We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Sober - Cheap Wine and Expensive Beer

from SpinTunes 21 Round 3 by Spintunes

/

about

Cheap wine, expensive beer. I've been thinking about this comparison/juxtaposition for a long time. Probably too long, which is why this song devolves quickly into introspection and equivocation. In the end, I suppose the idea is that beer and wine each have a spectrum of stereotypical cheap/expensive consumer. I imagine most folks on one end of the price spectrum for one product are at the same end for the other. I've been poor most of my adult life, and beer was always a luxury purchase, so I'd want it to be special. Wine was functional; a bottle of Two Buck Chuck would get the job done, and I'd make rent at the end of the week. All of this breaks down by the end of the song though, as people are complicated, contradictory. The other "disconnect" facet of this song is the straight-ahead country drinking song chorus against navel-gazey verses.

lyrics

Life’s too short to drink cheap beer
Whiskey dark and moonshine clear
But I never saw a reason why
I should spend a lot on wine


Once upon a time it was fightin words to call a man a hipster
Little mustache and suspenders
But nowadays the IPAs and red wings don’t really mean a thing
And maybe never did
Not sayin’ you can’t enjoy a PBR
That don’t tell the world who you are


From hannaford to HEB I've looked at wine and i cant see the difference
In the top and bottom shelves
And it seems to me the ABV’s enough to round the edges off
Isn’t that the point of all this fuss
It shouldn’t cost a fortune to cut loose
In the end it’s just rotten juice


Well I’m happy that you’re happy for your nephew who just moved off to Napa
And became a sommelier
And it ain’t my meaning to be mean to folks who like a Miller or a Lonestar
To make ‘em feel ok
If it seems I’m not consistent in my thoughts
You oughta see the silly drinks I’ve bought
A man has got to have a code I’m told
And violate it more as he gets old

credits

from SpinTunes 21 Round 3, released October 9, 2023

license

tags

about

Spintunes image

Spintunes Union, South Carolina

Spintunes is a semi-annual songwriting contest. Every other week, the competitors receive a challenge and a week to meet it.

Each album on this site contains the responses to a single challenge.

contact / help

Contact Spintunes

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Cheap Wine and Expensive Beer, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring interviews with LA music scene pillar Kamasi Washington, and new London-based duo Mrcy.

listen now