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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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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
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| ["Message In A Bottle"] |
"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
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
DogGtor of Alcohology &
King of Inebriation Nation
Two great tunes here, Stephen. I'm going to go with The Stray Cats on this one. Brian Setzer is one hell of a guitar player...
ReplyDeleteSIR JOHN ~
DeleteNot too long after I introduced my Ma to Brian Setzer's version of 'Since I Don't Have You', she asked me if he was a good guitarist.
I told her that he was "Extremely good!"
[After learning about Danny Gatton, that forever colored my opinion of guitarists. There was Danny Gatton, and then there was everybody else... some who were extremely good, some who were terrific, and some who were vastly overrated (Clapton & Hendrix, I'm looking at YOUZ GUYZ!)].
~ D-FensDogG
I wonder who would win if you put Danny up against Roy Buchanan, two masters of the Telecaster that died by their own hands (though it's disputed in Roy's case).
DeleteSIR JOHN ~
DeleteThat's a pretty good question. Both guys were lightning fast, which is what a lot of listeners love about them. But speed is not the big attraction that it was to me when I was 16 years old. So, I think a battle between Gatton and Buchanan would need to feature at least two or three different types of songs to get the full impression of what they could do.
Speaking solely for me, I believe Gatton had a good deal more nuance and emotional / stylistic flair to his playing than Buchanan did (at least based on the Buchanan recordings that I have been exposed to).
At a time when I still thought Van Halen's 'Eruption' was one of the greatest electric guitar solos I'd ever heard, a friend of mine introduced me to Danny Gatton's slow playing on [Link> Harlem Nocturne and it blew my mind! I was thinking: Oh, my gosh! This guy's from some other planet!
I started buying Danny Gatton albums and eventually came across [Link> Canadian Sunset and thought it was some of the most subtly beautiful guitar playing I'd ever heard.
Many years later (like, 6 or 7 years ago), I stumbled upon [Link> THIS wild Gatton solo in the middle of the song 'What'd I Say', and my mind was blown all over again!! If Roy Buchanan ever played anything comparable to *that*, I've not yet heard it. I can't even imagine guitar playing that's superior to that solo. Was there anything Gatton couldn't do with a guitar (except save his own life)?
Do you prefer one over the other?
~ D-FensDogG
I love both but Jerry Lee got a bit repetitive and...I love the Stray Cats! They get my vote
ReplyDeleteBIRGIT ~
DeleteAs always, I thanks ya for bringing a double-shot of tequila for the BOTB punch bowl!
I mean, let's face it, the "fun" don't start until someone introduces tequila to the party!
~ D-FensDogG
Tequila it is!
DeleteBecause I knew that Sixgun McItchyfinger (a.k.a. Sheboyganboy Six) would be out of the country during this BOTB installment, I Emailed the songs to him in advance, and he replied to me on May 8th. Here is his comment & vote:
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun one even for a teetotaler! I was completely surprised by my vote after hearing them both. I like The Stray Cats. My own Ma loved The Stray Cats. And I don't especially care for Jerry Lee Lewis, partially because my own Ma (and Pa) LOATHED Lewis. They turned him off when he appeared on TV, and thought he was a lowlife and a pervert. I am sure this was because of his marrying his 13-year-old cousin... kinda TWO strikes against him!
So I came into this KNOWING I would vote for the Cats. UHP! Nope... the music changed my mind.
I did not know "Drinking Wine Spo De O Dee" although perhaps I should have, since I sent you the CD it was on! But Lewis really rocks that song! It felt to me as though the song spun the tires off the line, shifted into 2nd gear (at 60 mph) at the 1 minute mark, 3rd (90 mph) at 1:30, then 4th gear and 5th... finally hitting 6th gear by the 2:20 minute mark and: "goodness, gracious! Great balls of fire!" I've listened to this song over and over and really like it, in spite of the fact it was performed by a guy reviled by the family.
I am still sure the the Stray Cats will win this battle, and it IS a great song. But this Sixgun is pulling the trigger for Jerry Lee.
Sixgun McItchyfinger
Sixgun McItchyfinger ~
DeleteYour vote was FIRST, even though it doesn't appear in this comment section as FIRST.
