If you refer to my first post about this little endeavor, you'll see that I pretended to interrogate myself about choosing a song from Bruce's debut album to be the debut lyric on my countdown. For this one, I've got to plead the 5th. I finagled some rankings to get this at #99. What can ya do?

Everything happens so fast in this lyric. It's just 14 words between the wine and the 99. And yet, by the time we get to 99, his whole life has changed. He started the song off as Ralph, but once he becomes Johnny, there's no going back.

Also notice the got/shot internal rhyme, and the repetition of the N's. Tanqueray and wine. Night clerk. Johnny and Ninety-Nine.

Johnny 99 is a sympathetic villain, and I think there's four reasons for this.

#1 - His motives are not evil. As he says himself,

"Now, judge, judge, I got debts no honest man could pay‌‌The bank was holdin' my mortgage and takin' my house away‌‌Now I ain't sayin' that made me an innocent man‌‌But it was more than all this that put that gun in my hand"

#2 - He's pitted against Mean John Brown. While it's not the lyric in the countdown, it's worth looking at the efficient characterization Bruce uses for the Judge.

"He came into the courtroom and stared poor Johnny down‌‌
Well, the evidence is clear, gonna let the sentence, son, fit the crime‌‌
Prison for ninety-eight and a year and we'll call it even, Johnny 99"

You can picture the judge sitting high above in his chair, starring at Johnny with a griamce. And then he makes a smug little joke about his sentencing? It's easy for the listener to quickly side with Johnny against the judge.

#3 - In the court room, he's made youthful. His Mama is there. He's referred to as "boy" and "son."

#4 - I think this is the least obvious reason, but it's also the most effective. Or, in another sense, this reason is the most effective because it happens subconsciously. Johnny 99 is a badass name. Imagine if he was named The Clerk Killer. Or Ralph 99. Just doesn't do it. Johnny 99 is a mood. Johnny 99 is a vibe. Johnny 99 is someone who would be played by James Dean in a movie.