I fell in love with this record when I was in high school. I heard Rye Whiskey and Four in the Morning when they were played on a very cool underground radio show in 1967. I learned that the album was out of print—no more copies were being made. I always wanted things I couldn’t get. Then I found it in the library. Such a dilemma—I could take it from them and pay $4 ($40 today), a fraction of what collectors sold a copy for. I had no problem with stealing it from the library, it was the taking it from other Soul of a City Boy fans. I didn’t lock the car in those days—property is theft, I knew. Capitol reissued it in 1974.
When I tried drinking whiskey, I started with rye as a tribute to Young. He sang ‘For work I’m too lazy, begging’s too slow/train robbin’ is too dangerous/a-gambling I’ll go.’ That’s the life I wanted. There was only one brand of rye for sale in the city of Chicago. Old Overholt was rough and cheap. Four in the Morning was a song about things going wrong—until David Allan Coe fixed You Never Even Called Me by My Name for Steve Goodman, it was the saddest ol’ song. Four a.m, (and not sleeping), rain pouring down, stove don’t work, my baby left town, nothing to drink, empty bottles and dirty dishes all over, baby lying to him until he murdered her and her boyfriend, a cockroach mocked him successfully. You might think it’s overwrought, me, I’ll say mournful.
The record also has Susanne and Black-Eyed Susan. I love all references to the Jack of Diamonds. (You can ask the guys in my poker game.) Young sang he’d finished 10,000 bottles of whiskey or wine in his time. I have a mashup in my mind—if he roomed with Wilt Chamberlain, every time the Big Dipper went out on a date, Young would open a bottle. When Wilt got back, they could compare notes.
converselyspeaking 