Desperados
Leon Fullerton never set out to be an outlaw. But doing patently illegal things pretty makes you a de facto outlaw, and the whole truth is that Fullerton was never particularly repelled by the supposed criminal element.
In fact, he believed it served and under-recognized social function: "If it weren't for all the bad boys, what would all the bad girls do?"
His outlawry* was not (and as far as we know, still is not) of the wanton variety, consisting, as it did, primarily of defending the defenseless, injesting and distributing prohibited varieties of nature's rich bounty for fun and profit, vagrancy, mopery, and trespassing with somnabulant intent. And though larceny was never a primary occupation, he was loath to adhere to what he considered minor (if not, by his lights, decorative) legal strictures against appropriating, say, a mid-twentieth-centruy Mercury Deluxe or two.**
The above photo is an old one of Del Fullerton, who, with his cousin Raphael Gunn, recorded the demos below.
In fact, he believed it served and under-recognized social function: "If it weren't for all the bad boys, what would all the bad girls do?"
His outlawry* was not (and as far as we know, still is not) of the wanton variety, consisting, as it did, primarily of defending the defenseless, injesting and distributing prohibited varieties of nature's rich bounty for fun and profit, vagrancy, mopery, and trespassing with somnabulant intent. And though larceny was never a primary occupation, he was loath to adhere to what he considered minor (if not, by his lights, decorative) legal strictures against appropriating, say, a mid-twentieth-centruy Mercury Deluxe or two.**
The above photo is an old one of Del Fullerton, who, with his cousin Raphael Gunn, recorded the demos below.
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The songs:
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* Outlawry is a fine old word. Long before the Magna was Cartaed, outlawry was the simple (if occasionally fatal) act of refusing to recognize civil authority. Kings, queens, and nobles presided over boundaries that were more fluid than most Americans are used to***, and they didn't always get the respect they felt they deserved. We think of Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham, of course, but the history of Fullerton's native Vespucciland is peopled with transgressors who, either for reasons of survival, principle, or both, have answered to higher laws than the law of the land.
The more contemporary definition also presents certain satisfactions. Outlawry is not mere criminality: anyone can steal a pencil from work, a chalk from school, or a dandelion from the library lawn. Outlawry requires a degree of criminality that elevates the perp (or perp collective) to folk hero status - Ned Kelly, Ned Ludd, Emma Goldberg, George Washington, Pretty Boy Floyd, Victor Gerena, Harriet Tubman, the Diggers (17th cen.), the Diggers (20th cen.), the Sandinistas, the beats, the Panthers, the Pranksers, the Dead, the STP Family, Edward Snowden, Banksy, Pussy Riot - you get the idea. Bottom line: when the lines between fact, speculation, rumor, and fantasy begin to fade, outlawry is born. ____________________ ** Beat outlaw Neal Cassady, who claimed to have stolen more than 500 cars before his twenty-first birthday, said in his introductory remarks for Fullerton's 1967 Naropa Institute speech: "Fullerton's no hotwiring pro. But he's selective and he's sincere - two qualities I might someday consider aspiring to." ____________________ *** Any African or European would get it. |
"Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
you say that I'm a thief. Here's a Christmas dinner for the families on relief. Yes, as through this world I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men. Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen." Woody Guthrie |