The true test is if you can actually understand the words being sung.

but you still have excellent taste in music.

Greg and Terry,
Here's a few of my favorite criminal justice songs that I wish the "esteemed" band would add to their "playlist" at the annual:

1) Big Iron--by Marty Robbins;
2) Mama Tried--by Merle Haggard;
3) Sing me Back Home--by Merle Haggard;
4) Long Black Veil--by Lefty Frizzell.

By way of confession, I've tried more than a couple of cases where a desperately wanted to sing a few lines of Folsom Prison Blues in conjunction with my closing argument but just haven't quite been able to figure out a way to do so.

"In the Jailhouse Now"?

A.P., you never cease to amaze. Your reasoning is esoteric, yet corn fed. It is to logic what Lindsey Lohan is to an educated American male; attractive, but in a way that makes one a bit uncomfortable and inclined not to admit anything about it.

I also see David's point about post-modern crooning. I suppose that's what led Disturbed to cover Genesis' "Land of Confusion." Or it could've been heroin.

As for criminal justice tunes, my feeble mind can only produce the following (aside from those already mentioned):

- Stealing Peoples' Mail (Dead Kennedys)
- In the Jailhouse Now (Jimmy Rogers)
- I Fought the Law (and the Law Won) (Bobby Fuller Four)
- The Authority Song (John Cougar Mellencamp)
- Mama Tried (Haggard) (worthy of mention again, though already referenced above, because it is that ever-so-rare recognition of personal responsibility)
- Jailbreak (Thin Lizzy)
- Show Don't Tell (Rush)
- Beer for my Horses (Toby & Willie)
- 30 Days in the Hole (Humble Pie)

I suspect the wide world of hip-hop has a great deal to say about law enforcement/prosecution, though I also suspect the overwhelming majority of that treatment, shall we say, doesn't quite exalt our work.

"18 and Life" - Skid Row

The consummate Texas prosecutorial song, by Bobby Bare: "Back Home in Huntsville Again."

"....warden, come down here and kiss me hello, 'cause I'm -- back home in Huntsville again."

Don't it make my blue eyes brown (because I took out my blue contacts after being humbled in jail for three weeks)

For Newell, he's excited about the new direction of rock music. For me and other oldsters like me, I was very happy with where rock was until the late 80's, when I began regressing in my listening.

I first went to crooners like Dean Martin, Mel Torme, Sinatra, Bacharach (altho more of a composer) and Robert Goulet, and then ultimately to instrumental jazz music with no vocals. You don't have to worry so much about understanding the words when you are listening to Miles or Coltrane or Gil Evans. I ended up in between, as a devotee of the blues, wherein there are no shortages of songs about jail and prison.

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Originally posted by LH:
Greg and Terry,
Here's a few of my favorite criminal justice songs that I wish the "esteemed" band would add to their "playlist" at the annual:

1) Big Iron--by Marty Robbins;
2) Mama Tried--by Merle Haggard;
3) Sing me Back Home--by Merle Haggard;
4) Long Black Veil--by Lefty Frizzell.

By way of confession, I've tried more than a couple of cases where a desperately wanted to sing a few lines of Folsom Prison Blues in conjunction with my closing argument but just haven't quite been able to figure out a way to do so.

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All of those are stellar tunes. Along with Meet the Beatles, some of my first purchased albums as a kid were Gunfighter Ballads Vol 1 and 2 by Robbins. Great stuff. A non-DA band I played in during the 90's in Houston used to cover Long Black Veil, but we revv'd it up a little. Call me and give me your addy and I'll send you a copy. It rocks hard. I also thought Cash wrote that song, but you are correct about Lefty. I learned something.

Former Harris County ADA Joe Nairn once sang a closing in an assault family violence in operatic style. My father, then the Administrative Asst. DA for DA Frank Briscoe, was dispatched by Briscoe on report that Joe was singing his closing argument. Joe had trained as an operatic singer. My father said it went something like this when he walked into the courtroom:

"He hit her, yes he did"
Yes he did, yes he did"
He hurt her yes he did
yes he did yes he did.
He's guilty yes he is
yes he is yes he is."

I met Mr. Nairn either in the 80's or 90's and he confirmed the story, although he professed little recall of it. He got a guilty out of it.

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Originally posted by Scott Brumley:
A.P., you never cease to amaze. Your reasoning is esoteric, yet corn fed. It is to logic what Lindsey Lohan is to an educated American male; attractive, but in a way that makes one a bit uncomfortable and inclined not to admit anything about it.

