the brief

a rollicking anthem for the professional lawyers liars who have come to dominate public and economic life

my pappy was a liar, his pappy before him
i come from a long line of loyal servants of the market
servants of the state
servants of the hand that writes the cheque

we lie for profit, honour, or dishonour
no we don't care what we lie about
long as you spell the name right
when you make out the cheque

(I was having the same difficulty with the next two songs that started soon after this one, a pair of funi-flavours called Shake'n bake and Brick walls. I'd also got their structures in fairly short order, but both had large sections of lyrics missing.

All three songs remained incomplete when I shut down my house in November and departed for another winter with my daughter in Australia. All three songs only started to complete after I'd returned to my home studio the next spring.)

Liar's second verse clarified first. For a long time, I'd thought it would end with the narrator saying s/he was proud of what s/he did and wanted to "stand up and take a bow". But the lyrics that finally came put the emphasis where it belongs, on the motivation for their lying. (Money of course.)

I'd long sensed the third verse would start with a list of lying liars, something like "politician, diplomat, corporate CEO, PR flack". But the pattern of the music needed two-syllable words and I couldn't work out a list that would fit and/or feel right. Until. . .

I've always understood that karosongs come from beyond me but they are 'coloured' by passing through my person, and often draw from my life experience. The personal hook I needed came out of a pair of corrupt lawyers conspiring with a sister-in-law to negate my mother's will, and a familiar nursery rhyme I'd sometimes read to my daughters.

we go by many names
because we lie for many aims. . .
butcher . . . lawyer
baker . . . lawyer
candlestick maker . . . wall street law firm

I actually laughed out loud when I 'got it', and even thought the song's title might change to "Damn straight I'm a liar, I mean lawyer". (It didn't but the strikeout trick did make it into the song's slug description.)

(To be fair, not all lawyers are crooks. And not all crooks are lawyers. But to be blunt — like corporate CEOs — enough lawyers are crooks it's hard not to conclude it's the bloody barrel and not just a few bad apples.

That's a personal opinion of course but, let's face it, the popularity and ubiquity of lawyer jokes speaks for itself.)

look it's not that i've got anything against lawyers but
a hundred at the bottom of the sea is the start . . .
of a good joke

but then you got all that pollution and shit
so you're really no further ahead

Of course, getting the lyrics is not the end of the process. I still have to be taught how to sing them, and I always struggle to get my mouth around fast-paced lyrics like these. I didn't really master the song until months after the whole/full karo started coming out in early summer 2020.

and besides — now every tom dick and donald's
got into the act and spoiled it for anyone with class

Post-script

The song's title when it started was "Damn right I'm a liar". That only changed to "Damn straight" about the time I got the lawyer theme. A funnier, more ironic word in that context.