ART OF SONG
The Gories
“Thunderbird ESQ”
I Know You Fine, But How You Doin’
1990 | New Rose

There is wine that you savor. Uncork the bottle, let it breathe, and when you finally have a sip, you taste all the complicated notes and comment on the finish. And then there is Thunderbird. A “low-end fortified wine” (read: bum wine), Thunderbird is a sickly yellow color unlike any wine I have ever seen or experienced. I was warned that if I drank too much of it, it would turn my mouth black. And, perhaps most importantly, it has 17.5% alcohol by volume.

This is the shit that gets you drunk.

It makes sense then that The Gories, when thinking about a wine to write a song about, chose not Reisling or Chardonnay, but this toxic concoction. Why? Because, and I’ll say it again: this is the shit that gets you drunk. And what, pray tell, is more rock and roll than being blackout drunk on cheap ghetto wine?
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