Author’s Note: Due to some pressing business commitments, the next installment of “A Little of This, a Little of That” will be up next week. In the interim, here’s something I’ve owed readers for some time.
A while back, I promised a list of music and drinks to enjoy while reading Happy Hour is For Amateurs. This wasn’t a loose, flippant idea. The book, like much of everything I’ve done, was written to music, in many aspects, written like music – visualized more as a prose version of an album than anything else. The chapters move at different speeds, some approximating frenetic guitar solos, others bridges or refrains, a couple just breathing spaces.
It was also written to alcohol. Not in the sense that it was written under the influence, but in the sense that its points, its jokes, the meat of the thing, was informed by and infused with liquor. Bourbon, one could say, is the blood, or fuel, of the book. But it isn’t just Maker’s or Beam, Hayden, Baker’s or Turkey. The drinks were many and varied, appearing at different times, in disparate stages of the story.
The songs, the drinks, they might all stand for stand for something, or possibly nothing at all. But this I’m sure they do: Flesh out a picture of the scene… The time, the place, what people seemed to be thinking, or at least what was driving their brains. In some cases right in the instant, the liquor and soundtrack of the moment. In others what was driving the writing – the music on the Ipod shuffle, blasting from the living room stereo. The chemical muse in a glass, just off the side of the keyboard. There’s a groove in certain moments, when the end of a live “Magheeta” is screaming out of the speakers as you’re finishing a glass of Woodford and you’re banging away on one of those ninety word sentences that just seems to click like verse… No work in writing that stuff.
Anyway, I’ve picked out some songs and drinks that might give you a sense of the mood in the scenes described as well as the mood that informed the way they were written. In some cases, the more ridiculous choices, the selections “just seemed to fit.”
(I’ll probably add to this a bit. Feel free to offer suggestions.)
Here they are, by chapter:
1998
Funk 49, James Gang
Stolichnaya Vanilla, Rocks
Chap Stick
Life During Wartime, Talking Heads
Stay With Me, Faces
Just Like Tom Thumb Blues, Bob Dylan
Guinness Stout
Breaking & Entering
Sweet Emotion, Aerosmith
I Ran, Flock of Seagulls
Police on My Back, The Clash
Jim Beam
Rainier Beer (Sadly, or not, a now defunct brewery)
Hat Trick
Hey Ladies, Beastie Boys
Some Girls, Rolling Stones
Poor, Poor Pitiful Me, Warren Zevon
Johnny Walker Red
Ten Percenter
When I Was Young, The Animals
Slowride, Foghat
Supernaut, Black Sabbath
Glenlivet
How to Not Get a Job Offer
Substitute, The Who
Danger Zone, Kenny Loggins
Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads
Chardonnay
Amstel Light
Twenty-Six
Blitzkrieg Bop, The Ramones
Borstal Boys, Faces
Highway 61, Johnny Winter
Jagermeister
Squirrelfucker
Working Man, Rush
Do It Again, Kinks
Sweater Song, Weezer
Bud cans, 12 ounce
30 Years
Coming into Los Angeles, Arlo Guthrie
Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash
Dupree’s Diamond Blues, Grateful Dead
Miller Light
Lisa
Two Step, Dave Matthews
Three Days, Janes Addiction
Johnny Walker Black
The Crab Orgy
The Soft Parade, The Doors
Stoli Vanilla, Rocks
Marshal
Time is on My Side, Rolling Stones
Money, Pink Floyd
Irish Coffee
The Train Wreck
Greatest Story Ever Told, Grateful Dead
Had Me a Real Good Time, Faces
The Gold, It’s in the Um…, Pink Floyd
Yuengling Lager
Three to One
If You Want Blood, You Got It, AC/DC
Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, Rolling Stones
Running with the Devil, Van Halen
Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, Stooges
Red Bull & Jim Beam
Meet the New Boss
Ballad of the Thin Man, Bob Dylan
Fortunate Son, Creedence Clearwater Revival
Hate to Say I Told You So, Hives
Opus One, Anything Mid to Late Eighties
Constanza Method, I
STP, Sublime
Sexx Laws, Beck
Flagpole Sitta, Harvey Danger
Grand Marnier
Costanza Method, II
Vertigo, Libertines
El Scorcho, Weezer
Kola Kola, The Clash
Maker’s Mark
Bestwhip Nitrous Chargers
Sudden Asshole Syndrome
I Can’t Stand It, Velvet Underground
April 26, 1992, Sublime
99 Year Blues, Hot Tuna
Bluecoat Gin & Tonic
Everything Went Pink
Toad, Cream
Berkshire Poppies, Traffic
V.H.V., Masters of Reality
Asti Spumante
