Nov 182011
"not eligible"
Ahhh Friday… As we run down the clock to Happy Hour, I would like to hear suggestions for songs which mention specific brands of beer, wine, and liquor.
- A few rules:
Once the song is used, it is off the table. So, for George Thorogood’s “I Drink Alone” you can pick Budweiser or Jim Beam but not both. - I’m looking for brands, not types of cocktails, so answers like the Harvey Wallbanger and the Pousse Café do not count.
As always, one entry per post.
And let me suggest that this would be a golden opportunity for lurker to emerge from the shadows and claim the championship belt, if only fleetingly.
I begin with the only Humble Pie song that I really like: “30 Days in the Hole” – New Castle Brown.
Before we begin, can I clarify that you’re looking brands, not types — so Absolut would qualify, but vodka would not?
Yes, product placement
“Ripple” by the Grateful Dead…oh, wait…
“Midnight Choir (Mogen David)” by Larry Gatlin
Gallo Wine in The Replacements’ “Red Red Wine.”
The fairly tasty Basil Hayden bourbon is featured in Fountains of Wayne’s Red Dragon Tattoo.
Basil Hayden whiskey in “Red Dragon Tattoo” by Foutains of Wayne
Why you S.O.B.!
Cuervo Gold in Steely Dan’s Hey Nineteen.
Johnny Walker Red in “Poison Whiskey” Lynyrd Skynyrd
Is this your first post Rex? If so, welcome!
Ronrico 151 proof rum – Georgia Satellites “Railroad Steel”
Rex made his debut post a while back with an all-important SEGER entry! It’s that follow-up comment that really breaks the ice, though.
Whoa, I’m not a drunk as I thought yet either!
Pabst Blue Ribbon by the Get Up Kids
Damn it! What was I thinking holding onto PBR (Blue Chevrolet by the Beat Farmers)?
Johnny Walker Red is also mentioned in The Band’s 4% Pantomime:
We went up to Griffith Park
With a fifth of Johnny Walker red
And smashed it on a rock and wept
While the old couple looked on into the dark
Speaking of which, I wanted some scotch recently and bought a bottle of Red. My god it was awful. Is it just me, or is that stuff poison?
Bourbon = good
Scotch = bad. very, very bad.
Only time I can remember having that stuff was one time at the beach in the mid-80s when I chipped in for “beer” and they somehow must have misheard me and got Coors instead. Luckily the JW was on hand as a birthday present from someone, so I just sprinkled a bit in everything I drank rather than take the chance of being sober whilst dealing with people who drink Coors.
Blended Scotch is pretty low on my list unless the pickings are really slim and sobriety is not an option, but sometimes a single malt can hit the spot. I think Irish Whiskey is about the safest thing to order without knowing a brand.
I am pretty ignorant about Scotch, so I just tend to buy Glenlivet.
Favorite Irish whisky- Jameson
Favorite bourbon- Knob Creek
You advertise your whiskey heavily enough, and I will probably drink it!
That’s a pretty good rule of thumb about the Irish Whiskey, but I can’t get on board with the single malts. I have a few friends who are in to the Islay single malts and that stuff tastes like I imagine iodine would after having been funneled through Sean Connery’s ass crack.
“I’m drinking Miller by the millions”–Young Fresh Fellows in “Beer Money.” “Bud by the barrell” too, but that brand has already been mentioned.
“Existential Blues” by Tom “T-bone” Stankas mentions Yukon Jack.
I will never drink again.
A favorite if I’m having a beverage mid-afternoon: Jameson and Earl Grey tea.
Peat to scotch is like hops to pale ale, it’s probably acquired over time as taste buds get bored.
Corona by the Minutemen
Is Mr. Connery’s ass crack where peat comes from?
Why thank you sir!
Thank you, mockcarr, for getting back to playing the game and not sickening me with all this Scotch vs Whiskey vs Bourbon bullshit! Next thing you know Links Linkerson will actually log on for the first time to throw in his 2 cents about all those fancy-pants microbrews.
Johnny Russell: Red Necks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer. Didn’t specify Pabst, but the Blue Ribbon reference should be enough.
