Large Fierce Mammal

Get the T-shirt! Available in eight colours, the only proper one being BLACK. (SOURCE: http://www.bathroomwall.co.uk/store/warren-zevon-tshirt-p-roland-the-headless-thompson-gunner-p-799.html)

The title of an article by Hadley Freeman published last August in The Guardian refers to Warren Zevon as “… the man behind the demons”. I will be forever grateful to Ms. Freeman for the revelation because I was wondering who to blame for that.

The title of today’s Dark Sentiment is taken from that of my own favourite Warren Zevon song. Co-written with former mercenary David Lindell, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner is described in this backgrounder from the Warren Zevon Wiki:

Zevon met co-writer Lindell in Spain, where the latter was running a bar after a stint working as a mercenary in Africa. Typically interested in the darker side of life, Zevon decided to collaborate with Lindell on a song about a mercenary.

Roland is a Norwegian who becomes embroiled in the Congo Crisis of the late 1960s. He earns a reputation as the greatest Thompson gunner, a reputation that attracts the attention of the CIA in foreign conflicts. Roland is betrayed and murdered by a fellow mercenary, Van Owen, who blows off his head. Roland becomes the phantom “headless Thompson gunner” (reminiscent of the Headless Horseman) and eventually has his revenge on Van Owen, when he catches him “in a bar room drinking gin.” After this Roland continues “wandering through the night” as a sort of revolutionary spirit.

Besides the historical references to third-world conflicts around the globe, the ‘Troubles’ in the Six Counties in Ireland, and the often shadowy involvement of the CIA, the song is a sort of bittersweet rallying cry to the “revolution” in America. The final line of the song, “Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland’s Thompson gun, and bought it..”, referring to heiress Patty Hearst’s kidnapping and subsequent involvement in the Symbionese Liberation Army, throws a cynical twist into the song’s portrayal of a mercenary come back from the dead for justice and revenge.

First released in 1978 on Zevon’s album Excitable Boy, Roland is the last song he ever performed in front of an audience. The performance I’ve chosen for you today is that very one, done at the request of David Letterman. Warren Zevon died of cancer in 2003.

Carnage, betrayal, beheading, and a return from the dead for justice and revenge. Add to that the last performance of the song as the final performance on Earth by Warren Zevon, and you’ve got a perfect Dark Sentiment indeed. Enjoy this time honoured LFM campfire song.