WARREN ZEVON - ROLAND THE HEADLESS THOMPSON GUNNER lyrics

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Written By Warren Zevon & David Lindell c. 1976 Zevon Music/BMI

Roland was a warrior from the Land of the Midnight Sun

With a Thompson gun for hire, fighting to be done

The deal was made in Denmark on a dark and stormy day

So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray

Through sixty-six and seven they fought the Congo war

With their fingers on their triggers, knee-deep in gore

For days and nights they battled the Bantu to their knees

They killed to earn their living and to help out the Congolese

Roland the Thompson gunner...

His comrades fought beside him - Van Owen and the rest

But of all the Thompson gunners, Roland was the best

So the CIA decided they wanted Roland dead

That son-of-a-bitch Van Owen blew off Roland's head

Roland the headless Thompson gunner

Norway's bravest son

Time, time, time

For another peaceful war

But time stands still for Roland

'Til he evens up the score

They can still see his headless body stalking through the night

In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun

In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun

Roland searched the continent for the man who'd done him in

He found him in Mombassa in a barroom drinking gin

Roland aimed his Thompson gun - he didn't say a word

But he blew Van Owen's body from there to Johannesburg

Roland the headless Thompson gunner...

The eternal Thompson gunner

still wandering through the night

Now it's ten years later but he still keeps up the fight

In Ireland, in Lebanon, in Palestine and Berkeley

Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland's Thompson gun and bought it