I Fought the Law

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I Fought the Law
The crickets
publication 1960
Genre (s) skirt
Author (s) Sonny Curtis
album In style with the crickets
Cover versions
1966 The Bobby Fuller Four
1975 Sam Neely
1979 Hank Williams, Jr.
1979 The clash
1987 Dead Kennedys
1994 The dead pants
2002 Chelsea
2002 Beatsteaks
2002 Status quo
2004 Green Day

I Fought the Law is a rockabilly song written by Sonny Curtis that first appeared in a recording by his band The Crickets in 1960 and has since been interpreted by a variety of artists. The recording of The Bobby Fuller Four , which reached 9th place on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966, was a hit . The 1979 version of The Clash , which became one of the most famous punk songs, proved to be particularly influential .

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The song is written from the perspective of a convict, the refrain (I fought the law and the law won) literally means " I fought the law and the law won ". While knocking stones, he wistfully thinks of his girl, whom he will not see again now, and of his crimes: Because he needed money, he committed robberies and threatened people with his "zip gun", an improvised, self-made firearm. In later versions, the “zip gun” becomes the “six gun”, a six-shot revolver . When he describes this at the beginning of the third verse, the act is also illustrated with musical onomatopoeic means: In a short break , the guitars stop for a measure in which the drummer plays six fast beats (ie “shots”).

Interpretations

Rockabilly, country, rock

7 ″ vinyl record of The Bobby Fuller Four's single

In 1959, after the death of Buddy Holly, Sonny Curtis joined the Crickets as guitarist, who had enjoyed great success with Holly, but were only considered to be his companion band. Curtis did not replace Holly as a singer, but his compositions played a part in the fact that the Crickets could still celebrate successes without Holly; On In Style with the Crickets (1960), the first LP they released without Holly and the second ever, I Fought the Law was one of three songs he wrote, and he is co-author of four more. Earl Sinks stepped in as singer for the Crickets , but he never became a regular member of the band - Curtis himself had his greatest solo success as a singer a few years later with Love Is All Around , the opening tune of the Mary Tyler Moore Show . In 1961, the Crickets released the song again, this time as the B-side of A Sweet Love , the fifth and final single from the album.

I Fought the Law only became a hit in the version by Bobby Fuller and his band The Bobby Fuller Four, released in 1966 on the Mustang label, the short-lived successor to Del-Fi Records . In a year in which the American charts were dominated by the bands of the British Invasion , Fuller was one of the few artists who could establish themselves with a sound that was reminiscent of the rock 'n' roll of the 1950s. In addition to rock and country, Fuller's version also shows a Latin American influence; his rhythm section (Randy Fuller on bass, DeWayne Quirico on drums) plays a beat reminiscent of a merengue . For example, Fuller's version of I Fought the Law is stylistically assigned to Tex-Mex . Fuller died a few months after publication; According to the police report, he committed suicide, but doubts about this account have repeatedly been raised.

In the following years the song was covered by a variety of artists. In the country scene in particular , it became an evergreen: in 1975 the versions of Sam Neely and Hank Williams, Jr. reached the country charts, most recently in 1992 with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band . Gabriel Solis, professor of musicology at the University of Illinois, notes that I Fought the Law is typical of the country in terms of its subject matter (poverty, resistance to the authorities, crime), but above all in its resigned worldview. For the same reason, however, the song is incompatible with the prevailing ethos of many rock songs, in which the (male) protagonist typically knows how to assert himself against all odds.

But even in the rock music was I Fought the Law always taken up again, with the subversive tendency of the song especially sozialkritisch spoke engaged artists. The song has been part of Bruce Springsteen's live repertoire since at least 1974 and to this day . John Cougar Mellencamp wrote his hit The Authority Song (1983) specifically as an homage to I Fought the Law and often performs the two songs one after the other at concerts. In 2004, the music magazine Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 best songs of all, which is often quoted to this day Times and listed Bobby Fuller's version of I Fought the Law in 177th rank. In the same year she was also included by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their list of "Songs that Shaped Rock 'n' Roll".

punk

The Clash live in Oslo, 1980

A special place among the many interpretations is that of the English punk band The Clash . In 1978 Joe Strummer and Mick Jones flew to San Francisco to record overdubs for their second album Give 'Em Enough Rope in the Automatt studio . There was a jukebox in the studio, which was equipped with Fuller's version of I Fought the Law , among other things . Strummer and Jones were so taken with the song that they began practicing it themselves, and added it to their live repertoire upon their return. In May 1979 they released their studio recording of the song on the EP The Cost of Living . In the same year she appeared in the American edition of her debut album The Clash, which was greatly changed from the original release . It became one of the most famous songs of the band, also as a concert recording, recorded on December 28, 1978 in London's Lyceum Theater , as the final scene and climax for their music film Rude Boy . As one of the iconic songs of punk, the song enjoys unbroken popularity in this subculture. Cover versions based on The Clash version have recorded Chelsea and Mike Ness from Social Distortion , in Germany Die Toten Hosen and Beatsteaks .

Jello Biafra

The version of the Dead Kennedys , one of the most influential and politically active American punk bands, published in 1987 on the compilation Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death (but already part of their concert program years earlier), with new lyrics by Jello Biafra, should also be emphasized . Biafra's version focuses on the murder that killed San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and city councilor and gay activist Harvey Milk in 1978 . Narrator is the assassin, Dan White, who in 1979 in a controversial sentence for diminished criminal responsibility only of manslaughter in the version of Dead Kennedys ( voluntary manslaughter ) , but not the murder was found guilty. In the line Twinkies are the best friend I've ever had (" Twinkies are the best friend I've ever had "), Biafra takes up one of the most controversial points of the process, which is known as the " Twinkie defense " in American legal history and as The name for an unprecedented twist of the law has entered colloquial language: The defense had alleged that White consumed an excessive number of cream slices ( Twinkies ) and that he was obviously suffering from depression. The indignation at the verdict is expressed in the reversal of the refrain: In Biafra's version, the murderer not only triumphs over the law (I fought the law and I won) , he is one with the law (I am the law) . White thus becomes a symbol of a reactionary and repressive establishment that knows the law on its side.

