BOTB's Battle Of The Booze: 2024, May 15 (Or, THE STRAY CATS Vs. JERRY LEE LEWIS)

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Hello, ALL! Welcome to my tenth installment of Battle Of The Bands' Battle Of The Booze, which is an ongoing challenge between songs that mention a type of booze, a brand of booze, or a cocktail made with booze. (No Shirley Temples need apply!)

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Iz you SuperCats & UnderDogGs ready to get on down with yer bad, feline & canine selves and groove to some high-energy, old school Rock 'N' Roll (also known as Rockabilly)?

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HOW THIS CONTEST WAS CONCEIVED:

I bought my first Eddie Cochran album in 1978 or '79. And if I had been born 8 months later than I was, I could have been Cochran reincarnated. (As it was, I had to settle for being James Dean reincarnated.)

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My first Eddie Cochran album totally sold me on the 'Rockabilly' genre, and Eddie remains my #1 favorite Rock 'N' Roller of the 1950s. (Sorry, Elvis and Mr. Berry.) Have any of you seen the movie 'American Hot Wax'?

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Loving Rockabilly like I did, the first time - in 1982 - when I heard on the radio the song 'Rock This Town' by The Stray Cats, I headed straight to my nearest record store and bought their album. And I played the helck out of it!

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My Ma - God rest her soul - was born on May 13th, and a goot number o' years after I discovered The Stray Cats, I introduced my Ma to them. She fell completely in love with Brian Setzer's voice (particularly in the song 'Since I Don't Have You'). 

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I was unfamiliar with the Jerry Lee Lewis song 'Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee' until my buddy, Sixgun McItchyfinger, sent me this gift in 2012:

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Honestly, I am still surprised that song is in this collection, because it is definitely more Rockabilly than it is Country. At any rate, that's the background behind this boozy Battle.🍸.

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In ye olde comment section, please vote for which song you liked better betwixt these two, and then please visit the other wonderful BOTBers and also drop your two cents in their comment sections.

* See the BOTBer links over there --->
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I'll return here on or about May 22nd with my own vote and the final tally. 
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Alright, let's get on it.
Let's get ON this thing.

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"Well, we found a little place that really didn't look that bad

I had a whiskey on the rocks

And change of a dollar for the jukebox

Well, I put the cold rock into that can

But all they played was Disco, man

Come on, pretty baby, let's get out of here right away!"

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Rock This Town

by The Stray Cats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9TP5V1b6EA

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["Message In A Bottle"]

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"W-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ine!

Elderberry

Whoa, little taste of sherry

G-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r.......

Give it to me now.

Pick it, Killer, pick it, pick it!"

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Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee

by Jerry Lee Lewis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtrVRMdrPe0

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~ Stephen T. McCarthy 

DogGtor of Alcohology & 

King of Inebriation Nation

BOTB RESULTS: MAY 1, 2024 (Or, TOM & BETTE MIDLER VS. TOM & CRYSTAL GAYLE)

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Well, hoot 'n' holler!

Got change for a dollar? 

If not, I'll ask Rockefeller.

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My 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th BATTLE OF THE BANDS' Battle Of The Booze contest took place HERE. It may have been Chihuahua-like, but it warn't no dog!

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We talked about horse racing; 99-cent Margaritas; me ol' pal, General Poohregard; my dearly missed friend, Martin Brumer; and we also yakked about movies & music. And I thanks each 'n' every one o' youse who came by to listen and vote. It was a nice turnout!

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After adding in my own vote for Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle (I'm sure my vote came as no surprise to anyone), the BOTB outcome was very much like what I had anticipated:

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FINAL TALLY: 

Tom Waits & Bette Midler = 4 votes

Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle = 9 votes

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Waits & Gayle will advance to the post-season playoffs round. And on May 15th I expect to return here again for a very high-energy old school-like Rock 'n' Roll contest in the "Rockabilly" style. I hopes all y'all will return here, too! 

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Until then, may you all...

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Bless & Be Blessed 

and Cheech & Chong!

