Warren Zevon Mr. Bad Example Lyrics

Written By Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderon
c. 1991, Zevon Music,
administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing corp./Googolplex Music BMI

I started as an alter 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 c__merbund

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

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17
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