The Ones Who Fought The Law

Some won, some lost, and one may even have been murdered

Songwriters say they write from life experiences, good and bad. Some writers have done things they regret, got busted, and wrote about it. Some didn’t care if they got busted, they still wrote about it. Some never got busted but wrote about it anyway.

They imagined what it would be like getting ‘nicked’, thrown in the back of a ‘paddy-wagon’, and hauled off to ‘clink’. A good beating in the back of the ‘meat-wagon’ en route to the cells always helps sell a few more records.

There are many great songs about breaking the law, injustice, and going to prison.

These five captured me.

Bobby Fuller Four: ‘I Fought The Law’

“Breakin’ rocks in the hot sun I fought the law and the law won”

I met and talked with Sonny Curtis during one of his many UK tours. He is such a peaceful, down-to-earth, quiet kind of guy. I doubt he has ever had any trouble with the law, but he wrote this infectious outlaw anthem in 1958, recording it the following year as a member of the post-Buddy Holly Crickets. He got the idea during a sandstorm, when the line ‘breaking rocks in the hot sun’ came into his head. He later said:

“I wrote it in my living room in West Texas one sand-stormy afternoon. If you know West Texas, the sand blows out there, and that’s what I remember about that afternoon. It took me about 20 minutes.”

Released in October 1965, Bobby’s version initially broke out in the LA area, taking another four months to reach #9 on the national Top Ten chart on February 12, 1966, establishing Fuller as a rising star.

But “I Fought the Law” was fated to be Fuller’s only major hit. Just five months after the song entered the Top Ten, the 23-year-old artist would be found dead, slumped in a parked car near his home, under decidedly mysterious circumstances.

He wreaked of gasoline and blood, and the cause of death was listed as asphyxia due to inhalation of gasoline. The coroner couldn’t be sure what or who really killed Bobby Fuller, and left two question marks beside the boxes for “suicide” and “accident.”

Multiple newspapers heavily implied that he died by suicide and the police seemed satisfied enough with that. Fuller’s friends and family continue to believe that he was murdered, and the case remains one of music’s enduring mysteries.

The song has been covered by The Clash, Joe Ely, Stray Cats, Green Day and The Pogues.

Richard Thompson: ‘Vincent Black Lightning’

Richard’s father was a policeman so you would think he would have the inside story concerning villains being arrested by cops. The song is about a motorcycle, not just any bike, but a 1952 Vincent Black Lightning.

It tells how James has fought with the law since he was seventeen, and how he robbed many a man to get his Vincent machine. Shot during an armed robbery, arrested, and dying in hospital, his girlfriend is rushed to his side to hear his dying words.

“Come down Red Molly,” called Sergeant McRae. “For they’ve taken young James Adie for Armed Robbery. Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside. Oh, come down, Red Molly, to his dying bedside.”

Well he reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys. He said, “I’ve got no further use…for these. I see Angels on Ariels in leather and chrome, Swoopin’ down from Heaven to carry me home.”

Technically speaking, Red Molly is going to be very disappointed when Sgt McRae takes possession of the keys and informs her under the criminal law, the motorbike will be seized as proceeds of crime, and she’ll get nothing.

In 2018, a 1951 Vincent 998cc Black Lightning sold at a Las Vegas auction fetching $929,000. Ouch!

In 2011 Time magazine listed this song in its “All TIME 100 Songs”, praising it as “a glorious example of what one guy can accomplish with just a guitar, a voice, an imagination and a set of astonishingly nimble fingers”.

It’s on the ‘Rumor And Sigh’ album which reached #32 on the UK album chart in 1991.

Saxon: ‘Strong Arm Of The Law’

The title track to Saxon’s third album, this song is about one of the band’s many encounters with the British police. Having seen the decrepit state of their van at a few gigs in the north of England I’m not surprised. Did the brakes ever work?

Saxon frontman Biff Byford told the story:

“We were stopped by the police on numerous occasions when we had this huge American car, and that’s basically what it’s about. It’s a story about the police stopping us on London Bridge in London and it stuck in my head. So I wrote some lyrics about it when I got the opportunity.”

“Into the night came a blue flashing light A blast from the siren to make sure That we came to a stop behind the motorway cop”

‘Strong Arm Of The Law’ was the third studio album by English Heavy Metal band Saxon. Released in 1980 it peaked at #11 on the UK album chart.

Arctic Monkeys: ‘Riot Van’

Arctic Monkeys are a band from the English steel city of Sheffield, so probably know a thing or two about how it can all ‘kick-off’ on a Saturday night when the clubs close. This song best sums up the frustration felt by many angry young men living in down-at-heel towns where future prospects are bleak, in the post-years of pit-closures and high unemployment.

‘Riot Van’ could easily describe the remote seaside town in the north of England where I lived in the 1980s. It was always ‘kicking-off’ at weekends after the clubs closed and drunken young men spilled out onto the street wearing trouble on their shirts.

“And up rolls the riot van And these lads just wind the coppers up They ask why they don’t catch proper crooks They get their address and their names took But they couldn’t care less”

“Have you been drinking, son? You don’t look old enough to me”

This was me and my mates. Hauled out of pubs a few times by the local copper, given a clip round the ear, and sent on our way. It was better than going to court, but we thought it odd that at seventeen we could serve in the Army, maybe take a bullet for Queen and Country, but couldn’t legally buy a pint of beer for another year. Go figure.

‘Riot Van’ is on the album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ which reached #1 on the British album chart in 2006.

Waylon Jennings: ‘Out Among The Stars’

Waylon and Willie Nelson had a few dealings with the law over the years. It seemed they looked upon arrest as an occupational hazard, took pills, smoked dope, drank a lot. Took on the ‘musical establishment’ of Nashville by ‘double parking on music row’, thus creating an Outlaw Movement.

“He pictures the arrival of the cruisers Sees that old familiar anger in their eyes He knows that when they’re shooting at this loser They’ll be aiming at the demons in their lives”

Penned by Adam Mitchell this song embodies all the problems a family could be going through; a kid with a troubled mind, his sadness in a life he’s walking away from, and facing a bitter end.

Around the time he cut this side, Waylon had a troubled mind too, and a bad cocaine habit costing him $1500 a day. He later said:

“They could’ve had me a lot of times before. They [Feds] knew it and I knew it, too. We rode around with our high beams on, three buses and two trucks. We might as well have had flashing lights on top of the whole convoy lettin’ the whole world know that we did drugs. We take drugs. We buy drugs. We have drugs. We don’t sell drugs but we sure eat ‘em.”

Released in November 1979 ‘What Goes Around Comes Around’ album reached #2 on the US Billboard Country Chart.

I reckon I sailed pretty close to the wind in my wild younger days, but nothing like these guys…

Glossary of British Police slang terms:

‘Nicked’ — the act of being arrested ‘Paddy-wagon/Meat-wagon’ — police van used to transport prisoners to police cells ‘Clink’ — police station or prison (the Clink Prison dates back to 1144 making it one of England’s oldest and most notorious prisons)

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