In our last blog entry of 2024, we introduced our readers to the Backbeat Radio show, on which our website was mentioned and our choice for Backbeat’s best song of the year was played. It is a drinking song called “Nickel of Wine.” The music is quite appealing, but it was the lyrics that struck us as being especially interesting. We will give our reasons in the following paragraph and conclude this posting with a little information on some medieval songs in this genre.
Nickel of Wine
All I got, is a wooden nickel
Looking for, a real good time
Just give me, the best you got now
Champagne, will do just fine
Oh…. give me a good time
Oh….let the nickel roll
Oh…. give me a good time
All I want is a nickel of wine
“Nickel of Wine”: Brad Strang’s short paean to that medium of exchange that never achieved the status of legal tender—i.e., the wooden nickel—is my choice for song of the year. It is musically complex with a driving beat and deceptively simple lyrics. Will the admirably assertive customer succeed in getting his Champagne—that’s with a capital “c” of course—with a medium of exchange that’s “not worth a wooden nickel,” or will the proprietor serve him up a lower-case version from Cucamonga or Kalamazoo? Who’s going to con whom? To hear the song, have a look at Brad’s “Nickel of Wine” YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyKJzCbp_wc
Though well represented within the folk music genre, drinking songs can, of course, be found within other forms of musical expression as well. German composer Carl Orff’s (1895-1982) Carmina Burana is a case in point. The title of the medieval collection of songs that inspired his work is also Carmina Burana, which includes a number of drinking songs that were composed and sung in the latter half of the 12th century. One of our favorites appears below.
To you, consummate drinkers,
Though little be your drought,
Good speed to your tankards,
And send the wine about.
For more on Brad Strang visit https://bluemountainrush.wixsite.com/brad-strang
Drinking Japan 