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Lone Justice — Ways To Be Wicked
Album: Lone Justice
Avg rating:
6.4

Your rating:
Total ratings: 359









Released: 1985
Length: 3:22
Plays (last 30 days): 0
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Honey, why you always smile
When you see me hurt so bad
Tell me what I did to you, babe
That could make you act like that

Well, I've been your fool before, honey
Yeah and I probably will again
'Cause you ain't afraid to let me have it
No, you ain't afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Oh, but you don't know one little thing about love

I can take a little pain
Yeah, I can hold it pretty well
I can watch your little eyes light up
While you're walking me through hell

Well, I've been your fool before, honey
Yeah, I probably will again
'Cause you ain't afraid to let me have it
No, you ain't afraid to stick it in

Well you know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don't know one little thing about love

Those cobra eyes
Light with a smile
Baby, you take pride
In the devil down inside

Well, I can take a little pain
Yeah, I can hold it pretty well
I can watch your little eyes light up
While you're walking me through hell

Well, I've been your fool before, honey
Yeah, and I probably will again
You ain't afraid to let me have it
No, you ain't afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Oh, but you don't know one little thing about love

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Yeah, but you don't know one little, one little thing about love

Yeah, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don't know one little thing about love
Comments (53)add comment
Aw heck, I haven't heard this in decades. Forgot what a belter it is!  Thank you RP xx
Posted 2 months ago by SpinyNorma    [ Reply ]
Haven't heard this song in ages. Loved it in high school, so this is hitting me right in the nostalgia part of my heart. 
Posted 1 year ago by TLynneHenry    [ Reply ]
Instant smile.  Cool.
Posted 1 year ago by sfoster66    [ Reply ]
Wow.  Just wow.

Oops, I just saw the low rating.  The oh-so-elite RP listeners who hate country  & Americana music have spoken.  know what?  Y'all can f*ck off.
Posted 1 year ago by jelgator    [ Reply ]
 Segue wrote:

GODLIKE. Love hearing them on RP. One of the best shows ever, back in the day, rockabillynewavepunkers packed dancing on the floor, Maria rockin the place. :) Such innocent edgy down home fun.


Yea she was a spitball of fire on stage.
Posted 2 years ago by SmackDaddy    [ Reply ]
a  real (almost) forgotten treat - thanks RP
Posted 4 years ago by saellig668552    [ Reply ]
Maria was hot, smokin' hot! {#Heartkiss}
Posted 4 years ago by mortrates    [ Reply ]
So awesome! I had the pleasure of seeing them live supporting U2 on tour. Maria McKee's solo work is amazing too!
Posted 4 years ago by nelamvr6    [ Reply ]
 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
 
Yea, but they and her were a blast in concert. Saw them when they toured in this in a club in Cocoa Beach FL (Brassy's). She was a ball of energy in a country dress and cowboy boots.
Posted 4 years ago by SmackDaddy    [ Reply ]
Haven't heard this in many years!  Great album 
Posted 5 years ago by tlbritton    [ Reply ]
Like Tom's version WAY better. 
Posted 5 years ago by CCinSB    [ Reply ]
I bought this album when it was released, when all the critics (and other musicians) said she was going to be big.
Posted 5 years ago by dwlangham    [ Reply ]
That is some time ago. Good memories!
Posted 9 years ago by Zeekei    [ Reply ]
 apd wrote:
Wasn't Maria McKee the girl in this video?

https://youtu.be/4KP9PNSUME4
 

 
Wow!  Thanks for that clip link.  I remember the song, but had never seen the vid.  Didn't know "Sammy BoDean" was also singing on that cut.

Maria was pretty hot back in the late 80's...hell, she still is at 50!

 

Welcome to the AARP club, Maria! 


Posted 9 years ago by treatment_bound    [ Reply ]
I had a couple of their albums back in the 80s. What ever happened to them?
Posted 9 years ago by moodfood    [ Reply ]
 Bosami wrote:
Saw Lone Justice open for U2 on several dates. They were a really great live band. Totally smoked. I was not a fan prior to the concerts - but they won me over in a hurry.
I was also into the 'cowpunk' scene although I didn't know it was so called. I will say Gun Club deserves props though. I did not see them live - but always enjoyed their great record 'Fire of Love.'   
X, The Blasters, Jason and the Scorchers - all amazing bands as well.    

 
Agreed!
Posted 9 years ago by Propayne    [ Reply ]
Saw Lone Justice open for U2 on several dates. They were a really great live band. Totally smoked. I was not a fan prior to the concerts - but they won me over in a hurry.


I was also into the 'cowpunk' scene although I didn't know it was so called. I will say Gun Club deserves props though. I did not see them live - but always enjoyed their great record 'Fire of Love.'   


