This special edition is dedicated to the Brussels Beer Challenge with songs about alcohol and drinking.
| TITLE | ARTIST | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|
| Dave Allen at Large [Irish Gnome] | Alan Hawkshaw | Theme song of “Dave Allen at Large”, an Irish comedian who always had his glass of whiskey on stage (see best of series on YouTube). William Alan Hawkshaw was a British composer and performer, particularly of library music used as themes for films and television programs. |
| Handbags and Gladrags | Big George | Big George’s version of “Handbags and Gladrags”, written in 1967 by Mike d’Abo is the theme song of the BBC Two series The Office. |
| Where Everybody Knows Your Name | Gary Portnoy | “Where Everybody Knows Your Name”, also credited as “Theme from Cheers (Where Everybody Knows Your Name)”, is the theme song from the television sitcom Cheers, about a Boston bar, as well as the debut single for Gary Portnoy. |
| Chef un p’tit verre on a soif | Grand Jojo | The honorary citizen of Brussels: “Lange Jojo” or “Grand Jojo” (born Jules Jean Vanobbergen (6 July 1936 – 1 December 2021)) is the Belgian singer-songwriter of “Chef, un p’tit verre, on a soif” (Bartender, a little drink, we are thirsty). |
| Drunken Sailor | Ferre Grignard | Ferre Grignard, (13 March 1939 – 8 August 1982) a Belgian skiffle-singer from Antwerp, Belgium, singing “what shall we do with the drunken sailor”, a 19th Century sea shanty. |
| Zeven Dagen Lang | Bots | “Zeven dagen lang” or ‘Seven days long’ is based on a Briton ‘cider song’ from the late ninteeen twenties and reworked by the Dutch band Bots, released in 1976. It is made into a kind of protest song … one of the lines translate into “what shall we drink seven days long, there is enough for everyone hence we drink together …” |
| People Everyday | Arrested Development | “People Everyday” uses the chorus and basic structure of Sly & the Family Stone’s 1969 hit “Everyday People”, with new verses written by lead singer Todd Thomas (“Speech”). One of the lines state “Drinking the 40 oz”. |
| Long Tall Glasses | Leo Sayer | This is certainly the most famous song about a hungry hobo who has to dance for his dinner. He insists he can’t dance, but the hosts have a hard-and-fast rule: before you can eat, you gotta dance like Fred Astaire. |
| Beer For My Horses (ft. Willie Nelson) | Toby Keith | When Toby Keith worked as a kid for a rodeo company, he saw men raise their glass and say: ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses, bartender.’ Willie Nelson joined in singing the Texas verse. |
| Whisky In The Jar | Thin Lizzy | Traditionally an Irish folk song, this was covered by The Dubliners in 1967 before Thin Lizzy rocked it up in 1972 for their breakthrough hit. The song tells the story of a bandit in southwest Ireland who robs an English Army Officer to keep his girlfriend Molly happy after she promises to love him forever. She then betrays him and the young man is taken to jail. |
| Have A Drink On Me | AC/DC | This song is about a guy trying to buy his buddy a drink, which might seem like poor taste considering their lead singer, Bon Scott, drank himself to death just months before the album was released. His replacement, Brian Johnson, stayed true to Scott’s form by writing about topics consistent with AC/DC’s ethos, and that includes drinking. Many bands would have released a heartfelt ballad to honour a fallen member, but that’s not the AC/DC way – Bon would have wanted them to rock out, and that’s exactly what they kept doing. |
| Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me) | Paul McCartney & Wings | The famed Spanish artist Pablo Picasso died at the age of 91 on April 8, 1973. News of the legendary Spaniard’s passing reached Paul McCartney, when he was in Jamaica. While having dinner there with Paul McCartney, Dustin Hoffman told the story of the death of Pablo Picasso and his famous last words, “Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore.” Paul had a guitar with him and immediately played an impromptu chord progression while singing the quote. Thus, “Picasso’s Last Words” was born, later recorded and added to the album Band On The Run. |
| Cracklin’ Rose | Neil Diamond | The stories about how Diamond was inspired to write the song are apocryphal. “Crackling Rosé” is the name of an inexpensive sparkling wine once produced by Andres Wines of British Columbia, Canada, which was popular among the Indigenous population. One story suggests that Diamond heard a story about a native Canadian tribe while doing an interview in Toronto, Canada—the tribe had more men than women, so the lonely men of the tribe would sit around the fire and drink their wine together—which inspired him to write the song. |
| The Bottle (ft. Brian Jackson) | Gil Scott-Heron | “The Bottle” is Gil Scott-Heron’s social commentary on alcohol abuse. He discusses the destructive power of addiction and how it can ruin people’s lives. Scott-Heron took inspiration from observing and talking to alcoholics outside a liquor store called the Log Cabin in Northern Virginia, near Washington DC. Every day, they lined up to exchange their empty bottles for a discount on their next purchase. |
| I’ll Never Drink Again | Alexander Curly | Dutch singer Alexander Curly wrote “I’ll Never Drink Again” after having a hangover while staying in Bangkok at the time he was steward for KLM airways. |
| Rehab | Amy Winehouse | “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse is about Winehouse’s refusal to attend an alcohol rehabilitation centre after her management team encouraged her to go. |
| Closing Time | Leonard Cohen | “Closing Time” by Leonard Cohen, released in 1992, starts off as an euphoric track about a wild party. As the song goes on, the scene evolves from the closing of the bar, to the concluding of a relationship, to the end of life. |
Sources
The information sources of the song facts include, but are not limited to, Wikipedia, songfacts.com, discogs.com, secondhandsongs.com, YouTube and artists’ related websites.
