Mr. Bad Example

Warren Zevon Mr. Bad Example Lyrics
1.Renegade

Lyricist:Zevon Warren

Some prayers never reach the sky
Some wounds never heal
They still say someday the South will rise
Man, I want to see that deal

I don't want to grow old gracefully
I don't want to go 'til it's too late
I'll be some old man in the road somewhere
Kneeling down in the dust by the side of the interstate

I am a renegade
I've been a rebel all my days
I am a renegade
I've been a rebel all my days

We were hopelessly outnumbered
It was a lost cause all along
But when we heard the bugles call
We swore we'd stand or fall together right or wrong

We ain't seen no reconstruction here
Just the scorched earth all around
And the high school band played 'Dixieland'
While they tore our tattered flags and banners down

I am a renegade
I've been a rebel all my days
I am a renegade
I've been a rebel all my days

Some prayers never reach the sky
Some wars never end
And some dreams refuse to die
Next time I would rather break than bend

I am a renegade
I've been a rebel all my days
I am a renegade
I've been a rebel all my days

I am a renegade
I've been a rebel all my days
I am a renegade
I've been a rebel all my days


2.Searching for a Heart

Lyricist:Warren Zevon

Darkness in the morning
Shadows on the land
Certain individuals
Aren't sticking to the plan

And I'm searching for a heart
Searching everyone
They say love conquers all
You can't start it like a car
You can't stop it with a gun

Leaving in the evening
Traveling at night
Staying inconspicuous
I'm staying out of sight

And I'm searching for a heart
Searching everyone
They say love conquers all
You can't start it like a car
You can't stop it with a gun

They tell me love requires a little standing in line
And I've been waiting for you, lover, for a long, long time
I've been pacing the floor, I've been watching the door
Meanwhile I'll keep searching for a heart

Searching high and low for you
Trying to track you down
Certain individuals
Have finally come around

And I'm searching for a heart
Searching everyone
They say love conquers all
You can't start it like a car
You can't stop it with a gun

They tell me love requires a little standing in line
And I've been waiting for you, lover, for a long, long time
I've been pacing the floor I've been watching the door
Meanwhile I'll keep searching for a heart

Searching everyone
They say love conquers all
You can't start it like a car
You can't stop it with a gun

Searching for a heart
Searching for a heart


3.Things To Do in Denver When You're Dead

Lyricist:Leroy P. Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, Warren Zevon

I called up my friend LeRoy on the phone
I said, 'Buddy, I'm afraid to be alone
'Cause I got some weird ideas in my head
About things to do in Denver when you're dead'

I was workin' on a steak the other day
And I saw Waddy in the Rattlesnake Cafe
Dressed in black, tossing back a shot of rye
Finding things to do in Denver when you die

You won't need a cab to find a priest
Maybe you should find a place to stay
Some place where they never change the sheets
And you just roll around Denver all day

Then LeRoy says there's something you should know
Not everybody has a place to go
And home is just a place to hang your head
And dream up things to do in Denver when you're dead

You won't need a cab to find a priest
Maybe you should find a place to stay
Some place where they never change the sheets
And you just roll around Denver all day
You just roll around Denver all day


4.Mr. Bad Example

Lyricist:Jorge Calderon, Warren Zevon

I started as an alter boy, working at the church
Learning all my holy moves and doing some research
Which led me to a cash box, labeled '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
And 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

I'm Mr. Bad Example, intruder in the dirt
I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt
I'm Mr. Bad Example, take a look at me
I'll live to be a hundred and go down in infamy

Of course, I went to law school and took a law degree
And counseled all my clients to plead insanity
Then worked in hair replacement, swindling the bald
Where very few are chosen and fewer still are called

Then on to Monte Carlo to 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?
And fourteen hours later I was down in Adelaide
Looking through the want ads sipping Fosters 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

I'm Mr. Bad Example, intruder in the dirt
I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt
I'm Mr. Bad Example, take a look at me
I'll live to be a hundred and go down in infamy

I bought a first class ticket on Malaysian Air
And landed in Sri Lanka none the worse for wear
I'm thinking of retiring from all my dirty deals
I'll see you in the next life, wake me up for meals


5.Angel Dressed in Black

Lyricist:Julia Mueller, Waddy Wachtel, Warren Zevon

Sitting on the sofa
Suckin' a bowl of crack
Thinkin' to myself about
My angel dressed in black

I know she went out hours ago
I hope that she's coming back
So I wait here patiently
For my angel dressed in black

I don't want to go out in the rain
I don't want to go out in the rain
I don't want to go out in the rain

I wish she'd come home right now
So we could interact
I've got a big surprise for her
My angel dressed in black

My little angel
She's the queen of Downtown
She gets around town
My angel dressed in black

My little angel
She's the queen of Downtown
She gets around town
My angel dressed in black

I'm getting kind of paranoid
I'm going off the track
I'm starting to hallucinate
My angel dressed in black

She might have been arrested
She might have been attacked
She might be lying dead somewhere
My angel dressed in black

I don't want to go out in the rain
I don't want to go out in the rain
I don't want to go out in the rain

Sofa
Crack
Thinkin' to myself about
My angel dressed in black

My little angel
She's the queen of Downtown
She gets around town
My angel dressed in black

My little angel
She's the queen of Downtown
She gets around town
My angel dressed in black

My little angel
She's the queen of Downtown
She gets around town
My angel dressed in black

My little angel
She's the queen of Downtown
She gets around town
My angel dressed in black


6.Suzie Lightning

Lyricist:Zevon Warren

She only sleeps on planes
She's tired of going nowhere
She's in Yugoslavia
Working on a miniseries

Suzie Lightning
I built a world for her
Suzie Lightning
I need a girl from earth

She's in Hungary
She sends postcards home
Does she think of me?
I'm in Hollywood

Suzie Lightning
Takes no prisoners
Suzie lightning

No use crying about it
No use trying to hold on
She lights the sky up
Then she's gone

She don't have time for love
She don't need me now
Can't she see I'm burning up
Burning down, burning out?

