This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I went home with a waitress the way I always do
How was I to know she was with the russians, too?
I was gambling in havana, I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Dad, get me out of this, hiyah!
An innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck between a rock and a hard place
And I'm down on my luck
Yes, I'm down on my luck
Well, I'm down on my luck
I'm hiding in honduras, I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns, and money
The shit has hit the fan
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Send lawyers, guns, and money, hiyah!
Send lawyers, guns, and money, ow!
How was I to know she was with the russians, too?
I was gambling in havana, I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Dad, get me out of this, hiyah!
An innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck between a rock and a hard place
And I'm down on my luck
Yes, I'm down on my luck
Well, I'm down on my luck
I'm hiding in honduras, I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns, and money
The shit has hit the fan
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Send lawyers, guns, and money, hiyah!
Send lawyers, guns, and money, ow!
Lyrics submitted by Champmathieu
Lawyers, Guns And Money Lyrics as written by Warren William Zevon
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I heard Warren talking about this song on TV a while back and the story of how he came to write this song goes someting like this.
Warren was in Cuba with his manager and they were being driven somwhere in a taxi. The driver says, I gotta make a quick stop. He pulls into a house and a few minutes later comes running out with his sister, who had apparently been kidnapped.
They jump in the taxi and take off while being chased by the kidnappers. Warren turns to his manager and say's 'call my dad and tell him to send some lawyers'. and his manager says 'yeah, and some guns and some money."
that's warrens explaination
The Wallflowers version says :- "Warren, won't you get me out of this". It's on youtube (Letterman show) and sounds almost as great as the master's. His son guests as a vocalist.
@chrisb1 "It's on YouTube".... or you could just buy the Enjoy Every Sandwich" tribute album.
hearing the real story behind this song is great, but i think there is some global truth in this song. i don't exactly see a diplomat in this song as the commenter above did. it sounded like a twenty something american in cuba, living it up and representing the typical boarish american stereotype, not to mention WZ's typical understanding of a rock and roll lifestyle. his assertion that lawyers guns and money (the staples of american living) and his father will get him out of trouble is a sardonic but probably astute observation.
when i hear this song i think of that american kid who got nailed spray painting cars in china and got caned for it, as america looked on, helpless and enraged. no matter the crime, american politics will never willingly let a citizen be punished for a crime in a foreign country.
Singapore, wasn't it? and not all americans abroad are trouble makers.<br /> <br /> I grant you, most are. but not all.
@scumbagstyle -<br /> Agreed, except I'll go so far as to say it's a rich American kid who globe trots and leaves a trail of irresponsible behavior -often criminal- in his wake. The son of a Politician, Forbes 500 member, etc., it doesn't matter: Daddy has enough juice to get him out of ANY situation ANYWHERE in the world; "mending his ways" is an option he doesn't feel the need to explore.
His father was a Jewish immigrant from Russia, whose original surname was Zivotovsky. William Zevon worked as a bookie who handled volume bets and dice games for the notorious Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen. He worked for years in the Cohen crime family, in which he was known as Stumpy Zevon, and was best man at Cohen\'s first wedding
Lawyers, guns, and money... What else do you need in American society? (Maybe sex, but that's what the waitress that he went home with is all about). I think this song boils down American society to all that is deemed to be important, at least by 90% of the morons that comprise it. As long as you have those 3 things, do whatever you want! You deserve it, it's your birth right, you're American damnit. The hell with the rest of 'em.
Huh. Always thought he was saying "Lawyers, Guns, and Money; can't get me outta this." As in he's screwed, nothing can get him outta this situation XD
I see people reading diplomat or spoiled brat here, and I have to wonder, cause for it always meant, eh, "intelligence asset", having his cover blown and getting knee-deep in it.
The lyrics are self-explanatory, an American diplomat who gets set-up and blackmailed by the Russians while gambling and whoring overseas. The last verse is great, it actually starts:- "I'm hiding in Honbduras....." In Australia life imitated art when in the late 1990's Robert "Dolly" Dunn, a notorious pedophile, on the run from the law was caught hiding in Honduras. I immediately thought of this song when I heard the (good) news. And what a great guitar riff!
Warren had said that this song was, essentialy, his take on typical American foreign policy in developing nations. It does kinda sum it all up doesn't it?
That's an interesting conclusion, that it's about a diplomat. Where'd you get that? I was thinking more like some rich kid who gets to slack off and have fun, but gets in over his head and has to call Dad for help. Sounds about right, though. I guess it's a personal sort of "Sierra Hotel Tango Foxtrot" (SHTF), whereas should such impact happen on the national level, the lawyers will probably be rounded up and executed, and the money won't be worth anything. Why Honduras? Extradition laws or lack thereof? Or cigars that supposedly equal (overrated?) Cubans?
Lawyers, Guns, and Money. They'll get me out of this.
Haha, isn't that how everyone feels these days? You can get away with murder as long as long as you've got a good lawyer. Warren is so sardonic and hilarious. I love him, it's too bad he didn't get more credit for being a ballsier Bruce Springsteen.