Let Me Be Your Liquor Man

 

I go to the liquor store

Run out and go back for more

And in the evening when I leave the bar

I stop at the drive-thru liquor store

Yeah

I got good genes in me

I played quarterback in high school, man! Okay, well, that’s not true, but I did front a somewhat successful rock band when I was in my early twenties. We had something resembling a hit with a punkish garage rock number called “Let Me Be Your Liquor Man” back around 2005/2006. I’m told it’s still spun on Cincinnati area radio stations come cold December Saturday nights when the stars align just so with the marquis lights of Big Daddy’s Drive-Thru Liquor Store across the Ohio in Newport, KY, where the sign once read, “Let Me Be Your Liquor Man.”

Confession: Liquor Man may sound like a joyful bender gone sonic, but Liquor Man is not a party song. Quite the opposite. It’s a song about succumbing to an awful genetic inevitability, about acquiescing to alcoholism. That was a real fear of mine back then, even as I knew I was doing exactly that. When I was screaming my ass off in that song, that was an honest expression of emotion. I was angry, frustrated, and resentful. The rage and pain were real. The giveaway is the bridge: “I got good genes in me.” 

I wrote it as  tongue-in-cheek joke, but I guess it really wasn’t that funny. I quit drinking on January 2nd, 2020, deciding that I would not let my “good genes” dictate the course of my life.

I still enjoy playing the song now and again with my new band, and a version of it is available on the Today, Satan! EP. There are three versions of the song presented here. Version one is the Minni-Thins’ single, as used for a dirt biking promo video out of British Columbia. The second is a clip of The Minni-Thins performing the song live, and the third is the music video for the Shiny Red Nothing studio version of the tune.

Cheers!

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Available along with several other awesome tracks on the Today, Satan! EP, right here.

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Available now!