Warren Zevon - Mr Bad Example - David Letterman Show, 1993 (HD) video free download


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Duration: 03:53
Uploaded: 2011/04/18

The original Mr Bad Example himself live on Late Night with David Letterman, 1993!

Mr Bad Example: Written By Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderon

c. 1991, Zevon Music,

administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing corp./Googolplex Music BMI

I started as an altar boy, working at the church

Learning all my holy moves, 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 aquainted 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

Comments

9 years ago

Mark Kreuzwieser

What kinda guitar is THAT WZ is playing??

9 years ago

Markus Christopher

The esteemed and late Mr. Warren Zevon could be the songwriter for the anthems of our lives. In any event, this song is more sardonically uplifting than *Lawyers, Guns, and Money* given my current week so far.

9 years ago

Clint Love

Zevon was the man! I'm all the way metal but I still play him and Leonard Cohen all the time. I have this album and Excitable Boy in rotation all the time.

9 years ago

Kurt Knutsen

More of Warren.

10 years ago

TheSentientParadox

Awesome song writer. Miss him.

10 years ago

Brian Grant

I'm greedeee AND I"M ANGRY AND DON'T CARE WHO I HURT" THANK YOU GREAT POST

11 years ago

gsjbaldwin

One of a kind. God what a character and talent!

11 years ago

maria luy lavayens

really you meet him !!! lucky you ...

11 years ago

Bill King

Warren Zevon my all time favorite Songwriter

11 years ago

Derek Mogambo

well, I never thought I'd have to come on here and defend my fucking twitter account- waiting for the password reset- someone actually hacked my account, I reckon--- THIS ONE IS FOR YOU, Warren & Hunter, where ever Y'all are!!!

11 years ago

Gatsby999888

I was 16 and new to LA, living in a hovel. I met Warren when he was dying and had started drinking again. His apartment was a hellacious mess, but we talked and he told me things. He'd tell me to freshen his drinks, which meant pour it all the way to the top. I didn't even know much of his music, but now I do... and I can say he's a genius. He liked a cocktail, but that's okay, in my book.

11 years ago

Justin Fischer

"I don't have time for sloth." Brilliant, RIP Warren

11 years ago

The Dude

Learning to Flinch is one of my favourite live albums. One man and his music, as good as it gets!! TD

12 years ago

southernaccent

Brilliant. Loved it from the studio, but live is even better. One of the tightest live performances I have ever seen/heard

12 years ago

jroseck

RIP Warren.. You were and are the best!

12 years ago

kneapoe51

Oh, yeah...... I'd "almost" forgotten the barrage of lyrical brilliance in this classic. : ) Haven't heard it in awhile. I'm quite sure "The Offender" isn't missing many (if any) meals. Thanks : )

12 years ago

wayne252525

Unfortunately. Warren didn't get to "live to be a hundred", as per the song ... Can you just imagine how many more classic songs he would have written if he did ! ... He was writing as well as ever near the end of his career / life, so there was no danger of him running out of ideas ... His untimely death was a tragedy in so many ways ... Wayne

12 years ago

RatDog67

Warren's music mirrors my life in so many ways it's uncanny....

12 years ago

Dave Kannikal

Song for the day - An excellent guide for life...

12 years ago

badlandso73

Wow. What a great version of a brilliant song. I love this song and the Tex Mex sound fit the song perfect. The first time I heard about Warren Zevon was when I herad the song "Jeannie Needs a Shooter" which he wrote together with Bruce Springsteen. The next time was when I heard the son "Mr Bad Example" in a music shop in the beginning of 2000. I bought several records with Zevon that day... What an artist he was!

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