Dope fiend robber: the Paul Robert Thomas version

By Tony Attwood

We’ve already had a response to the idea of turning Bob Dylan’s lyrics for Dope Fiend Robber into a completed song.  The earlier entry is here.

Now Paul Robert Thomas takes up the challenge.

Here is what Paul says…

“As you will hear we tried to create a contemporary sound and I, as the lyricist, tried to adhere to Bob’s storyline.

“The song starts with a tip-of-the-hat to the late great Woody Guthrie’s ‘Pretty Boy Floyd’ in ‘Come gather ’round boys ………’ who was Bob’s idol at his time of writing his Guthrie inspired lyrics to Dope Fiend Robber.

“We would very much like to include this song on our next album called BELIEF that contains songs we wrote for Sir Cliff Richard and will have a track from the UK’s Luke Jackson on it (tours with Amy Wedge who co-wrote some of Ed Sheeran’s hits).”

Paul has his own lyrics site and Facebook page.  Here are the details…

Dope Fiend Robber

Come gather ‘round boys and all
There’s a story I will tell
About this man’s fall
And his descent into hell

I got shot from a perpetrators gun
Defending mine and your land my son
Defending the dream of Uncle Sam
Just a man doing all he can
Just an American man
Doing all he can for Uncle Sam

They took me to the emergency room
I was unconscious I presume
They gave me something to ease the pain
Said ‘it’s ok it’s just morphine rain’

I left the Hospital at 2.45
Felt a good time to be alive
As I caught the slow train, the slow train home
Felt like a fallen king back on his throne

Just an American man
Doing all he can for Uncle Sam

They fixed my wounds of that I’m glad
But the pain inside grew to be bad
It makes you crave and it makes you mean
It’s from what they call ‘White gold’ — Morphine

It caused me ruin, it caused me shame
My wife don’t even wanna know my name
I was getting high day after day
Selling my soul so I could pay

Now I don’t mean no harm to no man
I just hope that you’re able to understand
I had to steal so I could eat
But the word soon got out on the street

They called me a dope fiend robber
That’s what I became
A dope fiend robber
I hung my head in shame
Hung my head in shame, hung my head in shame

Cause I tried to rob the jewelry store
And the cops grabbed me coming out the door
They threw me down in the hole at 10 to 6
I went all night without a fix

Nobody wanted to post my bail
I just knew I had to break out of jail
But I didn’t mean to kill the guard
I took the keys but I hit him too hard

I ran and ran but I didn’t get far
I soon got picked up in a dope bar
I was crawling down on the floor
The cops kept hitting me more and more

They beat me black and blue without rest
They claimed I was resisting arrest
Newspapers had my tale on the front page
And fueled the country’s anger and rage

They called me a dope fiend killer
That’s what I now became
A dope fiend killer
I hung my head in shame

Judge found me guilty but it wasn’t fair
Sentenced to die in the electric chair
I had defended my country with my life
The doctors that gave me ‘white gold’ 
just brought me strife

You made me an addict you made me crave
Now I sit in this lonely cold cage
Soon my life will be gone
But the drug pushing doctor’s will be 
keeping on and on

They made me a dope fiend robber
That’s what I became
A dope fiend robber
Lord, I hung my head in shame
They made me a dope fiend killer
That’s what I became
That’s right, a dope fiend killer
No one will remember my name

And wise man try to ease the ‘White Gold’s’ pain
But nothing can stop the Morphine hard rain
Nothing can stop the Morphine hard rain
The Morphine hard rain
Nothing can stop the Morphine hard rain
Nothing can stop,  Nothing can stop

Bob Dylan//Paul Robert Thomas

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics who teach English literature.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with approaching 5000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*The note above about “riches” might be a slight exaggeration.

Please send your recording as an audio file, or as a YouTube video to Tony@schools.co.uk and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE mark the subject line “Dope Fiend Robber music.”   Tony does get a fair number of emails as a result of running Untold Dylan – which is fine, and no complaints about that, but it is helpful to be able to identify what each is about from the subject line.

Links:-
Current album – ‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s’) ‘Greatest Hits Vol. Two’

at https://www.paullyrics.com/album/les-pauls-pauls-greatest-hits-vol-two

 

On Fri, 8 May 2020 at 13:50, Tony Attwood <Tony@schools.co.uk> wrote:

Fantastic.

When you send over your recording, could you also put with that the links that you have sent me this time (in case I lose them or forget to add them) then I can run your recording and the links to you all in the same place.

Tony

Untold Dylan

On 08/05/2020 08:33, Paul Robert Thomas wrote:
Hi Tony,
How you doing, good I hope?
London born & bred song lyricist Paul Robert Thomas here to let you know that we, ‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s) have almost finished our version of Dope Fiend Robber, we’ve had loads of tech probs in the studio but hope that the song will be with you at the weekend. It’s not an acoustic version but more ‘electric’ and when that’s done we’ll start on the ‘Story’ song that I’ve already written the additional lyrics for – wot wiv me being a song lyricist & all that jazz (www.paullyrics.com)😎.
Our links are below but I’ll give you more info when I send the song(s) –

https://www.facebook.com/LesPaulsThePauls

http://www.paullyrics.com/les-pauls-the-pauls-official-homepage

Cheers Tony & wishing you a great weekend, Paul

One comment

  1. The pinnacle of my relationship with Dylan’s work and as a song lyricist is to have a song or songs ‘co-written’ with Dylan. I have met many from Andy Warhol to presidents and royalty and received letters from Robert Johnson’s family and Buckingham Palace about our songs and even though Dylan and I didn’t sit in the same room writing nor did we even sit in the same century writing, it means more to me personally and I will treasure this and any other songs we are blessed to ‘co-write’ with Dylan until the end of time. I hope that Dylan’s lyrics that were embellished with mine told the story as Dylan would have wanted as I hope our ‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s) composer/multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Paul Odiase’s excellent music and vocals helped to also convey the story. Our, ‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s) undying gratitude goes out to Tony and all at Untold Dylan for their tireless work and for giving us this unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have our names mentioned in the same breath as Dylan’s, with much gratitude and respect, Paul Robert Thomas, Song Lyricist

    P.S. If you go to the song’s web-page at https://www.paullyrics.com/album/new-songs/dope-fiend-robber you can find links to the song’s mp3 as well as to the lyrics video as well as other Dylan related topics.

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