Friday, September 12, 2008

Music from "Machine Gun McCain" (Gli Intoccabili)

As I often do while working, I'm listening to some of Ennio Morricone's fantastic soundtrack music.

When the shuffle play feature brought up "The Ballad of Hank McCain," I heard it differently than I have in the past.

The lyrics below are clipped from a fan site, but they look to be fairly accurate.

Here they are, without comment:



No one knows better than McCain
Life's a filthy dirty game
Very very hard to win

No one knows better than McCain
How to disregard the pain
Never, never let it in

No one knows better than McCain
That an angry man goes blind
Knocks his head against the wall

No one knows better than McCain
How it hurts a man to fight
That he's human after all

No one knows better than McCain
What a desperate man may do
When it gets too hard to bear

No one knows better than McCain
How to spit on the taboos
As they thought he'd never dare

No one knew better than McCain
How to care for number one
How to take and never give

No one knew better than McCain
That when all is said and done
That's the only way to live

No one knew better than McCain
Just how angry you can be
When they cage you in with laws

No one knew better than McCain
That a man who thinks he's free
knocks his head against a wall

No one knew better than McCain
Just how bitter it would be
To be beaten after all

No one knew better than McCain
They're the ones who fix the game
They're the ones with loaded dice

No one knew better than McCain
That they'd get him all the same
And they made him pay the price


Poster for the 1969 film

The Italian title, Gli Intoccabili, translates as The Untouchables.
Producers presumably chose the title Machine Gun McCain for the US release to
avoid confusion with the TV Series based on the exploits of G-man Elliot Ness.

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