X, The Blasters, Jason and the Scorchers - all amazing bands as well.    
Posted 9 years ago by Bosami    [ Reply ]
I was in love with Maria.
Posted 9 years ago by mortrates    [ Reply ]
Any relation to Lloyd Cole and The Commotions?
Posted 9 years ago by DaidyBoy    [ Reply ]
Lone Justice, Golden Palominos, R.E.M., Blasters, X, Los Lobos, Leroy Brothers…..

Good stuff, good memories. 
Posted 10 years ago by Propayne    [ Reply ]
Country garbage, as all country is, garbage. 
Posted 10 years ago by glassman    [ Reply ]
I had this on cassette and played it at a TV job before going on air and nobody had a clue who this was...did I feel isolated...
Posted 10 years ago by Aud    [ Reply ]
 treatment_bound wrote:
I guess you had to be there to appreciate the late Mr. Jeffrey Lee Pierce.

 
I can believe it. Some stuff just has such an aura that it's hard to ignore... but there's probably a reason I never saw them, or listened to them in decades.

But I'll pull up some youtubes and see what I find... 
Posted 10 years ago by ScottFromWyoming    [ Reply ]
Wow!  A 9 right out of the box.  Somehow I missed them in my listening habits back then.  Great sound and I'd like to hear more. 
Posted 10 years ago by Andy_B    [ Reply ]
good god, this is horrible.
Posted 10 years ago by daveesh    [ Reply ]
 ScottFromWyoming wrote:

I never got to see Gun Club or JLP and that's a shame.

 

I recently revisited The Gun Club's music for the first time since Ronald Reagan ruled our land after they got a retrospective write-up in a recent issue of UNCUT mag., and I must admit, I was very unimpressed.  Lots of meandering, "hookless" psycho-billy blues songs with no real payoff. 

I guess you had to be there to appreciate the late Mr. Jeffrey Lee Pierce.



Posted 10 years ago by treatment_bound    [ Reply ]
 ScottFromWyoming wrote:

I guess what I was getting at is her label pushed her as a sexpot and made a single out of the song with dirty lyrics... and maybe it's just me but that wasn't enough to get mainstream audiences to listen to "country" and it turned off a lot of her natural audience before they even heard her.

I (used to) have albums by most of that list, saw 13 of them, promoted or was involved in promoting shows by 8... never heard of Glen Meadmore but wiki says he came after a lot of the others on that list. Very Cramps-y, don't think I could take a whole set of the stuff I saw on youtube. Some of the others on the list were kind of packaged or not exactly cowpunk but didn't fit in anywhere else (Tex & the Horseheads) but oh well. I never got to see Gun Club or JLP and that's a shame.

 
I remember a lot of those bands on the list. Loved The Blasters and some of Social Distortion's stuff. Skip Roper and Mojo Nixon had a big moment with "Elvis is Everywhere" (Everybody's got Elvis in them! Everybody except one person that is...Michael J. Fox has no Elvis in him"). God, I remember reading about that new band X...in the New York Times. 

But I gotta agree with ya, Scott, about the lyrics and the cringeworthy sexual innuendo. Tom Petty should hang his head in shame for such overheated empty air. The band deserved better. 

Years ago the DC-area's alternative station, WHFS, ran ads on TV with two nuns laughing their heads off as they read out loud the lyrics to Nine Inch Nail's "Head Like a Hole." All of Reznor's ranting got reduced to a punchline. Along those lines, I would love to see James Lipton of "Inside The Actor's Studio" recite this song's lyrics in his stilted, overdramatized way. 

James Lipton of Inside The Actor's Studio
"Can you, can you take a little pain? 
And hold it pretty well? 
Because I am not afraid to let you have it
No! I am not afraid to stick it in." 




Posted 10 years ago by kcar    [ Reply ]
Great flash from the past....many thanks! {#Angel}
Posted 10 years ago by Windspirit    [ Reply ]
Really?

Wtf is this horrible mess?
Posted 11 years ago by ckcotton    [ Reply ]
 calypsus_1 wrote:


"Ways To Be Wicked" Live 1986 

Lone Justice live at the Ritz, NYC, 12-13-1986. Watch the the amazing Maria McKee at 22 years old in this video clip. Lone Justice: Maria McKee, Gregg Sutton (bassist), Shane Fontayne (guitarist), Rudy Richman (drummer), and Bruce Brody (keyboardist).
 
