Track 5 - "Honky Red"

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Track 5 - "HONKY RED"


This is an old Murray McLauchlan song which Murray doesn't perform anymore. Some would see it as politically incorrect but, like Murray's "Louisa Can't Feed another Child", which some took to be a pro-choice anthem, it's really just a portrait and draws no conclusions. I think it says more about the listener than the writer if someone thinks it 'glorifies drinking' or censures the unfortunate.

Murray tells the story of opening the "Tonight's the Night" tour with Neil Young in the '70's and the other band on the bill was the Everly Brothers whose band included a piano player named Warren Zevon. Warren and Murray swapped songs and each found a favourite in the other's repertoire. Murray 'traded' Honky Red to Warren for 'Carmelita' which he recorded on his self-titled album. When we had Warren on the CBC radio show we did in the early 90's Murray had a chance to remind Warren that the deal had been to each record the other's song and received a heart-felt apology. One can only imagine the version Warren might have come up with.

Calgary songwriter extrordinaire Tom Phillips and I were sitting around playing acoustic guitars one night when we both lived in the same three-story walk-up apartment building a few years ago and he asked me if I could remember the song. I did and sang it a number of times over the next months and people always commented on how much they liked it. So here it is, it's fun to sing and the third verse has one of the greatest 'when I die' perspectives ever written.

With Murray's permission I updated the war in which our protagonist had lost his leg by thirty years.



PERSONNEL

Drums -- Tyler Hornby
Hofner 'Beatle' bass -- KJ
Hofner acoustic lead guitar -- KJ
Alvarez 'el cheapo' rhythm guitar -- KJ
Vocal -- KJ


"HONKY RED" lyrics

I ain't got no back porch, ain't got no rockin' chair
I've got a worn-out coat and a shaky hand and a face like a grizzly bear
I'm an old wino and I scare your neighbours
Yeah, you might say I'm a bum.
But I'm sure wired up on that Honky Red and that good Gold Anchor rum

CHORUS
When I need a drink it's stains on the sink,
it's "Please" and "Thank you, Ma'am."
But when I've got a head full of Honky Red
I don't give no good god-damn.

Well I fought in your wars now I sleep in your doors and I left one leg in 'Nam.
All that remains is a ghostly pain when the mornings get too damp.
I was born in the stix and I got Grade 6 so I ain't much in demand
I deliver handbills and I steal red pills for the boys in the whore-house band

CHORUS
When I need a drink it's stains on the sink,
it's "Please" and "Thank you, Ma'am."
But when I've got a head full of Honky Red
I don't give no good god-damn.

Well I got me a woman I see sometimes now she's damn near half a ton
And in a furnished room at the Joyceville Pen I got me a no-good son
But I'll keep on drinking that Honky Red until the reaper tolls his bell
If I'm as high when I die as I was when I lived I'll be in Heaven just as sure as hell.

CHORUS
When I need a drink it's stains on the sink,
it's "Please" and "Thank you, Ma'am."
But when I've got a head full of honky red
I don't give no good god-damn.

--words and music by Murray McLauchlan, Woodstove Music


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