Red Bull and Maker’s Mark
Jagermeister
Tequila
Espresso
Newspaper Guys
Crazy, Patsy Cline
Ginger ale and Ativan
Getting Your Money’s Worth
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Neil Young
It’s Shit, Masters of Reality
Let it Bleed, Rolling Stones
Veuve Clicquot
Knob Creek
Fifteen Minutes of Fame (Well, More Like Ten)
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, Warren Zevon
Slowpoke, Lawrence Welk
Fuckin’ Up, Neil Young
King Midas in Reverse, The Hollies
Woodford Reserve
Last Roulette Wheel on the Way out of the Casino
Money (That’s What I Want), The Beatles
Naked & Famous, Presidents of the United States of America
Rudie Can’t Fail, The Clash
Delirium Tremens
Justice Junkies
Piano Man, Billy Joel
A Little More for Little You, Hives
Amstel Light
Any cheap merlot
Plan B
Shot Shot, Gomez
Now Here is Nowhere, Secret Machines
Red Bull & Belvedere
Everything Went Wrong
Here it Goes Again, Ok Go
Black Math, White Stripes
Flathead, Fratellis
Frozen shots of Chopin vodka
Gone
Piss up a Rope, Ween
El Scorcho, Weezer
Guinness Stout during ‘Chap Stick’…. Appropriate choice.
I love the varied tastes, in music as well as the drink.
PL: This thing was a bitch to write. I listen to a lot of disparate shit and it was tricky to find things that worked, but not too perfectly. The idea was to pick songs that would work as a soundtrack if the book were a flick.
I live on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and we’ve got a beer called Rainier Lager. I think it may be brewed in Washington and yes it is pretty disgusting.
PL: We only bought the crap back then because some risk manager for our college outlawed kegs. I wouldn’t use it to clean my tires today.
You’re a hero for throwing out the Ween. (One of) The greatest band to never write a song that really meant a damn thing (and so its perfect for anything, except sanity).
PL: And a band that can shred when it wants to. The live cds from Chicago a few years back are killer. The version of “All of My Love” where the singer mimics Robert Plant is fantastic, and the solo on the “HIV Song” is amazing.
Meet the New Boss–makes me think The Who and Won’t Get Fooled Again, or is that too obvious.
My favorite chapter was Marshal, and I think The Allmans Whipping Post, how better to sum up the modern legal profession than as follows:
Sometimes I feel, sometimes I feel,
Like I been tied to the whipping post
Tied to the whipping post,
Tied to the whipping post,
Good lord, I feel like Im dyin
PL: I was going to actually use “Whipping Post” in several places, and “Dreams” and “Statesboro Blues,” but the Allmans are so frequently referenced in my stuff that I just needed a breather, to focus on different bands.
No Allman Brothers?
PL: They fit in so many places I couldn’t decide where to put them, so I haven’t inserted them yet. I probably will, which is why I referenced my intent to amend the list from time to time.
Of course, “Statesboro Blues” is the walkway song at the end. But somehow I think, if the book were scored, “El Scorcho” has a better sense of finality and statement to it.
I really wish i would have read your book before i went to law school… oh well. Anyways, if your ever in dc id love to get a drink or 3.
PL: Two words: distressed debt. Use the degree to get into that business. Take as many finance, tax and bankruptcy courses as you can. Don’t worry about them fucking up your GPA because they’re difficult. The big firms won’t be hiring anybody in the next few years and the days of the salary races are over. And in the future, in this country, you’re going to want to work for yourself.
I challenge anyone to name one thing that Magheeta or One Big Holiday off of Okonokos doesn’t make better. Thanks for this list, it’ll make the re-read all more worthwhile.
PL: Fuck yes. That’s one of the best live records I own. “Xmas Curtain” is a top 50 Ipod selection.
That new live thing in Vegas they put out on Itunes, however, is crap.
They’re an odd band. I think Jimmy James thinks he needs to do super-soft acoustic stuff to balance them out. Sometimes it works, like the song about the librarian on “Evil Urges” or “Thank You.” But when it doesn’t… man, is it shit. Sounds like bad 70s AM radio.
See them live. If they come to town, do not miss them.
This is the dumbest thing you’ve ever written.
PL: I think you’re selling yourself short. If you look harder, I think you can find something a lot dumber.
