Album cover
"The Envoy" is a song from Warren Zevon's 1982 album of the same name.
About the Song[]
The song was inspired by veteran American diplomat, and special envoy to the Middle East, Philip Habib's shuttle diplomacy during Israel's Lebanon incursion of 1982. The song depicts such a diplomat being sent around the world to deal with various crises and to protect American interests. This involves various issues of nuclear armaments in the volatile Middle East and various tensions and conflicts between nations there as well as the also unstable, more so at the time of the song's release, Latin American region. The song talks about the envoy's talents and diplomatic immunity and says that whenever there is trouble he is sent out by the President. The song ends by suggesting that the singer, Zevon, is actually the envoy in question. In the liner notes for the 1996 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (An Anthology), Zevon stated that after the song came out, Habib sent him "a very nice letter of appreciation on State Department stationery". The cover for the album features Zevon as a shuttle diplomat in a circumstance Zevon described as "wanting to play James Bond" to David Letterman. The song also appears on A Quiet Normal Life: The Best of Warren Zevon and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (An Anthology).
Lyrics[]
Note: the text of this song's lyrics is not under the same copyright license as the wiki's encyclopedic text, it is used under fair use/dealing.
Nuclear arms in the Middle East
Israel is attacking the Iraqis
The Syrians are mad at the Lebanese
And Baghdad does whatever she please
Looks like another threat to world peace
For the envoy
Things got hot in El Salvador
CIA got caught and couldn't do no more
He's got diplomatic immunity
He's got a lethal weapon that nobody sees
Looks like another threat to world peace
For the envoy
Send the envoy
Send the envoy
Whenever there's a crisis
The President sends his envoy in
Guns in Damascus
Woa, Jerusalem
Nuclear arms in the Middle East
Israel is attacking the Iraqis
The Syrians are mad at the Lebanese
And Baghdad do whatever she please
Looks like another threat to world peace
For the envoy
Send the envoy . . .
Send for me