Thanks for the great link.  Here's another one with a great performance from '96.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=GIMImDHHxjo

 
Posted 11 years ago by panlad    [ Reply ]
two notes in, I knew what it was and my immediate reaction: oh WOW, I can't recall ever hearing this on RP before. Second: I said, out loud, "thank you, Bill!"

the Petty follow-up was a nice touch  =)
Just saw Maria play here a few months ago - she's as awesome as ever 
Posted 11 years ago by EricLee31    [ Reply ]
 treatment_bound wrote:


I used to think that as well, as I was really into the 80's LA cowpunk movement, which included Lone Justice.  It was the very likable, total opposite of synth-pop which was going commercially, and quite refreshing. 

I've reprinted the Wiki LA lineup from their "Cow Punk" page, and there's several bands on here I enjoyed at one time or another:

Bands associated with the 1980s "Cowpunk" ethos in Los Angeles

I also really liked Jason and The (Nashville) Scorchers, and still do listen to their stuff.  They were probably the best of the genre IMHO (but painfully neglected here at Radio Paradise)..

Anyway, you're mostly right, as it did seem like Lone Justice could have been bigger, as they had 2 hits on their Geffen debut are were MTV darlings for a brief moment.  Plus the fact that they had an attractive female lead singer with real talent was a big plus.  Geffen always did give their artists the biggest push possible, and cleaned up all through the decade, going from Asia to Don Henley & Sammy Hagar solo through Guns & Roses and Whitesnake.  

LJ's 2nd album, "Shelter", was quite a bit weaker.



By '87, most of the folks listed above were pretty much done selling records nationally, as "Amercia's tastes" had changed, and major label coporate push (thinly disguised payola) disappeared for artists from this scene.

The good news was it didn't get overplayed and/or wear out it's welcome, and all still sounds pretty good today, which is more than I can say for Howard Jones and/or The Thompson Twins.  

 
I guess what I was getting at is her label pushed her as a sexpot and made a single out of the song with dirty lyrics... and maybe it's just me but that wasn't enough to get mainstream audiences to listen to "country" and it turned off a lot of her natural audience before they even heard her.

I (used to) have albums by most of that list, saw 13 of them, promoted or was involved in promoting shows by 8... never heard of Glen Meadmore but wiki says he came after a lot of the others on that list. Very Cramps-y, don't think I could take a whole set of the stuff I saw on youtube. Some of the others on the list were kind of packaged or not exactly cowpunk but didn't fit in anywhere else (Tex & the Horseheads) but oh well. I never got to see Gun Club or JLP and that's a shame.
Posted 11 years ago by ScottFromWyoming    [ Reply ]
A guilty pleasure.  It holds up, but barely
Posted 11 years ago by oufason    [ Reply ]
yeah...this isn't that good after all these years.


Posted 11 years ago by lily34    [ Reply ]
 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
Stunning album and voice. Maybe if the song didn't have the lines

I can take a little pain 
I can hold it pretty well 
...
No you ain't afraid to let me have it 
Honey you ain't afraid to stick it in
 
...they might have actually gotten what they deserved. A&R department absolutely killed this band before they even got out of the gate. 
 
Edited: I'd always heard that she was 15 when this was recorded; she was 21.  
 

I once read an interview with Tom Petty, who wrote this song (there is a heartbreakers version on his first box set). Anyway, Lone Justice recorded it with his lyric, and he more or less said in the interview that he cringes every time he hear's the line in the Lone Justice version.
Posted 11 years ago by Darlington    [ Reply ]
 jules44 wrote:
I was thinking....hmmmmm , sounds like one of those horrid bands to come out of the 80s....and Then I clicked on the link....indeed. BLAH!!!!
 
If only you knew what the fuck you were talking about.
Posted 11 years ago by dwlangham    [ Reply ]
I was thinking....hmmmmm , sounds like one of those horrid bands to come out of the 80s....and Then I clicked on the link....indeed. BLAH!!!!
Posted 11 years ago by jules44    [ Reply ]
 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
A&R department absolutely killed this band before they even got out of the gate. 
 
 

I used to think that as well, as I was really into the 80's LA cowpunk movement, which included Lone Justice.  It was the very likable, total opposite of synth-pop which was going commercially, and quite refreshing. 

