Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner is a song steeped in classic adventure story elements – a literal ‘Boy’s Own’-adventure in rock music form. It is full of international drama, exotic locations, battles, betrayal, and – ultimately – stone cold revenge.
The song was composed by Warren Zevon and David Lindell, and was recorded for Zevon’s third album Excitable Boy (released 18 January 1978).
Zevon met the song’s co-writer in Spain. He later said, “In 1974 I ran off to Spain and got a job in an Irish bar called the Dubliner, in Sitges, on the Costa Brava. The proprietor was a piratical ex-mercenary named David Lindell.” The former mercenary had taken up running the bar after a stint working as a mercenary in Africa. Zevon & Lindell had great rapport. Zevon, typically interested in the darker side of life, was taken with the many adventurous tales Lindell would spin about his experiences.
One afternoon, over many jars, Zevon and Lindell set about capturing such an adventure story in song form, and thus the song was born, and quickly made it into the live set. In early live versions, Zevon would occasionally transpose words e.g. “That Son-of-a Bitch Dave Lindell blew off Roland’s (or Zevon’s) head”.
For a music page called Rocking In the Norselands if is obviously particularly noteworthy that Roland was a true Norselender – a Norwegian, in fact. The song starts with the line “Roland was a warrior from the Land of the Midnight Sun,” and while that phrase may have some wiggle room, all doubt is later removed with the additional line “Norway’s bravest son.”
Roland was a warrior from the land of the midnight sun
With a Thompson gun for hire, fighting to be done
The deal was made in Denmark on a dark and stormy day
So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray
Through ’66 and 7 they fought the Congo war
With their fingers on their triggers, knee deep in gore
For days and nights they battled, the Bantu to their knees
They killed to earn their living, and to help out the Congolese
In the story of the song, Roland becomes embroiled in the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War and Congo Crisis of the 1960s. The lyrics mention a “Congo war” and the years 1966 and 1967, which correspond to the mercenary-led Kisangani Mutinies after the Congo Crisis.
The song feels very specific about events, timelines and locations, which gives it a strong sense of believability and added intrigue. This is mainly a result of good storytelling, as the song is not historically nor geographically accurate.
There was a war in Biafra in 1966 and 1967, but Biafra is in Nigeria, not the Congo, and the Ibo were fighting, not the Bantu. It is, however, an excellent conception – maybe the only conception – of European mercenaries in Africa (including their assassinations by the CIA and hanging out drinking in bars).
In the song, Roland earns a reputation as the greatest Thompson gunner, a reputation that attracts the attention of the CIA. Roland is betrayed and murdered by a fellow mercenary, Van Owen, who blows off his head. Roland becomes the phantom “headless Thompson gunner” and eventually has his revenge, when he catches Van Owen in a Mombasa bar and guns him down. Afterward, he continues “wandering through the night” like a phantom legend.
The final verse of the song list a number of other violent conflicts of the succeeding decade which are said to be haunted by Roland, concluding with a reference to heiress Patty Heart’s kidnapping and subsequent involvement in the Symbionese Liberation Army. All of this throws a cynical twist into the song’s portrayal of a mercenary come back from the dead for justice and revenge.
Roland the headless Thompson gunner
The eternal Thompson gunner still wandering through the night
Now it’s ten years later but he still keeps up the fight
In Ireland, in Lebanon, in Palestine and Berkeley
Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland’s Thompson gun and bought it
The piano is the most prominent instrument of the song, something that was made abundantly clear in the live version of the song on the Learning To Flinch live album. That version features a 3 minute piano solo to open the song, and another long (and greatly similar) solo before the last verse. This brings the song past 11 minutes, which is a significant increase on the 3:47 of the studio version.
It was not uncommon for Zevon to change some of the lyrics of this song during concert performances. Typical changes were changing the location where Roland got his revenge on Van Owen to the area where he was performing, changing the conflicts and events Roland was involved in to be more modern, and changing the line “Now it’s ten years later but he still keeps up the fight” to show a more realistic number of years that would have passed since the events portrayed in the song vis-a-vis the year of the concert.
Roland was the last song Zevon played live in front of an audience before he died. He performed it on The David Letterman Show on 30 October 2002, where he was the sole musical guest and appeared several times throughout the show. Zevon had intended to end with Mutineer, but Letterman wanted Roland to close the show, so Zevon sang Mutineer first, Genius and then closed with Roland.
Later, after Zevon died, Letterman did a tribute and re-ran the Mutineer segment, so in the end that did indeed become the final Zevon track featured on the show.
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