A
drinking song is a song sung while drinking
alcoholAn alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
. Most drinking songs are
folk songsFolk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, and may be varied from person to person and region to region, in both the lyrics and in the music. Some groups that have a tradition of singing drinking songs include
rugbyRugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
players,
Hash House HarriersThe Hash House Harriers is an international group of non-competitive running, social and drinking clubs...
, air force fighter pilots, and
fraternitiesFraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
.
The Star-Spangled Banner"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
's tune was adapted from an old English drinking song by
John Stafford SmithJohn Stafford Smith was a British composer, church organist, and early musicologist. He was one of the first serious collectors of manuscripts of works by Johann Sebastian Bach....
called "
To Anacreon in Heaven"The Anacreontic Song", also known by its incipit "To Anacreon in Heaven", was the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London. Attributed to the composer John Stafford Smith, the tune was later used by several writers as a setting for...
". The spiritual "
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is a historic African-American spiritual. The first recording was in 1909, by the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University....
" is used as a drinking song by members of the
Hash House HarriersThe Hash House Harriers is an international group of non-competitive running, social and drinking clubs...
and
rugby unionRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
players, with obscene gestures associated with the lyrics. This song is heightened to a
drinking gameDrinking games are games which involve the consumption of alcoholic beverages. These games vary widely in scope and complexity, although the purpose of most is to become intoxicated as quickly as possible...
by air force fighter pilots. The first person to fail to correctly make the gestures has to buy the next round of drinks.
Popular Canadian drinking songs include
Stan RogersStanley Allison "Stan" Rogers was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter.Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his finely crafted, traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and the daily lives of working people, especially those from the fishing...
' "
Barrett's Privateers"Barrett's Privateers" is a folk song in the style of a sea shanty, written and performed by Canadian musician Stan Rogers, having been inspired after a song session with the Friends of Fiddler's Green at the Northern Lights Festival Boréal in Sudbury, Ontario...
",
Great Big SeaGreat Big Sea is a Canadian folk-rock band from Newfoundland and Labrador, best known for performing energetic rock interpretations of traditional Newfoundland folk songs including sea shanties, which draw from the island's 500-year-old Irish, English, and French heritage...
's "The Night Pat Murphy Died" and
The Rankin FamilyThe Rankin Family is a Canadian musical family group from Mabou, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The group has won many Canadian music awards, including 15 East Coast Music Awards, six Juno Awards, four SOCAN Awards, three Canadian Country Music Awards and two Big Country Music Awards.- Career...
's "The Mull River Shuffle".
There are several French-Canadian drinking songs (
Prends un verre de bière, mon minou,
Chevaliers de la table ronde), some of which have even been recorded as singles by folk singers but the most well known is just chanting "
IglooAn igloo or snowhouse is a type of shelter built of snow, originally built by the Inuit....
! Igloo! Igloo!" (from "glou-glou", the sound someone makes while drinking) as someone chugs a beer or two just as "Drink! Drink! Drink! is chanted in English-speaking cultures.
In Germany, drinking songs are called
Trinklieder. In Sweden, where they are called
Dryckesvisor, traditions are upheld to an unusual degree in modern European context. There are drinking songs associated with
ChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
,
MidsummerMidsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different...
, and other celebrations sometimes unique to Sweden. One commonly sung is "
Helan gårHelan Går is a popular Swedish drinking song. Helan is an expression signifying the first glass of spirit in a series, and går means "goes ". Thus, it is commonly sung as a toast, typically for the first glass of spirit at a seated dinner...
". Although singing songs from
Fredmans Epistlar is less usual,
Carl Michael Bellmanwas a Swedish poet and composer. Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a very important influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature in general, to this day....
's influence on the Swedish customary preoccupation with the drinking song is considerable. Drinking songs are an integral part of Finnish student culture, in no small part because of Swedish influence on
sitsitSitsit in Finnish or sits in Finland-Swedish, is a traditional academic student feast organised in some universities in Finland, particularly in Åbo Akademi, University of Turku, Helsinki University of Technology, University of Helsinki and Tampere University of Technology. They are also organised...
. Local songs can be either in Finnish or in Swedish, and either played straight or self-subverting, by e.g. lapsing into Finnish in a Swedish song, or having a song consist entirely of the word
Now! followed by drinking. In Spain,
Asturias, patria queridaAsturias, patria querida is the anthem of the Spanish autonomous community of Asturias.This adaptation of a much slower song from the neighbouring lands of Cantabria was appointed as official anthem after a contest in Oviedo in the 1890s. It has both a Castilian and an Asturian version...
(the anthem of
AsturiasThe Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
) is usually depicted as a drinking song.
History
The first record of a drinking song dates to the 11th century, and derives from the
Carmina BuranaCarmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces...
, a 13th century historical collection of poems, educational songs, love sonnets and "entertainment" or drinking songs. It is accepted lore that drinking songs likely date back at least a thousand years earlier, but there is no established record.
Nearly every country enjoys its own extensive collection of drinking songs well known to its natives; most recognized are the English, German and Russian standards. There are dozens of subgenres of the drinking song, including regional, topical, religious, sexual and war. Notable subvariations include war songs (e.g. the American "Star Spangled Banner", a poem Francis Scott Key, inspired by the battle of Fort McHenry, set to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven") celebrating a particular battle or honoring a fallen troop or soldier, "hailing" songs, lauding a companion, and sexual or scatological songs typically denoting a romantic liaison or sexual act.
