Sunday, January 29, 2012

Music Notes: Thorogood’s Drinking Song, “One Bourbon, one Scotch, one Beer”



George Thorogood’s song “One Bourbon, one Scotch, one Beer” is my favorite drinking song.  It has a lot.  It has a blues guitar with just enough distortion to make it dirty and nasty – just like good blues is supposed to be played.  And, his voice.  Damn.  You get the sense that this dude just took a good swig right before singing the song.  Hell, you can almost smell the alcohol on his breath through the music.

And, the story – yes, the story makes the song work.  A dude is down on his luck and does not have a job.  His landlady harasses him for the rent.  He explains that he has been looking but has found nothing.  He goes to a friend’s house to ask to stay, but the friend’s wife is “funny” about that arrangement, and the answer is “no.”  So he decides to tell his landlady that he finally found a job to buy him time to pack up all his stuff in his room.  He packs up all his stuff and leaves out the back door.  Then, he goes to the bar and asks his bartender for the title of the song.

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