Smoking Gun

Lyrics

“I’ll just have one to cut the dust”, the nameless stranger said
“But don’t you work my tongue loose – need to keep it in my head
I need my head on my shoulders, I’m the last one on the run
Need my head on my shoulders, I’m the last one on the run

Chorus:
But whose prints, whose prints
Whose prints are you going to find
On the butt of the smoking gun?

These days so many amateurs they get high before they hit
Got no soul, they got no dedication, they will never live to quit
Me, I’ve graduated first in a class of one
Me, I’ve graduated first in a class of one

Chorus

Outside the depository the third shot really told the story
Since then I’ve been working on the sequel
Who made men? I don’t know – but Colonel Colt sure made them equal

Abernathy he took three short steps to where the dreamer fell
The softened snout of the bullet left a gaping tale to tell
but so little is open, so much needs to be undone
So little is open, so much needs to be undone”

Chorus

Song Description

“Smoking Gun” is about the killings of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King. I still can’t believe how the USA survived those assassinations, and how its system survived the obvious suspicion that people with power organised those killings. But I also wanted to consider the gumnan, how he (if it was a ‘he’) would feel satisfaction from ‘a job well done’.

“Abernathy” was one of the people with King when he was shot. The “Colt 45” was the main hand-gun of the American “Wild West”. In those lawless times, the size and fighting ability of men was “equalised” by the “six gun”. The USA is still a “gun culture” – this gun was also known as the “peacemaker”! Mike Jones

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