Other notable drinking songs
- "Barnacle Bill the Sailor
"Barnacle Bill the Sailor" is an American drinking song adapted from "Bollocky Bill the Sailor", a traditional folk song originally titled "Abraham Brown"....
"
- "Barrett's Privateers
"Barrett's Privateers" is a folk song in the style of a sea shanty, written and performed by Canadian musician Stan Rogers, having been inspired after a song session with the Friends of Fiddler's Green at the Northern Lights Festival Boréal in Sudbury, Ontario...
"
- "Beer, Beer, Beer
Charlie Mopps or Charlie Mops is the mythical inventor of beer, as described by the drinking song "Beer, Beer, Beer". His name is presumably meant to rhyme with barley and hops, two main ingredients in beer.- History :...
"
- "California Drinking Song
California Drinking Song is a spirit song from the University of California, Berkeley. The first appearances of this song are traced to 1939. Both the UC Men's Octet and the University of California Marching Band perform it as part of their repertoire...
"
- "The Engineers' Drinking Song"
- "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder
"Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder" is a German drinking song. The song is repeated over and over, each time the song is sung quicker and a pitch higher, until performers can't sing anymore....
"
- "Fathom the Bowl
"Fathom the Bowl" is an English Drinking song, probably dating from the nineteenth century.-Synopsis:With a "Come all ye" opening, the singer invites heroes to join him in praise of punch. There is a catalogue of the ingredients that come from various countries. One verse laments the fact that the...
"
- "Home for a Rest
"Home for a Rest" is a song by Canadian folk rock band Spirit of the West, from their 1990 album Save This House. Although never officially released as a single, it is the band's most famous song and is considered a classic of Canadian music....
" by Spirit of the WestSpirit of the West are a Canadian folk rock band, who were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which made them one of Canada's most successful alternative rock acts in the 1990s.-Early years:The band began...
- "I Used to Work in Chicago
"I Used to Work in Chicago" is a humorous traditional drinking song. It was written by songwriter and entertainer Larry Vincent. The earliest printed date for the song is March 1945 in the underground mimeographed songbook Songs of the Century. Many of the lyrics are considered humorous because...
"
- "Jesus Can't Play Rugby"
- "Lanigan's Ball
"Lanigan's Ball" is a popular traditional or folk Irish song which has been played throughout the world since at least the 1860's and possibly much longer...
"
- "Libiamo ne' lieti calici
Libiamo ne'lieti calici is the most famous duet from Verdi's La traviata, one of the most well known fragments of opera around the world, and an obligatory performance for any great tenor. The song is categorised as a Brindisi, which encourages alcoholic drinking...
" from "La TraviataLa traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
" by "Giuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
"
- "Limericks
The Limerick is a traditional humorous drinking song with many obscene verses. Alternate titles for this song are "In China They Never Eat Chili", "Sing Us Another One", "Ya-Ya", "Rodriguez the Mexican Pervert" and "Aye-Yi-Yi-Yi". The tune usually used for sung limericks is "The Gay Caballero"....
"
- "Seven Drunken Nights
"Seven Drunken Nights" is a humorous folk Irish song, most famously performed by The Dubliners and others. The Dubliners version reached number 7 in the UK charts in 1967, thanks to its diffusion on Radio Caroline, though it was banned from the national broadcasting station...
"
- "The Fields of Athenry
"The Fields of Athenry" is an Irish folk ballad set during the Great Irish Famine about a fictional man named Michael from near Athenry in County Galway who has been sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay, Australia, for stealing food for his starving family...
"
- "The Goddamned Dutch
"The Goddamned Dutch" is a traditional drinking song found among Hash House Harriers, rugby players and fraternities...
"
- "The S&M Man
"The S&M Man" is a drinking song parodying the 1972 hit song "The Candy Man". "The S&M Man" is well known and commonly sung by Hash House Harriers, Rugby union players, fraternity members, and Marines...
"
- "Walking Down Canal Street
"Walking Down Canal Street" is an awesome old drinking song from Roaring Twenties New York.There are variations and additional impromptu verses.Max Hunter collected a version of this song from Charles Varley on January 19, 1967 in Hope, Arkansas...
"
- "Whiskey in the Jar
"Whiskey in the Jar" is a famous Irish traditional song, set in the southern mountains of Ireland, with specific mention of counties Cork and Kerry, as well as Fenit, a village in county Kerry. It is about a Rapparee , who is betrayed by his wife or lover, and is one of the most widely performed...
"
- "Token Celtic Drinking Song" by Jimmy George
Jimmy George is often considered one of the greatest Indian volleyball players of all time...
- "Streams of Whiskey" by The Pogues
The Pogues are a Celtic punk band, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before...
- "Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" by Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
- "Water and Wine" by The Kingmakers
- "Yogi Bear Song" by Ray Wilde
- "Zehn kleine Jägermeister
"Zehn kleine Jägermeister" is a song by Die Toten Hosen. It's the fourth single and the eighteenth track from the album Opium fürs Volk...
" by Die Toten HosenDie Toten Hosen is a German punk band from Düsseldorf. They have enjoyed decades-long mass appeal in Germany.The band's name literally means "The Dead Pants" in English, although the phrase "tote Hose" is a German expression meaning "nothing going on" or "boring"...
See also
External links