the trouble with drinking alone

[myredshoes]

I found dark silver eyes resting on me

neon color reflected within

watched myself looking back as I raised up my glass

and she smiled and that's how it begins

she used to call me and beg to go dancing

but I'm only good with my hands

so I'd drive her wherever and I'd sit with a bottle

watch her dancing with some other man

 

yeah I'd set there and dream of tomorrows

never noticed the silence had grown

'til I looked through my glass at a big empty dance floor

that's the trouble with drinking alone

 

there's a Camel half-dead in the ashtray

and the smoke curls up through the mirror

though the door is behind me I can see it half clearly

don't believe that it's opened in years

and I called her to tell her I'm sorry

called to ask her to meet for a beer

'cuz I need to explain why I get so insane

'cuz there's time when I just need her near

 

and the evening grows older around me

now the barmaid won't throw me a bone

I can hear lots of voices but nothing they're saying

that's the trouble with drinking alone

 

dust sleeps light on the bottles before me

just the vodka and bourbon are new

and my shot glass is empty but the paid help ignores me

like they do when I've had just a few

I've forgotten what I meant to tell her

guess I'll have to think up something new

and she's two hours late now I'm worried about her

but I just can't decide what to do

 

and the sheriff is running the highway

and I'm sick but I'm cold as a stone

so no one says nothing as I scoop up my car keys

that's the trouble with drinking alone

[3rd_harmonic]

Man... I've drank alone just a few times in my life at home. But I don't have it as one of my vices. And I don't hardly know my way around a bar. But I've seen it. And I feel it in your lyrics. Mix it with a woman that won't be back and you got me... some combination of my heart, my anger against demons and addictions and a life that allows them to control.

 

interested in the music that you have in mind.

[myredshoes]

It's been about 17-18 years since I drank any alcohol. I was saying the other day that I wasn't at all interested in writing any drinking-alone songs.

 

So I did.

 

Humbucker split at the bridge, treble full on, fingers.

[MisfitKay138]

he's gone hillbilly

[myredshoes]

*twang*

[MisfitKay138]

need me to pick up a straw hat for ya hon?

[myredshoes]

Look in trunk.

[MisfitKay138]

oh jeez

[rsadasiv]

This one cries out for the Blue2Blue treatment.

[myredshoes]

cries out for something...

[MisfitKay138]

a banjo.....:lol:

[myredshoes]

I was thinking long-term inpatient rehab.

 

 

Moot point, since any way you look at it the thing is bad for business.

[MisfitKay138]

i was thinking more of mental hospital....but i think thats just me lol

[myredshoes]

i was thinking more of mental hospital....but i think thats just me lol

 

I prefer to think of them as vacations.

 

At really crappy resorts.

[MisfitKay138]

[Sentry68]

Hey, I like it! You don't have to drink alone to HAVE drunk alone. It's one of those rites of passage (but all you whippersnappers do it at home willya!?!)

 

It's a good story, and I like the catch line a lot. Although it's ready-made for a steel guitar country tune, I'd like to hear it a little more southern-fried, not too bluesy. Just a thought. GL with it, I think it makes a catchy song. Are you going to record it?

 

And once again, I head to the gulf for disaster assessment, this time to Beaumont, TX. No phone, no lights, no motorcar... not a single luxury. Well, except for the motorcar. and food. and... you get the idea. Cya's.

[myredshoes]

And water. And dry TP. In the car.

 

For sure more fried than blue.

 

Take care.

[3rd_harmonic]

what I really liked was you "showing" and not just telling. The little vignettes that show up, especially the one-liner:

 

'til I looked through my glass at a big empty dance floor

 

that is a whole little episode in one line. This is something for me to study and learn from.

[HvyMtl9339]

hai

[LeonardScaper]

Drinking alone tonight.

 

Like to hear the tune.

[blue2blue]

This all works pretty good for me, assuming the meter works against the music.

 

It reads a little long but there's enough detail and nuance, I think, to keep us interested... even as nothing much happens on camera except our hero sinking ever farther into his own drunkenly solipsistic funk. (And I don't mean groove.) Still, we come out at the end with a character study of the guy.

 

I used to drink with him, I think. Well... along side him. You know, one guy says something deep and solemn the other guy doesn't really pay attention to but nods knowingly, then he says something that goes in one cerebral hemisphere and out the other and before you now it it's ten minutes to two, bartime, and the lights are on and the couple of people left are a whole lot scarier looking than you ever dreamed.

[rockinrobby]

I'm drinking alone at this moment. Is it just words? Or is there a tune? I would like to hear it?

[myredshoes]

 

This all works pretty good for me, assuming the meter works against the music. It reads a little long but there's enough detail and nuance, I think, to keep us interested... even as nothing much happens on camera except our hero sinking ever farther into his own drunkenly solipsistic funk. (And I don't mean groove.) Still, we come out at the end with a character study of the guy. I used to drink with him, I think. Well... along side him. You know, one guy says something deep and solemn the other guy doesn't really pay attention to but nods knowingly, then he says something that goes in one cerebral hemisphere and out the other and before you now it it's ten minutes to two, bartime, and the lights are on and the couple of people left are a whole lot scarier looking than you ever dreamed.

 

 

I think it reads a litttle long because the first verse and chorus was cobbled on hurriedly and after the fact in order to introduce the woman. I started writing with the half-dead camel thing Saturday, then added the "beginning" Sunday night. To me the intro verse doesn't really gel with the rest of the piece yet.

[Lee Knight]

I like it. I like the dusty bottles and the just the few new ones. The neon reflected in her eyes. Only good with my hands and not feet, the sheriff running the highway... I like this. But I don't hear it with steel guitar, I hear it with an out of tune upright piano played softly and sung in almost a whisper. That's what I hear... yep.

 

Oh, and in 3/4 time. I see our protagonist finally learning to dance in a solo stumble. Holding his glass and slowly spinning to this sad waltz... yep.

[myredshoes]

I'm drinking alone at this moment. Is it just words? Or is there a tune? I would like to hear it?

 

Yeah I sunged it to Kay to torment her some... It's telecaster music to me, not pedal steel and not acoustic. I play a homebuilt strat with a humbucker at the bridge. This has a coil tap so I use that tapped with the treble rolled up for songs like this. I don't use pedals anymore, just a beater 120 watt SS Crate head that really only does clean and dirty. I don't play loud, and I almost never play clean; it's just not my sound. I blame the noises that came out of crappy little radios in the early '70's; gave me a wierd idea of what music is supposed to be.