Lyr Req: The Alcoholic Blues

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Alcoholic Blues
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 15 Jun 15 - 04:15 PM

According to a January 1920 article by Roy Burke in _Along Broadway: The Edison Musical Magazine_, Albert Von Tilzer jotted down the initial ideas for this song while sitting near a well-dressed drunk on a train. Von Tilzer also mentioned: "A few years ago, 500,000 issues of a song was a big number to publish. That number meant a big hit. Today, we consider that the sale of a million copies of a song means that it is an average big success."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Alcoholic Blues
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 16 Nov 09 - 08:43 PM

Here's a page with audio, from the cylinder collection at the University of Santa Barbara: click. Performed by Vernon Dalhart.

This was linked by 12-stringer to this thread about Leadbelly's rendition (mislabeled on a Smithsonian Folkways album as "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues"), and I thought it ought to get linked here, too.

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The Alcoholic Blues'
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 May 04 - 03:01 PM

I believe 'Bevo' also is the name of the University of Texas mascot, a longhorn steer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The Alcoholic Blues'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 May 04 - 02:11 PM

By the way, Bevo was a non-alcoholic beer (a.k.a. "near beer") that was made by the Anheuser-Busch company (now the maker of Budweiser) during Prohibition. By making Bevo, yeast, and other products, A-B was one of the few brewing companies that were able to stay in business during the dry years, and one of the first to roll out beer when Prohibition ended. The famous Budweiser Clydesdales and the red delivery wagon were at first a publicity gimmick invented by August A. Busch because he wanted to attract attention by delivering the first case of beer to the White House at the end of Prohibition.

There is still a famous landmark in St. Louis known as the Bevo Mill, a restaurant in a building built to resemble a windmill.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ALCOHOLIC BLUES
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 May 04 - 09:49 PM

From Duke University's 'Historic American Sheet Music' collection:

THE ALCOHOLIC BLUES
Words, Edward Laska. Music, Albert Von Tilzer. 1919.

I love my country, 'deed I do,
But oh, that war has made me blue.
I like fightin'; that's my name,
But fightin' is the least about the fightin' game.
When Mister Hoover said to cut my dinner down,
I never even hesitate, I never frown.
I cut my sugar, I cut my coal,
But now they dug deep in my soul.

CHORUS: I've got the blues. I've got the blues.
I've got the alcoholic blues.
No more beer my heart to cheer.
Goodbye, whiskey. You used to make me frisky.
So long, highball. So long, gin.
Oh, tell me when you comin' back agin?
Blues -- I've got the blues
Since they amputated my booze.
Lordy, Lordy, war is well, you know,
I don't have to tell.
Oh, I've got the alcoholic blues, some blues.

Prohibition, that's the name.
Prohibition drives me insane.
I'm so thirsty, soon I'll die,
I'm simply goin' to 'vaporate, I'm just that dry.
I wouldn't mind to live forever in a trench,
Just if my daily thirst they only let me quench;
And not the Bevo or Ginger ale,
I want real stuff by the pail.

Subject: RE: lyrics to 'The Alcoholic Blues'
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 01:36 PM

And, the sheet music..... here. Clickie goes to page 1 of the music, just click on the 2,3,and 4 to get to the rest of it. What I sent you to above is apparently not all of it. This is.

Subject: RE: lyrics to 'The Alcoholic Blues'
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 01:32 PM

Click Me! for guitar tab and lyrics, which are way down on the page.

Subject: lyrics to 'The Alcoholic Blues'
From: Frogmore
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 01:19 PM

My 85 year-old dad remembers a song called "The Alcoholic Blues." What he remembers is: "I need some beer - my heart to cheer I need some whisky, it used to make me frisky so long to highballs, so long to gin tell me when you're coming back again.

I've got the alcolic blues........" Does anyone know this song? Thanks, Frogmore