Songs from the County Hell: The Devil Mixtape

Stay on the other side of the road
'Cause you can never tell
We’ve a thirst like a gang of devils
We’re the boys from the county Hell
--THE BOYS FROM THE COUNTY HELL, 1984

I admit it, I looked at someone else’s devil tape. It’s the only way to explain how Van Halen appears below. Plenty of better artists on that other list, but somehow it inserted that song directly in my head and now I can’t get it out. It’s ironic because that was an embarrassing mistake of a schoolboy album purchase, the first VH LP was, but now it’s come back to, ahem, haunt. Please don’t click the link.

Similarly, “Devil With a Blue Dress On” is included here for one reason only, and that’s the rare mention of a wighat. I’ve only ever come across the term here, in the Cramps’ “Call of the Wighat”, and in Tommy Tucker’s “Hi-Heel Sneakers”. Seems like something the devil would don.

The Pogues like to sing about the devil and about hell. They even use "Straight to Hell" by the Clash as their stage entrance music. "The Boys From the County Hell" could win the Grammy for Best Insult in a Lyric, should it ever be nominated:

At the time I was working for a landlord
And he was the meanest bastard that you have ever seen
And to lose a single penny would grieve him awful sore
And he was a miserable bollocks and a bitch’s bastard’s whore

Robert Johnson was the bluesman who was said to have sold his soul to the devil in return for talent – a talent which included writing at least three haunting tunes about his mythical benefactor. Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a California kid who I found unappealing – the way he looked, the way he sang, and the way he appropriated from Robert Johnson for his band, the Gun Club (pictured above with Kid Congo Powers, seated)—but in "Preaching the Blues," he (along with Ward Dotson on slide guitar) got a truly diabolical result.

"Handsome Devil" is one of the Smiths harder rocking songs; I’m pretty sure it was the B side of their first single. Morrissey would hate being on a mixtape right next to someone like Tricky. I don’t think "Hell is Round the Corner" mentions the devil, but Tricky (pictured, left) does a nice job looking like him in the video, while producing a song that sounds like it's coming from an underworld cave.

The Devil Mixtape

Devil’s Haircut – Beck
Devil Dance – The Devils
Race With The Devil – Gene Vincent
Friend of the Devil – Grateful Dead
Preaching the Blues – The Gun Club
Devil with a Blue Dress on – Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels
The Boys From The County Hell – The Pogues
Whiskey You’re the Devil – The Pogues
Hellhound on my Trail – Robert Johnson
Me and the Devil Blues – Robert Johnson
Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil) – Robert Johnson
Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones
Makin' Deals – The Satans
Handsome Devil – The Smiths
Hell Is Round the Corner – Tricky
Runnin’ With the Devil – Van Halen

Here’s a link to BD’s The Devil mixtape. I did not look at this list (which has four of the same songs) before I made this tape.

The Pride of Poverty

When they busted my chops over That Summer Feeling, it sent a chilling effect through the site. So cold it got, that I’ve now lost for the first time in several mixtapes. But for what it’s worth, I’m partial to the Rolling Stones’ version of Money, but I like the original too…I wanna thank Jace the Ace Face for a brief flirtation with DC funk in the 1980s, with Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers’ succinctly titled “We Need Money” one of the better examples on record…And finally (so soon?) I remember watching this clip of Elvis Costello when it first aired on Letterman about 26 years ago. In fact, for some strange reason, I recorded it on my ghetto blaster (built-in mic recording output from TV speaker), and kept it on an actual mixtape which is still kicking around the gaff. An embarrassment of riches this aint, but there is a pride in poverty.

The Poor Man's Rich Man Poor Man Mixtape

Money, That’s What I Want – Barrett Strong
The Poor Orphan Child – The Carter Family
We Need Money – Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers
Bankrobber – The Clash
Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival
Man Out of Time – Elvis Costello
Poor Paddy on the Railway – The Dubliners
Big Boss Man – Jimmy Reed
Promised Land – Johnny Allan
Sometimes I Wantcha for Your Money – The Milkshakes
I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Everyday – The Pogues
Money, That’s What I Want – Rolling Stones
Do Re Mi - Woody Guthrie

Here is a link to the winning mixtape. Check out some Japanese folkies rocking the last entry from BD’s homeboy.

