Higher Justice

This is not a ballad, because it has a repeating chorus (it has no bridge).  It is, however, a narrative song, and it is filk, being a non-canonical adventure of Mike Mignola's great neo-pulp crimefighter, the Lobster.

(Heaven Bound Bob and Billy the Snake (sometimes Jimmy the Snake) are character names I have recycled through a few different songs, and that have found a hopefully final home in the annals of Francis Drollery, Ghost Crusader.)

Heaven Bound Bob and Billy the Snake
Work for the city, and they're both on the take
Helping Boss Hardin roll his northern shipments in
For once a week whisky, and Brooklyn bathtub gin
Well, there ain't no human plan
Without some fatal flaw


  They're getting that higher justice
  Higher justice
  The higher justice of the Lobster's claw


Boss Hardin has his tentacles all over this town
Half the city's beat cops, and every sidewalk clown
Lately his boys have been turning up dead
With funny little burn marks on the tops of their heads
And he asks himself
Is he still above the law?


  He's getting that higher justice
  Higher justice
  The higher justice of the Lobster's claw


Boss Hardin takes his secrets on a thirty story fall
The hunchback and the tarot reader tell the Lobster all
The warehouse down in Chelsea, the Nazi submarine
The fire of the angels, the Juggernaut machine
Watch out, Fritz--
You're gonna take in the jaw!


  Here comes that higher justice
  Higher justice
  The higher justice of the Lobster's claw


A warehouse full of Nazis, a pile of bleeding bones
Dancing girls in trances, bugs on ancient thrones
Hell breaks loose when the Lobster starts the Juggernaut to roll
And a ragged fiend leaps from the throne and comes groping for his soul
He shoves that Colt
In the demon's gaping maw


  He's dishing out higher justice
  Higher justice
  The higher justice of the Lobster's claw