Editing The Long Arm Of The Law

'''"The Long Arm Of The Law"''' is a song from [[Warren Zevon]]'s [[Time Line#1980s|1989]] album, ''[[Transverse City]]''.

The song is about a [[:wikipedia:Criminal|criminal]], a common subject for Zevon, desperately trying to get away from law enforcement. The only real crime the song describes is doing unspecified deals on both sides of the border after a fictional [[:wikipedia:1999|1999]] war in [[:wikipedia:Paraguay|Paraguay]]. The criminal's back story is however elaborated as one of a child that lived rough, with the first words he ever heard being those of an armed hold up. The song notes that his life has only ever gotten worse. The song compounds and repeats the principle of the law's extreme power and the helplessness of those who it turns against. The use of digital recording and multi track audio allowed Zevon to perform as his own back singer with a sustained chorus of "its the long arm, its the strong arm, its the long arm of the law." The hounding theme of this song is notably similar to the song "[[Wanted Dead or Alive (song)|Wanted Dead or Alive]]" from Zevon's [[Wanted Dead or Alive|first ever album]] twenty years earlier.

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