Do Bonnie And Clyde Bring Music To Your Ears?

The transition from peace, love, and understanding to gratuitous violence can be less than a smooth one. But I`m abandoning my beads and bells today and dressing up in Bonnie and Clyde getup. I am hearing rumors of an exhibit up in Dallas, marking the 75th anniversary of their ambush in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Another tie-in a few weeks ago, The Graveyard Service, a radio show about dead celebrities on KOOP 91.7 FM, played some of the glorious songs about Bonnie and Clyde. The notorious outlaws have been the topic of many forms of popular culture, and Bonnie herself was a gifted poetess (see my link) who told her tale in clever verse.

To gear up for these morbid festivities, I am reading a new book by Jeff Guinn, “Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story Of Bonnie And Clyde.” I have a lot of false notions in my head about Bonnie and Clyde as do-gooders, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor-you know, Depression Era anti-heroes knockin` off the ‘evil banks’ in defiance of an unjust Capitalist system. That sorta thing. I attribute this to the 1967 Arthur Penn film, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Needless to say, I`m hoping I can clarify this misty record; I want to know what really happened!

The myth of Bonnie and Clyde may have been largely spun as a result of all of the good music about the gangster couple. My favorite song is “Bonnie and Clyde” by Serge Gainsbourg and Bridgette Bardot. What the heck are the French doing singing about low-down West Dallas outlaws anyway? Furthermore, in 1967 Georgie Fame had a # 1 hit in Britain with “The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde.” Even Merle Haggard did a song! But the absolute best is the soundtrack to ‘the movie’ by Lester Flatts and Earl Scruggs (machine guns rattling and banjo picking are compliments). Can you name a rapper who did a song too (1993)? Or, more important, why were these violent Love-Birds so celebrated?

http://texashideout.tripod.com/poem.html

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