
Lew Bryson has started his Session Beer Project (the "SBP") which has generated much interest and acclaim. OK, interest. In discussing what a session beer is, Lew commented on an earlier beer blog thread:
...I don't live in the UK or Ontario where sub-4.5% ABV beers are readily available (Beaumont just e-mailed me today, telling me to be careful what I wished for; central Ontario, he claims, is awash in session beer but woefully deficient in head-bangers); I have to take what I can get...Personally, I have yet to notice the tidal wave of sub-4.5% beers (unless we are taking "lite macro-crap") but as Lew sets the bar for session beers at 5.5% it is clear we are awash with those sorts of brews. But we don't think of them as session beers - they are "normal" as Canadian beer drinkers for the most part prefer nothing more than one of those exactly 5% normal beer that tastes pretty much as the normal one they had last time. And what do you do with normal beer? You get pounded.
What does this all have to do with the Beer in Music Project you ask? Well, I am going to keep a page of links to downloadable tunes and/or references to pages with the lyrics and/or history of great tunes about beer and reviews there upon. And the first I can think of is by Jughead, their tune "Stumblin' Drunk." Here is a .wma file of the recording from their 1993 CD Uncorked!. By way of that act of reviewing one must do to makes the BMP all OK, what I like about the recording is brewhall atmosphere Jughead captures in the tune. This is the sort of music one would hear in a certain class of Canadian tavern catering to a certain class of Canadian university student or Saturday afternoon barfly - which is natural as I recall Jughead was the house band at the Horseshoe in Toronto around this time. Plus there are stubbies and a pack of Kraft Dinner on the cover. It speaks to a time and a frame of mind. And that is the frame of mind of the guy who wants a belly full of "normal" beer. "Session Beer Be Damned!" sayeth he - if he were at all aware what a session beer was.
So what music about beer is there? German music hall? Irish shanty? Swazilandian communal straw pot carols?






Comments
Knut Albert - February 14, 2007 9:14 AM
There is Ray Davies singing about ice cold beer in "Sunny Afternoon".
Alan - February 14, 2007 10:17 AM
Yes, and that first Sheryl Crow hit about the beer buzz in the morning.
Knut Albert - February 23, 2007 6:29 AM
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert.
(Kris Kristofferson: Sunday Morning Coming Down)