Little Old Wine Drinker, Me

There’s no fool like an old fool, they say, so what happens when a bunch of oul’ coots gather together to make music? The next batch of posts may enlighten you as to the question just posed and may also, perhaps, enrage or entertain. Anything’s better than a yawn, I guess. And everything that is not that bloody virus is a plus. At the moment we can’t meet as a group, as we are in lockdown, so I have set out a version of songs that are in our repertoire but which have not yet been recorded. With any luck (and, as three of us are north of 70, we’ll need it!) we will be able to resume our normal practice of meeting weekly and playing tunes, singing songs and generally enjoying the crack.

I can remember visiting my brother, who was a Vet in West Cork, Ireland, where we always made sure we had an adequate supply of Sherry from the Wood. (Does anyone remember that concoction?) A group of us would play cards, chat, drink wine and listen to records into the early hours of the morning. As was exceedingly common for that era (late 60s-early 70s) the room was wreathed also, in tobacco smoke from the cigarettes, pipes and cheroots on the go. One of our favourite 45s (the single vinyl discs rather than those heavy handguns) was Dean Martin singing this song. Now for some info courtesy of my favourite site for research, Wikipedia:

“Little Old Wine Drinker Me” is a song that was first released by Charlie Walker in 1966, on the album Wine, Woman & Walker. The song became a hit when it was released by Robert Mitchum in early 1967, and by Dean Martin later the same year on his album Welcome to My World. The Dean Martin version is a hit with Scottish football club Clydebank and can often be heard being chanted on the terraces with ‘Tennessee’ being replaced with ‘Kilbowie’ in homage to the club’s former ground in the town…The song’s title parodies a catchphrase used in contemporary TV advertising by the Italian Swiss Colony wine company: “The little old winemaker, me!”…  In 2015 the descendant of the company, now operating under the name Asti Winery and selling wine under the Souverain brand, and owning America’s sixth-largest wine production facility, was purchased by E & J Gallo Winery from its owner, Australia-based Treasury Wine Estates. (source, Wikipedia)

So, there’s an Aussie connection, too! Like many others, I misunderstood part of section B because I mis-heard it. I rendered I matched the man behind the bar…as I asked the man behind the bar… which makes no sense when you think about it. Jukeboxes are kept out in the general bar area with lights flashing to entice punters- not behind the bar with the bar-tender! I guess I misheard it because I was not familiar with the verb matched in this context. I imagine the scene: early evening, the heart-broken narrator is having a few in a bar near where he is staying. Nothing much is going on- certainly, no-one is putting coins into the jukebox, and the barman holds up two bits and offers to match the guy. This involves each person holding a 25-cent coin and slamming it down on the counter. The punter gets to call match or no match. If he wins the match, he gets to put the won coin into the jukebox and play three songs (or, if he’s heart-broken he might want to double the number of sad song and put his two bits in, too…) Today, in Oz you would play with a two-dollar coin, I suppose. Of course, the house always wins- that sly ol’ bar-tender was going to put a coin into the jukebox, anyway, to liven up the joint!

I’ve loved the song from the moment I heard Dino’s suave delivery. This country-blues gem (clocking in at two and a half minutes) references those part of the US that are part of the country tradition: it also has a broken heart, a train, a bar, rain and a jukebox. What more could you ask for, apart from a dog and a pick-up truck? (And who’s to say the narrator didn’t drive his beat up old truck from Nashville to Chicago with his best friend hanging his muzzle out of the passenger window?)

I’ve sung this song for gigs during the past couple of years. The lockdown is still preventing live music gigs, so, here I use a basic Band-in-a-Box country ballad setting with Nashville drums, strummed and finger-picked guitars and bass. I bring up the fiddle in the second sections and add the vocal. With songs like this- less is more, IMHO.