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DIVINE ALCOHOLICS
Hemingway had his whisky, Bukowski had his beer
Hunter S. Thompson had his Puerto Rican Rum
What I got ain’t exactly clear
Well, I’m drinking tonight till I’m feeling right
I’m drinking tonight
Jack Kerouac spent his last days drinking at a St. Petersburg bar
All he could think about was his old friend Neil
And that damned old car
Well, I’m drinking tonight till I’m feeling right
I’m drinking tonight
Maybe I’ll get it together in the morning
Or maybe by the crack of noon
I got a bottle full of something
Why do you have to leave, why do you have to leave so soon
Dylan Thomas went drinking across America
To see what mischief he could do
He went to Hollywood and grabbed Shelley Winter’s breasts
He held on till they turned blue
Well, I’m drinking tonight till I’m feeling right
I’m drinking tonight
Tennessee Williams slid off a hot tin roof
Berryman jumped off a bridge
Truman Capote walked through a bloody farm house
Jack London lived on the edge
Well, I’m drinking tonight till I’m feeling right
I’m drinking tonight
I once
had a
spirited
back
and
forth
with a
guy who
had his
own bar
themed
reality
show.
He was
disagreeing
with me
over
the
choice
of
drinks
the
literary
figures
mentioned
in the
first
verse
imbibed.
But as
one who
does
his
research,
whether
it’s
for the
lyrics
of a
song or
some
other
project,
I was
able to
successfully
counter
his
protestations.
But
unfortunately,
he
missed
the
main
point
of the
song
–
that
these
great
literary
figures
at some
point
in
their
careers
squandered
their
God
given
talent
due to
their
copious
amounts
of
alcohol
consumption
no
matter
their
choice
of
drink.
Perhaps
Thompson’s Rum Diaries sums
it up
best, a
fear of
“going
over
the
hill
and
growing
old”.
His
books
often
contained
characters
that
were
violent,
maniacal,
and
stumbling
through
their
existence.
In her
excellent
book, The Trip Through Echo Springs,
author
Olivia
Laing
explores
the
deleterious
effects
of
alcoholism
on some
of
America’s
preeminent
writers. Laing
cites
aphasia,
brain
atrophy,
and
loss of
memory
as just
a few
of the
ailments
that
plagued
the
authors
she
cites.
In the
song,
the
demise
of
these
larger-than-life
characters
is
figurative
and
literal. Gore
Vidal
remarked
upon
the
death
of
Truman
Capote,
“that
it was
a wise
career
move”.
METH AND TATTOOS
My baby spends all her money on meth and tattoos
You know I love her, but what’s this poor boy gonna do.
I keep rolling the dice, because she needs a brand-new pair of shoes
My baby spends all her money on meth and tattoos, meth and tattoos.
And when she’s gone, I know exactly where she’s at
That parlor down the road or in that trailer out back
I enable her to do what she does over and over again.
My baby spends all her money on meth and tattoos, meth and tattoos
She picks at that scab in the middle of her arm
In the middle of that broken heart tattoo and that good luck charm
We never had this problem when we worked on old McDougal’s farm
My baby spends all her money on meth and tattoos, meth and tattoos
Sometimes late at night, she calls out her momma’s name
That
woman
has
been
dead 10
years
now,
and her
daughter
hasn’t
been
the same
She said can you make it thunder, can you make it rain
Fill up some buckets so I can wash away this pain
My baby spends all her money on meth and tattoos, meth and tattoos
She’s gonna take me down with her, she’s gonna get me in the end
I can dissolve away quickly or slowly disintegrate
There’s an unsteady hand that controls my fate
My baby spends all her money on meth and tattoos, meth and tattoos
What’s
it like
to be
addicted
to an
addict?
The guy
in this
song is
an
enabler-
enabling
his
lover
to
engage
in her
meth
addiction.
She
also
has
this
thing
about
tatts.
But who
doesn’t
in
today’s
society.
It’s
the
meth
that
will
take
them
both
down in
the
end.
She
knows
it,
he’s
resigned
to
it.
There
was a
more
innocent,
tranquil
time
when
they
worked
on
“old
McDougal’s
farm”,
but
those
days
are
long
past.
As the
old
saying
goes,
how can
you
keep
them
down on
the
farm,
once
you’ve
been to
the big
city?
It was
a hard
song to
write,
but the
words
came
easy.
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