Blogging .20 (at least) - On a Visionary Flood of Alcohol*

"Sometime Around Midnight" - The Airborne Toxic Event

And you feel hopeless and homeless
and lost in the haze of the wine.

The evening's theme is drinking.  Hey, I know, but some themes never get old.  Mrs. Sir C. is out of town pursuing professional dreams and the 15-year old conked out at 8:30.  (Kids today!)  So I was left to drink alone, during which,as George Thorogood aptly observed, "I prefer to be by myself."  This led me to muse about favorite drinking songs and drinking epigrams from those songs.  And so a stumbling trip down lost memory lane with ten of my personal favorites.  Please add yours in comments.  I am only scratching the surface at best, particularly given my neglect of country music. 

I also decided to limit myself to one song by Tom Waits and one by the Pogues.  Otherwise, they could each fill any list.

These are truly in no particular order other than the random firing of mistreated neurons.

2.  "Sunday Morning Coming Down" - Johnny Cash

(Written by Kris Kristoferson but owned by the man in black.)

Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An' I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

"And found my cleanest dirty shirt" may be the baddest line ever written.    

3.  "Paper Thin" - John Hiatt

I was gonna get up off that bar stool
Just as soon as I could figure it out
Why I was overlooked at the car pool
Stood up at the dance with no twist and shout

When you're burnin' with your last desire
And every memory haunts you
You write it down in alcohol fire
'Cause that's the only flame that wants you 

4.  "Sick Bed of Cuchulainn" - The Pogues

McCormack and Richard Tauber are singing by the bed
There's a glass of punch below your feet and an angel at your head
There's devils on each side of you with bottles in their hands
You need one more drop of poison and you'll dream of foreign lands

When you pissed yourself in Frankfurt and got syph down in Cologne
And you heard the rattling death trains as you lay there all alone
Frank Ryan brought you whiskey in a brothel in Madrid
And you decked some fucking blackshirt who was cursing all the Yids
At the sick bed of Cuchulainn we'll kneel and say a prayer
And the ghosts are rattling at the door and the devil's in the chair.

5.  "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" - Tom Waits

I got me a bottle and a dream, it's so maudlin it seems.

Bonus sloppy drunk points for using "As Time Goes By" melody

6.  "No Better Place" - Fountains of Wayne

The bourbon sits inside me
Right now I'm a puppet in its sway
And it may be the whiskey talking
But the whiskey says I miss you every day

7.  "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" - Bob Dylan

I cannot move
My fingers are all in a knot
I don't have the strength
To get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor
Won't even say what it is I've got

Not to mention

I started out on Burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff.

Fun short clip of Dylan in legendary 1966 performances in England. ("What happened to Woody Guthrie Bob?" - Fuck you!)

8.  "Hurricane Party" - James McMurtry

The hurricane party's windin' down and we're all waitin' for the end
And I don't won't another drink, I only want that last one again
It gave me such a fine glow, smoky and slow, now I should probably be homeward bound

The line "I don't want another drink, I only want that last one again" may actually be my favorite of all.

9.  "See America Right" - The Mountain Goats

I was getting out of jail
Heading to the Greyhound
You said you'd hop on one yourself
And meet me on the way down
I was shaking way too hard to think
Dead on my feet about to drop
Went and got the case of vodka from the car
And walked the two miles to the bus stop

10. "Lost Horizons" - The Gin Blossoms

Maybe I could use you to reassure myself
I wouldn’t wish this indecision on anybody else
Drink enough of anything to make this world look new again
And when the sin smiles how could it be wrong

*From Leonard Cohen's "Democracy."

Salud. 

 

 

  

 

Comments

[bigbadwolf]

"All the authorities/ they just stand around and boast."

having a little experience with the demon (ah, ray, with the bottle on his head, glaring at dave, a staple of my youth), i would suggest these:

shane mcgowan, even i could see that might be a bit too far to take it. you are absolutely correct that the pogues and waits could each virtually sweep the list.

notwithstanding them, i think the best drunk song ever is "lush life." there are so many great versions (hello, dana owens , which is a in part a tribute to the incredible talent of billy strayhorn (everyone look up the story behind "take the A train"). strange as it seems, even to me, i think the best version is coltrane's long instrumental version.

my next favorite drunk song is "here comes a regular" by the replacements. it is nearly perfect in every syllable, and westerberg is still a sometimes drunken, intuitive, smart kid, not the hectoring, omniscient moralist he'd shortly (and sadly) become (but then see me on investments :))

also, though i have always known i should deplore it, the replacements (implicitly) drunken "waitress in the sky" never fails to amuse. it's an outrage, completely unfair, and just what a drunk 25 year old would scream. more than two decades on, i guess i should disapprove, but i still smile.

los lobos "last night i got loaded" and their cover of richard thompson's "down where the drunkard's roll," both would make my not-so-short list

there are many country songs that might qualify. my favorite is merle haggard's "tonight the bottle let me down." merle has a few others, "swinging doors," being among the better of them. he's truly a marvel; however, absurd he can be, few sing as well as he can, okie from muskogee, possibly the most ridiculous song ever, is vocally magnificent.

george jones, who is about the only person not named sinatra or bennett or holliday, who sings better than merle has a few too. "if drinking don't kill me (her memory will) might be my favorite

dwight yoakam, who is far too great to be cabined by the country label, has several good tunes. i think "since i started drinking agian," is the most entertaining."

killing time," by clint black, of all people, is a great drunk song.

