Lone Justice – Ways to Be Wicked

First time I heard this song I loved it. It was by a group called Lone Justice with lead singer Maria McKee. The song was Ways to Be Wicked, written by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell. When I am asked my favorite female singer of the 1980s…Maria Mckee is my answer by a wide margin.

In 1985 the song peaked at #29 in the Mainstream Rock Charts and #77 in the UK. This surprised me because I heard the song quite a bit and thought it charted higher. They had two more songs that come to mind. “I Found Love” and “Shelter“. They should have made it further than they did. Maria did have a number 1 in the UK with “Show Me Heaven” in 1990.

Lone Justice was formed in 1982 and played rockabilly and country music as part of the cowpunk scene. After signing with Geffen, the band recorded their debut album, and hit the road, opening for U2. The hype was in overdrive and the pressure was on.

In 2022 Lisa let me ramble and go on about my undying love for Maria McKee at her site.

Ways To Be Wicked

Honey, why you always smile
When you see me hurt so bad?
Tell me what I did to you, babe
That would make you act like that?

Well, I’ve been your fool before, honey
Yeah, and I probably will again
‘Cuz you ain’t afraid to let me have it
No, you ain’t afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Ooh, but you don’t know one little thing
About love

Well, I can take a little pain
Yeah, I can hold it pretty well
I can watch your little eyes light up
While you’re walkin’ me through Hell

Well, I’ve been your fool before, honey
Yeah, and I probably will again
‘Cuz you ain’t afraid to let me have it
No, you ain’t afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don’t know one little thing
About love

Those cobra eyes
Lie with a smile
Baby you take pride
In the devil down inside, yeah

Well, I can take a little pain
Yeah, I can hold it pretty well
I can watch your little eyes light up
While you’re walkin’ me through Hell

Well, I’ve been your fool before
Yeah, and I probably will again
You ain’t afraid to let me have it
No, you ain’t afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Ooh, but you don’t know one little thing
About love

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Yeah, but you don’t know one little, one little thing
About love

Yeah you know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don’t know one little, one little

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

41 thoughts on “Lone Justice – Ways to Be Wicked”

    1. I think if this would have come out in the early 90s…it might have had a shot…I am surprised the Georgia Satellites hit the following year… it didn’t sound like what was going on…on the charts. …that is why I liked it.

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      1. They might have done better in the 90s, but other bands made it in the 80s that did not sound like what was on the charts. Tom Petty and John Mellencamp did their own thing and were very successful.

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      2. Yea Mellencamp hit in the early eighties when it was still kinda the seventies…and Petty of course was established… I don’t think the Black Crowes could have broken through in 85…in 90 yea of course. I could be wrong.

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  4. I LOVED this band! Still have that debut album in my vinyl collection. I got to see them in a little club -The Keystone Palo Alto – shortly after this record came out. They were soooo good!! I used to have a VHS tape of a concert of theirs, I must have watched it 50 times. So much energy and authenticity!
    And yes Maria was a doll! The only girl in the 80’s that got me to look away from Susannah Hoffs!!

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    1. Oh you got to see them? That is so awesome! She had an unusal voice which made me like them even more.
      You just said it…yes I was like that also…she was the one I zero’d in on of all the female singers. I would safely say Hoffs was #2 with me.

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  5. Yep, there was a lot of hype surrounding them for a year or two and they were pretty good. I did see them open for U2 (the only time I saw U2 in concert) and seem to recall they were good live, everyone seemed to like them and no one was agitated wishing they’d hurry up and leave, unlike some opening acts. I think ‘Shelter’ is the one by them that I still sort of remember. Back then I probably thought they’d be big too, based on 1) me liking them enough, and 2) lots of articles about them in the media , but in retrospect, they had a real slim chance… they didn’t sound commercial enough at all for Hit radio and they were a bit of an anomaly for college rock or alt rock ones. Perhaps the biggest song she sang on ended up being ‘Somewhere down the Crazy River’ by Robbie Robertson.

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      1. I mean…you never know when music styles would change…I was hoping in the mid eighties something would come along and change it… for me with the Replacements and REM…I was hoping music would go that way.

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    2. She had a number 1 in the UK in 1990…but yea…I loved them no matter the hype but of course it didn’t fit the mold of that year. I just told someone this morning…if they would have come out in the early nineties…then they might have had a chance…but in 85…this wasn’t on the radio…although Tom Petty and others as someone pointed out was but they were established going in…I would have taken this over most of the top 100.

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  8. They sound a bit too country to make it on the pop charts. Don’t feel bad about picking the wrong horse. There’s no accounting for mainstream tastes. When I heard Kelly Willis’ “Well-Traveled Love” in 1990 I was blown away. She never really made it commercially, though she’s still around and recording. I hear a bit of Brenda Lee in Maria McKee.

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    1. Dolly Parton really pushed this band…their early stuff is pure country…I hear you…there is only one person I called right…that was Madonna…but I”m not a fan.

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  9. She has the voice of contemporary country music that I like. Thanks for the reminder of the write-up you did on her for my blog in 2022 (thanks again!) — and also reminding me that I need to get started on researching and writing for Women Music March 2024!

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  10. A clarity to the voice. It carries but is not shrill. And for Lone Justice its the old story, coulda/shoulda/didn’t yet again. Ain’t no justice.
    On a near off topic note; in Scotland I went into a beer shop my son-in-law frequents, to by him a few bottles of ‘medicinal hop extracts’ and the night guy, who woulda been in his 30s was playing ‘The Band.’ (Obviously a small business, you can’t do that working at Super Liquor, Big Barrel or Booze Barn, Inc.) We got to talking the Last Waltz, Helm, Danko, Robbie etc and I advised him to try ‘Somewhere Down The Lazy River.’ Hey, I said it was nearly off topic.

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    1. That is a great song to send him to. He should really like it since it connects with the band.

      I’m the king of off topic! My car decided to stall on the onramp this afternoon! Good day! It was a short after I hit a pothole… How is that for off topic! I just got home.

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      1. I have nothing but sympathy! Still, I’m sure the understanding row of cars behind you passed by with a sympathetic toot, a smile and a wave? Or did you get the full blast, a scowl and the ‘economy’ wave, two fingers?
        (Shit! I see I wrote ‘by’ not ‘buy’ in the above ramble. Oh well, small potatoes compared to your travails today.)

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      2. It was the oddest problem with a car I ever had. I hit a pothole and all hell broke loose. My battery light came on but I thought…oh I’ll get it home maybe…no… and the on ramp was it. My friend opened the hood and hit the alternator with a metal rod. I asked him…what the hell? He said the bump of the pothole made the voltage regulator stick. Sure enough…he had jumper cables and the battery held it’s charge after that.

        Oh when it started to sputter I had horns blowing…I started to wave my hands and point to my own car…more horns…and then…yes…the universal middle finger of peace came up. I got it to the side of the on ramp and called my mechanic buddy.

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    1. I always liked Lone Justice…I’ll tell people my favorite female singer in the 80s is blonde…NO not that one lol.
      That is a good version by Petty…I never heard it.

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