As a college student who humps a swamp donkey of a serving job at, well, a three star restaurant in a two star town, I enjoyed the inclusion of Opus One and Delirium Tremens. Completely unfamiliar with either until I got the job, I quickly learned that selling the former to afford the latter is an effective way to deal with a batshit boss. Oh, and when 9% abv for a beer just won’t cut it, adding a shot of mandarin vodka to Delirium will make time traveling to tomorrow a little less taxing.
Greatly appreciated the book. If you ever find yourself in Champaign, I’ll introduce to the Clockwork Orange. Best.
PL: I find your drink idea interesting and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.*
I like wine just fine, (well, except white wine, which I find vile [though champagne is a favorite drink... great buzz]), but Opus One is one of those mass marketed “look at me” sticker – the kind of thing a stockbroker or lawyer in a two and a half star town would order for effect. I mean, just consider the name. “Opus One.” And the fact the vineyard was opened, I think, in the eighties, right around the time every Joe College Degree was trying to get his Gordon Gekko on.
Now, all that said, there are wine people who dig it for honest reasons, and it is good wine, so I’m not taking a shot at the brand’s following in total.
*Stolen from an old Simpsons episode.
El Scorcho for both the walkaway song and in Constanza Method II? Awesome song, but still you can’t have it twice in the same playlist.
I know you’ve already got a couple Zevons in there, but I’ll suggest Desperadoes Under the Eaves for the lead in of Everything Went Pink and I’m surprised you didn’t work Dixie Chicken in there somewhere.
PL: I was going to use “Easy to Slip” in a couple places instead of “Dixie Chicken,” or “Sailin’ Shoes” for the interview near the end, but they didn’t seem to click exactly for me.
On “El Scorcho,” I can never hear it enough. It’s perfectly obnoxious in some inscrutable way I can’t quite explain and also has that excellent chorus. “I’m a lot like you, so please, hello…” Translated loosely, I’m a lot like you and we’re both just laughing at the condition of it all. \Or maybe not. Maybe just singing about hot sauce. Either way, that crazy guitar line, going from low to high to low to high is addictive. Dissonant, but melodic.
I like Rivers Cuomo. He’s earnest enough and pragmatically sarcastic in the same breath. A guy who seems to give a shit, but isn’t crazy enough to think it matters.
What is El Scorcho’s statement? I always thought it was just another song about an unattainable asian girl, with a bunch of pop culture references in the mix.
Loved your book, it’s been passed halfway throughout the office and enjoyed by most so far.
PL: Make the bastards buy it!
El Scorcho is about hot sauce.
Really, thanks for pushing the book. Pass it around to everyone.
OK, so I tried it… Twatter.com that is… I’m too stupid and old to really grasp what it’s all about.
I also attempted to post some follow up suggestions here in the format presented, but shit the bed on that. So today, I’ve decided to “microblog” (I like that, reminds me of “microdot”) about what ring tones I have on my phone as a linkage to this discussion.
It’s a long way to the top – AC/DC – I use this for all work related numbers.
Search & Destroy – Stooges – One person I know has this ring, it’s fitting, that’s all I’ll say.
Whipping Post – Brothers – My “life-partner” and my “life-partner’s” parents (you dig?)
If you want blood – AC/DC – My siblings and parents.
Long Haired Redneck – David Allen Coe – a childhood friend and a buddy from Havasu.
Heading out to the highway – Judas Priest – Motorsports contacts.
No one left to run with anymore – Brothers – Philalawyer and two other people from the same “place” on the E=MC5 continuum of human existence.
Ace of Spades – Motorhead – Default ringtone.
As you know, I’ve been on the Jaeger and RedBull for over 10 years (since I first had it when I was up in Tahoe, doing the whole “arboreal thing”, where it was referred to as a “Blaster”). So I guess that would be the drink of choice for each… PIZZA! PIZZA!
PL: I had a response, but I think it’s best to just repeat this:
E=MC5
One of those perfect encapsulations.
How’s Lance, by the way? This is what, you’re fifth anniversary?
Red Bull + Bookers. Just try it.
Oh, another drink I’m fond of is known, in some parts, as the “Rebel Yell”… It’s Maker’s Mark and Mountain Dew. PIZZA! PIZZA!
PL: Nothing that goes well with MD wouldn’t go better with Red Bull.
By the way, Twatter won’t let me join with a Diner’s Club. Can I borrow the numbers for that Cuban credit line?
