Special thanks to Lori Barrett for the nice mention in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.

The other night I was having a beer and watching the Cubs stagger towards the playoffs. It suddenly occurred to me that I had never posted songs about drinking. Now I have.

Bruce Lash “Alabama Song” (comp. Kurt Weill)
This piano-jazz arrangement of the old classic is a refreshing change from the oompah version that the Doors popularized.

Devil In A Woodpile “Keep On Drinkin'” (Big Bill Broonzy)
I would give up drinking if the alternative were monkey glands. I guess I just lack the proper degree of dedication.

Dan Zanes “Drunken Sailor” (Traditional)
Dan Zanes is a children’s musician who’s all over the Disney Channel. He plays kid music that doesn’t make adults cringe, mostly folk and world music stuff. This song comes from a CD of songs from the Old Town School of Folk Music songbook that Bloodshot Records put out.

The Gourds “Gin And Juice” (Snoop Dogg)
Sounds like Snoop took a wrong turn and ended up at a frat party.

Metallica “Whiskey In The Jar” (Traditional)
This has got to be the band least likely to play an Irish drinking song.

A series of illnesses has left me without the energy or inclination to put much effort into a theme this week. But at least I’m still posting, so I can’t be that bad off.

Eric Metronome “I Want You to Want Me” (Cheap Trick)
Cheap Trick’s original version combines a relentlessly chipper tune with very mopey lyrics. Eric Metronome has come up with an arrangement that really puts the hopeless desperate melancholy of the lyrics upfront. It completely changes the feel of the song.

Elli Medeiros & Etienne Daho “My Heart Belongs To Daddy” (comp. Cole Porter)
Percolating and sleazy at the same time. You’ve gotta hand it to the French.

The Bad Livers “Jailbait/Ring of Fire” (Motorhead/Johnny Cash)
They’re both love songs. Really. The world’s weirdest bluegrass band pays tribute to two of their influences.

Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” (Doris Day)
Last night my wife and I went to our local village’s “OakToberfest,” which featured music from both Anna Fermin and the Waco Brothers. Somebody very hip is programming the music for this thing, last year they had Robbie Fulks. Granted they’re all local bands, but still. They could have had a local Beatles tribute band or something.

While Ms. Fermin is a fantastic songwriter as well as an incredible singer, I have to post covers on this blog. So here’s one of the few good songs from her album Oh, The Stories We Hold. I was talking to the drummer and bass player about that album and they cheerfully told me “oh, we don’t like that one either.” Her most recent one, Go, is extremely good.

The Waco Brothers “Revolution Blues” (Neil Young)
That’s a disturbing song right there. Mr. Young wrote it from the point of view of Charles Manson, whom he met when Manson was an aspiring musician. The Wacos didn’t play this one last night, presumably because it was a family-oriented event.

I spent the early part of last week in California. I had a job near Santa Cruz and I went to a baseball game with a couple of friends in San Francisco. That’s reason enough to post songs about the place.

The Avalanches “Do You Know The Way To San Jose” (Dionne Warwick)
I flew into San Jose. This version of this song was running through my head as we landed. That’s the soundtrack of my life.

Oingo Boingo “California Girls” (Beach Boys)
Danny Elfman’s been doing movie soundtracks so long it’s hard to remember that he started out doing stuff like this.

Ska Daddyz “Hotel California” (The Eagles)
Update: Alert reader Tom tells me that this is not Reel Big Fish. He seems to know a lot more about RBF than I do so I’ll take his word for it.

Two people have now written in to say it’s the Ska Daddyz, so that’s what I’m going with.

This song works so much better as a full-on ska number.

Lisa Ono “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” (Tony Bennett)
For some reason I just don’t think “samba” when I think of San Francisco.

Hi-Standard “California Dreaming” (The Mamas And The Papas)
Update: Alert reader Mark tells me that this song is performed by Hi-Standard, not Pennywise. Just one more bit of bogus information from the World Wide Interweb.

It’s a pretty frantic dream.

A couple of weeks ago I posted some movie themes. This week we move to the small screen.

Joan Jett “Love Is All Around” (theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show)
Listening to this song gives me a mental picture of Mary Tyler Moore in black leather and spandex. I like that picture. A lot.

The Wedding Present “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” (Theme From Cheers)
The crunchy guitars save a pretty sappy tune.

The Jody Grind “Peter Gunn Theme”
Who knew this song had lyrics?

Dig “Fat Albert Theme”
This is what Fat Albert’s band would have sounded like if Bill Cosby had been into the Chambers Brothers.

Elvis Costello “Little Boxes” (Malvina Reynolds, theme from Weeds)
This one’s a little different because it wasn’t written specifically for the TV show. I like how the producers of Weeds started having a different artist cover the song each week in Season Two.

Elvis does bitter sarcasm better than almost anybody working today but I still can’t wait to hear Randy Newman’s version later this season.

There used to be a bar on Lincoln Avenue called Holstein’s. I saw David Bromberg play an acoustic show there once. He requested that somebody bring him whiskey. After his third request went unfulfilled he threatened to start playing union songs. He was brought a drink very quickly after that.

My grandfather was an Irish farmboy who wound up driving a streetcar for the CTA. His union job fed his eight children during the Great Depression. He lived to be 102 and when he died the union chipped in for his funeral. I would not have had the opportunities that I’ve had in my life were it not for my grandpa’s union job.

These are but two examples of the power of a union. Something to think about on Labor Day.

Uncle Tupelo “Coalminers” (comp. Sarah Ogan Gunning)
A lot of union songs not only preach the value of labor unions but also work in a plug for socialism. The song is a good example.

Scott H. Biram “Pastures of Plenty” (Woody Guthrie)
Very mellow song from Mr. Biram. Most of his stuff involves frantic guitar riffing and shouting that’s straight out of a tent revival. Very nice lyric about picking hops. If you want people to get concerned about the plight of migrant farm workers, just tell them that their beer is at stake.

Dropkick Murphys “Which Side Are You On” (comp. Florence Reece)
Are you going to be a dirty scab or are you going to be a man? Well, if you put it that way…

Billy Bragg “Which Side Are You On” (comp. Florence Reece)
A different version with updated lyrics about the efforts of Maggie Thatcher’s Conservative Party to break up the British trade unions in the mid-1980s.

I did a phone interview with Mr. Bragg when I was a college radio DJ. He started talking about when he was in the British Army. I was surprised that an angry socialist had joined the armed forces. He said that he volunteered so he could learn how the other side thought. I asked him what he learned. He told me he learned how many feet of standing corn it takes to stop a bullet. Now that’s knowledge that will take you far in life.

The Sydney Union Trade Choir “There Is Power In A Union” (Billy Bragg)
This was one of the entries in the 2002 Wobbly Radio song competition in Australia. When I first heard Billy Bragg play this I just assumed that it was some old union song. He wrote this thing in 1988! Who writes new union songs these days?

Dead Kennedys “Take This Job And Shove It” (Johnny Paycheck)
Not really a union song, but an emphatic anthem for the working man. Hard to believe that this song wasn’t written as a punk rant.