Wednesday, June 16, 2010

DRINKING OUT OF A BROWN PAPER BAG


(Part Two Of The Top Ten Drinking & Driving Songs List)

See yesterday's post for part one-the driving songs...

Now when Stephen asked me for my drinking songs list, I had the opposite problem. Only ten songs? Shouldn’t we start with every Tom Waits and George Thororgood song?

And I also had some reservations-if I can remember the songs, was I really drinking properly?

Drinking songs can mean so many things. They can be the “mug raising and toasting” songs, or the “hard core let me sip whiskey while I ponder this latest misfortune” songs, or the “love ain’t working out and I’m sad” songs. Some of each made my list.

Once again, in alphabetical order:

American Pie-Don McLean

Comfortably Numb-Pink Floyd

Funky Ceili-Black 47

Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You-Tom Waits

I Don't Want To Go Home-Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes

Kiss Me, I'm Shitfaced-Dropkick Murphys

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer-George Thorogood And The Destroyers

Roadhouse Blues-The Doors

Shanty-Jonathan Edwards

That Woman's Got Me Drinking-Shane MacGowan And The Popes

And once again, there were songs that wound up not sitting at the bar.

Tequila!-The Champs
Too Drunk To F**k-Dead Kennedys
The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)-Tom Waits
Bad Liver And A Broken Heart-Tom Waits
Warm Beer And Cold Women-Tom Waits
I Drink Alone-George Thorogood
Rainy Day Women-Bob Dylan
Side two of Days Of Future Passed-The Moody Blues

One Friday night in 1979, my best friend JPH and I listened to that Moody Blues record (Side Two) from somewhere around 7pm until we passed out well after midnight, all the while drinking away, but each of us too lazy to change the record.

We heard "Nights In White Satin" over and over again, but I still love the record. And I still consider JPH my best friend even though we've got a country between us and now we only get drunk together every few years. Salud, JPH!

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like a list to me. When you've been drinking, sometimes anything sounds pretty good, but you got some definite hard core drinkin' material there.

    And I could certainly go for that Moody Blues record-- that's more my speed.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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  2. Thanks, gentlemen!

    For both lists, I struggled with listing what I actually listened to while drinking or driving, or the songs that I think best fit the activity.

    I tried to do a blend, as I don't drink as much anymore, so I'd be lying if I said I ever remember drinking to the Dropkick Murphys song, but it'd be a good one to drink to!

    Actually, Alex, the Pink Floyd choice usually involved a controlled substance that was not available in a liquid form....

    And Lee, if I had attempted a classical list, "Days Of Future Passed" would have been on it.

    LC

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  3. TODDFAN DISCMAN ~
    What, no Todd for drinkin' purposes?!

    A good list, Bro! Except I gotta say that any song that includes bagpipes or anything that sounds like bagpipes will certainly FORCE a man to drink if he hadn't already been intending to. Yow!

    Incidentally, I really, really dug "Shanty". I might have to borrow that album from you again sometime and give it another listen. But "Shanty" had a kind of "Rocky Raccoon-ish" quality to it that made me think I would probably play and drink my way through that song more often on "the morning after" than during "the night before". (Yeah, I used to have "a good buzz on" and those were the good ol' daze!) [;-))

    I'm pretty sure I used to have that Southside Johnny album, too. And ain't it funny that Dylan and the boys were absolutely loaded when they recorded "Rainy Day Women"? Yeah, that certainly came across in the music.

    ~ "Lonesome Dogg" McD-Fens

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  4. Looking forward to your Movie Dirty Dozen on Monday!

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  5. I saw Tom Waits on your list and I had to click "follow".

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