My Top Ten Favorite Outlaw Songs

I was just thinking about this topic as I was riding into work today. So, I wanted to get it in before I forgot about it. Call it my High Fidelity list for Monday, doubled.

As I continue to shun the new wave of bubblegum pop from the firework shooting bra, names with dollar signs in them set, I wanted to look back at some of the greats of old school music. You know, the kind you hate and I love. The outlaw songs are a great piece of history and I had to pay some respect to the great ones.

The premise of the song is about being on the wrong side of the law, an anti-hero. Usually, the protagonist is usually not going to make it at the end, or perhaps they do. There’s a bit of a taboo to root for them but they are still a fascinating subject. So, I give you my Top Ten Favorite Outlaw Songs.  Feel free to comment on this list or add your own.

“Pancho and Lefty” – Willie Nelson
I've been a fan of Willie since I was a wee one.  I've even played a few Willie songs, including this one, with my father-in-law's band, We Don't Look Good Naked, Anymore.  It's just a great song about the Mexican Federales and bandits and betrayal.

“Renegade” - Styx
Being from Pittsburgh, this is on the list immediately.  But, it's more than just a Steelers fight song.  It's a great part of the soundtrack to Supernatural and it's in direct line of sight to my childhood.  My sister was a big fan of Styx.  Of course, that was before they went all showy with "Mr. Roboto".  Yes, Pieces of Eight, The Grand Illusion and Paradise Theater were fond memories.

“Paul Revere” – Beastie Boys
Next to "Sabotage", my favorite song of theirs is this one.   It's the fictional telling of how they came together and they are outlaws who are about to get ill.

“Take the Money and Run” – Steve Miller
I refer to this song as being one of the cornerstones of the soundtrack to a movie that will never get made.  It's a very 70s, Tex-Mex Bonnie and Clyde outlaw song complete with cop in pursuit.

“I Shot the Sheriff” – Bob Marley
How could not have this in a list of outlaw songs.  'Nuff said.

“Copperhead Road” – Steve Earle
Bluesy, twangy, rocking, Post Vietnam southern tale of moonshiners and drug runners.  Bagpipes, via a keyboard to boot.  Love this song.  It is one of my favorite anti-hero songs from the 80s.

“Gimme Some Water” – Eddie Money
There were four music acts that permeated my childhood, Johnny Cash, Styx, Journey, and Eddie Money.  Now, I didn't know this song much as a child but I heard it into my teens and it's a staple on WDVE, the local classic rock station here in the Burgh.  You've got the hangman's tree, being caught by the law, killing a man and the Mexican Border.

“The Highwayman” – Highwaymen
The supergroup of Cash, Kristoferson, Jennings, and Nelson did a cover of Jimmy Webb's song and even Glen Campbell did it, but it wasn't as popular as it was with The Highwaymen.  Of course, the first part of the song is the only one dedicated to an outlaw or actual Highwayman, but still, you've got the Mount Rushmore of rebel country music performing it.  That outweighs the overall composition lacking true outlaw lyrics.

“Sin Nombre” / “Wanted” / “Banditos” – The RefreshmentsIf you've never heard of The Refreshments, I weep for you.  If you've ever heard of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, then you have to check out their earlier stuff before Mercury Records screwed them over.  The Refreshments had three albums, one containing most of the tracks from their first album, Wheelie, called Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy.  It contained a lot Southwestern Arizona and Tex-Mex styled songs, like Banditos, arguably their most famous song.  But their last album, The Bottle and Fresh Horses went completely across the border with two of my favorites, Sin Nombre and Wanted.  Sin Nombre has that outlaw gasping for breath, looking for shelter while on the lam. Hit and hurt, he dreams of comfort and clean water.  Wanted is more poppy and upbeat, a love song set in today's world but deals with the outlaws of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico mystique of the earlier days.

"East Bound and Down" Jerry Reed
The Southern Fried tale of The Bandit making a bootleg run of Coors Beer from Texarkana to Atlanta provided the backdrop to one of my favorite moments of childhood, CBs.   We would go on vacation as a convoy of station wagons and trucks to the beach, using CBs to communicate with other vehicles in the group.  At one point, my friend commandeered the CB microphone with his Walkman and played this song from the Smokey and the Bandit soundtrack much to the probable anger of the other truckers on channel 19.

and....
“Theme From the Dukes of Hazzard” – Waylon Jennings
I had to include this as an honorable mention because it's quite simply one of the most memorable outlaw songs of my youth.   I watched  The Dukes of Hazzard, religiously, when I was a kid,.  I even watched the season without Bo and Duke. Of course, looking back on the reruns when they began airing on what used to be called, TNN, The Nashville Network, they did seem a bit cheesy.  Still, can't argue with the lyrics and its singer, The Balladeer, himself, Waylon Jennings.

