hypersongs

Swords and Tequila

The opening track of Fire Down Under, a staple of the Riot live set and a title Martin Popoff borrowed for his book.
Riot, from Fire Down Under (1981)

Guy Speranza and Mark Reale wrote "Swords and Tequila", the opening track of Fire Down Under, 3:18 on the album. The Rock and Roll Globe's Nathan Carson calls it a barnburner, no doubt, and says it would fit on British Steel. We found nothing from the band on what the song means, and nothing on its recording beyond the album's 1980 sessions at Greene Street.

It is the third most played song on setlist.fm for Riot V, in 263 setlists plus 7 under the spelling "Swords & Tequila", behind "Warrior" (280) and "Thundersteel" (272). Other recordings by the band include a Thundersteel-era re-recording at 3:32, the live version on Riot Live, the Japanese live album Shine On, a 2015 live bonus on Armor of Light, a 2018 live recording from Club Citta in Kawasaki and a series of archive concert recordings on the Official Bootleg Box Sets. It is on the licensed soundtrack of the video game Brutal Legend, released in North America on October 13, 2009. The Riot Act offshoot made a video of the song in 2019.

Covers include Salvacion (2016), Savage Master, Bullet and Midas. The version of our upload, studio, live or cover, could not be determined; the video page returned only the title.

Covers and versions

  • Salvacion (2016) On Way More Unstoppable REDUX.
  • Savage Master On Black Hooves and a Riot tribute album.
  • Bullet On Dust to Gold.

Sources

  1. Fire Down Under, Wikipedia
  2. Riot V song statistics, setlist.fm
  3. The making of Fire Down Under, Rock and Roll Globe