Upon reading this list I realize how large the generational gap is between us. A mid 20’s guy like me just couldn’t get into 90% of the songs listed here. Having said that, I think you would absolutely love some of the stuff I listen to. Ten percenters must have similar tastes right? Not what I expected, but maybe what I should have. I press this book on everyone I know and it will be treasured for a long, long time.
PL: Thank you. You’re probably right. I’ll listen to just about anything.
Seeing another commenter mention “Dixie Chicken” reminded me that “Spanish Moon” (live version, naturally) wasn’t on the list anywhere. I find that surprising. The groove and feel of that song fits an awful lot of your stories.
Ranier, in its pre-Miller days, was a mediocre but unique regional beer, like Olympia or Weinhard’s. Goddamn Miller. Many people from the Northwest have fond memories of Vitamin R.
PL: “Vitamin R”… Nice. Cracked me up.
“Spanish Moon” goes with “Lit Up.”
As you can see by the TypeKey ident, I’ve been a fan for a big long time.
I’ve had to do some catch up reading as I’ve been busy.
Thanks for this list. I might have to try a chapter a night, with the suggested menu.
I could probably dust the book off in a night, but I think I’d be a sloppy mess by the end of it.
I’ve also ordered 3 copies of the book today.
One for me, like I said, really busy, yeah, been out since October, I had stuff going on, one for my best friend and another for the little brother.
Thanks for everything man!
PL: Thanks, man, that is more than appreciated.
I was quite a sloppy mess at the end of writing it. I’m just able to start reading it again now, to knock off some typos for the paperback.
Yuengling Lager – my personal favorite beer
Nice variety in drinks
PL: Thanks.
Try some of the extreme IPAs out there.
Fantastic addendum to the book — I was just saying to a friend of mine that if HST had gone into law instead of journalism, he probably would have written a lot like this, and more than likely he’s the only other writer who would have thought to include a suggested drinks list to go with his book. I mean that as a compliment of the highest order.
On the subject of compliments, I showed the book to a close friend of mine who’s a lawyer in Toronto, Canada, and he thumbed through the first few pages. Despite the differences in the legal systems between Canada and the States, his response went like this:
“This is the most accurate statement regarding law as a profession that I’ve ever read — and I’m only on page two.”
Needless to say, he loved it, and so did I. Congratulations on your well-deserved success.
PL: I take that as an unwarranted, but much appreciated compliment of the highest order. People rip me for openly allowing his influence to show in my writing. I say, when a man’s been right in 90% of what he said, and pretty much looks like a sage in his assumption that the American Dream we presently flog is a perverted, clownish shadow of what it’s supposed to be, why not absorb some of his voice? Between him and Carlin, you have all the insight on our society you’ll ever need.
Thanks, by the way, for circulating the book. I love the idea the thing does well in Canada. I’d like to think you’re all up there laughing at us. We deserve it.
In regards to the people who rip on you for the Thompsonian flourishes in your work, I’d say this: It’s not as though you have much choice in the matter. Anyone with an appreciation for prose who read his work couldn’t help but be influenced by it. Saying that, I don’t think that your work reads as derivative in anyway. I also think that your stuff’s getting even better as you go along- the recent series ‘A little of this, a little of that’ is a personal favourite. Your characterisation of ‘Henry’ is just brilliant.
I also enjoyed your recommendations. It was good to see the inclusion of a gin on the list- I was beginning to wonder about its absence from your writing, starting to suspect that some ugly incident had queered your view of the stuff. That would have been a real loss. Summer just wouldn’t feel right without gin and tonics.
Anyway, I’m a big fan of your writing and I’m looking forward to the new book. Cheers.
PL: I wonder if Henry still has his finance gig…
Thanks. As to the HST thing, I like the flow of his writing, and if people rip on me for sounding like his stuff, I take it as a compliment, for the reasons you cite.
I’ve been on a huge gin kick lately. Terrible, really, because it’s so damned refreshing and goes down so easily. I fired through a bottle of Bombay Sapphire over the weekend like it was water. Just casually sipping it. Tasty shit. I think the reason it hasn’t figured prominently before is I drank a lot of it Tanqueray in college and then stopped drinking the stuff up for close to a decade. Many of the pieces about the law firm years find me in my vodka and bourbon days, and well, most of the memorable drunks of the past I flash back to in them tend to derive from bourbon.
Why I didn’t stick with gin throughout all those years I don’t know. I think vodka just kind of took its place. But I’m back to it now, with a vengeance.