Hmmm.... I just got done watching the movie 'Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid'. [Sixgun McIthchyfinger, iz you related to Harry Longabaugh?]
I loved your hot rod analogy applied to the Jerry Lee Lewis song. It was aces, and it made me think of the movie 'American Graffiti'. [Iz you related to John Milner?]
I think I'm-a start calling you Sundance Milner! After all, a body cain't have too many nicknames!! ;^D
~ D-FensDogG
[Link> (a.k.a. Stephen T. McCarthy, Black Cole Kid, Trummy Tewksbury, Fred Gurley, Mr. Intense, Mr. Twoscoops, Herbert K. Foxglove, Brodie “The Mad Scotsman”, “Lonesome Dogg” McMe, and Louie Banana)
HiYa, Stephen T.!
ReplyDeleteI thought awhile on whether I would participate in this one - even jotted the same band down twice for consideration! Then I wondered what you and others might do...and decided to sit back and watch. Good thing I did. You've got a terrific battle here, but (as I feared) you picked one I would have used. Yikes! Has that ever happened? What did you do?
Anyway, my vote goes to Stray Cats for what I, too, think will be a win ;-)
Howdy, dIEDRE! ~
Delete>>... "I thought awhile on whether I would participate in this one - even jotted the same band down twice for consideration!"
Ya see? Ya see?! That was your first mistake! You ain't s'posed to "think" about these things. Yer just s'posed to do them; act on your very first impulse at all times! After all, what could possibly go wrong?
>>... "(as I feared) you picked one I would have used."
Oh.
Yeah, I guess that could go wrong.
>>... "Has that ever happened? What did you do?"
Yes, it's happened 2.8 times before. And I always DEMAND that the other person delete their Battle Of The Bands installment because... because... well, I am the dictator of the world, don'tcha know? I am the Messiah, I am the Christ, I am God in the flesh!
(NOTE: While in the bathroom one day [May 13, 2024], I had a sudden revelation in which I realized that God had granted me a little extra leeway, understanding that I was born of a long-standing 'League Of Soul Crusaders' tradition of "joke first and ask questions later".)
OK, seriously now...
It wouldn't matter if two BOTBers used the same song in a single round of BOTB. What are the odds that they would use the same TWO songs in a Battle? And even if that *actually* happened, the fun would be in seeing which voters voted differently in the two different Battles, and then publicly denigrating them for it! And, Shirley, you know that some voter would do *that*. Maybe even me. (dIEDRE,... I'm sorry about calling you Shirley).
~ D'Stephen-DogG
Ha! Interesting concept, Hank:-) My other contender's song was "Bubba shot the jukebox last night"
DeleteI had to google that. I'd heard of Chesnutt (...roasting on an open fire) before, but had never heard of that song.
DeleteHey, at least (Alka-) Setzer was able to reign his anger in before shooting the Discofied jukebox!
What would you have titled your post? BOTJ
(Battle Of The Jukeboxes)? ;^D
~ D-FensDogG
Haha! Actually, my plan was a battle using a song that both Chesnutt and Aerosmith perform. But that wasn't very rockabilly. Meanwhile, back at the drawing board, Chesnutt was still scrawled on my spiral...:-)
DeleteMaybe save Chesnutt for a Christmas BOTB installment. GOL! ;^)
Delete~ D'DogG
I can't say I have the same enthusiasm as you do for Rockabilly. I was interested when it first came out--to a degree. I was perhaps less interested in the later revival of the genre in the seventies and on. It's fun, but not my normal listening fare.
ReplyDeleteOf these two, I give kudos to Jerry Lee for his energy and all, but I prefer the more "refined" sound of Stray Cats. I won't be rushing to buy any of their albums, but I'll give Stray Cats my vote.
Lee
LEE ~
DeleteA vote for the more "refined" sound of The Stray Cats. Yip! I think that's the first time anyone has ever used the word "refined" (with or without quotation marks around it) to describe the sound of The Stray Cats. That's quite a commentary on the sound of Jerry Lee Lewis. :^D
~ D-FensDogG
And Stephen...
