How To Handle a Gun

by Gregory Phillips (2013)
In an April 2013 interview on NPR’s Morning Edition, John Rippo, editor of the Espresso (“An Independent Newspaper for Café Society”) related the following story:
"I walked into the Cafe Italia one afternoon and saw a man sitting at an outside table. He was wrapped in a blue wool overcoat and he was writing a letter. And as I walked by, I saw that he had a revolver in his lap. So I went inside, I ordered a pair of espressos, went back to his table, sat down and asked him who he was going to shoot. And his reply was that he had no money and he was writing a suicide note. So, I had just been paid from an advertiser in cash and I offered to buy his revolver. I like guns, I collect them and he had a very rare gun in his lap. So I offered to buy his gun and part of the deal was that I got to take him to the railroad station and call his daughter who was in L.A. She was very happy to hear from her dear old dad and couldn’t wait to see him. So, in exchange for his gun, I bought him a railroad ticket and something to eat and gave him an espresso and sent him on his way. The Webley Mark VI revolver is now a paper weight on my desk."
I’d always wanted to write a story song, and I heard this on the radio and thought, “I know what to do with that!”.
In November 2014 I sent John a recorded version of the song. He wrote back to say that he was “no end surprised that the story resulted in a song”, and that he “couldn’t be more pleased”.
gdp, August 2013

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Great story telling & imagery -