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What is it with ya'll and these TV star references? First, AP starts in with the Rachel Ray thing, and now you and Lilo. Who will be the next band member to fall?

https://tdcaa.infopop.net/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=347098965&f=157098965&m=3401061251

So, we all have our little fixations: A.P. with Rachel; me with Lindsey and other saucy celeb bad girls; you with Paris, Posh, Sporty & Co. It just shows that there's something in each of us to make us say, "I ain't proud, but I'm intrigued." There's probably a song in that.

Oh, wait. Isn't that the premise of "Jenny/867-5309"?

There's Freddie King's "Goin' Down", it's not exactly a prosecutorial anthem, but it's easy to play and the chorus is catchy.

As a TX Tech Law Alum - Go Tech, Go! - I think Terry Allen's song "The Great Joe Bob (A Regional Tragedy)" is hilarious. You can hear a sample of it off Terry's album "Lubbock (On Everything)" at Amazon.com and the lyrics are below [the flatlanders among us will recognize 'he carried the ball for the red and blue' to mean Monterey High School in Lubbock]:

He was a panhandle prince…ahhh
Schoolboy football king
They told him "Hi" in the halls
'Cause he could run them balls
But it was rumored (down deep) he was mean
He dated high-tone girls
With frosty pom-pom curls
But he never gave out his ring
He was the best of the best
He met the grid-iron test
An there ain't nothin…as American
An clean
He was the pride of the backfield
Ahhh the hero of his day
Yeah he carried the ball for the red and blue
They won District Triple-A
An his name made all the papers
As the best they'd ever had
Yeah so nobody understood it
When the Great Joe Bob went bad
First he lost his scholarship
To Texas Tech
For drinking during training
An breaking the coach's neck…yeah
Then he got suspended (ahhh) for acting obscene
Around the Cum-Laudy, Cum-Laudy
Daughter of the Dean
So…
He took up with a waitress
Named Loose Ruby Cole
While she was a-hoppin' tables
Down at the Hi-D-Ho
An he met her on the sly
When her daddy weren't around
Yeah but he stopped making yardage
When he started messin 'round
(chorus)
Yeah it spread like a country wildfire
That something big had gone all strange
Joe Bob the Greatest Halfback
Was actin half-deranged…ahhh
He'd been seen out with this woman
Gettin drunk and havin fun
Yeah he growed his hair, then gived up prayer
An said, "Football days is done"
Then…
He and old Loose Ruby
Robbed a Pinkie's Liquor Store
An had a run-in with the law
When they's runnin out the door
An Joe Bob's fate was sealed
For the next century
Yeah he traded in the pigskin
For the penitentiary
(chorus)

How about "Whiskey in the Jar". It has the classic rock that so many of us like and it was covered quite well by Metallica.

It ends with the guy in prison.

May I do my impression of Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"???

Will someone with a banjo perform the Soprano's theme song?

How much will the videotape/DVD of the proceedings cost?

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How much will the videotape/DVD of the proceedings cost?

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That would depend on whether the purchaser was curious about the contents. Or involved.

Oh Phil, how can Metallica's version of Whiskey compare to the original version by Thin Lizzy, which I have on regular rotation.

Well Debra, it is good to know that the Flatlanders et al have a good following at TDCAA. Of course, the band leader, the distinguished Scotty B, was born and reared in Lubbock and now resides in Amarillo, similar to Joe Ely and other West Texas music greats. He too is a fan of all music West Texas, as am I, and has a more expansive collection of West Texas music than I.

BTW, The TDCAA band already performs a Maines Brothers Band classic. It was, of course, Scotty's pick.

[This message was edited by GG on 06-29-07 at .]

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Originally posted by Alissa A. Jackson:
May I do my impression of Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"???

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If you can sing and are willing to rehearse with the band we can talk about it.

We'll do Vickie Lawrence if Sarah will agree to portray Carol Burnett.

And kudos to Debra for citing to the great Terry Allen. Lubbock (on Everything) is one of my favorite albums of all time. Every time I go to a State Bar function, I'm reminded of the hilarious "Truckload of Art." And, for those who have never heard of Terry, he penned the classic "Amarillo Highway," covered by the Maines Brothers, as well as Cooder Graw and Robert Earl Keen. Also appearing on the album was "Flatland Farmer," from whence comes the quintessential musical mantra:

Ah, but I tell you that boy can outsing,
out-pick, out-play,
out-drink, out-pray and out-lay any of those Nashville stars. [With guitar outro by the late, great Jesse Taylor, Bugs Henderson (if my memory is correct) and Lloyd Maines.]

Mr. Brumley, is your mother's maiden name "Maines"? I only ask because of your admiration of the abilities of the Maines Brothers and your limitless talent. If you were just 20 years older, YOU certainly coulda been a member of the Maines Brothers Band.

Just my humble opinion.