STOOGE YOUR ENTHUSIASM (23)
By:
December 7, 2023
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of proto-punk records from the Sixties (1964–1973, in our periodization schema). Series edited by Josh Glenn. Also check out our proto-punk playlist (a work in progress) at Spotify.
THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR | “I FOUGHT THE LAW” | 1966
Is there a more blatant proto-punk paean than “I Fought The Law”? If anyone needs evidence to bolster the garage-rock-to-punk evolutionary hypothesis, this first-person tale of a criminal singing from the slammer was covered by the Clash and later by the Dead Kennedys. But it always had outlaw cred. It didn’t need quavering Americans or snarling Brits.
Written in the late 1950s by Sonny Curtis, the ditty started life as a B-side for the Crickets, who released it a couple of years after Buddy Holly’s departure from this plane. Although it got next to no airplay, it caught the ear of another Texas kid. Robert Gaston Fuller was the ultimate Buddy Holly fanboy. Introspective yet driven, he started forming bands at age 12. In high school, he built a rudimentary home recording studio and opened an alcohol-free rock club for teens. After outgrowing El Paso, Bobby and his band left for Los Angeles. While churning out minor hits about girls and cars, they released “I Fought The Law” in 1966.
Clocking in at a mere 2 minutes and 14 seconds, it kicks off with a descending drum roll and one of rock’s all-time catchiest guitar riffs. The song doesn’t waste a millisecond. Only 13 seconds later we’re learning that the singer is “breaking rocks in the hot sun.” The reference to prison work gangs isn’t just a practical statement of consequences, it’s a rallying cry that evokes the work songs sung by convicts, slaves and farmhands during their backbreaking labors. Why endure when you can revel? This song is giddy with disobedience. I’m breaking the law, it seems to say, feel free to sing along with me while I do it.
The lyrics are primitive. The details, scant. They’re unimportant because “I Fought The Law” isn’t a song about being bad, it’s a song about how much fun it is to be bad. After all, being an outlaw should be a party. This is Cool Hand Luke, Shaft, Jesse James and every tall-tale badass rolled into one. But the singer isn’t a noble crusader. Why did he rob people? Because he needed money. Why did he need money? Because he had none. Does he care that he got caught? Not really. Because even though The Law won, our protagonist pushed back. Years later, punk would transform the charismatic shit-stirrer archetype into its own version of a sellable anti-hero.
Beyond its eminently repeatable titular refrain and earworm of a melody, “I Fought The Law” is propelled by the steady clap of a cymbal. It drops out only once, after a swingy, country western musical bridge, when the second verse kicks in with a rush of snare drum hits and the line, “robbin’ people with a six-gun.” I like to think the choice was designed to emphasize the rat-a-tat-tat sound of gunfire, which pairs well with “six gun,” an antiquated term that recalls the Old West, or at least the fantasy of it depicted in Gunsmoke and Bonanza.
“I Fought The Law” was Bobby Fuller’s biggest hit, squeaking into the Top 10 in the spring of 1966. Many people predicted stardom for him but it was not to be. He died a few months later, at age 23, under grisly and mysterious circumstances. Although Bobby Fuller, like his hero, passed far too young, the spirit of the song he made famous lives on.
STOOGE YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Mandy Keifetz on The Trashmen’s SURFIN’ BIRD | Nicholas Rombes on Yoko Ono’s MOVE ON FAST | David Cantwell on ? and the Mysterians’ 96 TEARS | James Parker on The Modern Lovers’ SHE CRACKED | Lynn Peril on The Pleasure Seekers’ WHAT A WAY TO DIE | Lucy Sante on The Count Five’s PSYCHOTIC REACTION | Jonathan Lethem on The Monkees’ YOUR AUNTIE GRIZELDA | Adam McGovern on ELP’s BRAIN SALAD SURGERY | Mimi Lipson on The Shaggs’ MY PAL FOOT FOOT | Eric Weisbard on Frances Faye’s FRANCES AND HER FRIENDS | Annie Zaleski on Suzi Quatro’s CAN THE CAN | Carl Wilson on The Ugly Ducklings’ NOTHIN’ | Josh Glenn on Gillian Hill’s TUT, TUT, TUT, TUT… | Mike Watt on The Stooges’ SHAKE APPEAL | Peter Doyle on The Underdogs’ SITTING IN THE RAIN | Stephanie Burt on Pauline Oliveros’s III | Marc Weidenbaum on Ornette Coleman’s WE NOW INTERRUPT FOR A COMMERCIAL | Anthony Miller on Eno’s NEEDLES IN THE CAMEL’S EYE | Gordon Dahlquist on The Sonics’ STRYCHNINE | David Smay on The New York Dolls’ HUMAN BEING | Michael Grasso on the 13th Floor Elevators’ YOU’RE GONNA MISS ME | Holly Interlandi on Death’s ROCK’N’ROLL VICTIM | Elina Shatkin on Bobby Fuller’s I FOUGHT THE LAW | Brian Berger on The Mothers of Invention’s WHO ARE THE BRAIN POLICE? | Peggy Nelson on The Kingsmen’s LOUIE LOUIE.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!