Pint of the Irish
Today is one of those rare days that two huge events take place on the same day and both can be interconnected if you are of the mind to.
The first Friday of March Madness is today and St. Patrick’s Day. Each a reason to celebrate and to enjoy your favorite refreshment while watching one or the other. Doesn’t happen often so don’t miss it.
Considering that one of my Final Four teams got beaten by some nerds from South Jersey, I will still watch and I will still celebrate.
How does this relate to music on this festive Friday you ask?
Simple. Irish music and imbibing go hand in hand. Considering most Irish music was written while the author was drinking, it’s only fitting I do a column on great Irish music and great getting high songs.
I will have to give you some background here. I have always thought I had some Irish blood in me because I like to drink and every time I hear something from Riverdance I get chills but that’s in my mind I am sure. From what 23Andme says, no Irish blood here. Balderdash!
I have this urge to enjoy Irish music so much that I tune into WFUV-FM in New York right after Sunday Mass and listen to Ceol na nGael ("Music of the Irish") all afternoon. You can definitely listen to the show online and I promise you they only play The Chieftains once an hour at most.
However, this column is about rock and roll and to start off my Irish/Drinking set list I am going to go to that classic Irish soul, Van Morrison. This Irish troubadour is a legend. A great storyteller and an artist that could care less about his audience and plays to make himself happy. If that is even possible. Yet, he has written some of the greatest songs of any generation and for that we can all be eternally grateful. While I could easily put “Into The Mystic” as my top Morrison song, I have chosen “TB Sheets”. It has a very spare sound but lyrically it is as sad a song as you may ever hear. Yet, the song deep down shows the singer’s love for his friend and his reticence about being there with her as well. Great song that gets zero airplay.
Another Irish band (that is not U2) is Thin Lizzy. Honestly, if you listened to most of their catalog you really would never know they were Irish at all. Phil Lynott sings like a lot of English/Irish singers, with very little accent and to top it all off, Lynott is black. The band had a slew of hits in the ‘70’s and early ‘80’s but, they never did a truly Celtic song except for their version of “Whiskey in the Jar” which is as close to Gaelic as they will come. Yet, my selection is “Dancing in the Moonlight” from their Bad Reputation album. Maybe not the greatest song ever written but, for me, it brings back some great memories of my early adulthood and some of the experiences I had.
I guess I am forced to put in a song or two by U2 since they really are the most famous and successful rock band ever to come out of Ireland. I always find it hard to dig deep in a catalog like U2’s to find a gem that has not been exposed all that much and the two songs I picked are standards by the band but if you can find the extended version of one and only listen to the live version of the other you will see what I see. The first song is “Two Hearts Beat As One”. The one thing Irish songwriters probably do better than anyone else is write an intense love song. This is your perfect example and if you can find the 12” version, download it or buy it. The second song is “One Tree Hill” from the Joshua Tree. It is a beautiful song and plays live better than on record. BTW, I think The Joshua Tree may be one of the 25 best albums ever recorded. Not a weak, filler song on this vinyl.
I promised drinking songs and the glory of getting wasted and here we go:
My first selection is Tom Petty’s “Girl on LSD”. The song is hysterical and every time I listen to it, I crack up. Guy dates all sorts of losers and deals with them in his own way. Not an anthem for drug use for sure but Petty makes light of some pretty bad choices.
“The Alabama Song” by The Doors was originally written and performed by some Cabaret singers in the 30’s and Morrison and The Doors converted it with all it’s carnival-like atmosphere to a great rock and roll song. If you listen to this song you can definitely see Morrison putting back shot after shot of whiskey while circus clowns and bearded ladies run amuck.
One of the greatest drinking bands ever had a few songs to glorify what you knew was happening after the show. AC/DC’s “Have a Drink on Me” Enough said. I did.
Not that I know anything about this but Grandmaster Flash’s “White Lines” has to be included here. I am one of those rare rock and roll guys that can flip a switch and listen to some really good Rap and Hip Hop, if it’s worth it. “White Lines” was written by the group in the ‘80’s as an anti drug song and if you listen to the lyrics it cuts cocaine use down to size. The dangers and the cost to ones self is what they preach.
Extolling the virtues of cannabis is pretty easy these days but back in 1971 bands needed to disguise their love for it and no one did it better than Black Sabbath on “Sweet Leaf”. This song was sort of an anthem for some of the people I knew back then (Not me, no!). Sabbath never shied away from singing their truth and they obviously loved Mary Jane.
I would be remiss if I don’t include “Brass Monkey” by the Beastie Boys. Simply a stupid song but apparently it is a certain generations theme song for drinking. I do like the Beasties, I do, but I could never get into this song plus, I am not sure what the drink is they are all drinking. Some things in life just elude me. It is catchy though.
Then there is my generations favorite drinking song, George Thorogood’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer”. Which by the way is much better song than any drinking song later generations drank to. This Rudolph Toombs penned classic is simply the song you want to hear when you are having more than one.
What is even stranger than all of this? That “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond is an actual drinking song. Even though those Neanderthals in the Boston area have taken this song over as their theme song for drinking at Red Sox and Celtic’s games, we were drinking to this song on the old juke box at our corner pub back in the early 70’s. Yes, if you do the math, I was underage but that is water under the bridge now, the fact remains that when this song came on we all sang and drank and had a great time while those kids in Boston were worrying about who made the best corned beef in town. “Piano Man” by Billy Joel was another song that had us singing at the top of our lungs and drinking to excess.
Finally, what this all means is that you can party to any song you like and you can celebrate your love for the Irish any way you like. It’s a free country until the Woke mobsters shut this down too.