Songs about crime, even positively, isn’t new. It’s more prevalent now thanks to gansta rap, but you can find songs celebrating it (intentionally or otherwise) long before rap itself became popular. We’ve covered Mack The Knife, a bouncy tune about a serial killer, in the very first installment of this series.
Well, there’s another one that I’ve been hearing lately since the radio station I’m currently waking up to (I wake up to a war with static lately to listen to music) a station that plays 70s and 80s music. In 1976s Take The Money And Run, the Steve Miller Band brings us the tale of two crazy kids who decide they want to be the stoner version of Bonnie and Clyde, and steal stuff. Musically it’s quite enjoyable, with a good beat and the singer is really good. That doesn’t stop me from having a problem with the tale being told, because of one major factor. Yes, it’s another example of one sentence getting me mad.
If the song had been about a couple of thieves who escaped the law, I’d roll my eyes and enjoy the music portion. Even the part that takes a shot at the cop (you don’t think rallying against the police started after the events Ferguson, did you?) was “yeah, yeah, get back to the woo woo”. However, Billy Joe shoot someone while robbing his house, which starts a chain of the story falling apart for me. The big one should be obvious, but here it is anyway. Since songs have a short amount of time to tell the story you assume things until the song says otherwise. In this case, Billy Joe didn’t just shoot some guy who didn’t want his stuff stolen…Billy Joe broke into someone’s house and MURDERED SOMEONE!!!!!!!!!!! Meanwhile, Bobby Sue runs off with the loot and it doesn’t say if she tried to run off on him or waited until he could escape the cops. The song doesn’t expressly say it but in stories when you say “they shot a guy” he’s usually dead. When they shot the sheriff I assure you the deputy that wasn’t shot was looking as his boss’ corpse, justified self defense or not. This isn’t some Robin Hood thing or even a revenge tale; it’s two stoner kids who went to El Paso (the song doesn’t say if they’re from Texas but we can assume they are at least not from El Paso), robbed some guy’s house, probably got $200, which wasn’t much to kill somebody over even in 1976, (unless someone in a comment I saw was right about “castle” meaning “mansion”, which doesn’t mean he deserved death for being rich), and escaped to Mexico or somewhere. On $200. I’m rooting for Billie Mack here.
Speaking of our Texas detective, why is he here? He doesn’t serve any point except to take a shot at the cops (“makes a living on other people’s taxes”), in a forced rhyme at that. (“You know he knows just exactly what the facts is.” Wow, that’s an awkward sentence.) Nothing new in the 70s, where “sticking it to the man” was the in-thing…until they BECAME the man in the 90s. While I’m not accusing the Steve Miller Band of condoning theft or murder, did Billy Joe have to murder someone? And why mention Billy Mack when he adds nothing to the story? Billy Joe and Bobby Sue could have been running from the law in general like most of these “the criminals escape justice” songs and nobody would care. And even if the band doesn’t condone people killing and stealing in real life, the narrator is encouraging the kids to “take the money and run”, which makes the narrator a jerk for supporting the thieving, murdering druggies. (Remember, they were getting high while watching TV.)
I’m not telling anybody to suddenly hate the song. It is a good song, and I like it musically. However, when I listen to the story I want to see them get caught and put away for the murder of some guy in his house possibly protecting what little he worked hard to earn, possibly worried about his family (we had a rather horrific home invasion here some years ago and now the guys responsible were saved from the death penalty by a judge because it was outlawed and the judge decided it should be retroactive to current Death Row inmates) and now he’s dead. If Billy Joe and Bobby Sue had just robbed a house I would have shrugged, said “it’s the 70s”, and rolled back over trying to wake up. I’m a critic. Little things bug me.
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