Liquor Store Blues

In an interview with Sound on Sound, Ari Levine said that the team, the Smeezingtons, never met Supa Dups personally and that "Liquor Store Blues" was finished by exchanging files of the song. The latter producer helped finishing the track by providing a dub sound, something the three of them "could just not nail it".[1] During an interview granted to Vibe, Bruno Mars said that he never met Damian Marley, since the latter did "his part" after a show in Washington. Nevertheless, the singer explained how Marley was guested in the song:

I just wrote the song called "Liquor Store Blues". It had this reggae vibe...when I wrote, I was like, "Man, what if we could just get Damian on this?" So we [the Smeezingtons] made the phone call, and he came in with open arms and destroyed it.[2]

On September 21, 2010, the song was released as the first promotional single as an iTunes Store-exclusive prior to Doo-Wops & Hooligans album release in October 2010, under Elektra Records.[3] In the countries outside the United States, such as Germany, it was released under Warner Entertainment Group.[4]

"Liquor Store Blues" is a reggae song with a "melodious boom-box midtempo".[5][6] It is heavily influenced by dub music and borrowes "heavily from roots reggae".[7][8][9] It has been compared to Travie McCoy and Mars's previous song "Billionaire" and the music of Sublime, Michael Jackson and Bedouin Soundclash.[5][10][11] According to the digital sheet music the song was composed in common time and in the key of C# minor with a tempo of 144 beats per minute. Mars's and Marley's vocals range spans from the low note of G3 to the high note of C6.[12]

The song's lyrics describe feelings of "pain" and "sorrow", using alcohol as a method to flee "bad fortune in an odd foreshadowing of events". In the end, hope is found by "getting messed up today" since on the following day everything will be fine.[13][14] Tyrone S. Reid from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said that the record explores addiction "wonderfully, if humorously" through the lyrics "I take one shot for my pain, one drag for my sorrow/Get messed up today, I’ll be okay tomorrow".[6] Entertainment Weekly's, Brad Wete stated that Mars is about to "drown his sorrows in a tall glass of alcohol".[14] Rap-Up magazine commented that the recording's lyrics regard "a quick escape from his bad fortune in an odd foreshadowing of events".[13]

"Liquor Store Blues" was written by Mars, Philip Lawrence, Levine, Dwayne "Supa Dups" Chin-Quee, Mitchum Chin, Marley and Thomas Pentz and produced by the former three, under their alias, the Smeezingtons, and Chin-Quee. The latter was in charge of programming and arranging the drums, which he played. Chin played the guitar, bass, and keys. Levine engineered the song at Levcon Studios in California. The mixing of the track was done at Larrabee Sound Studios in Los Angeles by Manny Marroquin, with Christian Plata and Erik Madrid serving as assistants. It was mastered by Stephen Marcussen at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California.[15]

"Liquor Store Blues" received positive reviews by music critics. Tyrone S. Reid, considered the song one of the best in the album, "You simply can't get lyrics more droll or brainer than that." The addition of Damian Marley made the track "more alluring".[6] DJ Gravy praised the fact that the song "has a more authentic yard vibe, thanks to Chiney's Supa Dups".[10] The Scotsman said that Mars "strikes more of a downer note on simple confessional Liquor Store Blues with Marley providing a veneer of dub reggae credibility."[16] Kevin Barber from the Consequence of Sound, praised Marley's feature on the song, "In return for all of his generous favors he has given other artists, they give back as well".[17] When reviewing the album, Tony Clayton-Lea of The Irish Times put the recording on the download list.[18]

Idolator's writer Robbie Daw had a mixed opinion towards the song, "isn't nearly as infectious as "Just The Way You Are", [but] it should still make for a fairly decent album track".[19] Andrew Winistorfer of Prefix Magazine criticized the singer, "after conquering the ladies who love weak pop music that is sung by a competent if boring singer, Mars decided to try to carve off a chunk of Sublime's fans". He deemed the track "faux reggae".[11]

After being released as a promotional single, "Liquor Store Blues", entered the Canadian Hot 100 at number 97.[20] Around the same time, it failed to reach the Billboard Hot 100, however it entered the Bubbling Under Hot 100, which acts as an extension of the former chart, peaking at number 105.[21] On October 22, 2010 the song entered and peaked at number 20 on the US Latin Pop Airplay, spending 7 weeks on the former chart.[22] "Liquor Store Blues" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[23] It also peaked at number 74 on the Romanian Top 100.[24]

Mars performed "Liquor Store Blues" on The Doo-Wops & Hooligans Tour (2010–2012) as the ninth track on the setlist.[30] An extended version of the song was performed as the tenth track during the Hooligans in Wondaland Tour (2011).[31][32] During the 2016 Grammy Awards, Mars had a flask engraved with the lyrics, "One shot for my pain, one drag for my sorrow" from the song.[33] In 2020, American singer-songwriter Raiche covered "Liquor Store Blues" as part of the tenth anniversary of Mars's debut album.[34]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Doo-Wops & Hooligans.[15]

Personnel