Shoot! Didn’t realize Pabst was off the table
Damn it. That was my first thought.
The Pleasure Seekers “What A Way To Die”
“When I start my drinking
my baby throws a fit
So I just blitz him outta my mind
with seventeen bottles of Schlitz”
Post of the week!
Powers is the only Irish whiskey I’ll drink. It’s the best… and the cheapest!
Tom Waits: Nighthawk Postcards “an Olympia sign winked through a torn yellow shade”
Powers used to be but at least around here the price started creeping up so it’s just about the same as Bushmills or Jamisons.
Bronzed Nordic God keeps his eyes on the prize!
Tone Loc “Funky Cold Medina”
“I got Spuds McKenzie, Alex from Stroh’s”
Rock and Rye as mentioned in “Halfstep Mississippi Uptown Toodleoo” by the Grateful Dead
“Tanqueray” by Dr. Feelgood
But is that a brand name or a type?
Suggs “Alcohol”
“Rum, Pernod, Pink Gin, He’ll drink anything
So long as his troubles disappear”
From Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother:
Well, you know, he sure likes to drink that Lone Star beer.
Bock Town Hall
I just checked and you’re right, it’s a type. I can’t believe more than one company makes that.
“What’s The Word? Thunderbird” by The Casual-Aires
Why? Because it’s classy! Just ask James Mason:
http://youtu.be/0xY7mBQrzXU
Getting Queen Freddie out of the way:
“She keeps Moet et Chandon in her pretty cabinet”
aloha
LD
Seriously, people, no Jack Daniels? I can’t think of one myself and I can’t take the suspense of waiting for it anymore.
The Night They Choked Old Dixie Down
They were talking about skunked New Orleans beer.
“Frank’s Wild Years” – Tom Waits – “…picked up a couple of Mickey’s Big Mouths, drank ’em in the car on the way to the Shell station…”
I thought of a real one, The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill by Husker Du. Heaven Hill is a rail bar brand of bourbon, so it sounds like she was better suited to hanging out with the Replacements.
I’m waiting for a deluge of Kid Rock lyrics
aloha
LD
“Coolsville” by Rickie Lee Jones “So now it’s J & B, and me…”
Nice, we’ll get our brewmaster right on that!
probably half a dozen rap songs about brandy alone.
cdm, your wait is over: “Jack Daniels, If You Please” by David Allen Coe
http://youtu.be/B1sDTTRjncY
Sorry for posting two in a row, but I didn’t want to leave the man in suspense…
Pince-Nez time, that was a Kinks song from Muswell Hillbillies (live version Everybody’s In Show Biz)
Iron City Beer — Foundry Joe by The Swingers on the Big Hits of Mid-America Vol. III album — a soundtrack to many college parties in Minnesota.
If you’ve never heard it — it’s an energetic little number by a hardworking Chicago band.
http://youtu.be/qltQHoRal7U
“I’ve Drank Every Beer” by my old pals, The Churchkeys – Based on Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere”…Thankfully, one of the members posted an acoustic rehearsal tape version of this live fave….Some of these brands have been mentioned, but it also knocks off most others that might come to mind:
http://youtu.be/jS1S3I5bCUU
Last Beer-Swillin’ Man Standing!
She keeps the Moet & Chandon in her pretty cabinet.
Killer Queen.
That one was used already, Chickie.
Crash Test Dummies “When You Go with the Artists” mentions
“Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, the whole single malt family”.
Mentioned in the scotch/whisky/bourbon derail but here’s the song reference.
They make a decent cheap one with the brand name Feckin. Just say “Gimme a Feckin’ Irish Whisky, you”.
Cristal poppin’ in the stretch Navigator
–Ignition (Remix) by R. Kelly
Beastie Boys “Body Movin'”
“Like a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape, I’m fine like wine when I start to rap.”
“Grab your Stella (Artois) and fly…”
Amy Winehouse “You Know that I’m No Good”
Elliott Smith “St Ides Heaven”
Everything is exactly right
When I walk around here drunk at night
With an open container from 7-11
In St. Ides heaven
To pince nez myself, it’s “No More Alcohol”, and Suggs quotes the Kinks line in his song.
