We’ve all heard the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Now it can be said “don’t judge a song by its title”.
When you hear the name of the first single from Toby Keith’s upcoming album (35 MPH Town), your first response might be like mine – what, yet another song about drinking?
“Drunk Americans“ is about drinking, but the message is served on the rocks with a new twist. Toby remarked the song blends “I Love This Bar” and “American Ride.”
Brandy Clark, co-wrote the tune with Bob DiPiero and Shane McAnally. Brandy’s take on the straight forward, all inclusive nature of the lyrics, “You see that title and you think, ‘Oh, it’s a drinking song,’ which it is, but I hope that people can listen to it and see that it’s really an American song. We wanted to write it sort of like a modern day ‘Piano Man.’ It’s like ‘When we’re in here drinking, who cares what we are outside of this?’”
My personal take is why should it take alcohol to level the playing field, so to speak, to bring people together? The songwriters knew it’s a current topic of discussion. This past summer some country concerts made the news, not for the music, but for the poor choices made by some fans. I hope that Brandy is right, that the song won’t be prejudged and that it “helps, not hurts”.
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