One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

"One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer" is one of Amos Milburn's popular alcohol-themed songs, that included "Bad, Bad Whiskey" (1950), "Thinking and Drinking" (1952), "Let Me Go Home, Whiskey" (1953), and "Good, Good Whiskey" (1954).[2] Written by Rudy Toombs, is a mid-tempo song, sometimes described as a jump blues.[3] Milburn recorded the song on June 30, 1953, at Audio-Video Recording studios in New York City.[4]

The lyrics tell the story of a man who is "in a bar at closing time trying to get enough booze down his neck to forget that his girlfriend's gone AWOL, harassing a tired, bored bartender who simply wants to close up and go home into serving just one more round".[3] The song's refrain includes:

One scotch, one bourbon, one beer (2x)
Please mister bartender, listen here
I ain't here for trouble, so have no fear
One scotch, one bourbon, one beer

Released as a single by Aladdin Records, the performers are listed as "Amos Milburn and His Aladdin Chickenshackers" after his first number one single "Chicken Shack Boogie".[5] It became Milburn's second-to-last appearance on the record charts, when the single reached number two on the Billboard R&B chart during a fourteen-week stay in 1953.[1]

Subsequently, when Milburn performed at clubs, he "incorporated three shot glasses lined up across the top of his piano [which] were filled more often than they should have been by obliging fans or by Milburn himself".[6] Several of Milburn's contemporaries commented on his indulgence; Milburn added "I practiced what I preached".[6] The song is included on several Milburn anthologies, such as Down the Road Apiece: The Best of Amos Milburn (1994, EMI America) and Blues, Barrelhouse & Boogie Woogie: The Best of Amos Milburn (1996, Capitol Records).[2]

In 1966, John Lee Hooker recorded the song as "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer". It is often identified as an adaptation or cover of the Toombs/Milburn song.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] However, biographer Charles Shaar Murray, while acknowledging Hooker's song is "derived from Amos Milburn's [song]", believes Hooker made the song his own as he had done in adapting several other earlier popular tunes.[14] Murray calls the process "Hookerization",[14] in which Hooker made it "into a vehicle for himself [but] edited the verse down to its essentials, filled in the gaps with narrative and dialogue, and set the whole thing to a rocking cross between South Side shuffle and signature boogie".[3] Hooker's opening verse is more insistent than Toombs:

One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer (2x)
Hey mister bartender, come here
I want another drink and I want it now[15]

He then adds a narrative:

And then I sit there, drinkin', gettin' high, mellow, knocked out, feelin' good
About that time I looked on the wall, at the old clock on the wall
About that time it was ten-thirty then, I looked down the bar at the bartender
He said "What do you want, Johnny?", "One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer"[16]

Hooker's song is notated as a medium tempo blues with an irregular number of bars in 4/4 time in the key of E.[15] It was recorded in Chicago in 1966 with Hooker on vocal and guitar, guitarist Eddie "Guitar" Burns, and unknown accompanists.[17] The song was released on the Chess Records album The Real Folk Blues (1966).[18] A live version with Muddy Waters' band recorded at the Cafe Au Go Go on August 30, 1966, has been described as "dark, slow, swampy-deep, and the degree of emotional rapport between Hooker and the band (particularly Otis Spann) [is] nothing less than extraordinary".[19]

George Thorogood recorded "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" for his 1977 debut album, George Thorogood and the Destroyers.[20] His version is a medley in which Hooker's version of this song is preceded by another Hooker song, "House Rent Boogie",[21][22] which serves as a backstory to explain the singer's situation. According to Hooker, "He [Thorogood] told me he was gonna do that [and] I said, 'Okay, go ahead'".[22] Live recordings of the medley are included on Live (1986).[23] and 30th Anniversary Tour: Live (2004).[24]

• "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer". The Blues. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard. 1995. ISBN 0-79355-259-1.
• Batey, Rick (2003). The American Blues Guitar. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard. ISBN 0-634-02759-X.
• Birnbaum, Larry (2013). Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll. Lanham, Massachusetts: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-8629-2.
• Dahl, Bill (1996). "Amos Milburn". In Erlewine, Michael; Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris; Koda, Cub (eds.). All Music Guide to the Blues. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-424-3.
• Fahey, David M.; Miller, Jon S. (2013). Alcohol and Drugs in North America, Volume 1:A–L. Snta Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1598844795.
• Keller, Charles (2018). Hip Hops: Poems About Beer. New York City: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-415-92699-7.
• Laberge, Yves (2006). "Amos Milburn". In Komara, Edward (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Blues, Volume 2: K–Z. New York City: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-92699-7.
• Laredo, Joseph F. (1993). The Best of Amos Milburn: Down the Road Apiece (CD booklet). Amos Milburn. EMI America. 243 8 2.
• McMichael, Andrew (2015). Martin, Scott C. (ed.). The Sage Encyclopedia of Alcohol, Volume 1. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Reference. ISBN 978-1-4833-2525-5.
• Murray, Charles Shaar (2002). Boogie Man: The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-26563-8.
• Simmons, Rick (2018). Carolina Beach Music. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-6767-6.
• Whitburn, Joel (1988). "Amos Milburn". Top R&B Singles 1942–1988. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research. ISBN 0-89820-068-7.