ReplyDeleteI recall hearing Rock This Town at Bay Street as well as watching the song on that old MTV when they used to play music videos. Now there is much more of the Bay Street days that I cannot recall. You see its because,:
We drank,
We drank a lot
We drank more than
We did not
Now about that Jerry Lee Lewis, not a bad song and actually much better than I been had thought it would be. This is in deed a close battle but I'm gonna have to Rock This Town because I prefer whiskey over wine or sherry. And I saw Brian Setzer and his Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl and it was quite a show. Just a little better song in my opinion. Fer what ever that is worth nowadays.
JW,
Poooooooohooooohooo!
GENERAL POOHREGARD ~
DeleteWe iz definitely outing ourselves age-wise when we admit to having seen music videos broadcasted on MTV. (We wanted our MTV even more than Sting wanted his! ...We also wanted money for nothing, but that we did not get.)
>>... We drank more than we did not
Despite its brevity, I still consider your poem to be the best one ever mumbled by anyone anywhere! (Still makes me chuckle-out-loud.)
Honestly, I iz quite jealous that you dun had seen Brian Setzer's Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and Mr. Bascom are the only performers I ever saw in the Hollywood Bowl. I did sneak in there one time, however, when no one was on the stage. It had to be done, and "sneaking in" is what we did.
Thanks for coming by with a pint of SoCo for the punch bowl. (Hey, did you know they now make SoCo in a 100-proof variety? Can you imagine how much trouble you could've gotten into with that? A pint of 100-proof SoCo and a Bacardi 151 chaser. How you like-um those numbers? ;-D
~ D-FensDogG
VOTE = STRAY CATS
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed listening to both of these and it was a tough decision which would receive my vote. I have LPs of both of these artists in my collection, including albums with these songs. I guess my vote goes to Stray Cats mostly because in the end I would hit REPLAY on Rock This Town more often than on Drinking Wine.
New subject, sort of: speaking of wine... I have not checked your BoozeBattles archives, and I wonder if you have ever featured Dean Martin's Hey Brother, Pour the Wine?
~ Eduardo.
HERMANO EDUARDO ~
DeleteMuchos gracias for stopping by to have a whiskey on the rocks with Mr. Setzer.
No, sir, I have not used Dean Martin's 'Hey, Brother, Pour The Wine'. As a matter of fact, I don't even have it noted on my list of 129 songs to possibly use in future BOTB's Battle Of The Booze installments. (Not *all* of those 129 songs are different. Example: There's 7 different versions of 'Tequila'. And I strongly suspect The King will return before I get through all of those songs.)
Furthermore, I didn't even think I'd heard of that Dean Martin song before. But I went to YouTube to check it out and recognized it pretty quickly. However, I have no idea where I'd heard it before. (Maybe in an old Dean Martin roast? :-)
Were you thinking of using it in a future BOTB installment? If so, by all means, have at it!
~ D-FensDogG
Stevie Mac - Nah. So far, at least, my BOTBs have been formatted as between two covers of the same song. Hey Brother, Pour the Wine appears to have been first recorded by Dennis Day, then Dean Martin a few years later. I have not found any other covers. So, it is not likely to end up on my BOTB. However, spoiler alert: Mambo Italiano may be coming up soon....
Delete~Eduardito.
Ha! Mambo Italiano, eh? I've got Mambo No. 5 on my list, but I may never actually get to that one. It's not zactly my style.
DeleteUsing two different versions of the same song is the "traditional" way to BOTB. That's how this thing got started over 10 years ago. And because I value tradition, I'll always keep that format alive in my Battles. But, overall, I generally prefer themed Battles because I think there's a bit more room to concoct creative match-ups. I've used a lot of themes over the years. My favorite occurred 7 years ago when I put Marty Robbins ('El Paso') up against Marty Robbins ('El Paso City'). It was a blowout (14-6) but a fun BOTB installment nonetheless.
~ D-FensDogG
Ah, rockabilly. That just takes me back to when I was working at that voting machine company, for the dude embroiled in that huge scandal, and I believe last year I sent you his DUI video on YouTube that went viral. I might feel bad for him if he wasn't such an arrogant douchenozzle. Anyhow, back in the glory days of working with him, he always did that rockabilly thing - Buddy Holly glasses, slicked up pompadour, classic t-shirts with the sleeve rolled up so he could hold his smokes, pants far too long that got rolled up a bunch at the bottom, and those weird combat boots. Dude definitely had his own niche. Despite all of this, I didn't mind some of the music he played at the office.
