6 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Mr. Bad Example Lyrics
I started as an altar boy working at the church
Learning all my holy moves doing some research
Which led me to a cash box labelled "Children's Fund"
I'd leave the change and tuck the bills inside my cummerbund
I got a part-time job at my father's carpet store
Laying tackless stripping and housewives by the score
I loaded up their furniture and took it to Spokane
Auctioned off every last Naugahyde divan
I'm very well acquainted with the seven deadly sins
I keep a busy schedule trying to fit them in
I'm proud to be a glutton and I don't have time for sloth
I'm greedy and I'm angry and I don't care who I cross
[CHORUS]
I'm, intruder in the dirt
I llike to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt
I'm, take a look at me
I'll live to be a hundred and go down in history
Of course I went to law school and got a law degree
And counseled all my clients to plead insanity
Then worked in hair replacement swindling the bald
Where very few are chosen, fewer still are called
Then on to Monte Carlo play chemin de fer
I threw away the fortune I made transplanting hair
I put my last few francs down on a prostitute
Who took me up to her room to perform the flag salute
Whereupon I stole her passport and her wig
And headed for the airport and the midnight flight, you dig?
Fourteen hours later I was down in Adelaide
Looking through the want ads sipping Foster's in the shade
I opened up an agency somewhere down the line
To hire aboriginals to work the opal mines
But I attached their wages and took a whopping cut
And whisked away their workman's comp and pauperized the lot
[CHORUS]
I bought a first class ticket on Malaysian Air
Landed in Sri Lanka none the worse for wear
I'm thinking of retiring from all my dirty deals
See you in the next life, wake me up for meals
Learning all my holy moves doing some research
Which led me to a cash box labelled "Children's Fund"
I'd leave the change and tuck the bills inside my cummerbund
I got a part-time job at my father's carpet store
Laying tackless stripping and housewives by the score
I loaded up their furniture and took it to Spokane
Auctioned off every last Naugahyde divan
I'm very well acquainted with the seven deadly sins
I keep a busy schedule trying to fit them in
I'm proud to be a glutton and I don't have time for sloth
I'm greedy and I'm angry and I don't care who I cross
[CHORUS]
I'm, intruder in the dirt
I llike to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt
I'm, take a look at me
I'll live to be a hundred and go down in history
Of course I went to law school and got a law degree
And counseled all my clients to plead insanity
Then worked in hair replacement swindling the bald
Where very few are chosen, fewer still are called
Then on to Monte Carlo play chemin de fer
I threw away the fortune I made transplanting hair
I put my last few francs down on a prostitute
Who took me up to her room to perform the flag salute
Whereupon I stole her passport and her wig
And headed for the airport and the midnight flight, you dig?
Fourteen hours later I was down in Adelaide
Looking through the want ads sipping Foster's in the shade
I opened up an agency somewhere down the line
To hire aboriginals to work the opal mines
But I attached their wages and took a whopping cut
And whisked away their workman's comp and pauperized the lot
[CHORUS]
I bought a first class ticket on Malaysian Air
Landed in Sri Lanka none the worse for wear
I'm thinking of retiring from all my dirty deals
See you in the next life, wake me up for meals
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
"I got a part-time job at my father's carpet store Laying tackless stripping and housewives by the score"
Great line.
this song, steeped in tongue in cheek hilarity, is a quite astute look at the life he really was living. he may not have a law degree, but he was the king of advantage taking (read: "Lawyers, Guns, and Money") and decadent living.
The song smacks of late eighteenth, early twentieth century literature that featured the modern day American rake galavanting about Europe with a chip on his shoulder and a string of warrants and well satisfied ladies behind him. It speaks to WZ's informedness: this is not some long haired rock and roll goon bragging about his exploits. he is well read and, dare i say it? a philosopher, but a philosopher who asks noone to ascribe to his way of life. he is simply revelling in his own choices, and is so excited about them he expresses it in music. it is almost as if his music is secondary to and an extension of his life, his great talent mixing with his natural form of expression.
Great assessment once more, scumbagstyle. I'm an intruder in the dirt might be a metaphor for a job he had in his younger days as a coroner in colorado (A reference to the biblical concept that men are made of dust/dirt) I love the line: "I'm proud to be a glutton and I don't have time for sloth" There are a lot of food references in his songs, and the line "he rubbed the potroast all over his chest" in the song EXCITABLE BOY, is true...
If you want to see a funny interview watch his first interview with David Letterman on youtube.
Holy hilarity!
lmao i
What a wicked sense of humour. I'm proud to see that he devotes the last 2 verses to Australia. He was no doubt aware of our convict past.