Guest Post Thursday #7: Top Ten Booze Songs II

Another very special guest joins us today for the latest edition of Guest Post Thursday... it's C from Sun Dried Sparrows. I feel especially privileged to have C here, since she's struggling with the older blogger's blog over at her own place and drafting in a few fine guest posts of her own. (I've promised to return the favour, so who knows, you may see me guesting over there soon.)

And Rigid Digit before her, C is hitting the bottle...

There are three good reasons why I shouldn't be here with my Top Ten Booze songs (a continuation of Rigid Digit's excellent guest post on these esteemed pages):

1) I can't even get it together enough to write on my own blog right now,

2) I'm a total lightweight when it comes to drinking, and

c) I can't do numerical lists....

But if there's one thing we've learned so far in this truly horrible year, it's that life is full of surprises.

With huge thanks to Rol for being our most generous host and to Rigid Digit for getting in the first round, here are ten more songs about drinking, in no particular order, which I really must assemble before that small glass of Prosecco goes straight to my head.

10.  Emiliana Torrini - Unemployed In Summertime

It's not strictly about boozing but, with its opening line of "Let's get drunk on Saturday..." I couldn't resist it.  The lovely Emiliana Torrini takes us back to the tipsy, carefree Summers of our youth in this joyful ode to friendship and, as she puts it so charmingly, "playing silly buggers".  I mean, who hasn't stayed awake 'til the morning with make-up all over their face at one time or another after a few too many ciders?  

9. Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Summer Wine

I love Nancy and Lee; I could get legless on Lee's voice alone.  'Summer Wine' appears to be all about intoxication, seduction and then being royally stitched up by one's so-called lover - after all their amorous shenanigans she only goes and steals his money and his belongings!  Seems some people will do anything for a pair of silver spurs but I hear they're going for stupid amounts on eBay.

8. Saint Etienne - Bar Conscience

I have this track tucked away on the B-side of the single 'Heart Failed In The Back Of A Taxi' and I've no idea if it's actually about drinking or not as it's an instrumental.  But with Sarah's sighs, some weird and wonderful electronic sounds and the way it ebbs and flows, I'm happy to imagine that the bar in the title is in a subterranean club down a seedy city back street, where eccentric creatures of the night gather after hours to drink Absinthe and whisky.  Please don't tell me it's about scrupulous barristers!

7. Genesis - Twilight Alehouse

A bit of a surprise, this one, as my personal pre-punk soundtrack comprised little more than Abba and Donny Osmond, but I have Mr SDS to thank for introducing me to Peter Gabriel era (important to make that distinction) Genesis.  Apparently, Mr Gabriel and his theatrical persona had such an effect on him as a 17-year old that he even wanted to adopt the same hairstyle...

This was the B-side to the 1974 Genesis single 'I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe') but I'm reliably informed that it was originally released on a flexi-disc which came as a freebie when joining the Genesis Unofficial Fan Club, aka 'The Hogweed Youth Movement'.  I would join that club on the strength of the name alone.

6. Sham 69 - Hurry Up Harry

Surely there must be some songs about drinking and pubs from my early punk days, I said to myself the other day while contemplating this Top Ten.  I couldn't come up with any...   And then, I woke up the next morning with a very persistent line going through my head.

  "We're going down the pub..."

Oh, of course, it's only bleedin' Jimmy Pursey, innit!

I remember seeing this performance on Top of The Pops with Jimmy looking very dapper in his bow tie.  Unfortunately I also remember when he surprised us all by expressing himself quite differently through the medium of dance a few years later...

5. The Mofos - Supercharged On Alcohol

Another instrumental but there's no ambiguity in the title of this one.  Surely the aural equivalent of a high speed chase involving leather-clad bikers, gun-toting maverick cops and, of course, vehicles crashing inexplicably into piles of empty cardboard boxes.

4. Eric Burdon & War - Spill The Wine

Hypnotic, funky and pretty intoxicating in its own way, I love this song from 1970.  It's interesting to note that when Eric Burdon first got together with black LA band War in the late '60s and played numerous live gigs around California, it would have been quite a bold political statement as this was right in the middle of the 'Black Panther' era.  'Spill The Wine' featured on their debut album 'Eric Burdon Declares War' and was released as a single in the US and several other countries where it became a hit - but, for some reason, not in the UK.

3. The Dead Kennedys - Too Drunk To Fuck

How could I possibly NOT include this?!  Here's a song which tells it like it is and warns of the obvious perils of drinking sixteen beers.  I imagine fifteen beers would produce the same result to be honest, but I'm not prepared to test out the theory.  This catchy single with its surfy guitar lick (sounding a bit like the B52s on speed) made it to No. 36 in the UK charts in 198, in spite of being banned by BBC Radio 1 and having several stores refuse to stock it.  The Dead Kennedys responded thoughtfully by supplying a sticker for shops to use, which read:

"Caution: You are the victim of yet another stodgy retailer afraid to warp your mind by revealing the title of this record so peel slowly and see..."

2. Nouvelle Vague - Too Drunk To Fuck

Apologies for repetition but I couldn't include the Dead Kennedys' original without its perfect counterpart cover version from French outfit Nouvelle Vague.  Their characteristic lounge treatment with its bossa nova rhythm and breathy, flirtatious female vocals from Camille give it a whole new slant.

1. The Newtown Neurotics - Licensing Hours

The Newtown Neurotics have a very special place in my heart.  Once upon a time (the late '70s), in a mysterious land not far from Harlow New Town, we all used to hang out together. We frequented our little local venue, sometimes 2 or 3 nights a week, where almost everyone was in a punk band.  It became my spiritual home in a way, and spawned many a musician and band who went on to do greater things; one of those was the nascent Newtown Neurotics.  I remember well the night that Steve Drewett and the late Colin Dredd spray-painted silver anarchy 'A' signs on the blazers that my schoolfriends and I were wearing, not long after we started going down there.  Steve with his long curly blonde hair, Colin with the biggest, warmest smile. So many memories are wrapped up in that era and hearing the Newtown Neurotics again brings them all back.   Reflecting on it last night I concluded that, in spite of school, it was pretty much the happiest time of my life.  

'Licensing Hours' is classic early Newtown Neurotics and includes an inspired line in response to an over-zealous pub landlord: 

"I realise this ain't a doss-house and I do have a home to go to..."

And on that note, it must be last orders!

Thank you for listening.

C

Thanks again to C for another fine selection of booze songs. Anyone up for a third round? Or anything else you may wish to contribute.

Guest Post Thursday will continue next week... but stay tuned, because we'll also have a very special Guest Post on Monday of next week. Who? Why? All will be revealed...