All of This and Nothing: One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

"All of This and Nothing" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song I really love, by an artist I haven't featured in the previous This Year, Portions For Foxes, or Better Things series. It alternates between Obscure and Famous songs; feel free to argue either way if you're so inclined. See the introduction for more.

I like self-indulgent media more than most people, I think - long rambly shaggy-dog stories in whatever format, from MST3K's sublime "A Joke by Ingmar Bergman" to Tristram Shandy.

This week's song is the musical equivalent of that: a fifty-year old version of a much older blues song, by what was then called George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers, from their 1977 debut record. (Some of you might prefer the John Lee Hooker version; that's valid but I don't agree.)

This week, we've got "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer." No "and" in the title - it's late, and you gotta get some drinking done, so there's no time for wasted words.

The "song" is actually a medley; the story-song portion that opens it is a different Hooker song, "House Rent Boogie" - but who cares about that at this point? It all goes together, and it all tells one story. You want to nitpick?

I said I know,
everybody funny, now you funny too

Thorogood was in peak form here, in his early incarnation as a bar-band slide-guitar hero - before the blandness of the '80s took over his schtick. The guitar work is blazing, and his singing is just perfect for the song: dismissive, offhand, barely engaged until the subject of alcohol comes up.

No I ain't seen my baby since
Nigh on a week
Gotta get drunk man
Till I can't even speak

Blues songs are like noir in that they're about the main character doing things the wrong way, or for the wrong reason, or just ruining things - getting blotto drunk in some dive bar because his girl is off somewhere else doing something else. And, if you don't have your girl, what else is there in life? That's the blues.

One drink ain't enough
Jack you better make it three
I wanna get drunk
I'm gonna make it real clear
I want one bourbon,
one scotch and one beer