Demented Radio Icon Ends 40 Year Run

The name Barret Eugene Hansen might not mean anything to you. He’s not Ryan Seacrest or Rick Dees or even Casey Kasem for those of us old enough to remember that last name. In fact Hansen may not even be known to you by his radio moniker, Dr. Demento. But for 40 years, radio was a little more demented. The Dr. Demento show ends its broadcast run this year.

Growing up in the 80s, there were about four stations that I was familiar with, in my hometown. There was the top 40 station B94, which is now a sports talk station. There was/is the classic rock station 102.5 WDVE. There was the AM news station 1340 WCVI which has been defunct for a number of years and is now another station under different ownership. And there was the small easy listening, oldies, and pop station on top of the mountain called 103.9FM WLSW aka Music Power 104. Between the three I received an equal dosage of 80s, Oldies, and Paul Harvey.

But something happened during the rise of popular music in the early 80s. Another musician became prominent as a parody artist, cover tunes like My Sharona, Another One Rides the Bus and I Love Rock and Roll. His emergence on the music scene was, in part, thanks to a goofy radio program called the Dr. Demento Show. Had it not been for the constant airplay and admiration for his parody styling of popular hits, “Weird” Al Yankovic might have remained an architect from Cal Poly.

Now, novelty music and parodies were not unheard of in the 1980s. In fact, Dr. Demento had already been on the air since 1970 playing hits of Frank Zappa, Tom Lehrer, Spike Jones and Allen Sherman. But it was the mainstream success of Yankovic that drew more attention to Demento’s show from the “normal” audience. I began listening around 1984 when I found his radio show being played on WLSW on Sunday Nights. It was a big thrill to me to have my own room, with a radio in it and stay up as long as I could on a Sunday night listening to songs like “Shaving Cream” and “Pencil Neck Geek.” That interest in parodies and novelty songs is probably what cemented my geekness and affinity for comedic absurdity. At the height of home recording, armed with a TDK 60 minute tape and OTR (One Touch Recording) I began taping the Funny Five and other popular songs. While other people were watching the ball drop on New Year’s Eve, I was frantically trying to record his Funny 25 over the course of four hours with only 60 minute tapes, 30 minutes on a side.

It’s not like I was recording a live concert of the Rolling Stones or Van Halen, but to me, I was in geek radio heaven. As CDs became the norm and dual cassette tape decks became something of a novelty I missed out on the radio show and didn’t even know if it was still playing on the local radio stations. Junior High, High School, College. These were times not spent listening to the radio for the rare chance to record “Stallone Again, Naturally” or “99 Dead Baboons.” There were more important things to do like drink beer and stay up all night doing absolutely nothing. I would still catch myself humming, “Dead Puppies” or “Shaving Cream” but nothing compared to the ravenous appetite for mad music that I had in my youth.

Dr. Demento represented a time and place in my life, alone in my room on a Sunday night with a tape recorder at the ready. I still love those songs and can’t help break into “Fish Heads” once in awhile, much to the eye rolling of my wife who just doesn’t get it. Even as “Weird Al” enters his 50s I feel his music is as good as it ever was and if you’ve ever heard his original music, you’d be surprised at how well the guy can write a song. I’m glad I had the opportunity to listen to him and other novelty and parody artists on The Dr. Demento Show. In fact, Dr. Demento isn’t gone forever. He’s alive and well on the Internet. Radio may have changed and demographics may be more narrow but the one place that equalizes the playing field is the Internet. Anyone, anywhere can find Demento on the air. As long as you have someone paying for the site, the music will be there. No pesky format changes or inability to expand your play list past a four song rotation. It’s a perfect match of madness and technology that speaks to the hearts and ears of geeks like me. Stay Demented!


Here’s a list of some of my favorite songs from the Demento Show

“Existential Blues Parts 1 and 2” Tom “T-Bone” Stankus

“Dead Puppies” Ogden Edsl

“99 Dead Baboons” Tim Cavanaugh

“Pencil Neck Geek” “Classy” Freddie Blassie

“The Ballad Of Irving” Frank Gallop

“Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh” Allan Sherman

“Christmas At Ground Zero” “Weird Al” Yankovic

“Yoda” “Weird Al” Yankovic

“Ti Kwan Leep” The Frantics

“Earache My Eye” Cheech and Chong

“Shaving Cream” Benny Bell and Paul Wynn

“The Scotsman” Bryan Bowers

“Wet Dream” Kip Adotta

“Beep Beep” The Playmates

“Star Trekkin” The Firm

“The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” Julie Brown

“Fish Heads” Barnes and Barnes

“They Coming To Take Me Away, HA HA” Napoleon XIV

Repetition Killed the Radio Star

I hate radio. Let me state that again. I HATE RADIO. It's nothing personal against the recording artists, although I think there is too much sampling and covering of good music out there. I'm more pissed at the big radio conglomerates that get away with putting crap on the radio and then repeating it again an hour later. Growing up in Southwestern Pennsylvania, we had maybe three stations that we listened to. There was your classic rock station, WDVE 102.5 FM. There was the local AM station, WCVI 1340 AM, a haven for my Paul Harvey and Tradio fix, and lastly, there was the mountain top broadcaster WLSW 103.9 FM which played middle of the road popular music. Of these three stations, I still listen to one. Can you guess which? If you've read any of my past entries and answered the classic rock station then you get the gold star.

