What I don’t I break > And I don’t want you > With a flick of my knife > I can change your life > There’s nothing you can do > > I’m a problem child!]([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_\_bOEU\_XUBw&feature=youtube\_gdata\_player](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__bOEU_XUBw&feature=youtube_gdata_player)) Most of Bon’s stuff was along those lines - in a very good way! > [@](#): > > I’m cooler than a body on ice > Hotter than the rolling dice > Send you to Heaven; take you to Hell > No fooling - can’t you tell > I’m a Livewire > [@](#): > > So lock up your daughter, lock up your wife > Lock up your back door, run for your life > The man is back in town - so don’t you mess around > cuz I’m TNT He does have a way with words… ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/29 "2012-07-25T12:45:55Z")
A song about real-life badasses the [Kray twins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kray_twins) (or more accurately a song about a weirdly obsessive devotee of the Krays): [The Last of the Famous International Playboys](http://youtu.be/cqxOq-VmhHA) - Morrissey ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/30 "2012-07-25T14:49:31Z")
How about Alley Oop? He’s a mean motorscooter and a bad go-getter. ---
**Author:** ![Bass\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/43a26b/32.png) [@Bass\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bass_Chick)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/31 "2012-07-25T15:06:42Z")
_The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde_ “Now one brave man, he tried to take them alone; They left him lying in a pool of blood and laughed about it all the way home.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/32 "2012-07-25T15:30:15Z")
If we’re doing gangsters, how about [Pretty Boy Floyd](http://youtu.be/4qO56pmH8ZQ)? (Dylan version.) _Pretty boy grabbed a log chain and the deputy grabbed his gun And in the fight that followed he laid that deputy down_ ---
**Author:** ![A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Dodgy_Dude)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/33 "2012-07-25T17:41:50Z")
[Trouble (the song from King Creole) - Elvis](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfkLnZhhoTY&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/34 "2012-07-25T18:21:10Z")
I’ll pick an odd example, Link Wray’s “[Rumble](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjs5QWjvNWc)”, which isn’t so much about a single badass as it is about badassery in general. You listen to it, _you_ are the badass. Er, “Sympathy for the Devil”, by the Rolling Stones? It’s about a cultured, civilised badass. “Midnight Rambler”? Not so much a tough guy - he sneaks around - but you wouldn’t want to mess with him. I would have picked “Street Fighting Man”, but it’s a bit subversive, 'cause the main character eschews violence for a career as a rock and roll singer. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/35 "2012-07-25T20:44:36Z")
Indoor Life - Archeology I suppose the lyrics are a little vague but at least to me it sounds like a song with a mad scientist as the narrator “the man who tames the beast”. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/36 "2012-07-25T22:04:30Z")
[Bad Company](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww5GXbk58R0) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/37 "2012-07-25T22:10:40Z")
[Barroom Hero - Dropkick Murphys](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mii1a6FKB28) ---
**Author:** ![Rubixcube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Rubixcube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubixcube)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/38 "2012-07-25T22:13:36Z")
Let’s not forget about the meanest of the mean, the toughest of the tough, and the baddest of the bad…[Charles Nelson Reilly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLnapb-30hA) ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/39 "2012-07-25T22:48:26Z")
One from Shel Silverstein: [The Winner](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRWlnv0_svU) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/40 "2012-07-26T01:03:13Z")
[Ringo - Lorne Greene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCyuq-ofnPc) [Ballad of the Blue Cyclone - Ray Stevens](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scJKL2D_ZAw) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-tough-guys-or-badasses/629310/41 "2012-07-26T01:23:29Z")
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