"This is a song about L.A. at its very best."
—introductory patter to a live recording of "Hannibal" I found online.
Track 3 of Dan Bern's dog boy van EP. Another one of them catchy tunes that get caught in my head and some absolutely blistering guitar work (even more so in the version I saw live). Like all of my favorite Bernstein songs, it takes a highly personal approach to its subject and themes, starting with a reference to the relatively contemporary L.A. riots and proceeding back in time to the Holocaust and the death of Jesus, although the latter is tied back to the present day ("just the other day").
Why Hannibal? To be honest, I just don't know. Maybe it's a Mark Twain reference I'm not catching. But I can't complain too much about the song; it's one of my favorites.
Lyrics (reproduced here by permisssion):
Let the niggers burn down nigger town
Step aside for burning and looting
But if they set foot in Beverly Hills
Time brother, brother time to start shooting
Everything everybody has in their homes
Will be taken away next week Wednesday
And everything everybody ever believed
Will be disproved next week Friday
I'm going down to Hannibal
Going down to Hannibal
Gonna buy a new suit of clothes
Hitler never hurt a soul
I read it in a book
That I finished up just this morning
I was happy and I just couldn't wait to tell the good news
To all of my dead uncles
When they tore down the Berlin Wall
Everybody danced
But between what I feel and what I say
There's a thirty foot barbed wire fence
I'm going down to Hannibal
Going down to Hannibal
Gonna buy a new suit of clothes
The world is one big cosmic joke
Played on me, I hear
As soon as I leave this room
All of you are going to disappear
Time begins to bend and shift
Maybe you haven't noticed
But just the other day a man in Washington state
Admitted killing Jesus
I'm going down to Hannibal
Going down to Hannibal
Gonna buy a new suit of clothes
I'm six foot tall and 180 pounds
I can punch through a wall with my fist
But I don't understand how with just one kiss
You can wrap me around your finger
You can wrap me around your wrist
Everybody who has ever ever been alive
Is alive today in Georgia
As for the rest of us, I don't even know who we are
It's a mystery I guess
I'm going down to Hannibal
Going down to Hannibal
Gonna buy a new suit of clothes
You see, everything I know, I learned from my dad
He learned it all from his
And his dad just happened to be
Wrong about everything
I'm going down to Hannibal
I'm gonna buy a new suit of clothes
I'm going to wear three neckties
You're going to help with the bows
You're going to help with the bows
You're going to help with the bows
—Dan Bern