Bobby Fuller Four – "I Fought the Law" (1965)

I needed money ’cause I had none

I fought the law and the law won

“Law and order” is an oft-repeated political rallying cry in American political campaigns.  But if you believe the movies, Americans don’t always condemn those who break the law . . . at least as long as their crimes are directed at banks.

Consider two very big movies from the late sixties: Bonnie and Clyde and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  

Both of those movies  feature bank-robbing antiheroes who audiences cheer for despite the fact that they are lawbreakers.  

Both of those movies have something else in common – they both end with their titular characters dying in a hail of bullets.  (Bonnie and Clyde’s demise is much more explicitly violent, of course.  Butch and Sundance are massacred just as thoroughly but more tastefully – that’s consistent with the lighter tone of that film, which may be the best buddy pic ever.)  

In other words, while Bonnie and Clyde and Butch and Sundance all fought the law successfully for a while, the law eventually won.  

The same can be said about the protagonist of “I Fought the Law,” a young desperado who finds himself “breakin’ rocks in the hot sun” after committing armed robbery.

Who did he steal from?  The song doesn’t specify who the victims of his crimes were, but let’s assume that he followed in the footsteps of the Bonnie/Clyde and Butch/Sundance duos and robbed banks.

Can you name one movie about bank robbers where we cheer for the banks to win?

I didn’t think so.

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“I Fought the Law” was written by Sonny Curtis, who took the place of Buddy Holly in the Crickets after Holly’s death.

The Crickets’ recording of the song didn’t make much of an impression, but the Bobby Fuller Four’s 1965 cover of “I Fought the Law” was a top ten hit.

Like Buddy Holly, Fuller died when he was a very young man.  He was not quite 24 when he was found dead in his family’s Oldsmobile, which was parked outside of his Hollywood apartment.  The medical examiner ruled his death to have been accidental.  

But many believe Bobby Fuller was murdered.  (His body had been doused in gasoline, and some of the people who saw it said it looked like he had been beaten.)  One of his band members even suspected Charles Manson of having something to do with his death.

Click here to listen to “I Fought the Law.”  (Check out the gun-toting go-go-dancers in the video.)  While it didn’t make the CBS Sunday Morning “Essential American Songbook,” bank-robbing antiheroes, and young men who die too young, and note-perfect two- or three-minute-long pop records are all as American as apple pie.  That’s why the Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought the Law” was chosen to be included in the 2 OR 3 LINES QUINTESSENTIAL AMERICAN SONGBOOK.

Click here to buy that recording from Amazon.

(But wait – there’s more!)

Click here to listen to the Clash’s 1979 cover of “I Fought the Law.”  It’s really good – but this isn’t the 2 OR 3 LINES QUINTESSENTIAL BRITISH SONGBOOK, is it?