Lyr Add: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
From: Peter T.
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 05:31 PM

Well, you're in this jeep out in the middle of the South American pampas, sitting beside an old time gaucho guide, and you ask him to sing a traditional gaucho song, and he howls the following, which you faintly recall as having heard somewhere, and you think, well, I better put this into the DT as soon as I get back, just to bring a little exotica to the place..... those ol' gauchos, Bacharach and David....


THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
Burt Barcharach, Hal David

When Liberty Valance rode to town,
The women folk would hide,
They'd hide --
When Liberty Valance walked around,
The men would step aside --
'Cause the point of a gun was the only law
That Liberty understood:
When it came to shooting straight and fast,
Aw, he was mighty good.

From out of the east a stranger came,
A law book in his hand,
A man
The kind of a man the west would need
To tame a troubled land --
'Cause the point of a gun was the only law
that Liberty understood,
When it came to shooting straight and fast,
he was mighty good.

Many a man would face his gun,
and many a man would fall.
The man who shot Liberty Valance,
he shot Liberty Valance,
He was the bravest of them all.

The love of a girl can make a man
Stay on when he should go,
Stay on
Just trying to build a peaceful life
Where love is free to grow
But the point of a gun
Was the only law that Liberty understood
When the final showdown came at last,
a law book was no good.

Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd
return that fateful night,
That night
When nothing she said could keep her man from going out to fight.
From the moment a girl gets to be full-grown, the very first thing she learns:
When two men go out to face each other,
only one returns

Everyone heard two shots ring out,
A shot made Liberty fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance,
He shot Liberty Valance,
He was the bravest of them all (repeat).

Gene Pitney recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWymh7NBy7k

Subject: RE: LYR ADD:The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
From: Peter T.
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 05:34 PM

Got to get back into the ol' line breaks, gone rusty. By the by, anyone know who did the violin part in the old Gene Pitney version? un abrazo, Peter T.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD:The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
From: Clifton53
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 05:39 PM

Probably one of the better gunfighter ballads of all time. Sung by Mr. Gene Pitney, a perennial guest on American Bandstand back in the sixties. Also famous for "Town Without Pity", from the movie of the same name.

Clifton