Drinking song
Encyclopedia
A drinking song is a song sung while drinking alcohol
. Most drinking songs are folk songs
, 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 rugby
players, Hash House Harriers
, air force fighter pilots, and fraternities
.
The Star-Spangled Banner
's tune was adapted from an old English drinking song by John Stafford Smith
called "To Anacreon in Heaven
". The spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
" is used as a drinking song by members of the Hash House Harriers
and rugby union
players, with obscene gestures associated with the lyrics. This song is heightened to a drinking game
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 Rogers
' "Barrett's Privateers
", Great Big Sea
's "The Night Pat Murphy Died" and The Rankin Family
'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 "Igloo
! 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 Christmas
, Midsummer
, and other celebrations sometimes unique to Sweden. One commonly sung is "Helan går
". Although singing songs from Fredmans Epistlar is less usual, Carl Michael Bellman
'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 sitsit
. 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 querida
(the anthem of Asturias
) is usually depicted as a drinking song.
, 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.
Alcoholic beverage
An 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 songs
Folk music
Folk 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 rugby
Rugby football
Rugby 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 Harriers
Hash House Harriers
The Hash House Harriers is an international group of non-competitive running, social and drinking clubs...
, air force fighter pilots, and fraternities
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities 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
"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 Smith
John Stafford Smith
John 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
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
"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 Harriers
Hash House Harriers
The Hash House Harriers is an international group of non-competitive running, social and drinking clubs...
and rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby 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 game
Drinking game
Drinking 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 Rogers
Stan Rogers
Stanley 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
"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 Sea
Great Big Sea
Great 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 Family
The Rankin Family
The 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 "Igloo
Igloo
An 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 Christmas
Christmas
Christmas 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...
, Midsummer
Midsummer
Midsummer 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 går
Helan Går
Helan 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 Bellman
Carl Michael Bellman
was 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 sitsit
Sitsit
Sitsit 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 querida
Asturias, patria querida
Asturias, 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 Asturias
Asturias
The 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
Carmina 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 SailorBarnacle Bill (song)"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 PrivateersBarrett'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, BeerCharlie MoppsCharlie 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 SongCalifornia Drinking SongCalifornia 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 BommerlunderEisgekühlter 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 BowlFathom 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 RestHome 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 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 ChicagoI 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 BallLanigan'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 caliciLibiamo ne' lieti caliciLibiamo 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 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 VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
" - "LimericksLimerick (song)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 NightsSeven 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 AthenryThe 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 DutchThe Goddamned Dutch"The Goddamned Dutch" is a traditional drinking song found among Hash House Harriers, rugby players and fraternities...
" - "The S&M ManThe 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 StreetWalking 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 JarWhiskey 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 GeorgeJimmy GeorgeJimmy George is often considered one of the greatest Indian volleyball players of all time...
- "Streams of Whiskey" by The PoguesThe PoguesThe 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 LewisJerry Lee LewisJerry 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 JägermeisterZehn 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 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
- Chanson pour boireChanson pour boireChanson pour boire is a term for a French drinking song, frequently coupled with chanson pour danser . It was used in from about 1627–1670...
- Air à boireAir à boireAir à boire is a French term which was used between the mid-17th and mid-18th centuries for a "drinking song". These were generally strophic, syllabic songs to light texts...
- List of songs about recovering or former alcoholics
External links
- Lyrics, Music and MP3s for each drinking song
- Hash House Harrier songbook
- Hash House Harrier songbook links
- A Tankard Of Ale An Anthology 120 Of Drinking Songs, complete online book by Theodore MaynardTheodore MaynardTheodore Maynard was an English poet, literary critic, and historian. He grew up in England until 1920, and afterwards he moved to America and lived there until his death. Although he considered himself primarily a poet, during his lifetime he was best known and most influential as a historian of...
circa 1919 - Drinking songs at California State University