In 2004, the cover version of Green Day hit the headlines , which was recorded especially for a joint commercial by Pepsi and Apple and broadcast during the commercial break of Super Bowl XXXVIII . It thus reached a good 100 million viewers. A campaign was advertised in which coupons for music downloads on Apple's then new distribution platform iTunes were brought to the public. To the sounds of the song, the spot featured a number of teenagers who were all pep-drinking who had been convicted of illegally downloading music files, but were glad that thanks to iTunes, they had now found a law-abiding way to get music for free. Green Day, which was ostracized as a commercially successful band in punk circles anyway, was then accused by not a few commentators of having in common with “the system” and uninhibitedly selling out punk while Joe Strummer was in his grave turn. The campaign paid off financially for both Green Day and iTunes; In the following week, I Fought the Law was the best-selling song on iTunes, with more than 10,000 paid downloads, which in turn soon replaced amazon.com as the market leader for music downloads.

Others

  • Beat poet Allen Ginsberg wrote an ironically revised version of the song. He himself referred to his poem Do the Meditation Rock (also known as Meditation Blues ) as a "Buddhist version of the old Communist International ," he composed the refrain as I fought the dharma and the dharma won . Sung to the melody of I Fought the Law , he often presented the poem in his performances in the early 1980s. Among other things, a recording of a session with Bob Dylan on bass held in Santa Monica in 1982 has been preserved .
  • In the course of the United States' military intervention in Panama in December 1989, the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega fled to the diplomatic mission of the Vatican in Panama City to avoid arrest. Since the Americans could not penetrate the site for reasons of international law, they resorted to listening to deafening loud music to the nunciature day and night in order to wear down the opera friend Noriega and force him to give up. The American soldiers particularly enjoyed using their titles to convey musical messages to Noriega; The US Marine Corps' playlist featured Bobby Fuller's version of I Fought the Law along with other obvious titles such as Crying in the Chapel (Brenda Lee), Dancing in the Street (David Bowie), You Shook Me All Night Long (AC / DC), Time Is on My Side (The Rolling Stones), Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley), Nowhere Man (The Beatles), No Particular Place To Go (Chuck Berry), Nowhere to Run (Martha & The Vandellas) , Just Like Jesse James (Cher) and Prisoner of Rock 'n' Roll (Neil Young).
  • The sentence I fought the law (and the law won) has now become a fixed phrase in everyday English and has been referenced accordingly in a large number of songs and books. One example is the highly acclaimed essay I Fought the Law by Christopher Hitchens with photos by Christian Witkin , which appeared in Vanity Fair magazine in 2004 and spoke out against the increasing state paternalism in the city of New York . Hitchens had himself photographed in one day breaking several of the prohibitions of venial offenses that the new mayor Michael Bloomberg had just upheld with heavy fines. Among other things, he took his feet off the pedal while cycling, fed pigeons in the park and occupied two seats in the subway at the same time.

Recordings (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sonny Curtis & The Crickets: "I Fought The Law" original song. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  2. ^ Ed Morales: Ritmo latino: La música latina desde la bossa nova hasta la salsa . Ma non troppo, Barcelona 2006. p. 252.
  3. ^ Gabriel Solis: I Did It My Way: Rock and the Logic of Covers . In: Popular Music and Society 33: 3, 2010, pp. 309-310.
  4. ↑ Interview with Mellencamp in Billboard of December 8, 2001, p. 18.
  5. ↑ rollingstone.com: The Bobby Fuller Four, 'I Fought the Law'
  6. ↑ rockhall.com: The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
  7. ↑ Chris Salewicz: Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer . Faber and Faber, London 2006. pp. 222-223.
  8. ↑ Graeme Thompson: I Shot a Man in Reno: A History of Death by Murder, Suicide, Fire, Flood, Drugs, Disease, and General Misadventure, as Related in Popular Song . Continuum, New York 2008. p. 70.
  9. ↑ Carol Pogash: Myth of the 'Twinkie Defense' . In: San Francisco Chronicle , Nov. 23, 2003, page D1.
  10. ^ Gabriel Solis: I Did It My Way: Rock and the Logic of Covers . In: Popular Music and Society 33: 3, 2010, p. 310.
  11. ↑ See, for example, Green Day In Cola Clash , xfm.co.uk, message dated February 2, 2004.
  12. ^ Billboard, February 21, 2001, p. 64.
  13. ↑ Allen Ginsberg: Do the Meditation Rock . In: White Shroud: Poems, 1980-1985 . Harper & Row, New York 1986. pp. 20-22.
  14. ↑ Martina Pfeiler: Sounds of Poetry: Contemporary American Performance Poets . Günter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 2003, p. 125.
  15. ↑ Michael Gray: The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia . Continuum, New York 2006, p. 257.
  16. ^ Frederick Kempe: Divorcing the Dictator: America's Bungled Affair with Noriega . IB Tauris, London 1990. p. 406.
  17. ^ US SOUTHCOM Public Affairs After Action Report Supplement, "Operation Just Cause," Dec. 20, 1989 - Jan. 31, 1990 . Official publication of the United States Southern Command, 1990. ( Digitized from the George Washington University website )
  18. ↑ Christopher Hitchens: I Fought the Law . In: Vanity Fair from February 2004.