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Song Info
Genre
Charts
#1,510 today
Peak #37
#207 in subgenre
Peak #7
Author
Carl Johnson
Rights
2/2010
Uploaded
March 31, 2013
Track Files
MP3
MP3 3.3 MB • 128 kbps • 3:39
Story behind the song
I came home from my open mic night, sat down and just got blindsided by a tune. This is one where the whole sound and attitude of the piece popped right into my head as a whole, I just had to let it evolve as I recorded tracks. I followed the Tom Waits method, just let the words spill out and don't worry if they don't make sense, I could come clean it up in the second draft as I wrote more verses. So I spilled out the first draft as it came, tried to sing it as a whole and fixed up the few parts that didn't make sense, except for where not making sense still sounded better in the gut than anything that would be too logical.
So, to explain the bits of jargon that stayed in, though you are always more than welcome to interpret the song as you wish, though if you twist my own artistic words against me in court I will fry you with a tazer (lol just kidding, don't sue me, I have nothing you want anyhow):
First verse, I have no clue. It sounds good, we can make up some symbolism for it later.
Second verse, he got his girlfriend pregnant, ran out on her, but did not get caught.
Third verse, he's no saint, he still lives with his parents and doesn't have a job, he does bad things, steals pills, neglects the dog, he's a bastard.
Fourth verse, the girl's gone, walked away from her old life. The bastard pushes his luck one time too many, gets caught.
Fifth verse, his luck kicks in finally. He got a good talker as a public defender, wound up with a hung jury, and he's off the hook for now.
Sixth verse, he makes a show of promising to change his ways, but... Well, 'walking toe to toe' sounded good and I guess it kind of means he's crossing his fingers behind his back. Tried to make it more clear with the chorus line, "Lyin'est Luckiest Bastard."
I'm really proud of the sound engineering I put into this one. I'm learning how to use just a touch of effects here and there to alter the atmosphere, how to modulate the dry and wet sounds, and keep the background noise to a minimum by altering the acoustics of my recording space.
Also, I used my beard as an instrument! I wanted a very particular shuffly brush-snare sound for the rhythm track, and in experimenting with several different attempts, I found that my goatee had just the right softness of bristles to scrape along a muted hand drum. I just recorded by wearing my headset boom mic. That was a nifty trick, I'll have to remember it!
Lyrics
I come to tell you the story of the lazy lucky bastard
He only wants one number on his wrist.
He shaves when he's sorry,
And he's sorry for his sins.
A beard ain't gonna get this man a kiss.
He got his girlfriend goosey,
Took it on the hoosey
Now he's gonna leave her back again
She took him for a sucker,
Called him motherf*** er
Now he's gonna get the blues again.
The Ladiest Luckiest Bastard in Chicago
See him out there pan-handling
Wishing for some whisky
Never gonna be a preacher's son
But the old folks got the medicines,
And the old dog's dead again
And he only has the hope of having fun.
She's gone to Mississippi,
She turned into a hippie,
Nothing taken, nothing given back again,
And he's been kinda slippy,
And the cops are gettin' lippy
They found some weed and dope he tried to send.
The Laziest Luckiest Bastard in Chicago
They sent the man to court,
The lawyer tried to tort
The judge and jury couldn't come to friends
The defender had a talk,
And they had to let him walk,
And he walked out on the street without amends.
He then began to pray
He's walking to this day
Prays to God that God forgives His wrath
But he's walking kinda slow,
and walking toe to toe,
Shuffling his footsteps in the path
The Lyin'est Luckiest Bastard in Chicago.
The Laziest Luckiest Bastard in Chicago.
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