Singalong with Cigarettes and Alcohol...


By Anthony Barnes

28 March 2005
It is a debate that has raged in pubs and bars for years - slurred, forgotten in the morning, but always accompanied by a singalong.

Now experts from the music magazine Q have named what they believe is the ultimate soundtrack to a drinking session.

Oasis's decade-old track "Cigarettes and Alcohol", with its chugging, T-Rex riff, heads the list of all-time great boozing tracks - whether the greatest songs about the pros and cons of the demon drink, or those best-suited for raising a glass to.

The track finished just ahead of Gil Scott-Heron's "The Bottle", a commentary on the destructive effect drinking has on ghetto communities, by a performer who years later developed problems with drugs.

Third place was taken by the song "Born Slippy", whose lyric "shouting lager, lager, lager, lager" was meant as an ironic take on lad culture, but was adopted by the very drunks that the group Underworld meant to parody.

Another track in the list embraced by boozers is "Tubthumping" by the anarchist collective Chumbawamba, with its chorus "I get knocked down, but I get up again/You're never gonna keep me down". The success of the song led to the band being invited to the Brit Awards in 1998, at which singer Danbert Nobacon threw a bucket of water over John Prescott.

For Oasis, the track "Cigarettes and Alcohol" was a manifesto for their early hedonism, with its first line: "Is it my imagination/Or have I finally found something worth living for?" "The opening lyrics sum it all up," says Paul Rees, editor of Q, "and the way Liam [Gallagher] spits it out is just perfect for the song."

Failing to make the top 10 were the whisky growl of Tom Waits with "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)" and Dr Feelgood's "Milk and Alcohol". The list is published in the May edition of Q, out this week.

BAR SOUNDS

'Q' magazine's top 10 ultimate booze anthems:

Cigarettes and Alcohol - Oasis

The Bottle - Gil Scott-Heron

Born Slippy - Underworld

Gin and Juice - Snoop Doggy Dogg

Sunday Morning Come Down - Johnny Cash

Too Much Brandy - The Streets

Whiskey in the Jar - Thin Lizzy

Brass Monkey - Beastie Boys

Tubthumping - Chumbawamba

Nightrain - Guns N' Roses