In Sitges, Spain there is a drinking hole called The Dubliner Bar owned by an ex mercenary named David Lindell. One of the regular acts at The Dubliner Bar in the mid-seventies was an expatriated American who fled the states for a lack of money and a career on the road to nowhere. That young man was Warren Zevon and with Lindell they wrote an improbable song that typifies Zevon's surreal approach to songwriting.
I adore the imagery in this song, and Zevon's singing style gives the feel of proclamation to every verse uttered. The locations: Mombasa, Biafra, Johnnesburg, hints of a life encompassed by sweaty, unsavory men engaging in the dirty acts of killing for money. It is no coincidence that all three locations at one time where British principalities and this song has a definite British feel to it. The background singers "Time, time, time, for another peaceful war" would be just as comfortable singing a Schweppes advertisement.
The story itself is something out of Old World legends. It speaks of Roland leaving Denmark for Africa:
"Through '66 and 7, they fought the Congo war
With their fingers on their triggers, knee deep in gore"
Because of his adept skill with the Thompson Gun Roland was a marked man by the CIA who contracted one of his mates to execute Roland and his head was blown off. For the remainder of the song Roland searches the world headless looking to avenge his murder.
"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"
Imagine what that scene was like! "Mombassa, in a barroom drinking gin" Must have been the bar scene from Star Wars. Every time I hear that verse it brings chills to my spine, there have been a few places I've frequented in the Middle East and Asia in which I was the only person who was even close to white drinking at the bar. As scary as it could be, at times it was terribly intoxicating and exciting. One time in a bad section of Singapore alone I stumbled into an actual opium den, another incident in the land of Al Khalifa where I was padded down before I could gain entrance. Hearing this song always makes me want to go back and leave the banality of Manhattan behind.
Some say that Roland is the personification of the United States of America, some say Zevon simply copped the story from "The Headless Horseman". Possibly it is a reference to the 18th century Chief of the Paladins named Roland under Charlemagne and maybe still Roland is the spirit that rolls through the IRA, PLO, SLA (since Parry Hearst is mentioned), Venceremos, Red River Rebellion, Air Tigers and thousands more who have created anarchy and chaos around the world.
Regardless of the meanings and references I think it is such a fun song to sing in the shower, like a military anthem it leads to sticking out one's chest and swinging a bent arm across the stomach while yelling the verse in staccato phrasing. You don't need range or any vocal talent just a little imagination and those tight cymbals rolling through your veins. I'd be willing to put money when Executive Outcomes tore through Angola at least half of those men had this song in their heads.
