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The Gin Is Cold, but the Piano’s Hot: Songs About Bars

Bars, saloons, taverns, whoopie spots—we talk about them all this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, and I get to give one of my hackneyed theories about Cheers, too. It’s a…

Bars, saloons, taverns, whoopie spots—we talk about them all this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, and I get to give one of my hackneyed theories about Cheers, too. It’s a very country-heavy episode, which ought to make sense. Send me your song recommendations at symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!

  • 0:00

    Kander and Ebb, “All That Jazz” (Chicago, 1996 BCR)

  • 6:15

    Gary Portnoy, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” (Cheers, 1982)

  • 9:26

    Gary Portnoy, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name (Reprise)” (Cheers, 1982)

  • 11:52

    L.S.U., “Double” (Grace Shaker, 1994)

  • 14:51

    Reading: John Irving, The Hotel New Hampshire

  • 20:57

    Fun, “Barlights” (Aim and Shoot, 2009)

  • 25:06

    Mary Chapin Carpenter, “Down at the Twist and Shout” (Shooting Straight in the Dark, 1990)

  • 28:25

    Lucinda Williams, “2 Kool 2 B 4-Gotten” (Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, 1998)

  • 33:53

    Reading: Charles Bukowski, “Conversation with a Lady Sipping a Straight Shot”

  • 36:41

    Terry Scott Taylor, “Pretend I’m Elvis (For Just One Night)” (Avocado Faultline, 2000)

  • 41:01

    John Anderson, “Straight Tequila Night” (Seminole Wind, 1992)

  • 45:18

    George Jones, “Out of Control” (single, 1960)

  • 47:57

    Merle Haggard, “Swinging Doors” (Swinging Doors and The Bottle Let Me Down, 1966)

  • 52:10

    Looking Glass, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” (Looking Glass, 1972)

  • 57:45

    The Replacements, “Here Comes a Regular” (Tim, 1985)

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A stack of three Local Culture journals and the book 'Localism in the Mass Age'

Michial Farmer

Michial Farmer is a poet, essayist, and history teacher. He is the author of Imagination and Idealism in John Updike’s Fiction (Camden House, 2017) and the translator of Gabriel Marcel’s Thirst (Cluny, 2021). He lives in Atlanta.

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