I can rely on classic rock. I know what I'm going to find on that station. WCVI is no longer around and WLSW is not what it used to be. DVE is still the home for classic rock and other stations have come and gone in terms of format while this fixture in Pittsburgh has thrived. That's not to say we don't have other stations in the area. During the early to mid 80's a top 40 juggernaut came on the scene. WBZZ 93.7 FM quickly became a favorite in the area for its music and morning show. But do to changing times they switched formats, fired the disc jockey's and tried to pull in the big names like Howard Stern to fill in the morning hours. Money begets evil. I stopped listening to B94 as we called it in the area when they started playing the same music as two other stations in the area because they constantly recycled music.

Now, as a kid, I can remember being in my room with fingers at the ready to record my favorite songs on a mix tape. Most tapes in my dusty archives still have lead ins or outros from the DJ's of old. In fact, to show how much of a dork I was, I took a cassette tape and had it ready to record Bryan Adams, "Everything I Do," whenever it came on the radio. I had about five back to back recordings in a row on one tape. I was a big Bryan Adams fan and had just seen Robin Hood in the theaters and was stuck on that song. Of course, then I got into CDs and I bought the soundtrack and did not require the need for five consecutive tapings of the rock ballad.

You would think with my interest in that one song that I wouldn't mind repetition on the radio? I would welcome it. Unfortunately, either my age or the lack of good songs out there proves otherwise, as I only listen to the radio on my way to work. On the way home it's a crap shoot. I like DVE but sometimes, I just want a change. Otherwise, I fire up the iPod, listen to NPR for news, or just drive home in silence. There for awhile, B94 had switched to an all talk format called the ZONE with Dennis Miller on during lunch and a local icon, Scott Paulsen, on during the ride home. It was a failed experiment and of course I would like it because it was meant to fail. On the weekends I tune in to Cigar Dave, not because I was some big cigar aficionado, but it was fun to learn a thing or two about something I had no knowledge of while driving around. After the station folded, once again, the owners decided to return to their roots. During the summer of 2007 they played about a week's worth of Christmas music and then unveiled their, "Christmas" present. Sprinkled throughout the holiday tunes were hints and riddles that something that been missing from Pittsburgh would be returning. Seeing as how every other format had failed, I could only imagine one thing, the return of B94. My enthusiasm was overwhelming, much like my sarcasm. Why did we think this time around would be any different? What could they offer Pittsburgh, now, that they could not or would not before?

As far as I'm concerned, after listening for the last six months, the NEW B94 sounds a lot like the old B94. I don't mean that in a good way. If I did, I would have said it sounded like the "Good Old B94." For now, it still plays the same rotation of about six songs, and in my opinion, they all suck. I guess if I expected it to be like the good old days, they'd play music from then. In that case, I should be listening to the variety stations that play music from previous decades. This begs another question? What will happen to the oldies station, WWSW 94.5 FM, when the oldies they play stat catching up to the variety that the other stations play? Will there be a format change? These are the things I think about at 3 AM when the power goes out. Where was I? Oh yeah, crap. My wife listens to these hit music stations that play the six pack of crap and when we are in her car, she has the dial control. It just twists my knob when we drive somewhere and I hear song "A" and then when we finish our errand and get back in the car to return home, song "A" is playing again on the radio.

Where does the problem lie? Is it the DJ's or the Producers' fault for the repetition? I believe it is the producers who bow down to the lowest common denominator and play the popular stuff to bookend the commercials that pay their salaries. Otherwise, they'd expand the playlist a little more and give us a better variety of crap. Until that happens, I'm content listening to the voices in my head while I make my way home in the afternoon. Yeah, it gets a little repetitious, but I like the artist.

 

Remember these little weird things when driving?

1. Back in the days when stations couldn't broadcast through the tunnels in Pittsburgh we used to play a game where we'd enter the tunnel and continue to sing the song until we reached the other side to see if we could sync up the words.


2. There were times when one of the popular songs was playing on the radio you could switch to the other Top 40 station and have the same song playing from the same spot.


3. You always hit that one station while it played your favorite song, but it was ten seconds from the end. I hated that.