10 Greatest Modern Rock Songs About Getting Drunk
Oh yeah, these go down real smooth.
Booze is a wonderful muse for musicians. It's the only thing besides love that gets the creative juices flowing and spilling out into the studio. That doesn't necessarily mean, however, that liquor is reliable for producing great songs.
Because there are plenty of really, really bad songs about getting smashed - UB40's pseudo-raggae ode "Red, Red Wine" immediately springs to mind - and plenty more terrible songs that have nothing to do with drinking at all, except that they were dreamed up and maybe even recorded during a drunken stupor.
Also, we should clarify that there's a difference between "drinking songs" and songs about getting drunk. And they don't always overlap.
Drinking songs are a dime a dozen. Really, once you get past that fourth beer or third shot of whiskey, every song becomes a drinking song. So it's not that impressive for a band to have a few songs in their discography that become synonymous with a night out on the town.
But it takes a special talent to actually write a really great song about getting drunk that isn't A) super depressing and B) mostly just listing all of the labels on the bottles you see behind the bar.
10. Deer Tick - "Let's All Go To The Bar"
"I don't care if you're already drunk
(Let's all go to the bar)
This is one night school that I won't flunk
(Let's all go to the bar)
I'm not gonna stand for being down on my luck
(Let's all go to the bar)"
Tailor-made for that burst of momentum you feel after you've had a couple of beers at home and get the itch to go share your boozy enthusiasm with a bigger crowd. You call up and text your friends with a simple plea: let's all go to the bar!
This brisk, piano-driven rocker recalls the Ramones and Jerry Lee Lewis with equal aplomb, which is never a bad thing.
There's so much youthful exuberance on display here that it'd be easy for a thirty-something nightcrawler to forget they're not in high school anymore and should probably lay off the tequila unless they want to spend the entirety of tomorrow with the curtains drawn and an icepack on their head.
Sometimes the greatest songs about getting wasted are the simplest ones, and Deer Tick knows the best way to boost a simple rock and roll structure is with a whole lotta energy.