Among the many forms of love, several have shared consumption in common. Sharing a beverage is a common theme in song, especially in songs of a commercial bent, as with many in the case of the Spencer Sheet Music Collection. Beverages are a common method of bonding. A shared glass of one’s favorite refreshment is a nice and simple way to spend time with a loved one.
Many songs deal with romantic love, such as Down Beside the Cider Mill, which describes an idyllic setting in the summer and wholesome love between a man and his sweetheart, Ida. They were “two simple jays without a bit of harm,” enjoying their innocent apple wine, “from her lips to mine,” signifying a romantic, but still innocent love enjoyed while drawing warmth from apple cider during the cold winter months.
Apple cider appears to be a common theme in romantic love songs, as seen again with this song. The singer recalls nostalgically the time in “golden November” that he and his love spent by the cider mill. The idyllic town featured “birds singing” and bells “ringing on the hill,” painting a lovely picture of a small town bathed in the golden light of autumn, mirroring the amber color of apple cider.
Another common beverage shared between lovers was coffee. The singer of Coffee and Kisses isn’t rich, but doesn’t care as long as they have their love and a cup of coffee close to them. The sweetest breakfast, they go on to say, is “Coffee and kisses with you.” Presumably after a romantic evening, they find no greater happiness than in sharing a cup of coffee and kisses. Furthermore, they would even walk a mile to come home at lunch for the same refreshment. This song was featured in the 1938 film, Her Jungle Love.
Continuing the use of coffee to illustrate romantic love, You’re the Cream In My Coffee, duet from the stage show and 1930 film, Hold Everything, embarks on a number of metaphors to illustrate the male singer’s love. The woman give’s his “life its flavor.” She’s the cream in his coffee, the sugar in his tea, the salt in his stew, and many other seasonings. She makes his life worth living.
From the 1934 Broadway show Calling All Stars, this song uses everyone’s favorite beverage as a jumping off point for what the singer would like to do with their love. The refrain begins, “I’d like to dunk you in my coffee, Spread you on my bread.” These metaphors build up in the same way as with You’re The Cream in My Coffee. Their love is the condiment that makes life enjoyable.
There are quite a number of beverages which feature in songs about love. One which may sound quaint to modern listeners is Sasparilla, a popular 19th Century beverage which was considered to have medicinal qualities.
The singer of Sas’parilla has decided that “too much wine and women keep the sense swimming and your nerves in an awful state.” Clearly looking for a change from intoxicants, he has turned to sasparilla. With this wonderful beverage, there are “no sorry mornings” and there will be no “domestic Waterloo disaster.” With “sasparilla women and song you can’t go wrong.” This song evokes a wholesome love, a dry love. The singer is mending his ways after too much indulgence and attempt to convince his love that he is changing for the better. After all he says, “Romeo [and] Juliet never sipp’d the nectar all night long.”
Another popular beverage to share, one of the most popular in the world, is tea. Just as with coffee, a large part of the experience is the shared ritual of preparing the beverage.
The singer of this piece boasts of a loving wife of twenty-one, who loves harmless fun in the same way that he does. They live a simple and wholesome life. The height of their social life is 4 O’clock, when it’s time for tea. He exclaims, “Polly put the kettle on!” And as the kettle bubbles and whistles, he recalls with fond nostalgia his childhood when he would hear his mother being asked to put the kettle on and lay out the fixings for afternoon tea. He loves this ritual more than almost anything in life, and continuing the tradition as an adult brings him great joy.
Just as the singer of Polly Put the Kettle On experiences nostalgia, in this song an old Chinese man calls for a minstrel to sing. He sings a song which brings tears to the eye about lost love. A young couple was separated and tearfully sought guidance from a mystic, who read their fate in the tea leaves. The young man begs her to gaze into the leaves and love with him. The leaves tell the story of countless prayers to the heavens, some answered some not. Meanwhile, the old man has fallen into a slumber during the song, but outside in his garden, romance blossoms. The young man finds his love again, the gods have smiled upon them.
