Mr. Bad Example
Warren Zevon * Track #5 On Mr. Bad Example
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Album Mr. Bad Example
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- #4Angel Dressed In Black
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- #5Mr. Bad Example
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- #6Renegade
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- #7Heartache Spoken Here
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- #8Quite Ugly One Morning
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Mr. Bad Example by Warren Zevon
Release Date
Performed by
Warren ZevonProduced by
Waddy WachtelAbout
This song is is a composite sketch of Zevon’s favorite character type: a rogue, felonious, and unrepentant cheat who preys on the trusting and the gullible. The lyrics are set to a 4/4 marching melody that’s so jaunty that it makes the protagonist’s shameless misbehavior sound like it might be a...
Mr. Bad Example Lyrics
[Verse 1]
I started as an altar boy workin' at the church
Learnin' 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
[Verse 2]
I got a part-time job at my father's carpet store
Layin' tackless strippin' and housewives by the score
I loaded up their furniture and took it to Spokane
And auctioned off every last Naugahyde divan
[Verse 3]
I'm very well acquainted with the seven deadly sins
I keep a busy schedule tryin' 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
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 4]
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
[Verse 5]
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
[Verse 6]
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
Lookin' through the want ads sippin' Fosters in the shade
[Verse 7]
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 whoppin' cut
And whisked away their workman's comp and pauperized the lot
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 8]
I bought a first-class ticket on Malaysian Air
And landed in Sri Lanka none the worse for wear
I'm thinkin' of retiring from all my dirty deals
I'll see you in the next life, wake me up for meals
Mr. Bad Example Q&A
Who wrote Mr. Bad Example's ?
Mr. Bad Example was written by Jorge Calderón & Warren Zevon.
Who produced Mr. Bad Example's ?
Mr. Bad Example was produced by Waddy Wachtel.
When did Warren Zevon release Mr. Bad Example?
Warren Zevon released Mr. Bad Example on Tue Oct 15 1991.
What did Warren Zevon say about "Mr. Bad Example"?
In an interview with Music Aficionado, Jorge Calderon said:
“It just went on and on because we laughed so hard we had to write all these verses. I kept saying ‘Let’s make it really long like one of those Bob Dylan songs like Bob Dylan’s Dream’.”