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~ Stephen T. McCarthy 

(Or a reasonably unreasonable facsimile thereof. Doeth thou understandeth?)

BATTLE OF THE BANDS: 2024, MAY 1 (Or, TOM WAITS & BETTE MIDLER VS. TOM WAITS & CRYSTAL GAYLE)

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INTRODUCTION
Warning: This Intro is going to be a goot amount of yakking, but it is important to me. I want to acknowledge some folks & explain my thought-process in concocting this BOTB's Battle Of The Booze  installment. However, if you are Patience-Impaired ("In your patience possess ye your souls"), skip reading this section and scroll down to where it says "START BATTLE".

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Mention the word "cinematography" and the first three films that pop into my mind are 'Koyaanisqatsi', 'The Black Stallion', and 'One From The Heart'. 

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I first saw 'One From The Heart' (movie trailer here) in an L.A. movie theatre when it was released in 1982. I was with Marty Brumer, one of the very, very best friends I've ever had. Marty was a professional actor who was killed by a car thief in 1989 (here). 

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Marty so loved the music in 'One From The Heart' that he bought the soundtrack on LP. I can't say with absolute certainty that 'Broken Bicycles' (here) was Marty's all-time favorite song, but it was unquestionably the song he was most often singing to himself. 

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As much as I loved 'One From The Heart' the first time I saw it, it wasn't until a few years later that I embraced the Tom Waits musical soundtrack the way Marty had: 

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For a short dog time in 1984 I was unemployed and decided I would make my living by betting on the horse races at Hollywood Park. (Ha! That "job" didn't last very long!) Mornings, I would drive to the race track and place that day's bets. Then I'd meet my dear pal Pooh and we'd go to Azteca Mexican Restaurant in Venice for a 99-Cent Club meeting. (Margaritas were just 99 cents until Noon.)

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After the 99-Cent Club meeting adjourned for the day, Pooh and I would go to his place (the house at Pooh corner) to drink beer and listen to music. It was then & there that Pooh thoroughly indoctrinated me into the music of Tom Waits via the album 'Small Change'. (The other album I most remember us listening to during that time in 1984 was Randy Newman's 'Trouble In Paradise'. We nearly played the grooves off those two LPs.) Before long, I owned all of the pre-'83 Tom Waits albums, including the soundtrack for 'One From The Heart', which I fell in love with! Finally, I understood Marty's fascination with those songs and, today, that is my second favorite movie soundtrack album of all time.

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START BATTLE

Although it is one of the most notorious movie bombs in Hollywood history, Francis Ford Coppola's 'One From The Heart' has always been on my Top 25 favorite movies list. Coppola wrote: "My son Gian-Carlo brought me a Tom Waits record ...it was 'Foreign Affairs', and it had this beautiful duet called 'I Never Talk To Strangers' with Bette Midler singing the female part, and I thought, wow, that's a concept! I can have the male voice and the female voice and they can be involved in dialog, working out issues in song, sort of paralleling the male and female protagonists in the story". 

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This Battle Of The Booze contest features the Tom Waits song with Bette Midler that inspired Frances Ford Coppola to make the movie 'One From The Heart'. The challenger is an actual song from the movie soundtrack which has Tom Waits singing a duet with Crystal Gayle. Both duets happen to mention booze - or, as some of us call it, "evidence":

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"Bartender, I'd like a Manhattan, please." 

~ 'I Never Talk To Strangers'

(Psst! A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey. And the line "You must be reading my mail" is one I have used countless times!)

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"I'll be living on chicken and wine after we're through, with someone I pick up after you."

~ 'Picking Up After You' 

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I Never Talk To Strangers 

Tom Waits & Bette Midler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uctxOZEusuI

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Picking Up After You 

Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYxJ7VNh1rY

 

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Please vote for your duet of preference in the comment section, and then please visit the other participants and also vote on their Battles. 

* See the BOTBer links over there --->

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I intend to return with my own vote and the final tally on or about May 8th of this year.
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~ STMcC