"drunken angel" by lucinda williams. i can't explain the album "car wheels on a gravel road." none of the perfectly fine work that she did before or since accounts for the gift that is this album. after astral weeks, i would say car wheels is the most hypnotically captivating album of the rock era. great, yes; best, who knows, it ain't why why why, it just is, as van would say.

"sloppy drunk" by j.b. hutto kinda captures it.

"drinking CV wine" by howlin' wolf sounds like more than a few nights.

"I have heard them singing each to each"

[bigbadwolf]

and my nomination for best title "what made milwaukee famous (has made a loser out of me)." rod stewart did a fine version; i slighlty prefer jerry lee's

[MikeJ]

Black Flag's "Six Pack" should be on this list somewhere.

And for the ruined life story Squeeze's "Up the Junction" is among the best (and I used to have to take the train through Clapham Junction a lot, so it stuck with me.)

[Corvus]

I think "Fuck You, I'm Drunk" is the funnest song I know of to sing while drunk. Completely irreverent and irresponsible. I like the marching snares.

In other Tom Waits awesomeness, "Jockey Full of Bourbon" and "Tango Till Their Sore" are two fantastic back to back drinking songs off of Rain Dogs. They also open and close the early Jim Jarmusch joint "Down By Law," which if you are a Waits fan you just must see. "Jockey" is fast lean and paranoid, and "Tango" sonically approximates better than any that sense, have a late night, when you start to come down and begin to sense all your demons you chased off waiting patiently in the wings.

On a reverse note, the best Bob drinking song is "Mister Tambourine Man." That's when it's a late night and you start coming down into an odd calm benevolence at comfort in the open air, and you just want it to go a little bit more, but not really, you are fine with how it is right now.

[Corvus]

You know, listening to the Pogues song, I have to say, auto-tune would completely destroy the genius that is Shane McGowan.

[Neil the Ethical Werewolf]

Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn was probably the first Pogues song I ever heard. Loved it. Now they're probably my favorite band.

Now you'll sing a song of liberty for blacks and Paks and jocks
And they'll take you from this dump you're in and stick you in a box
Then they'll take you to Cloughprior and shove you in the ground
But you'll stick your head back out and shout "we'll have another round"

I like everything about those lines -- the Finnegan's Wake story of the boozy resurrection, the solidarity with historically oppressed peoples, and the warmth with which the singer suggests how things will go with his ill and perhaps dying friend.

[litbrit]

When it comes to drinking songs, it really is hard to beat Tom Waits.

My favorite: The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)

The piano has been drinking, my necktie is asleep
And the combo went back to New York, the jukebox has to take a leak
And the carpet needs a haircut, and the spotlight looks like a prison break
And the telephone's out of cigarettes, and the balcony is on the make
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking...

And the menus are all freezing, and the light man's blind in one eye
And he can't see out of the other
And the piano-tuner's got a hearing aid, and he showed up with his mother
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
As the bouncer is a Sumo wrestler cream-puff casper milktoast
And the owner is a mental midget with the I.Q. of a fence post
'Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking...

And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her
And the box-office is drooling, and the bar stools are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
'Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking, not me, not me, not me, not me, not me.

[Toast]

Have A Drink On Me by AC/DC.

And, bigbadwolf, I couldn't agree more about Here Comes a Regular. Brilliant, achingly beautiful song.

Oh, and Sir C, my wife bought tickets to see the Pogues at the Roseland Ballroom on 3-13 (her birthday).

[Sir Charles]

Excellent! All worthies for the pantheon.

bbw,

I am a huge fan of "Car Wheels" and thought of both "Drunken Angel" and 2 Kool 2 be Forgotten." I saw Lucinda shortly after it's release at the 9:30 Club here in DC and it was a wonderful show.

Two of my friends with great musical taste swear respectively by Dwight Yoakum and Merle Haggard and always catch them live whenever they can.

I saw "The Replacements" live right around the time that "Waitress in the Sky" was released -- I share your guilty appreciation of it -- and, naturally, they were too drunk to perform well. Really, really, really, fucking drunk.

I know that Richard Thompson has good drunken, guilty songs, but for some reason I couldn't think of any last night.

