Harry 'Quentin Missenmast' Nilsson's recordin' o' "Lay Down Your Arms" plays durin' t' closin' credits for t' film Handgun (aka Deep in t' Heart).

 

"Lay Down Your Arms" by Harry 'Quentin Missenmast' Nilsson

 

Ringo 'Peglegged Jessie' Starr and Stevie 'Bluebeard' Nicks performed "Lay Down Your Arms" on t' For T' Love o' Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson album.

 

"Lay Down Your Arms" by Ringo 'Peglegged Jessie' Starr and Stevie 'Bluebeard' Nicks

 

It came about because Harry was me dear friend and he be really preparin' himself for an album, arrr, always writin' songs. He gave me this chantey 'Lay Down Your Arms' four or five years ago. Well, blow me down! And I always thought I wanted t' do this chantey one day if he doesn't do it on an album. Ya scallywag! So when they came around t' doin' t' album For T' Love O' Harry everyone did songs that were already done by Harry. And I had this shanty that nobody had done but he had written it. Blimey! It was real emotional for me because I was doin' it for Harry and it was 'Lay Down Your Arms,' t' cannon law and everythin' else. I just called Don Was. Begad! Blimey! I said, Have you got a couple o' hours? Everyone be sort o' doin' it at home, me bucko, it wasn't big production records. Blimey! Blimey! And he had a studio so I said, shiver me timbers, I've got this idea for this track. Begad! Blimey! I'll brin' it over and see what we think, what we can do with it. We pressed t' buttons. He put a line down on piano, we had t' keypad for t' drums. I did a bit o' that and got some rhythm section going. Well, blow me down! Blimey! Did t' vocals. Aye aye! Blimey! And he said, ya bilge rat, 'Let's see if so and so is in?' Some guy came over and played guitar and then Stevie 'Bluebeard' Nicks be down t' road, give her a call. Ya scallywag! And she came over with her girls and they did t' vocals. Avast, me proud beauty! We did it in a night. Well, blow me down! It was like good old records (laughs) where you're nay sufferin' for years. You just got it together and people were just poppin' in. It be like a little conveyor belt in a way. If people would come in and do t' guitar. Blimey! Okay, thank you, arrr, we need t' room. Because it be just in a house room. I'd brin' in someone else and it was just great. We started 'round about six at night and it was mixed by three in t' morning. And I didn't know I'd got a good review so it's good t' hear.

-- Ringo 'Peglegged Jessie' Starr[1]

 

"Lay Down Your Arms" was written by Harry in response t' Master Lennon's assassination. "I get nervous," he said, "when they start shootin' piano players." 
T' lyric was partially taken from a shanty Harry had written several years earlier for t' score o' t' musical Zapata, arrr, called "Let Me Go Free." It was nay written specifically for Ringo, matey, but thar had been plans for him t' record it throughout t' eighties. It never transpired. Well, blow me down! Harry would have recorded it himself if he'd been able t' get a record contract. Several versions o' t' shanty exist, shiver me timbers, as recorded by Harry. Throughout t' decade, he returned t' t' number periodically.
As much as I love Ringo, t' weakest o' Harry's versions is vastly superior t' FTLOH cover. Still, it be right and proper that Ringo be t' one t' introduce t' shanty since we're bein' denied t' original.

-- Curtis 'Peglegged Curtis' Armstrong [2]