West Ryder Silver Bullet

West Ryder Silver Bullet was written by Sergio Pizzorno and is the 7th track on West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

Background

West Ryder Silver Bullet is a duet with actress Rosario Dawson, whom the band met at Isle of Wight Festival 2007.^[1] When it came to recording the song they didn't want to go the obvious way of getting an "English Rose" to sing on it and contacted Dawson via a mutual friend, not knowing if she could sing at all.^[2]^[3]

Serge has described the two characters in the song as "lovers that are destined to be together, but kinda hate each other as well, but they can't live without each other, so they just go around robbing and living in a car."^[4] In an interview with Q Magazine he said: "The idea is that Tom is West Ryder and she's Silver Bullet and the two of them are speedheads going through America. It's a road movie, like Two-Lane Blacktop with Dennis Wilson."^[5]

The song starts with a spoken word sample from the 1983 film Sans Soleil and was initially considered to be the opening track of the album until Tom suggested Underdog.^[6]

Live

West Ryder Silver Bullet was first played at the HMV Forum, London in October 2009 and kept in the set throughout most of the European tour and the arena tour that followed. For several dates of the arena tour they were supported by Dark Horses, whose singer Lisa Lindley-Jones joined the band to sing the female parts of the song. This was reprised at Brixton Academy in August 2010, one of the last gigs of the West Ryder tour.

Quotes

"This was going to start the album but we realised it'd work better in the middle. I think a lot of psychedelic music is funny and it began as a laugh, sea shanty pirate riff that I used to play on the guitar when I was pissed. It stuck in my head so I did some work on it, and suddenly it went a bit Japanese but also Ennio Morricone. The I wrote the second melody and thought it sounded like a Serge Gainsbourg duet. So we got Rosario Dawson in."

— Serge (Q Magazine, December 2009)

Releases

West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (CD album) - PARADISE57
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (2x10" vinyl album) - PARADISE59
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - (CD+DVD album) - PARADISE58
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - (promo CD album) - PARADISE56
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - (CD album in a discbox slider) - PARADISE62
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (CD+DVD album, The Tour Edition) - PARADISE67
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (double CD album) - Japanese edition
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - (promo CD album) - Argentinean edition
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - (promo CD-R album) - UK edition
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - (promo CD-R album) - UK edition
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - (promo CD-R album) - US edition
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - (promo CD-R album) - watermarked US edition

Lyrics

Mist covers the ground in the city Engine rumbles quiet as we drift by I wish you could see (Sweetheart) Through my crooked eye (Silence let me whisper) Oh your beauty plays me just like a guitar string

I want your touch Oh how I want you far too much She's my baby He's my baby

Days drift into one, it's so pretty Travelling Wilburys police photo fits And this stolen car (Cool hand) Is loaded with junk (Silence let me whisper) It's so dirty You'll be the death of me but that's okay (We are the dark silver bullets flying through)