Locked Up: the Jail Mixtape

Back in 1981, someone pointed out to me the macho cartoon aspect of The Clash, mostly in their choice of lyrical content and song/album titles. I wasn’t too interested in that kind of analysis at the time, but I filed away the information anyway. Visual image-wise, of course, they loved dressing up. Sometimes you’d see pictures of the group and they would look like bikers-- other times, they would be cowboys, policemen, soldiers, foppish dandies (is there any other kind?) -- or all of the above. That’s it! The Clash were the Village People!

I’m not sure if they ever dressed up specifically as jailbirds, but they certainly looked liked some kind of prisoners on the cover of their very first single. Some editing was required to get the Jail Mixtape to include only three Clash songs. In Jail Guitar Doors, they sang about real-life musicians who fell foul of the law, including Peter Green, Wayne Kramer and Keith Richards. Stay Free was a sweet ode to a thieving friend. Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad was inspired by the bust of a drug factory in Wales, IIRC.

They put him in a cell, they said ‘you wait here’
‘Now you got the time to count all of your hair’

Other jail songs on the tape feature more serious crimes, including at least three murders. You'll have to scroll down, though. Too clever by half with the Jail song table -- there's a big blank space and I can't get rid of it:

Song	Artist	Crime(s)	Sentence(s)
Worried Man Blues	The Carter Family	Went across the river and lay down to sleep	21 years on the R.C. Mountain line
John Hardy	Billy Childish	Murder (multiple)	Death
Jail Guitar Doors	The Clash	Deals of cocaine / gun threat / heroin possession	2 years / institutionalized / out on bail ($25,000)
Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad	The Clash	Illegal manufacture of tablets…in their millions	10-25 years
Stay Free	The Clash	Went on a nicking spree	Three years in Brixton
Jailhouse Rock	Dean Carter	Unknown	Unknown
007 (Shanty Town)	Desmond Dekker	Looting and shooting	Probation
Folsom Prison Blues	The Huns	Shot a man in Reno just to watch him die	Life (implied)
On Parole	Motorhead	Looking for fun / forgot the reason	Forever and a day / parole
Prison Cell Blues	Blind Lemon Jefferson	Nell	Undetermined number of days
The Old Main Drag	The Pogues	Vagrancy	Beaten and mauled at Vine Street lock-up
Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos	Public Enemy	Draft dodging	Serving time in the state pen
The Auld Triangle	Ronnie Drew	Unknown	Death
Your Funeral and My Trial	Sonny Boy Williamson II	Threat of murder	None--yet
Prison Cell of Love	Werly Fairburn	Love	Love
Bad Lee Brown (Cocaine Blues )	Woody Guthrie	Blowed his woman down	Life in the penitentiary

Traditional music features heavily when it comes to the Jail Mixtape, but not everything is pure roots. There's comedy, too, from Motorhead, and from Public Enemy:

I got a letter from the government the other day
I opened and read it
It said they were suckers
They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me givin' a damn - I said never

For such an over the top song, I find its opening verse hilarious. Chuck D. deserves credit for inserting humor where you least expect it: there's plenty of wit dispensed throughout his otherwise often angry oeuvre.

Other stuff: I used to see Ronnie Drew around town before he passed away this year, having lived in his parish for the last while...The 80s Huns (not the 70s Texas ones) demoed Folsom Prison in Iowa...I've been to the Vine Street police station, where the protagonist of the Old Main Drag was brutalized "between the metal doors", but only to give a statement as a witness...Dean Carter's performance is the wildest on the mixtape, Desmond Dekker's the prettiest, and Werly Fairburn just has the best name.



Click here for Bob Dylan's Jail mix.

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