The singer of A Cup of Tea, from the musical Honeydew, extols the virtues of tea, and wishes to congratulate the Chinese for their contributions to the world. Of course, in the parlance of the time, this is expressed in a manner which has long been considered unacceptable, as the words, “Chin-Chin China-Man” form the refrain of the song. At the time of publication in 1920, this would have been considered an acceptable way to refer to someone from China. The singer congratulates the Chinese on “gunpowder, ink, and other things too numerous to mention,” but the “crowning stroke of genius” was made in Bohea, when the first cup of tea was made. They then go on to reiterate their love for the delicious beverage, saying they take it daily.
In Moxie, nostalgic and romantic love give way to love for a beverage, Moxie. Moxie was one of the first mass produced carbonated beverages and enjoys regional popularity to this day. It originated sometime around 1876 as Moxie Nerve Food.[6] In this promotional jingle, the singer extols the virtues of Moxie, claiming it’s the perfect beverage in both summer and winter. Its flavor is “good and pure, safe and sure.” Interestingly, Moxie has been noted to have a more bitter taste as compared to similar beverages.
Eventually, we descend into an entirely different kind of love, love of drink. Love of consumption is a much darker form of love than romantic love, but is an all too common theme in songs about beverages.
We begin however, with an uncommonly wholesome song about love of liquor. Another Highball extols the virtues of all liquors, lending them divine credence, as each planet has a favorite tipple. Saturn favors sour cider, Jupiter champagne, Venus a mild Manhattan, and Mars loves a whiskey highball. According to the singer, a highball is the best drink around, it cures indigestion and should be consumed quickly from a full glass without spilling a single drop.
The singer of Ten Little Bottles, featured in the musical Ladies First, loves his rye whiskey and could not bear the thought of going dry during Prohibition. He gathers together ten bottles to see him through, thinking he only takes a little at a time, so ten should be enough. Straight away he loses a bottle to a nosy neighbor and another to his gas man. The rest of his stash is quickly depleted until he’s left with only a single bottle on which to rely. Anyone wanting that bottle will have to kill him, the singer exclaims. It is with this resolve and his evident disdain for his wife’s family that we may surmise that the singer favors the rye over his relations.
Say it With Liquor also features love of drink and addresses romantic love in a very cynical way. There are many ways to say love, the singer tells us, but music and flowers are “sweet but out of date.” If you say it with liquor, “you’re bound to win the heart of the girlie you love.” The singer of this song continues on to extol the many powers liquor holds for gaining entry to the flats of the ones they desire. “To get results quicker just say it with liquor. The flowers comes after a while.”
Billing itself as an up to date Temperance Anthem, this song warns listeners of the dangers of loving liquor. Boasting of being “Adapted to all Temperance Work,” the verses tell a cautionary tale of a working man who kisses his daughter on the cheek as he leaves for work in the morning only to be waylaid by the treachery of drink. His friend stops him at the saloon and begs to share just one drink with him. Inevitably, one drink becomes many and they stay long past working hours, so the man must return home empty handed to his disappointed daughter, who is crushed by his failure.
Where’s My Boy Tonight? is another cautionary tale which deals both with a mother’s love for her son as well as the love of drink. The singer enters a café in a big city and spots a “fair haired laddie” gambling among the “motley throng.” He clutches the “wine cup that ruined his fair young life.” He’s having a grand time until a voice creeps in through the door singing, “Where is my boy tonight?” His head sinks to his chest as a hush comes over the crowd of revelers. The mother begs him to return to her, and he realizes what he’s done. He decides to bid his fellow partiers farewell and return home to begin his life anew.
Text and curation by Tom Andrews
SOURCES CITED BY SECTION
Section Two
For God, Country, and Cola, Mark Prendergast, 1993
Item courtesy Youtube via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHX0g7WMK6Q