Suzie Lightning
I've built a world for her
Suzie Lightning
I need a girl from earth

Suzie Lightning
Suzie Lightning
Suzie Lightning
Suzie Lightning
She only sleeps on planes


7.Model Citizen

Lyricist:Leroy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, Warren Zevon

Don't bring the milk in
(Model citizen)
Leave it on the porch
(Model citizen)

Don't read the papers
(Model citizen)
Don't mow the lawn no more
(Model citizen)

Drive to the market
(Model citizen)
At the break of dawn
(Model citizen)

Watch 'em unload the produce
(Model citizen)
And then ride right back home
(Model citizen)

It's the white man's burden
And it weighs a ton
I'm a family man
Model citizen

Torment the mailman
(Model citizen)
Terrorize the maid
(Model citizen)

Try to teach 'em some manners
(Model citizen)
Whip 'em into shape
(Model citizen)

Down in the basement
(Model citizen)
I've got a Craftsman lathe
(Model citizen)

Show it to the children
(Model citizen)
When they misbehave
(Model citizen)

It's the white man's burden
And it weighs a ton
I'm a family man
Model citizen

I'm a law-abiding man
I'm a Good Samaritan
I pay my taxes when I can
Model citizen

In the cool of the evening
(Model citizen)
When the sun goes down
(Model citizen)

My wife's playing canasta
(Model citizen)
With everyone in town
(Model citizen)

When I feel the pressure
(Model citizen)
And I need a break
(Model citizen)

Load up the Winnebago
(Model citizen)
Drive it in the lake
(Model citizen)

It's the white man's burden
And it weighs a ton
I'm a family man
Model citizen

It's the white man's burden
And it weighs a ton
I'm a family man
Model citizen
(Model citizen)

Model citizen
(Model citizen)
Model citizen
(Model citizen)
(Model citizen)

Model citizen
(Model citizen)
(Model citizen)
(Model citizen)
(Model citizen)

Model citizen
(Model citizen)
(Model citizen)


8.Finishing Touches

Lyricist:Zevon Warren

I'm getting tired of you
You're getting tired of me
And it's the final act
Of our little tragedy

So don't feign indignation, it's a, fait accompli
You can screw everybody I've ever known
But I still won't talk to you on the phone

It's a hopeless cause there's no use crying
And I can die, you can die, we can die trying
Thanks anyway, no use hangin' around
You try to put the finishing touches on me

You say it's all my fault
Who's keeping score?
Some people like to be punished
They keep coming back for more

But I'm sick and tired and my cock is sore
You can screw everybody, I've ever known
But I still won't talk to you on the phone

It's a hopeless cause there's no use crying
And I can die, you can die, we can die trying
Thanks anyway, no use hangin' around
You try to put the finishing touches on me

You can screw everybody I've ever known
But I still won't talk to you on the phone

It's a hopeless cause there's no use crying
And I can die, you can die, we can die trying
Thanks anyway, no use hangin' around
You try to put the finishing touches on me

Thanks anyway
Finishing touches, finishing touches on me
Finishing touches, finishing touches on me
Finishing touches, finishing touches on me
Finishing touches, finishing touches on me


9.Quite Ugly One Morning

Lyricist:Zevon Warren

Don't the sky look funny
Don't it look kinda chewed-on like
Don't you feel like running
Don't you feel like running
From the dawn's early light

Quite ugly one morning
We all said goodnight
It came without a warning
In just a flash of light

Don't you feel kind of funny
Don't you feel kind of funny inside
When you feel like laughing
And everybody tells you
You ought to be crying

Quite ugly one morning
We all said goodnight
It came without a warning
But it was quite all right

Quite ugly one morning
We all said goodnight
It came without a warning
But it was quite all right

From dawn to sundown
It's a long, long way
And it's a hollow triumph
When you make it to
The bottom of another day

And there's a fever rising
When the evening comes
And when the battle's over
There'll be nothing left
But the sound of drums

Quite ugly one morning
We all said goodnight
It came without a warning
In just a flash of light

Quite ugly one morning
We all said goodnight
It came without a warning
But it was quite all right
All right, all right, all right


10.Heartache Spoken Here

Lyricist:Zevon Warren

When I was young the sky was filled with stars
I watched them burn out one by one
I've had my share of disappointing love affairs
And I'm no stranger to disillusionment

Little darlin' if you need a helping hand
If you need someone
You can count on me
And I will understand

Heartache spoken here
I know a thing or two about heartbreak and tears
So come on down, we'll talk about it
Heartache spoken here

Heartache spoken here
I know a thing or two about heartbreak and tears
So come on down we'll talk about it
Heartache spoken here

A house of cards, a castle made of sand
Don't take much to blow away
Rows and rows of broken hearts and broken homes
So much sadness, you see it every day

Little darlin' if you need a helping hand
If you need someone
You can count on me
And I will understand

Heartache spoken here
I know a thing or two about heartbreak and tears
So come on down, we'll talk about it
Heartache spoken here

Well, heartache spoken here
I know a thing or two about heartbreak and tears
So come on down we'll talk about it
Heartache spoken here

I know it hurts so
When the one you love don't need you
I know the sorrow
That a reckless heart can lead to

Heartache spoken here
I know a thing or two about heartbreak and tears
So come on down, we'll talk about it
Heartache spoken here

Heartache spoken here
I know a thing or two about heartbreak and tears
So come on down we'll talk about it
Heartache spoken here

Come on down we'll talk about it
Heartache spoken here