Bottle of Wine

Yesterday the radio at work played a song I never gave much thought to before. It's called "Bottle of Wine."  The radio host went on to tell the story of how this song came to be a comeback hit for a group called The Fireballs.  I didn't even know they were the recording artists - I only knew them as the group who sang the bubblegummy song, "Sugar Shack":

Well it seems Jimmy Gilmer, who became their front man in spite of the fact that he wasn't one of the original founders of this group whose name is a sort of homage to Jerry Lee Lewis, started hanging around Greenwich Village in the mid 1960s.  
(This New Mexico group were also used to overdub some of the late Buddy Holly's songs in what turned into something controversial at the time.)

Gilmer took a fancy to folk music, particularly to Tom Paxton.  

Who is Tom Paxton?

When I think of him," Last Thing on My Mind," becomes the first thing on my mind.

But my favorite Tom Paxton song (and he wrote 1000s - for a long time, he wrote one song/day) is "Marvelous Toy.":

Anyway, I learned yesterday that Paxton had written "Bottle of Wine" and that Gilmer liked it so much he wanted to record it over protests that it was too inappropriate for radio (those critics should be alive today):


The Fireball's recording of "Bottle of Wine" is a far cry from "Sugar Shack" ... it's like Sugar shack fermented.

                                                               1966

Salut!

As the trolls say: First!

(I am definitely not a troll.)

Second! (I'm not a Troll either)

Third!

I'm not familiar with Irma Jurist (the woman in the photo). Doing some digging  I found her testimony before the Committee on Un-American Activities in 1955. This snippet from the interview made me laugh (and appreciate Irma).

Maybe you are on something right now. 

You're the guy who was posting obscenities under one account and accosting a female member with sexual suggestions using a second account. That much I know. There's no telling what people with tools found about you. 

I can't believe they shut you down.

O Tempora, O Mores

Tom Paxton was quite a guy. Would have liked to have known him.

Starry, Starry Night !

To share a bottle of wine. 

Don't like wine, but a beer at the Gaslight would have been nice!!. He was the guy who encouraged Bob Dylan to turn A Hard Rain's A-gonna fall into a song. 

Can you block the kid?

Don't try to bribe people...

These songs bring back memories, my parents loved them.

Noooooooooo

Thanks for posting BG.  I am enjoying this Forum.   Helps my chess playing, for sure, to be educated in the matters of artistic expression