Dirty Harry by Gorillaz

Album: Demon Days (2005)

Charted: 6

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Gorillaz first got attention with their 2001 song "Clint Eastwood," named after the famous actor because it evokes the score of his movie A Fistful of Dollars. In 2005 Gorillaz returned with "Dirty Harry," named after the 1971 movie where Eastwood plays a gun-toting vigilante. In both songs, the title isn't mentioned in the lyric. In the song "Dirty Harry" the title goes along with the themes of war and violence baked into the lyric.

The song takes aim at American president George W. Bush and his war with Iraq. A telling line is: "The war is over so said the speaker, with a flight suit on, maybe to him I'm just a pawn." It's a reference to his 2003 "Mission Accomplished" speech where he showed up on an aircraft carrier wearing a flight suit to declare the war effectively over, which it wasn't. Damon Albarn, the lead Gorilla on the musical side, called it "an anti?war song."
Most of the song is delivered by a children's choir, which delivers a very bleak message:

I need a gun to keep myself among
The poor people who are burning in the sun

The disconnect between the sweet voices and the disconcerting lyric is intentional; Damon Albarn wanted to show how children around the world were subjected to the horrors of war.

The choir was the San Fernando Valley Youth Chorus in California.
Bootie Brown from the Pharcyde does a rap in this song and also appears in the video. The video is mostly animated, but Brown appears in real form.

This is typical of Gorillaz, which often use guest rappers. In most cases, the other singer is Damon Albarn in character as 2-D, one of the four members of the virtual Gorillaz. "Dirty Harry" is different because the other vocals come from the children's choir.
The song is part of the second Gorillaz album, Demon Days, produced by Danger Mouse in 2005, a year before he teamed up with Cee-Lo Green to form Gnarls Barkley. He recalled to Q magazine (June 2008) about recording the album: "At first he (Damon Albarn) didn't want me to do the whole Gorillaz album or anything. He was curious about me, to see whether we could work together. The first track we did was 'Dirty Harry,' which was a really raw, stripped-down demo. I had this vision of choirs and Gregorian chants and rapping, and Damon was like, 'Well, go ahead and do it!' But Damon's songwriting is the strongest part of that record, not any fancy production. It's only when you have really good songwriting that you can do all the other stuff. That's what allows me to do what I do. He gave me respect and that sense of confidence. His is the biggest influence anyone's ever had on me."
The first line of what the kids are singing is often misheard as:
I need a gun to keep myself from harm

It's actually:
I need a gun to keep myself among...
The poor people who are burning in the sun

It's the character 2-D finding refuge among the dispossessed.
Gorillaz are a virtual band, with their visuals carrying as much weight as their lyrics. The music video for "Dirty Harry" is an allegory of the Iraq War, showing a group of kids stranded in the desert. They're eventually rescued, but then their rescue vehicle breaks down.

Real footage from a desert in Namibia was used as the backdrop, combined with the animated characters.

Comments: 11

Duke Sexington from Tiddytown, AlabamaThis song is about... le war.
Jimmy's Mom from Im At My Locationbut like how can you even begin to explain the music video
Kj from Cedarburg,wialthough I like this song, the message presented is not entirely right. I know of many veterans of iraq and Afghanistan who felt it was their patriotic duty to serve in the middle east. I don't think many vets think war is meaningless in that part of the world. the only reason we were at war for so long is because more terrorist cells kept regrouping from around the area, trying to start a hostile take over of iraq, Afghanistan,as well as others. we were the only country willing to protect its citizens and corrupt government, as they would not last a year without support if w just up and left the middle east. our entire goal after killing bin laden was to improve life in that part of the world. kind of hard to enjoy your life while being shot.
Megan from Stevenson, AlThis song is awesome! I love this band because of their music, but my little brother is fascinated with their videos! lol
Kane from Wytheville, Vawanna know something crazy before i bought the cd demon days i was a fan of Mf doom (did a song with gorillaz "november has come")
and Mf DOOM WORKED WITH DANGER MOUSE TO BRING THE GROUP DANGER DOOM
now i have been a fan of gorillaz seens the first album and it blew my mind when i heard that danger mouse produced Demon Days awesome!!!!
also a big fan of cee-lo sense goodie mob rock on!!
S from El, Mii really like the video. go gecko! go gecko! the rap is really truthful, showing how dumb the war is from the soldier's view. YAY GORILLAZ!!!
Drew from North Creek, Nythis is a blantant shot @ the Iraq war and i agree with everything it says. the rap speaks the hard honest truth. its glad to see pleople can still say what they want and not be but in a milatary prision for it.
Blake from Hamilton, OhI've seen the live version of this too. I love this song and I agree with every word of it. It's definitely talking about the Iraqai war and how even rap and rock doesn't agree with it. My question is why this song's entitled "Dirty Harry"?
Michelle from Darlington, EnglandI love this song. I love most of the Gorillaz compositions. I would say this isn't as good as Dare though.
Jacob from Layton, UtAcutally they aren't "young boys." It's a children's choir. And they didn't do anything in Kids With Guns. Not trying to sound rude.
The music video is hilarious though. Dancing Gecko.
Bill Door from Somewhere, CaThis is a blatant yet beautiful reference to the Iraq War. As do most of the songs on this CD it sympathizes with the troops, but casts Bush in an unfavorable light with them (in the part about so says the speaker in the flight suit,{Bush was in a flight suit during his victory speech}). In the video it portrays a group of kids lost in a desert who are picked up (the old bring our troops back) by the end of the song, however, the vehicle breaks down at the end possibly symbolizing that if we were to pull out now we would be even worse off. The common theme on the album symbolizes the soldiers as children (the chorus made up of young boys, who did a remarkable job in this/ and Kids with Guns). Also while people complain about the rap in the music, it is an integral part of many songs as it shows that another person or viewpoint is speaking, and is a common lyrical device. All together these songs create a firm message while keeping lighthearted, to me reminiscent of Jethro Tull.

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