Whiskey in the Jar
adopts pince nez (for the first time) concerning Humble Pie, it’s Newcastle Brown, as in big town up on Tyneside, NE England, the beverage is known in common parlance as Nukey Brown, (as in Brand New Key). It’s quite a heavy beast, a bit like relatively strong bitter mixed with treacle.
just re-read the blurb and realised that one doesn’t count, whoopsy-daisy
Really? That’s disappointing. I always thought Newcastle was the town and Newcastle Brown Ale was made there, and that if you drank too much of it, it would smack you down.
Later in the day my homeboy Dre came through with a gang of Tanqueray!
aloha
LD
Ricard mentioned in the Claim’s “Mike the Bike.” Not only did Mike the Bike like bikes, but he also drank rum and Ricard.
Or Crystal.
Beastie Boys “Brass Monkey”
M.C.A. with the bottle – D. rocks the can
Adrock gets nice with Charlie Chan
We’re offered Moet – we don’t mind Chivas
Wherever we go with bring the Monkey with us
Hi CDM, Newcastle is the town, Nukey is an abbreviation. It tastes best while wearing only a t-shirt on a night out on the town in January or February.
As the next president of the United States would say, “Ooops”, I didn’t see that was Moet was used.
New one: You’re a Good Man Albert Brown (Curse You Red Barrel) by the Dukes of Stratosphere. Whatney’s Red Barrel.
Scariest tube ride ever: being in a packed subway car with dozens of drunk Newcastle United supporters right after their team had lost the 1999 F.A. Cup.
50 Cent “In Da Club”, “Gonna party / like it’s your birthday / Drink Bacardi / like it’s your birthday”
Busta Rhymes, Pass The Courvoisier
LMS!
Lou Reed mentions Dubonnet in “Berlin.”
People actually like those guys?
So is Newcastle Brown like Iron City there? Iron City is this radioactive piss from Pittsburgh, and it both of your parents weren’t from Pittsburgh and drank that stuff while you were conceived, you’ll probably die if you drink it.
Is Newcastle Brown like that? Cuz that shit’s expensive here, and the clear bottles and utter unremarkability of it tend to keep me away.
Have you heard Cream’s Falstaff Beer commercial?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aCNwukIe78
That just made me remember an old post by the long lost Sally Cinnamon:
https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/index.php/title-19/
Posting old RTH links just reminds me of how much better it used to be before it sold out.
How about whatever rap song that mentions Hennessy by whatever rap group does it. We all know it must exist, I just don’t want to prove it.
I know, it’s terrible what’s happened to RTH. The formerly righteous and pure neighborhood allows one prog-lover to come in and it all starts goes to hell, right? Property values start dropping, there are old King Crimson and Gentle Giant albums scattered about in the unmown yards, Roger Dean graffiti on every blank wall, and loud mellotrons keep you awake all night. Would you allow your daughter to marry one?
I always thought of it as a pretty good brown ale (& I can be pretty snooty which it comes to ales); not the best I’ve ever had, but certainly not equivalent to the radioactive Pittsburgh swill you’ve described.
Brand name pince nez; it’s “Watneys”
http://www.brewpalace.com/Images/Beer/Watneys-RedBarrel.jpg
More beer companies should go the knights of the round table route and refer to the slaking of thirst…verily!
Watneys Red Barrel used to be sold in four and seven pint cans, the “Party Four” and the “Party Seven”.
It was not well known for its flavour – probably the best thing which could be said about it was that it was very good value for money.
A highlight of any British teenage party in the seventies and early eighties was when everything except for the Cinzano had been consumed and thoughts would turn to how to get into the only thing left, which was almost always a Party Four, or, if you were very lucky, a Party Seven.
The tins were nothing if not robust. They had no ring pull (nor any self-operating entry mechanism), and the metal of the can was, if memory serves, about a quarter of an inch thick. They were never prepared to yield their contents easily. You could drop one from the top of a tower block onto the concrete of the car park below several times in succession without making the slightest dent in the can.
