Bottoms Up! - drinking song compilation

[dreamshark]

I've pared it down to 23 songs, burned some copies, and designed some CD labels. I'll bring a few to the pool party in case somebody wants to do a trade.

Here's my songlist:

1) Bottle of Wine : Tom Paxton
2) Rye Whisky : Thomas Fraser
3) Drink! : They Might Be Giants
4) Cool Water : Marty Robbins
5) Hold Muh Beer, Watch This! : Matt Wahl
6) Let the Cowboy Dance : Michael Martin Murphy
7) Drunk and Disgusting : Marques Bovre & the Evil Twins
8) Honky Tonk Blues : Hank Williams
9) Get Me To The Church on Time : My Fair Lady Soundtrack
10) Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail : Michael Martin Murphy
11) Early Mornin' Rain : Peter, Paul & Mary
12) I Can't Find the Doorknob : Jimmy & Johnny
13) Beer Drinkin' Woman : Gary Primich
14) Three Drunken Maidens : Maddy Prior & Tim Hart
15) If I Were a Bell : Guys & Dolls Soundtrack
16) I'll Be Your Baby Tonight : Geoff & Maria Muldaur
17) My Old Kentucky Home : Ry Cooder
18) Mountain Tay : Irish Rovers
19) Bootleg John : Tangled Roots
20) Five Nights Drunk : Todd Mack
21) Alabama Song : The Doors
22) Rosin the Beau : Jed Marum
23) Drinking Song from La Traviata

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Are we trading drinking song compilations? I've got "I'd Like To Quit Drinking (But I Live Over A Bar)" and other gems.

K. [I'd love a copy of yours]

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, let's do it! This is actually a spinoff of a Marscon programming item where people make compilations CDs on a prearranged theme and bring them to swap. I encourage people who are going to Marscon to participate in that. That said, I'm now shamelessly ripping off the the programming idea and extending it to Saturday's pool party. I think I now have 6 copies of my CD, with more on the way. I love my compilation. I could have wedged a few more songs onto the CD, but 23 just feels like the right number.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Hmm... now we have to preregister our Marscon compilations!

Works for me. I'll run off a few copies of mine for the pool party.

Returned challenge: I have two of the songs on this CD. Can you guess which two? One should be easy, the other might be trickier. Hint: Dave van Ronk also does a version.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

You only HAVE two of my 23 songs? Really? That's amazing, considering that there is quite a bit of overlap in our taste in music. Or did you mean that you only have two of them on your drinking song collection?

Three Drunken Maidens, obviously. That's almost certainly NOT the song that Dave van Ronk covers. Just based on his style, I'd guess either Rye Whiskey or Old Kentucky Home. No wait! I know he does a cover of Light My Fire, so I'm changing my guess to Alabama Song

[For everybody who is scratching their heads and thinking, "I know The Doors, but I'm not familiar with that one," yes you are. It's the one that starts, "Show me the way to the next whisky bar..." And the version of Old Kentucky Home that Ry Cooder does has mutated quite a bit from the original, prominently featuring "turpentine and dandelion wine."]

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Now that you've pointed it out, I may have a couple more, including the PP&M, and perhaps covers of a few more. And you're right on both guesses: Three Drunken Maidens and Alabama Song.

Having started to redo the two I talked about earlier, I discover an inadvertent overlap, Beer Barrel Polka (though I think it's from two different albums, which is why I missed it). I may just crunch the two down to one for mle292 trade purposes. It'll save me a lot of work...

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

If you're redoing your mix, I have a request. I don't know if you have it, but if you don't, who would? Richard wants the drinking song from an old operetta called "The Student Prince."

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I don't, alas, have this. You might ask calimac or asimovberlioz (neither of whom will be at Marscon or the Pool Party, but what the heck).

All the extant Blackmore's Night just arrived, and they're terrific! I may slip in a song or two from them. Crunching down to one CD will be tricky. As usual. (I want to end with Last Call AND end with The Drunkard. We'll see.)

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Early Morning Rain is a drinking song?

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah. The last stanza is something like, "This old airport's got me down/it ain't no earthly good to me/cause I'm stuck here on the ground/cold and drunk as I can be..." It seems pretty clear from context that he drank up his ticket money in the airport bar, and is now sitting there, drunk and forlorn, watching his flight leave without him.

I started out with songs that actually talk about the act of drinking in a simple and straightforward way, with lines like, "Drink, drink, drink...", then moved on to bar life and then on to consequences of drinking too much. This is one of the "consequences" songs. As is "Can't Find the Doorknob." Admittedly, "Doorknob" doesn't exactly MENTION drinking, but I'm not buying the narrator's explanation that he can't find the doorknob because it's too dark in the hall. Yeah, right.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

All right then. I missed that line. I like the melody so much I didn't notice the message.

Looks like a good collection/selection of songs. :)

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Although it honestly meets my criteria for inclusion, I picked this one over some of the others purely because the melody is so pretty, and it's a nice break from some of the more breathless rockabilly tunes.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

It does seem like most drinking songs are of the rowdier variety. I like the melody for 'Bottle of Wine' a lot, too, though.

[laurel]

I'd love a copy; I have various mixes I could trade (assuming I can find any that aren't Christmas ones, I think you already have all of those).

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

We do have at least 2 of your Christmas ones (which we love). You might find it fun to put together a drinking mix - drinking songs are so much fun, and so diverse. But if you're not in the mood for that type of diversion, I'll trade you a copy in return for borrowing some DVDs of "The Wire."

I'd like to use this as an excuse to walk over to your house some evening, since you live just far enough away to make a pleasant walk. When would be a good time?

LADY......

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

you crack me up!

Re: LADY......

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :-)

[mle292.livejournal.com]

Aw yeah! Count me in please!

If I don't make it to the pool party, and you don't make it to Marscon, I'll bring some CDs to Minicon.