Drivin N Cryin- Legal Gun
Amsterdam in 81
Monty walks alone
Coming in a five fifty night
Disconnects the phone
Oct in 81
Sara-a-gue walks alone
Coming in another night
She disconnects the phone
Because he's just a legal gun
And she's just a legal whore
He just guns them down right
She just asks for more
Man and a Woman dine tonight
Stare in each others eyes
They met somewhere before
He asks her what she dose and she lies
Says he works in government
Says she works alone
But he finds out later tonight when he walks her home
Because he's just a legal gun
And she's just a legal whore
He just guns them down right
She just asks for more
He tells what he really does
She doesn’t have to tell him much
They walk along the avenue
Laughing at their good luck
Oct in '81 walking home alone
When a man steps out and guns him down
For thirty days she wasn't alone
For thirty days she wasn't alone
For thirty days she wasn't alone
I discovered Drivin'N'Cryin back in '90/ '91 when they had a couple of hit tunes on the charts from their Fly Me Courageous album. Working my way back through their catalog I discovered a band that was more than the hard rock group that I was hearing on the radio. Their sound was blue collar, working class, and as much folk and country as Rock and Roll. I could go on and on, but let's just stick with the fact that they stuck with me, and in particular a set of their songs stuck with me, and one of them Legal Gun from their Whisper Tames the Lion album is this months Crime Tune.
Above you will find best transcription of the lyrics, I am unsure of the
names, but it's what I came up with. I know I have seen the lyrics
somewhere before, but I wasn't able to track them down in time for this
post (and of course as soon as I get home tonight I will find them).
Anyway, the song has a marching hard rock drive and feel to it, with
just a hint of darkness and tension in the instrumentation. The lyrics
tell the straight forward Noir story of loneliness, love and loss. One
can almost imagine the story cribbed from a Gold Medal paperback, if it
weren't that we are given both the time, October 1981 and the place Amsterdam.
I think the inclusion of these facts give the song a grounding, one can
visualize what people were wearing at the time, what their hair cuts
were like. Also the whole aspect of the fact that even though our two
loners are legally sanctioned they still somehow are outsiders.
The song was written prior to the formation of Drivin'N'Cryin' by Kevin Kenny, and an early recording appeared on the Kevin Kenny and Frank French album Everything Looks Better In The Dark. I really do need to go back and
listen to that version of the song again, but as with all of the songs
in this series, it is one that I would like to hear someone cover.
The Links:
http://www.frankfrench.com/EverythingLooksBetterInTheDark.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drivin_N_Cryin
www.drivinncryin.com
