From the king of the lighthearted little ditty, Tom T. Hall,
comes this silly little ode to the brewski. Drink up! No one, but no one is as qualified to sing a drinking
song as Mr. Shane MacGowan. And lucky for us the YouTube uploader has created a clip with the lyrics, as ol' Shane ain't the easiest fellow to understand. Surely the best as well as the bleakest song about a
hangover ever written. This song is heavily associated with country royalty George Jones, but here's the original recording from the Big Bopper.
Some unexpected sound effects in here! Best line: "my heart is pumping sorrow through my veins".
Bumble Bee says that if his gal comes back, he won't drink any more, but... I don't believe him.
Not a whole lotta lyrics to this one, mostly it's just "drink,
drink, drink, drink, drink!" But hey, that's about enough! And that is some stomping harp blowing, right there. Mmm-hmm. The spry old Sam Chatmon, with an excellent suggestion!
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Man, you couldn't get a song about teenage drinking on
the radio today, and that's for damn sure. But I remember this one from my youth: got a lot of airplay down in Alabama. Jim starts out this tune by informing us that he's got quite
the hangover, but for him, it's worth it. He had a mighty fine time down in Juarez! A little of the ol' Irish scat singing in this one... or is that
Gaelic they break into every now and then? Vintage calypso. This tune was covered by many, many
artists, most of them Yankees affecting a Trinidad accent, but here's the real thing, the original, from Lord Invader. Earlier Jimmy told us he was drunk, now he ain't drunk...
well, you be the judge. Nice little tune, Dick, but I'll pass on the cocktail.
And here's Merle again, who, like any self-respecting
country singer, does a lot of drinking to help forget that certain someone. Of course, it usually doesn't work... but hey, you get a song out of it. And that's good. This man, Mr. Herman E. Johnson, with his gloriously out-of-tune guitar, delivers a curiously mysterious message: compelling and timeless in its stark and powerful simplicity.
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