LYRICS, POETRY AND PROSE 170731
A place to share some words of beauty, inspiration, and fun. Enough of love. What’s better than love? Booze. When all else fails, you can count on booze to get you through the night. If love doesn’t work for you, maybe a shot of something a little less ethereal can. Today we have three Tennessee songs that celebrate booze – two different songs about Jack Daniels Whiskey and one about moonshine. The last song was the theme song from a 1958 regional cult film entitled Thunder Road, starring Robert Mitchum. If you were a teenage Southern boy during that period – as I was – you knew all the words. We hope you enjoy. Click on the name of the piece to get a video or more information.
Thank you Jack Daniel’s Old Number Seven
Tennessee Whiskey got me drinkin’ in heaven
An’a I know I can’t stay here too long
‘Cause I can’t go a week without doin’ wrong
(Old Number Seven)
Without doin’ wrong
(Drinkin’ in heaven)
Without doin’ wrong
(Old Number Seven)
Without doin’ wrong
(Drinkin’ in heaven)
– Old Number Seven Group: The Devil Makes Three; Writer: Peter Bernhard
Bogie Bogart, he cried, “Laureen, let’s sail the sea”
Honey, when I’m dyin’, have another drink of that stuff for me
But now ya find him in Lynchburg all the time
But they keep him waiting at the end of the line
At that old honky tonk people prayed
My God, look at all the parts he played, I’m talkin’ about it
Jack Daniel’s, old number seven
Tennessee, sour-mashed whiskey
Jack Daniel’s, old number seven
Tennessee, sour-mashed whiskey
He used to be so frisky
– Jack Daniels (Old Number Seven) Singer: Jerry Lee Lewis; Songwriters: Tony Colton, Charles Hodges, Albert Lee & Raymond Barry Smith
Roaring out of Harlan went the whippoorwill
He shot the gap at Cumberland and screamed through Maynardsville
With G men oh his taillights and roadblocks up ahead
That mountain boy took roads that even angels fear to tread
Blazin’ right through Knoxville on down Kingston Pike
It was just outside of Bearden where they made that fatal strike
He left the road at ninety that’s all there is to tell
The devil sent the moonshine and the driver straight to hell
And there was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road
Thunder was his engine, white lightning was his load
And there was moonshine, moonshine, to quench the devil’s thirst
The Law, they never got him, ’cause the devil got him first
Law, they never got him, ’cause the devil got him first
The Ballad of Thunder Road Singer: Robert Mitchum; Writers: Robert MItchum & Don Raye