For Charles Bronson[1][2]
Lyrics
Catch a lucky break, try to make it last
Rig a blanket curtain up between
the present and the past
Play my lucky numbers
for most of what they're worth
Lie about my age right down
to my last day on this earth
Set your sights on good fortune
Concentrate
Pull back the hammer
Try to hold the gun straight[3]
Hit the gym each night,
stay cool and seldom speak
Keep the heart of a champion
Never let them see you're weak
And whatever they say
on your page three mention
Focus on the parts
that make you feel good
Be grateful for the attention
Set your sights on good fortune
Concentrate
Pull back the hammer
Try to hold the gun straight
Try to hold the gun straight
And true
And steady
Let the frame find you
when the cameraman's ready
Work until I drop
Drift from place to place
Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania[4]
scratched into my face
Set your sights on good fortune
Concentrate
Pull back the hammer
Try to hold the gun straight
Try to hold the gun straight
Banter
- I was watching a movie called, uh, 'Red Sun', uh, and uh, it's a Japanese movie, actually, that he's, that was shot in the US, that he was in, and it's a weird turn, it's got Toshirō Mifune in it, and, uh, and yeah, it's Charles Bronson doing a strange sort of turn, and you look up his biography and learn some stuff about him, he's an interesting dude. [interviewer: "Tell me more."] Well, he grew up in incredible poverty in, uh, in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, and uh, and, uh, like, serious, the sort of poverty that when a lot of us who grew up without a lot of money feel like we know what it's like to be poor, but, but, Depression-era kids, it's a whole different deal, you know, it's, uh- There was one pair of clothes for the nine children in his household to share. So when he went to school one day, he's wearing a dress, because that's all they had, right. And, uh, and he grew up in this crushing poverty, and, uh, and the song is pretty much a straight bio. He, he really did lie about how old he was throughout his entire career, and uh, and I just- he seemed like a real survivor type of guy who hung around the edges of the business long enough until he found his niche. (2011-05-11)
- This is a song about a fellow who was born in Pennsylvania, and there are many stories told about his childhood. Who knows how many of them are true? He can't tell us, 'cause he's dead. (2012-01-21)
- This is a song about and for Charles Bronson. Charles Bronson was born in this extraordinarily poor coal mining town in Pennsylvania and legend has it, although you never do know with people who sort of get to tell you their own bios because nobody ever went to that little town to check it out, but he had, like, ten brothers and sisters and they were were rumored to have one dress to share between them as an item of clothing, so he only got one day of school when he was a child because when he went they all clambered him for his dress. And, he fled, like, a coal mining town, which I know sounds like something out of a movie but there's actually people who mine coal, and, like, that's some real stuff, right, so he gets out of high school and he flees to New York and studies with Strasberg, and says to himself, 'I'm going to be in the movie business one way or the other.' (2012-06-30)
- But by the time he got his break, he was a little older than most leading men, so he just never told anybody when he was born. I kind of like Charles Bronson for that reason. (2012-07-03)
Live Performances
Footnotes
1. A demo version of For Charles Bronson was released on All Survivors Pack. Accordingly, For Charles Bronson is part of the informal series of demos. Additionally, For Charles Bronson is part of the Song for ... series. (Credit: Annotated TMG)↩
2. Charles Bronson was an American film and television actor, starring in numerous western, war, and crime films. He frequently played roles where he fought in gun battles, most famously in the Death Wish series, where he plays a vigilante. Bronson grew up horribly poor, working in a coal mine at the age of 10 after his father died and occasionally having to wear his sister's dress to school as the family didn't have enough money for clothes. He fought for the US Air Force in World War II, where he was awarded a Purple Heart. In the latter stages of his life, his health worsened, and he stopped making films four years before his death in 2003 (Credit: Annotated TMG)↩
3. Bronson's most famous role was as the vigilante Paul Kersey in the Death Wish series. Many of his other roles were as a gun-wielding character. (Credit: Annotated TMG) See also First Blood which references Kersey. ↩
4. Charles Bronson was born in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania. (Credit: Annotated TMG)↩