I've reprinted the Wiki LA lineup from their "Cow Punk" page, and there's several bands on here I enjoyed at one time or another:

Bands associated with the 1980s "Cowpunk" ethos in Los AngelesThe Beat Farmers (1980s San Diego rock band)The Blasters (1980s Los Angeles rockabilly, led by Phil Alvin)Blood on the Saddle (1980s Los Angeles band)Eddie and the Subtitles (1980s Orange County band)Green On Red (1980s Tucson and Los Angeles, with roots in the "Paisley Underground")The Gun Club (1980s Los Angeles punk blues)The Cramps (1980s Ohio and Los Angeles punk blues, psychobilly, gothabilly)The Knitters (1980s Los Angeles folk-rock, made up of the members of X and The Blasters)Lone Justice (1980s Anaheim and Los Angeles country-rock band, led by Maria McKee)The Long Ryders (1980s Los Angeles, with roots in "Paisley Underground")Los Lobos (1980s East L.A. Tex-mex/Chicano rock)Glen Meadmore (1980s Los Angeles)Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper (1980s San Diego psychobilly cowpunk)Rank and File (1980s San Francisco/Los Angeles new wave)The Rave-Ups (1980s Los Angeles)Social Distortion (1980s Orange County)Tex and the Horseheads (1980s Los Angeles)Wall of Voodoo<3>X (1980s Los Angeles punk, with country and rockabilly influences)

I also really liked Jason and The (Nashville) Scorchers, and still do listen to their stuff.  They were probably the best of the genre IMHO (but painfully neglected here at Radio Paradise)..

Anyway, you're mostly right, as it did seem like Lone Justice could have been bigger, as they had 2 hits on their Geffen debut and were MTV darlings for a brief moment.  Plus the fact that they had an attractive female lead singer with real talent was a big plus.  Geffen always did give their artists the biggest push possible, and cleaned up all through the decade, going from Asia to Don Henley & Sammy Hagar solo through Guns & Roses and Whitesnake.  

LJ's 2nd album, "Shelter", was quite a bit weaker.



By '87, most of the folks listed above were pretty much done selling records nationally, as "Amercia's tastes" had changed, and major label coporate push (thinly disguised payola) disappeared for artists from this scene.

The good news was it didn't get overplayed and/or wear out it's welcome, and all still sounds pretty good today, which is more than I can say for Howard Jones and/or The Thompson Twins.  


Posted 11 years ago by treatment_bound    [ Reply ]
 treatment_bound wrote:
Please play this cut—-a minor hit for Lone Justice from 20 years ago, & written by Tom Petty.
 
Wow!  6 and a half years later, finally heard it on RP.  Happy 4th, Everybody!

 
I realize it's been played before, but unfortunately, I can't listen 24/7.  Thanks.
Posted 11 years ago by treatment_bound    [ Reply ]
Stunning album and voice. Maybe if the song didn't have the lines

I can take a little pain 
I can hold it pretty well 
...
No you ain't afraid to let me have it 
Honey you ain't afraid to stick it in
 
...they might have actually gotten what they deserved. A&R department absolutely killed this band before they even got out of the gate. 
 
Edited: I'd always heard that she was 15 when this was recorded; she was 21.  
Posted 11 years ago by ScottFromWyoming    [ Reply ]
GODLIKE. Love hearing them on RP. One of the best shows ever, back in the day, rockabillynewavepunkers packed dancing on the floor, Maria rockin the place. :) Such innocent edgy down home fun.
Posted 11 years ago by Segue    [ Reply ]
Man, I miss my youth. {#Drunk}
Posted 11 years ago by jmassoglia    [ Reply ]
WTF?!

Garbage..... 
Posted 11 years ago by ckcotton    [ Reply ]
saw them open for someone years ago, in the 80's. they were so great. i love this song!
Posted 11 years ago by lily34    [ Reply ]
More from this release, Please! I have this on cassette too!!
Posted 12 years ago by Aud    [ Reply ]
Wasn't Maria McKee the girl in this video?

https://youtu.be/4KP9PNSUME4
 
Posted 12 years ago by apd    [ Reply ]
Always liked her!  Wouldn't mind hearing more please  {#Yell}
Posted 12 years ago by musickat    [ Reply ]
A great song from a very good album that I had, on cassette no less, in another lifetime out west.
Posted 12 years ago by randyblew    [ Reply ]
Maria McKee I was so in love with you back in 1985 when this video was on regular rotation on MTV. Great tune, thanks for the memories.
Posted 12 years ago by marrdcheez    [ Reply ]


"Ways To Be Wicked" Live 1986 

Lone Justice live at the Ritz, NYC, 12-13-1986. Watch the the amazing Maria McKee at 22 years old in this video clip. Lone Justice: Maria McKee, Gregg Sutton (bassist), Shane Fontayne (guitarist), Rudy Richman (drummer), and Bruce Brody (keyboardist).


Posted 14 years ago by calypsus_1    [ Reply ]
treatment_bound wrote:
Please play this cut---a minor hit for Lone Justice from 20 years ago, & written by Tom Petty.
Agreed!
Posted 16 years ago by vandal    [ Reply ]
Please play this cut---a minor hit for Lone Justice from 20 years ago, & written by Tom Petty.
Posted 18 years ago by treatment_bound    [ Reply ]