Together Forever: The Wedding Mixtape

I was ready to concede right away; I just didn’t have much of anything on topic for weddings. Of course I took this literally (I mean, look at what I’m doing with this project – if I’m not overly literal, who is?). There’s Pretty Thing, my favorite Bo Diddley recording, which I would play at any wedding in which I was put in charge of the music (as the bride walked down the aisle, of course)… Bryan Ferry talked about taking wedding vows in Let’s Stick Together… And of course there’s Chapel of Love by the Dixie Cups, which Jonathan Richman says he recorded in the 70s only because he heard that Iggy Pop liked the song…

Then I saw that BD’s list had some stuff that was not necessarily about the ceremony itself, just about being married. It occurred to me that extending the meaning could include quite a few more songs about husbands and wives, marriages, being together forever, etc. But a lot of those—like Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together by Len Bright Combo, and Married With Children by Oasis—are more about unhappy marriages potentially splitting at the seams. As such, I could have possibly held them back for the Divorce theme, which is next on the list, and they might have fit in just as well. Others—including Wouldn’t It Be Nice by the Beach Boys and Semaphore Signals by Wreckless Eric—are simply dreams about the possibility of someday getting hitched. Meanwhile, the 70s funk classic leading off the mixtape is all about not getting married, and getting shacked up instead. Turns out to not be a bad tape at all, but I’m left feeling a little dissatisfied (and, it’s a little too short), so I will take the hit on this one.

The Wedding Mixtape

Shack Up – Banbarra
Wouldn’t It Be Nice – Beach Boys
Pretty Thing – Bo Diddley
Let’s Stick Together – Bryan Ferry
Peggy Sue Got Married – Buddy Holly
Chapel of Love – Dixie Cups
Melancholy Serenade (Honeymooners Theme) – Jackie Gleason Orchestra
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together – Len Bright Combo
Married With Children – Oasis
Wedding Ring – The Stingrays
Semaphore Signals – Wreckless Eric

Here is a link to BD’s winning wedding tape.

I'll Quit Tomorrow: the Drink Mixtape

The Los Angeles-based “cowpunk” bands of the early ‘80s felt some kinship with more hardcore types, several of them appearing on the second volume of the Hell Comes to Your House compilation series. Driven by malt liquor and amphetamines, their slide guitars and hollering fit in somewhere between Tex Ritter and the Gun Club. Ritter, the 1930s cowboy country music pioneer, had an influence beyond mere style, lending his name to Tex and the Horseheads, while another band called itself after his famous song “Blood on the Saddle”. Along with the Screamin’ Sirens, these groups brought a boozy roadhouse vibe to a scene that raged briefly on the periphery of more successful acts like X, Los Lobos and the Blasters. Ritter’s jerky, hiccupping “Rye Whiskey” sets the standard for this collection of songs which includes a few that aren’t about drinking as much as naked alcoholism.

Jack o' Diamonds, Jack o' Diamonds and I know you of old
You've robbed my poor pockets of silver and gold
It's a whiskey, you villain, you've been my downfall
You've kicked me, you've cuffed me, but I love you for all

It's a whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I cry
If I don't get rye whiskey, well, I think I will die

~

The subject of Blood on the Saddle’s 1986 entry in the Drink Mixtape (“Colt 45”) made a memorable appearance more than 20 years earlier in the Pleasure Seekers’ ode to underage drinking, “What a Way to Die”. The all-girl garage band from Detroit featured 15-year old Suzi Quatro, latterly of Happy Days fame, on vocals.

You’ve got the kind of body
that makes me come alive
But I’d rather have my hands around
A bottle of Colt 45

Baby come on over,
come on over to my side
well I may not live past twenty-one
but WOO!
what a way to die

~

As a Pogues fan, there was a danger that the Drink Mixtape would be taken over by the erstwhile drunken Celts, so after coming up with six relevant Shane MacGowan songs within about 10 seconds of not really trying, I decided to disqualify them from inclusion. One of the folk standards in their set list shows up here from an unlikely source, though. Never been a fan of Metallica in any way, really, except for their half-decent take on “Whiskey in the Jar”. I have to think it was some kind of tribute to Thin Lizzy, the Irish pop-metal band from the 1970s that first brought the 350 year-old number to a wide rock audience.

~

Fast forward from the 17th century to the 1990s, and a band—Oasis--that dumbs down drinking songs to new level. On “Cigarettes and Alcohol”, the Gallagher brothers are at their gloriously stupid best, raiding the great British pop mini-bar of various classic, musical refreshments, including T-Rex’s guitar sound, Johnny Rotten’s vocal phrasing, and—at least in the accompanying video-- the Jesus and Mary Chain’s visual style. The Dead Kennedys’ “Too Drunk to Fuck” is positively sophisticated by comparison, but not nearly as pretty.

Here is the full track list for the Drink Mixtape:

Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out the Barrel) - Andrews Sisters
Six Pack - Black Flag
Colt 45 (Liquor Store) - Blood on the Saddle
Tequila - Champs
Rudie Can't Fail - The Clash
Too Drunk to Fuck - Dead Kennedys
One Bourbon, One Scotch, & One Beer - George Thorogood & the Destroyers
My Bucket's Got a Hole in It - Hank Williams
Drinkin' C V Wine - Howlin' Wolf
Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) - Looking Glass
Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind) - Loretta Lynn
Whiskey in the Jar - Metallica
Cigarettes and Alcohol - Oasis
What a Way to Die - Pleasure Seekers
Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad - Screamin' Sirens
I'll Quit Tomorrow - Tex and the Horseheads
Rye Whiskey - Tex Ritter


Two songs are the same on BD's drink mix, but only one with the same version:


Ain't Got no Money to Pay for this Drink - George Zimmerman & the Thrills
Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee - The Electric Flag
Don't Come Home A-Drinkin - Loretta Lynn
Daddy And The Wine - Porter Wagoner & The Wagonmasters
I Drink - Mary Gauthier
I Drink - Charles Aznovour
Sloppy Drunk - Jimmy Rodgers
I Ain't Drunk - Lonnie The Cat
It Ain't Far To The Bar - Johnny Tyler & His Riders Of The Rio Grande
What's On The Bar - Hank Williams
One Mint Julep - The Clovers
Rum And Coca-Cola - The Andrews Sisters
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer - John Lee Hooker
Who Will Buy The Wine - Charlie Walker
Buddy Stay Off That Wine - Betty Hall Jones
Whiskey You're The Devil - The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem