Raise A Toast To Lyrics About Alcohol

The bottle has been kept pretty busy by rock music. There are lyrics about alcohol. There are musicians who drink while writing lyrics about alcohol. There are musicians who drink while playing songs with the lyrics they've written about alcohol. There are concert-goers whose experience of those musicians playing live isn't complete unless alcohol is doing the backstroke through their bloodstream. Alcohol is a demon to some, and an angel to others, and there are enough songs about it to stock countless bars. So step up and have a taste of a few of them.

"Cold Gin" - KISS
Gin smells like bad aftershave, but it makes a damn fine cocktail. Recovered alcoholic and original KISS lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, knew this when he wrote this rock classic's music and lyrics, "It's time to leave and get another quart/Around the corner at the liquor store/The cheapest stuff is all I need/To get me back on my feet again." Frehley was riding the New York subway, notebook in hand, when the song's music and lyrics hit him. Ironically, bassist Gene Simmons, who has never touched a drop of alcohol, sings this song's high-proof lyrics.

"Nightrain" - Guns 'N' Roses
No, this song isn't about a train's sleeper car, or an obscure sexual reference that politely substitutes "Nightrain" for a more graphic term. Its lyrics are about the sixth member of Guns 'N' Roses in their early days -- Night Train Express wine! The guys were broke and living in their tiny Hollywood studio, but if they could each cough up a buck, they could derail their troubles with a $5 bottle that packed a walloping percentage of alcohol. Here are some of the lyrics that paid tribute to this twist-top train-without-brakes: "I'm on the nightrain/I love that stuff/I'm on the nightrain/And I can never get enough/I'm on the nightrain/Never to return."

"I Drink Alone" - George Thorogood
A bluesy kind of guy, Thorogood sings quite a few songs with lyrics about alcohol -- a prevalent blues theme, and well as a generic prescription for the blues, often taken in liberal doses. In the witty lyrics, Thorogood claims to prefer drinking alone, although he makes sly references to drinking partners with the names of various brands of alcohol: "I don't want no coffee or tea/Just my good buddy Weiser/That's all I ever need," "I woke from a terrible dream/So I called up my pal Jack Daniels/And his partner, Jimmy Beam," "The other day I got invited to a party/But I stayed home instead/Just me and my pal Johnny Walker/And his brothers Black and Red."

"Alcohol" - Brad Paisley
This song's lyrics are unique because they are coming from the first-person perspective of alcohol, itself. In those lyrics, alcohol humorously brags about its power over us weak mortals: "I can make anybody pretty/I can make you believe any lie/I can make you pick a fight/With somebody twice your size./Well, I've been known to cause a few breakups/And I've been known to cause a few births/I can make you new friends/Or get you fired from work/...Alcohol."

There are many, many more famous lyrics praising and cursing alcohol and its effects. And if you don't believe me, I'll bet you a drink that I'm right.