Mike J,

I actually thought about "Six Pack." I used to play "Damaged" a lot in my early DC days back during the Reagan recession. "Up the Junction" and "Labelled with Love" are among several good Squeeze drunken tunes.

Corvus,

I listened to "Fuck You I'm Drunk" while I was writing this. It's high-larious. There were a couple of other faux Irish drinking songs that caught my ear as well. I always think of "Mr. Tambourine Man" as more geared to other forms of mind alteration. To me the Dylan drinking album is "Blood on the Tracks." Also, the overlooked gem "Things have Changed" from the "Wonderboys" soundtrack."

Neil,

I contempplated the very verse you cite as my exemplar --hell, the whole damned song works so well -- but apropos of your theme, the "and you decked some fucking blackshirt who was cursing all the Yids" line won out for me.

Deborah,

Waits has so many drinking gems it was hard to select one. The record "Small Change" has several of the best, including your example, "Tom Traubert's Blues" and "Invitation to the Blues." As I say, it's a tough call with either he or Shane McGowan -- that's a whole lot of boozy brilliance.

[Sir Charles]

toast,

That's excellent. You share a birthday with my little sister who also has excellent musical taste. I have already thought of an appropriate March 13th musical salute to her, one which I know you will appreciate.

I was shocked to learn recently that Angus Young does not drink. That really makes no sense to me at all.

[drip]

Great songs. Let me add the C&W standard Webb Pierce's There Stands the Glass . My favorite version is by Ted Hawkins which I haven't found on the world wide juke box. This deficiency may cause me to figure out how to upload stuff because the man was a treasure.

And why do I always forget how great AC/DC is?

[MR Bill]

All wonderful, just throw in some Hank Williams III (who can kick his daddy's butt, and sounds just like Hank):
"My Drinking Problem Left Today"
She said she's gonna quit me,
If I didn't quit the booze.
So I just started drinkin' more,
To see if she would really choose.
And I have to hand it to that girl:
She meant every breath.
An' I'm glad she did, 'cause I was about,
To drink myself to death.

Because my drinkin' problem left today.
She packed up all her things and walked away.
Well, it looks like off the bottle now is where I'm gonna stay,
Because my drinkin' problem left today.

[Toast]

I was shocked to learn recently that Angus Young does not drink. That really makes no sense to me at all.

Brian probably makes up for it. We know Bon did.

[Toast]

I saw "The Replacements" live right around the time that "Waitress in the Sky" was released -- I share your guilty appreciation of it -- and, naturally, they were too drunk to perform well. Really, really, really, fucking drunk.

Here's a potential seed for a blog meme: Worst events in rock 'n' roll history. I'll start the bidding with "Paul Westerberg swearing off booze."

[low-tech cyclist]

"What's the Use of Getting Sober (When You Know You Will Be Drunk Again)" by Sparrow, the calypso great, back in the mid-1960s.

[bigbadwolf]

toast, if that was the cause of the decline, you may win with the opening bid. it's understandable on a personal level, given what happened to bob, but not so good for us.

i'd offer a similar bid: eric clapton gives up heroin. that didn't work out to well for us; we got a bad reggae cover, lay down sally, and (good lord) wonderful tonight. then he mostly turned into an archivist who reminds me of no one so much as wynton marsalis, an astonishing technical talent whose veneration for the form robs it of life.

mr. bill, when i heard years back that hank III had a record, i thought it was a marketing gimmick. i was very wrong. he is the real deal

[Sir Charles]

MR Bill and bbw,

Clearly it skips a generation.

Toast,

Although sobriety was bad for Westerburg, I wish Keith Moon had tried it.

drip,

I think it's hard for one to admit you liking ACDC because of their association with metal and morony (it is too a word). But Angus Young is really spectacular. It's funny but the one band I've heard that could sound like that and still get the cool kids and snobs (like moi) to like them was "The Cult."

[drip]

I've never had trouble admitting I like them. I have trouble remembering I like them. I have trouble admitting I like Queen.

[JMG]

Dear Sir Charles: No offense, but compiling a list of songs about alcohol while omitting C&W as a genre is a bit like compiling a list of current top major league ballplayers while omitting the Dominican Republic. You end up with a worthy list, but the next list to come along will kick its butt.
"She's Actin' Single, I'm Drinkin' Doubles."

PS: George Jones' WHOLE LIFE should be entered in this competition.

[Sir Charles]

JMG,

I totally agree. I'm not really a master of the genre, so I will have to leave it to others.

What really struck me is what a completely acceptable part of country music it is -- if you watch the Johnny Cash clip of Sunday Morning Coming Down, he is performing this abject tale on his network broadcast prime time TV show (which I can remember watching as a kid). Although there's shame in being a drunk, there's also no shame in it, or some such thing.

drip,

That Queen line is funny as hell.