The Best Drinking Songs

any of the tracks on this album.

Kenny Chesney’s a pretty big name already. I have doubts these young guys will ever become the legends Willie Nelson, George Jones and the like are. The music has changed, become more ā€œpopā€ than country. Here’s a good drinking song though.

And just about everything from Great Big Sea is a good drinking song

I mean that Kenny Chesney will be big in American music other than country music.

Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way, Waylon Jennings

Bob Wills Is Still The King, Waylon Jennings

All these posts, but no mention yet of the most widely recognized drinking song in Western history?

[quote]To Anacreon in Heaven, where he sat in full glee,
A few Sons of Harmony sent a petition;
That he their Inspirer and Patron would be;
When this answer arrived from the Jolly Old Grecian;
ā€œVoice, Fiddle, and Flute,
No longer be mute,
I’ll lend you my name and inspire you to boot,
And besides I’ll instruct you like me, to entwine,
The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s Vine!ā€[/quote]

The Mary Ellen Carter

She went down last October in a pouring driving rain.
The skipper, he’d been drinking and the Mate, he felt no pain.
Too close to Three Mile Rock, and she was dealt her mortal blow,
And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low.
There were just us five aboard her when she finally was awash.
We’d worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost.
And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim
That the Mary Ellen Carter would rise again.

Well, the owners wrote her off; not a nickel would they spend.
She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end.
But insurance paid the loss to us, they let her rest below.
Then they laughed at us and said we had to go.
But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock,
For she’s worth a quarter million, afloat and at the dock.
And with every jar that hit the bar, we swore we would remain
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

Rise again, rise again, that her name not be lost
To the knowledge of men.
Those who loved her best and were with her till the end
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

All spring, now, we’ve been with her on a barge lent by a friend.
Three dives a day in hard hat suit and twice I’ve had the bends.
Thank God it’s only sixty feet and the currents here are slow
Or I’d never have the strength to go below.
But we’ve patched her rents, stopped her vents, dogged hatch and
porthole down.
Put cables to her, 'fore and aft and girded her around.
Tomorrow, noon, we hit the air and then take up the strain.
And make the Mary Ellen Carter Rise Again.

For we couldn’t leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale.
She’d saved our lives so many times, living through the gale
And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave
They won’t be laughing in another day. . .
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Rise again, rise again - though your heart it be broken
And life about to end
No matter what you’ve lost, be it a home, a love, a friend.
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Take me back to my western boat
Let me fish off Cape St. Mary’s
Where the hog-down sail
And the Fog horns wail
With my friends the Browns and the Clearys
Let me fish off Cape St. Mary’s
Let me feel my dory lift
To the broad Atlantic combers
Where the tide rip swirls
And the wild ducks whirl
And old Neptune calls the numbers.
ā€˜Neath the wild Atlantic combers
Let me sail up Golden Bay
With my oilskins all a-streaming
From the thunder squalls when I hauled my trawls.
And my old Cape Ann a-gleaming
With my oilskins all a-streaming.
And let me view that ragged shore
With the beaches all a-glisten
With the caplin spawn
Where from dusk till dawn
You bait your trawn, and you listen
To the undertow a-hissin’.
And when I reach that last big shoal
Where the groundswells break asunder,
Where the wild sands roll to the surge’s toll
Let me be a man and take it
When my dory fails to make it.
Oh take me back to that snug green cove
Where the seas roll up their thunder
There let me rest
In the Earth’s cool breast
Where the stars shine out their wonder
And the seas roll up their thunder.

From the more intense to the more sedated (as that’s the path that drinking usually takes) we have the following:

Korpiklaani - Vodka

Korpiklaani - Bring us pints of beer

Korpiklaani - Juodaan viinaa (translates to drunk off alcohol)

[I’m going to stop with Korpiklaani there, although they have at least 11 songs dedicated to drinking]

A couple of Irish songs to get the merry mood up:

And then settle down, after a hard night’s drinking, into the calm reflective sounds of a nostalgic Billy Joel:

Apparently a good song for drinking by yourself, too.

I was feelin’ the blues
I was watching the news
When this fella came on the TV

He said I’m tellin’ you
That science has proven
That heartaches are healed by the sea

That got me goin’
Without even knowin’
I packed right up and drove down

Now I’m on a roll
And I swear to my soul
Tonight I’m gonna paint this town

So bring me two pina coladas
One for each hand
Let’s set sail with Captin Morgan
And never leave dry land

Troubles I forgot 'em
I buried ā€˜em in the sand
So bring me two pina coladas
She said good-bye to her good timin’ man

Oh now I’ve gotta say
That the wind and the waves
And the moon winkin’ down at me

Eases my mind
By leavin’ behind
The heartaches that love often brings

Now I’ve got a smile
That goes on for miles
With no inclination to roam

I’ve gotta say
That I think I’ve gotta stay
ā€˜Cause this is feelin’ more and more like home

So bring me two pina coladas
One for each hand
Let’s set sail with Captin Morgan
And never leave dry land

Troubles I forgot 'em
I buried ā€˜em in the sand
So bring me two pina coladas
She said good-bye to her good timin’ man

Ol’ Blue Eyes and his conversation with the bartender.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m121tmJzcAc

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Sinatra, yeah. Maybe my favorite-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCC0MVa_UWQ

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My weakness (well, one of them). Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Drive-by Truckers, Sinatra, more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J60F0x7C2FQ

https://youtu.be/ED5s1-Fe9FA

https://youtu.be/HyJ9JfWbKLE

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-fSZRYeBWk

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I get a feeling we’re drinking in different places

https://youtu.be/-8hDw6mS2pI

https://youtu.be/cWYTyfQe-o8

https://youtu.be/tAogvxvWDfE

Looks like fun, but I hope you don’t get rolled.

Have seen no squirrels raccoons at cafe de flask, so 100% correct!

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Bob Dylan, ā€œCopper Kettleā€: https://vimeo.com/195912348

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9STHHQ5LGMQ

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