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Pop quiz: Name that lawyer tune

By: DOLAN MEDIA NEWSWIRES//May 19, 2014//

Pop quiz: Name that lawyer tune

By: DOLAN MEDIA NEWSWIRES//May 19, 2014//

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By Paul Fletcher
Dolan Media Newswires

You won’t find all that many songs about the law in pop music. More often, the charts are full of undying love, broken hearts or calls to party hearty.

Still, there has been a small but memorable group of tunes about lawyers over the years. See if you can name that tune, based on the descriptions below (answers are at the end):

1. Archetypal convict song, opens with the riff, “Breaking rocks in the hot sun …” (1966)

2. Guy dumps his cheating wife by mail, with a “copy to my lawyer…” Then he hits on his secretary Maria. Hello? (1969)

3. A hot mess full of gothic Southern melodrama. It even has a judge “with bloodstains on his hands.” Sing it, Mama. (1973)

4. The appropriate response from the judge would be: “Counselor, your client’s denial of shooting the deputy is no defense, mon…” (1974)

5. A hat tip to lawyers, as one of three things that can fix most anything: “Dad, get me out of this …” (1978)

6. The title theme for a movie that actually doesn’t appear in the film, a Western with a first-rate cast. James Stewart played a hero with a “law book in his hand.” (1962)

7. Dirge written by an ex-Eagle and Bruce Hornsby. A real downer, if you read the lyrics. We’ve been “poisoned by these fairy tales,” while “lawyers dwell on small details.” (1989)

8. Law, compared some other professions in this outlaw Western ditty, comes off looking pretty good. “Let ’em be doctors, or lawyers, and such …” (1978).

9. A Number 1 on the country charts, includes discussion of C-U-S-T-O-D-Y. (1968)

10. Song that includes a discussion with a cop who pulled over this well-known rapper and sports agent. “Nah I ain’t passed the bar but I know a little bit/Enough that you won’t illegally search my …” (2004)

BONUS: Weird song from the late ’70s king of California whine and cheese. With its reference to “strangled cries,” you can bet this has never been played at a two-lawyer wedding. (1983)

ANSWERS:

1. I Fought the Law – Bobby Fuller Four, and later, The Clash.

2. Take a Letter, Maria – R.B. Greaves.

3. The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia – Vicki Lawrence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpd5xb1iKS4

4. I Shot the Sheriff – Eric Clapton, and before him, Bob Marley.

5. Lawyers, Guns & Money – Warren Zevon.

6. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – Gene Pitney.

7. The End of the Innocence – Don Henley.

8. Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys – Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson.

9. D-I-V-O-R-C-E – Tammy Wynette.

10. 99 Problems – Jay-Z.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z—tuEUJ1g

BONUS: Lawyers in Love – Jackson Browne.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9yOHLQddjQ

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