ReplyDeleteBoth are good songs here, but I have to agree that Jerry Lee Lewis's is a bit too repetitive to me. Overall if you're going to give me a Jerry Lewis, please hold the Lee, and give my bote to the Stray Cats, who can rock this town any time they want.
JULIO SEIS-ABEJA ~
Delete>>... he always did that rockabilly thing - Buddy Holly glasses, slicked up pompadour, classic t-shirts with the sleeve rolled up so he could hold his smokes, pants far too long that got rolled up a bunch at the bottom
"Rock 'N' Roll's been going down hill ever since Buddy Holly died."(*)
~ John Milner
* -- I think he should have said Eddie Cochran, rather than Buddy Holly.
Other than the fact that I believe Eddie Cochran invented Punk Rock with his Top 10 hit 'Summertime Blues', he had a bunch of other great songs like 'Pink Pegged Slacks', 'Sittin' In The Balcony', 'Nervous Breakdown', 'Somethin' Else', and... well... [Link> HERE.
Thanks, Brother, for bringing some Wild Turkey to this turkey shoot!
~ D-FensDogG
I got some internet where I am and came to check on your battle. Am I the ONLY ONE who liked Jerry Lee Lewis so far?!?! Hokey smokes! If so, you're welcome. It surprises me because I didn't think one song was that much stronger one than the other.
ReplyDeleteSundance McMilnergun
Sundance McMilnergun ~
DeleteEarlier today (at 13:13, to be precise), I was listening to Karen Carpenter (whom I love & whom you dislike) singing 'Yesterday Once More'. And that's when I realized how ironically funny this is! Our tastes in music are SO EXTREMELY DIFFERENT that we have a term for it: "The Great Musical Divide". Kind of like The Grand Canyon, only much bigger!
BEFORE you told me, on May 8th, that you would be voting for Jerry Lee Lewis, I already knew for a stone-cold fact that this Battle would NOT be a shutout. Someone (sorry, I can't reveal my confidential sources) had already made it known to me that "he" would be voting for 'Spo-Dee-O-Dee'.
All I can tell you right now is that this mystery voter, who is going to add his vote to yourn, giving J.L.L. at least TWO votes in this Battle, is a guy who ordinarily disagrees with your musical tastes to such an extent that... well... that he might as well be standing on the opposite side of Snake River Canyon (to put it very mildly).
'Rock This Town' was a Top 10 Billboard hit, while 'Drinkin' Wine...' was not. And that's the only explanation I have for this massive blowout. Honestly, I thought Jerry's "G-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-owl" was going to be good enough to score five votes all by itself!
~ Stephen T. McCarthy
(a.k.a. Mystery DogG)
Al Bondigas here. Man, does that Stray Cats song bring me back to the crazy eighties!! I remember how hyper and loud we would get on the dance floor when that song was playing. Back in the day I loved the high energy songs, especially when we were all together on a Friday or Saturday night, or a Sunday through Thursday night. I liked the Jerry Lee Lewis song also with all that energy and attitude, but It's a slam dunk win for The Stray Cats. Rulin' fer the Cats. That's it!! That's muh rulin'!!!
ReplyDelete"IT'S A LIE!..."
DeleteWe were never hyper and loud. And we were never together acting crazy in the '80s! Well, only on one day per year. And you know which day that was.
Tha-aaaa-t's right!... "Arbor Day".
Your rulin' didn't catch me by surprise this time. I could hear those Stray Cats coming all the way from underneath our neighbor's house!
Thanks for the rulin', Judgey.
~ The Stray DogG
ATTENTION PEOPLES!
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested in seeing the final vote tally for this 'BATTLE OF THE BANDS' installment and my closing thoughts on it, you can put the following URL into your browser:
http://stmccpresentsbattleofthebands.blogspot.com/2024/05/botb-results-may-15-2024-or-stray-cats.html
~ D-FensDogG
'Loyal American Underground'