Lawyers, Guns and Money and the Meaning of Some of Our Favorite Classic Rock Songs

Photo by Paul Jones

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been listening to classic rock songs forever and have no idea what they are about. Let me begin our education…

Octopus's Garden

At the time, the Beatles were having angst, and Ringo had skipped out of a few recording sessions for the White Album. The respite was taken on a boat owned by Peter Sellers, where the very knowledgable captain provided the key inspiration. The drummer learned that the eight leggers traverse the ocean floor and create gardens out of rocks and shiny objects. Hitting the spot, the funny one had the impetus. "I thought this was fabulous, because at the time I just wanted to be under the sea too."

We Didn't Start the Fire

Billy Joel wanted to be a teacher when he was younger, and this song turned out to be the next best thing. In the recording studio one day, the piano man was talking to someone who was about to turn 21. The kid said the world was an unfixable mess, and Billy knew the feeling. “I thought the same things when I was 21," he replied.

His student wasn't quite as well educated. “Yeah, but you grew up in the 50’s, and everybody knows that nothing happened in the 50’s.” So Billy went into teacher mode again. "Didn’t you hear of Korea, the Hungarian freedom fighters or the Suez Crisis?”Deaf ears or not, Joel took stock at 40, and in asking himself what's happened in my life, the three events cited provided the basis for the song, according to ADST.

You Really Got Me

Ray Davies got the idea when he was playing with the Dave Hunt Band in College. He saw a girl on the dance floor and tried to meet her afterwards. She was gone but the line emerged. ‘You Really Got Me’ for her, even though I never met her,” according to American Songwriter

Band on the Run

The song had its origins in a comment George Harrison made as the Beatles were fizzling to an end, according to the reporting of Tyler Golsen in Far Out Magazine. “If I ever got out of here,” the quiet Beatle commented during one tumultuous Apple meeting.

He was saying, “we are all prisoners in one way or another,” according to McCartney, and the desire to escape is universal.

Providing further fuel, McCartney and Denny Laine were robbed in NYC and among the possessions stolen was the early demo of the song. Nonetheless, the song was further inspired by all the legal run-ins McCartney had in regards to marijuana possession. "So I just made up a story about people breaking out of prison,’” McCartney explained.

Respectable

Well, now, we're respected in society/We don't worry about the things that we used to be/We're talking heroin with the president/Yes, there's a problem, sir, but it can't be bent/Ah, yes

In other words, the Stones were once vilified for the anarchy they represented, but now the high and haughty accept the world's greatest rock n roll band as a pillar of society. How hypocritical, Mick insisted in the 1978 song.

Who'll Stop the Rain

The Credence song emerged from Fogerty's experience at Woodstock and crossed over with Vietnam. A deluge coming from the sky, the festival of peace and love turned into a swamp for the revelers. But when the rain stopped after Zeppelin played, Whole Lotta Love, Fogerty saw the clearing skies as a sign, according to Michelle Nash of Old Time Music. "It was as if the music held the power to stop the rain," he explained. In turn, Nash wrote, "The song itself speaks of searching for a savior to stop the rain, making the interpretation of the song multi-layered. It could be a reference to a higher power, a way to hold onto hope, a search for a leader to end the war or the belief that music could bring a sense of normalcy."

Young Americans

The song is a commentary on the actual realities of the American dream. Bowie had just moved to LA and couldn’t miss the disparity between the glamorous Hollywood elite and the poverty that surrounded. In this, Young Americans follows a disenfranchised young man who is lost among the shuffle of materialism and conformity. As such, “Bowie was disillusioned with the idea that hard work and perseverance would lead to success and prosperity. Instead, he saw a society that was rife with inequality, racism, and a pervasive sense of apathy,” according to the reporting of Jennifer Bell in Old Time Music.

That said, the anthem is a call to action for Young Americans, and he believes they could effect change. Hence the line, “They’ve got the guns, but we’ve got the numbers.”

The song is also a rally for LGBTQ+ rights, and calls out Nixon for his opposition to same sex marriage. “Do you remember your President Nixon,” Bowie implores.

And so it continues to go.

Lawyers, Guns and Money

Lawyers, Guns and Money tells the story of a young traveler dating a waitress who was actually connected to the Russian mafia and devolves into gambling debts in Havana and escape to Honduras. So send Lawyers, Guns and... Very Hunter S. Thompson-eque, the song comes up in the ending credits of the documentary, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. But the story does inspire from a foray to Hawaii by Zevon. "I went to Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands," Zevon told BBC "And I wrote this song late one night on wet cocktail napkins after a long day of improbable and grotesque mischief."

Hence, "I went home with the waitress, the way I always do / How was I to know, she was with the Russians.

As a result, he swore off vacations forever and according to Allison Rapp of Ultimate Classic Rock, the song's title emerged from what he would have to tell his label boss in a similar event : Send Lawyers, Guns and Money.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/warren-zevon-lawyers-guns-and-money/