So, a long, long, time ago, in a land far away⌠mid 1960s, in my first youth, I bought a Troggs album, Wild Thing with A Girl Like You. The last song on side one is Evil. It is a great blues guitar number (and I think the best song on the record). I am starting to transcribe the piece and write down the lyrics but I am having some difficulty with a few words or phrases. Maybe it is some British slang that I just have not heard before. Anyway⌠I am hoping someone on this forum has the album and can help me out.
Here are the lyrics as I hear them with dashes for the words or phrases I just canât seem to get:
Evil
Verse 1
Well warned you pretty baby about messinâ with me
Iâm about as evil as any man can be
When I come to see you tryinâ to have a good time
------- gets scared and breaks into a run
Chorus
Well Iâm evil little darlinâ
Iâm so evil little darlinâ
Iâm so evil little darlinâ
That my shadows to scared to follow me
Verse 2
Well I met a man today in the street
He said his name was preachinâ Pete
Said he ------ me on the jungle gym
Wrasslinâ grizzly bears in the hole that Iâm in
Chorus
Cool instrumental
Verse 3
Well a bartender --------- me and all down my hide
Lichter snichter (?) and I wadded up and died
Sixty inches across my chest
Donât know nothinâ but the persons thatâs best
Chorus
This is such a cool little blues number and I really have a mind to learn how to play it.
Please help if you can.
The first word sounds like âshadowâ to me, and shadow is mentioned in the chorus as well. For the second, my guess is âSaid heâd call me, oh, Jungle Jimâ, so that both characters have alliteration in their names.
I think that in the third verse itâs not âbartenderâ, but something about a bar, and this bar is referred to as âsixty inches across my chestâ as if the narrator was impaled. But thatâs really just a guess.
Iâve listened to âEvilâ by The Troggs for over 50 years and have never been able to understand parts of the lyrics. Iâve searched the internet far and wide and nowhere have I found something that I thought was entirely correct (I came across this post through one such search!).
Anyway, there is a Troggs songbook from 1966 that has the lyrics but the only listings I saw for it were in the range of several hundred dollars. Fortune smiled and I came across one on Ebay for $20.00 and I snatched it up so that I could finally answer the question âWhat is he singing?â
Well âChasetheDreamââŚhere is what the songbook says the lyrics are (I never would have gotten the line about the snake right!):
Evil by The Troggs
Well I warned you pretty baby âbout a messinâ with me
Well Iâm about as evil as any man can be
When I call to see her, tryân to have a litte fun
Shadow gets scared and it breaks into a run
Well Iâm evil little darlinâ
Iâm so evil little darlinâ
Iâm so evil little darlinâ
And my shadowâs too scared to follow me
Well I met a man today in the street
Said his name, it was a Preachinâ Pete
Said heâd call me old Jungle Jim
Found some grizzly bears and run the whole lot in
Well a bar kind of spotted been painted down through my hide
A boa constrictor snake it bit my wart off and died
Sixty inches across my chest
I donât know nothing but the good Lord knows best
FYI - The song was written by American record producer Shelby Singleton who was involved in a number of hits such as âHey Paulaâ and âHarper Valley PTAâ and ended up buying Sun Records from Sam Phillips.