The person whose parents had gone on holiday would have to find the man of the house’s toolbox and hope that it contained a very big, pointy screwdriver and a really solid mallet or hammer. Whoever was most desperate would go outside and set about trying to physically smashing the top of the can to pieces while retaining as much of the liquid as possible. It was always useful to ensure that at least one panel beater was invited along, particularly if they brought their welding equipment with them.
You would occasionally find unopened ones abandoned in the street, bent slightly out of shape after four or five hours of concentrated effort before being abandoned at sunrise, possibly left in the hope that a passing tank would run over it to at least make a couple of small indentations in readiness for the next time teenagers might be desperate enough to be prepared to drink the stuff.
Kaiser Chiefs “What Did I Ever Give You”
Head down, keep your head down
Keep the rent down all the time
Hold tight, to your Red Stripe
Why do we fight every time?
For the money, Newcastle isn’t worth it and when I do encounter it at parties, about half the time it has a metallic bitter aftertaste.
What made Watneys Red Barrel known to American ears was the famous Monty Python “travel agent” sketch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz2LaJOVAiA
That’s exactly where I first heard of it.
Okay, I’ve waited long enough to drop this one:
“Fourteen hours later I was down in Adelaide
looking through the want ads, sipping Foster’s in the shade.”
– WZevon, “Mr. Bad Example”
aloha
LD
Only if she liked Post Punk.
Ok, I’m kickin’ it Old School with some Elton John. From “Social Disease,”
“Juiced on Mateus and just hang loose…I get bombed for breakfast in the morning, I get bombed for dinner time, too…”
Damn it! This evening I was trying to remember the song that mentioned Mateus.
Just about every region of the UK has a traditional drink derived from things which 12th century peasants found growing in hedgerows around the locality and eventually managed to get used to the taste of. Most people originating from outside of about a thirty mile radius of where they are brewed consider them to be revolting indigestible muck, and quite a few of them are indeed the sort of thing one could spend a lifetime trying to acquire a taste for.
The Hold Steady, “Party Pit”
“she’s gonna walk around and drink some more
so i walked across that grain belt bridge
in a brand new Minneapolis”
It’s one of my favorite advertising signs ever: http://www.citynoise.org/upload/16885.jpg
Marah, “It’s Only Money, Tyrone”. Among the debris washed out of the flooding river is Colt .45.
Oh, and to be the LMS at 12:30 Sunday afternoon from a Friday Happy Hour leaves me feeling pretty woozy.
“I’m drinking Heartbreak Motor Oil and Bombay Gin” from
“I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” by Warren Zevon
“I’m drinking Heartbreak Motor Oil and Bombay Gin” from
“I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” by Warren Zevon
I don’t know how this first posted just now under Happiness Stan’s Newcastle Ale comment, but it did. Anyway to get rid of that?
That’s a terrible commercial. I never lived in a region where Falstaff was popular, but that commercial is so bad I’d probably have hated it on principal.
“Any way”, I meant to write.
Jake & Elwood: Then she pulled out my Jim Beam, and to her surprise it was every bit as hard as my Canadian Club
Stan, I think they’ve just missed their market, for I believe that packaging idea makes a lot more sense in the US where everyone will soon be required to have a working, loaded pistol at all times. The added benefit would be the unintended injuries and fatalities of those who would drink it by people trying to shoot the barrel open.
Yes, I think it should always be preceeded with “bleedin'” spoken in Eric Idle dialect; sort of like Olde English 800 malt liquor can never be anything but “The Power”.
I believe Jefferson Airplane has an instrumental titled “Wild Turkey”. Last Man Stumbling.
“House Of The Gods” by The Pogues
“Finally found a place they could never reach
Sipping Singha beer on Pattaya Beach
Singha beer don’t ask no questions
Singha beer don’t tell no lies”
Great song – a young Suzi Quatro – it also mentions Stroh’s – “the temperature always stays the same on an ice cold bottle of Stroh’s”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddDHPWJIfEY