CRAMPS: GARBAGEMAN (W/ BRYAN GREGORY) Uploaded by mrjyn
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Erica Boyer aka Carol Christy Traffic Accident 12/31/09 Erica Boyer was reportedly struck by a car driven by an off-duty policement near her home in Panama Beach, Florida. She was 53. 
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i lost this nita and zita (1940s french quarter lesbian designers) hat on new years eve in yellow springs, ohio: let me know if you found it or have the key to my ex-girlfriend's apt. |
was killed on New Years Day, 2003 after a collision with a drunk driver just outside San Jose, Costa Rica.Holly Landers first hit porn screens in 1998 and she quickly made a name for herself as one of the most exciting oral practitioners around. Her thick, pouty lips were made for mouth loving, and she showed off her salacious skills in quite a few all-oral compilations. And although Holly Landers did occasionally work with other women, it was clear that she much preferred being matched up with men.While she was earning her bachelor's degree in business management, Holly began stripping at gentlemen's clubs in the Los Angeles area. She soon made her porn debut and performed in more than 200 movies.Holly Landers
Erica Boyer was a sheltered girl from small-town Alabama; she was raised in a strict household and taught that sex was never discussed and only shared by married couples. Internet rumors suggest that her father was actually a former Attorney General of Alabama but we have been unable to confirm those rumors. Not surprisingly she was most comfortable discovering her sexuality amongst other girls. After college and a brief career in nursing she headed for the West Coast. Erica moved to San Francisco in the late 70s and began dancing at the world famous Mitchell Brother's O'Farrell Theater. Marilyn Chambers personally recruited Erica for her next film after seeing her stage show. Erica made her hardcore debut in Beyond de Sade though the film was taken off the shelves shortly after its release. It wasn't long before she was sought after by many directors and producers. She was even given the name "Super Vixen," and was featured at the theater until she started her 18 year career in adult films as Erica Boyer, The Ultimate Goddess of Erotica. It is rumored Nina Hartley actually gave her the Goddess of Erotica title. Erica quickly dove in to the industry with an exuberance and gusto few before or since have displayed, making 210 films over the next decade. Many speculated that she was a great faker when it came to guys, but the reality was, she was starting to become more and more turned on by men & women alike. She declared herself a true bi-sexual. Erica Boyer was also one of the very first "Anal Queens" of the biz. She loved having anal sex in front of the camera, and it showed. Her genuine affection for girl-on-girl work supposedly helped make popular all-girl anal sex with dildos. Between 1989 and 1991 Erica was married to fellow adult star Austin Moore. Throughout her marriage she remained openly bisexual in her private life, and was involved in relationships with several women. In the mid 90s Erica began to focus more time on her dancing career and the feature circuits. She was inducted by adult film critics into the XRCO and AVN Hall of Fame, recognizing her outstanding accomplishments in the porn industry. Erica has semi-retired from the adult industry and recently lived in Texas working in the physical therapy business. It is rumored that she also occasionally still goes out on tour and delights fans with her dancing talents. Sadly, according to news reports, Erica Boyer was killed on New Year's Eve in a traffic accident near her home in Panama City Beach, Florida, where she had been living since her retirement from the adult industry in 1994. She was 53 years old. The Panama City News-Herald reported that Amanda Jensen (Boyer's real name), was traveling south on Front Beach Road (U.S. Highway 98) near Second Street, and while attempting to cross Front Beach Road she was struck by a 2001 four-door Hyundai being driven by an off-duty officer in the Florida Highway Patrol. She was killed instantly. The accident occurred at 8:20 p.m. on New Year's Eve.
Can't bite one's thumb Can't drive a nail Can't drive a Tank truck - Derived form the fact that inebriation impairs one's ability to drive. Can't find one's ass with both/two hands Can't find the floor Can't hit the ground with one's hat Can't lie on the ground without holding on Can't say National Intelligence - Euphemistic. Can't see - Either from "blind," or a shortening of the following term. Can't see a hole in a ladder - Heavily intoxicated. British & US, since the 1800s. Can't see through a ladder Can't sport a right light Can't sport a right line - Unable to walk straight. Oxford University slang, 1770 to 1800. Can't take it - Implies that one gets drunk easily. Can't walk a chalk - From the traditional test police officers use to determine if a DUI suspect is indeed intoxicated. The "chalk" is the straight line drawn for the suspect to follow. Can't wipe one's ass with a broadsheet Capable Carbonated - From Scottish slang for "muddleheaded." Also, a "caper" is a drinking spree, and "caper juice" is whisky. US, 1800s. Pantie Carbuncle - Bahamian slang used esp. in Nassau. Cap-sick - British, 1600s to 1800s.
Beast ..."Make it dark in here"...Bryan Gregory-guitarAndrella Christopher-vocalsGreg Langston-DrumsJames Christ-BassWalraven-Keys and SaxBrian Macleod drums on Wolfbane night/PosessedPossessed / Wolfbane Nite - 7" single 1982 Amdusias - both songs written by Wax - Bony Devils BMI buy
Love in a Dying World / Floating/Dead - 7" single 1983 Amdusias - Love in a Dying World by Andrella Floating/Dead by Wax Bony - Devils BMI (etched into the run off groove "If I were in Cleveland I'd be famous now") buy . buy
New Moone / Guardian - 7" single 1983 I.D. Records eye T3 (i'm seeing a 12" version for sale on-line that I do not own) a review from Finland . buy . buy
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - January 10 2001 - Guitarist Bryan Gregory of The Cramps, a band that helped to launch the punk music revolution in the late 1970s, has died. He was 46. Gregory, a native of Detroit, died Wednesday at Anaheim Memorial Hospital, spokeswoman Gina Esparza said. A cause of death was not immediately available. The guitarist had recently suffered a heart attack and had been ill for several weeks, his former wife, Robyn Hunt, said by telephone from her home in Florida. The Cramps made their debut in 1976 at the legendary punk rock club CBGB's in New York. Gregory was known for his wild antics on stage and his distinctive black hair with a lock of white hanging over his eye. "He was into feedback," friend Andrella Christopher said of Gregory's musical style. "He loved making the most obnoxious sound he could get out of that guitar." The band released two albums with Gregory, "Gravest Hits" in 1979 and "Songs the Lord Taught Us" in 1980. Although Gregory left the group in 1980, band members Lux Interior and Poison Ivy continue to perform as The Cramps. Gregory also appeared with other Cramps members as "punk thugs" in the 1978 film "The Foreigner." After leaving The Cramps, Gregory performed with the band Beast from 1980 to 1984, and with The Dials from 1992 to 1995. He had recently formed a new band called Shiver, Christopher said. Gregory is survived by a daughter, Tracy Ellis, and a sister, Pam Beckerleg, both of Michigan.from the webmaster...In 1987 I worked in an L.A. record shop with a most interesting woman called Andrella. She told me she was in a band in England with her partner James called "The Veil" and gave me their latest 12" on Clay Records. They had a clothing shop in England called "Straightjacket". They toured with "The Damned" too. I really liked their moody sound and set out to find all that they had recorded. I searched in record shops throughout the land and found all the rare, hard-to-find "The Veil" records, and all the records from their first band, the San Francisco-based "Beast". Thanks to Greg Langston for e-mailing me the "BEAST" line-up. Thanks to KANAGAWA GOTHIC UNION. Herein is some text that I have found on-line and the covers of records from my vinyl collection. I've also included links to buy some on these records. SO this is my tribute page to Andrella Christopher and James Christ. Enjoy! - a fan, Moon Trent - please contact me with any additional information or pictures... moontrent@hotmail.comDate of Birth
20 February 1954, Detroit, Michigan, USADate of Death
10 January 2001, Anaheim, California, USA (heart disease)The Detroit guitarist died last Wednesday (January 10) at the Anaheim Memorial Medical Centre, after several weeks of illness following a heart-attack, according to Associated Press, who quoted his wife Robyn Hunt. Gregory formed the group in 1975 with his drummer sister Pam 'Balam' Gregory, frontman Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy. The group made their live debut at New York CBGBs in 1976, and appeared in film The Foreigner in 1978 as "punk thugs". He appeared on two Cramps records, 1979's 'Gravest Hits', produced by Alex Chilton, and 'Songs The Lord Taught Us' in 1980, after which he left the band suddenly. He performed from 1980 to 1984 with the band Beast, and The Dials from 1992 to 1995. He had also recently formed a band called Shiver. The Cramps went on to release several albums, and Lux Interior and Poison Ivy are still touring and recording.
Spouse
Robyn Hunt(? - ?) (divorced) 1 child European secret agent Max Menace arrives in New York City, waiting for his contact to tell him his assignment. He becomes entangled with an assortment of odd characters and situations, but never learns why he's there.
Directed by
Amos Poe
Writing credits
(in alphabetical order)Amos Poe writer Cast (in credits order)
Eric Mitchell ... Max Menace Anya Phillips ... Doll Patti Astor ... Fili Harlow Deborah Harry ... Dee Trik Séverine ... Zazu Weather (as Terens Séverine) Robin Crutchfield ... Fido Hex Kitty Sondern ... Kit Bag Duncan Hannah ... King Bag / Shake Steven Kramer ... Mouse Susan Morris ... Mo Bag Amos Poe ... Amos Nitrate David Forshtay ... For Bag Pusante Byzantium ... Skratch / Rumanian Ana Marton ... Fullee / Rumanian Chirine El Khadem ... Mr. Kool James Crosby ... Son of Sam Richard Merkin ... The 357 Klaus Mettig ... Contact on beach Ronny Stefan ... Contact at gay club David Letray ... R. Lux Interior ... Punk Thug (as The Cramps) Poison Ivy Rorschach ... Punk Thug (with The Cramps) Bryan Gregory ... Punk Thug (as The Cramps) Miriam Linna ... Punk Thug (as The Cramps) rest of cast listed alphabetically: Jody Beach ... Punk band bass player (as Erasers) Jane Fire ... Punk band drummer (as Erasers) Susan Springfield ... Punk band guitarist / singer (as Erasers) The 100 Worst Guitar Solos
THE CRAMPS: “Garbage Man”GUITARIST: Bryan GregoryBryan Gregory - The Cramps Bryan Gregory, guitarist and songwriter: born Detroit 1954; married Robyn Hunt (one daughter; marriage dissolved); died Anaheim, California 10 January 2001. Bryan Gregory, guitarist and songwriter: born Detroit 1954; married Robyn Hunt (one daughter; marriage dissolved); died Anaheim, California 10 January 2001. With his ghoulish physique - emaciated torso, pale, gaunt face, black hair with a lock of white hanging over his right eye, bones dangling from his neck, voodoo-style - and fuzzy guitar sound, Bryan Gregory was an integral part of the original line-up of the American psychobilly group the Cramps. A founder member of the group, he played on all their early releases from the EP Gravest Hits to the single "Drug Train" via their début album Songs the Lord Taught Us (1980). In the five years Gregory spent with the band, they went from playing New York dives to headlining major venues all over Europe. Born in Detroit in 1955, Bryan Gregory drifted to New York in his late teens. By February 1976, he was working in a record shop where Erick Lee Purkhiser (a.k.a. Lux Interior) got a job. When Gregory came in carrying an electric guitar with "The Cramps" stencilled on the body, Lux Interior, who had already met kindred spirit "Poison Ivy" Rorschach (née Kirsty Wallace) four years beforehand, decided to form a group with his co-worker. Ivy also played guitar and Gregory should have switched to bass but neither Lux Interior nor his companion dared to force his hand, especially as Bryan's sister Pam "Balam" had joined on drums. Indeed, the two guitars, by turn twangy and swampy, contributed greatly to the group's minimalist, yet distinctive, psychotic style. After a few rehearsals in the basement of the record store, Pam returned to Detroit and was replaced by Miriam Linna. In November, this line-up supported Suicide at CBGB's, the legendary New York venue where the Ramones, Television and Talking Heads had made their name. The director Amos Poe subsequently hired the Cramps to play a bunch of thugs who assault the hero in his film The Foreigner (released in 1978). In 1977, they demoed several tracks and headlined at CBGB's in July but things really began to gel when Nick Knox (Nick Stephanoff) joined on drums the following month. The Cramps met Alex Chilton, formerly of the Boxtops and Big Star, who pronounced them "the greatest rock'n'roll group in the world". In October, they were down at Ardent Studios in Memphis with Chilton, producing deranged covers of Jack Scott's "The Way I Walk", Roy Orbison's "Domino" and the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird" alongside their own composition "Human Fly". Ork Records, which had released singles by Television and Richard Hell, couldn't quite get the financing right and the Cramps eventually issued these four tracks on two separate singles on their own label, Vengeance, in 1978. The Cramps' logo, inspired by the Tales from the Crypt comic, helped them gain further attention. Touring as far afield as Canada and the West Coast of America, the group's live show created quite a buzz and the Police manager Miles Copeland snapped up the rights to the singles for European release as the EP Gravest Hits on his Illegal label in July 1979. He also brought the band over to Europe to support the Police on tour. After an unsuccessful attempt at recording an album in New York, with the British guitarist Chris Spedding producing, the Cramps went back to Memphis and Alex Chilton, this time also using Sam Phillips Recording Studio (formerly Sun) as well as Ardent. The resulting sessions became Songs the Lord Taught Us, one of the best début albums of all time. Once again combining their own compositions, drawing on trash culture in general and B-movies in particular ("Zombie Dance", "I Was a Teenage Werewolf") and inspired versions of Johnny Burnette's "Tear It Up", Link Wray's "Sunglasses After Dark" and Little Willie John's "Fever", The Cramps caught the post-punk mood brilliantly when the album was released alongside the single "Garbageman" in March 1980. Britain's own psychobilly scene of the early Eighties, with groups like the Meteors, King Kurt and Demented Are Go!, drew its inspiration wholesale from the Cramps. However, after cutting the equally impressive EP Drug Train that July, Bryan Gregory left the group, who replaced him with Kid Congo Powers from Gun Club. Lux Interior and Poison Ivy carry on with the Cramps to this day, having scored unlikely hit singles with the sleazy "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?" (1985) and "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns" (1990) and having eventually signed to Creation Records, but they have never quite recaptured the magic of the line-up which featured Gregory. Gregory soldiered on with various bands, called Beast (which released three singles between 1980 and 1984), the Dials (1992-95) and, more recently, Shiver. In between, he dabbled in the occult, worked as a tattoo artist in Florida, tried to become an actor and ran a sex-shop in California. "He is pretty burnt," Ivy would tell journalists who enquired about the former Cramps guitarist. Indeed, ill-health had forced Bryan Gregory to curtail his musical activities, and he suffered a heart attack at the end of last year.BRYAN GREGORY -THE CRAMPS2001Sadly, after 20 years of misinformation and misquotes regarding theBryan Gregory chapter of the Cramps, here's my one and only chance to directly express my feelings. While it's true that Bryan didn't actually play on some of the seminal recordings that are attributed to him (he wasn't always present for Songs the Lord Taught Us), he could be a truly charismatic live performer when the spirit moved him - particularly in the CBGB/Max's Kansas City days, when spirit was everywhere in the air.He wasn't anything like the myth promoted by his record company and subsequently the press; the real Bryan had a kooky charm the public doesn't even know about - the truth was far stranger than fiction. He and I shared a birthday, and we met on our mutual birthday on February 20, 1976. We were almost the same size and could fit into each other's pants and shoes. We understood each otherbecause we weren't the boygirl next door, and we'd both already been through a lot and knew how to hustle tooth and nail to survive. We could be our scary selves without horrifying each other. My fondest memory is of tripping on acid together in Central Park that summer. We were never quite able to sustain that high.Bryan's creative forte was more visual than sonic - when we met him, he had just moved to New York to pursue a graphic-arts career. He loved art, jewelry making, decorating - I think it was the visual aspects of the Cramps that appealed to him most. Lux and I had come to New York in 1975 with a mess of songs and crude home demos and a plan to take over the world, but I think it was mostly our exotic looks and Flying V guitar that lured Bryan to join us. When we gave the guitar to him, he immediately decorated it with polka-dot price stickers and painted our name in fancy script on the case, and you know what? It looked hot!Bryan was more enigmatic and incongruous than imagination would allow. Once, in a packed coffee shop, he pulled a switchblade on a boothful of square businessmen who were snickering about him, but on another occasion he whined that he couldn't leave his apartment because the neighborhood teen toughs followed him down the street teasingly singing 'Sweet Child in the City'. A sense of adventure led him to let Lux dangle him upside down by his ankles from a 17th-floor high-rise window "just to see what it's like", yet he despised touring because of his fear and hatred of "foreigners". He thought rockabilly was "goofy" but said we made it work for us "cuz you're so weird." We had a brief, intense relationship, and I don't think any of us knew what hit us. At one time we all wanted to be in a band that people were afraid of offstage. He was a true DMF - Detroit Motherfucker. On a soul level, the affair was over by 1979, after we started touring and recording regularly. Without a passion for and understanding of the fundamental forces influencing the Cramps, a combination of too much hard work, chemical haze and backstage leeches drove him to the next bright, shiny object in his path and a pursuit of so-called social relevance. I'll always remember the high-flyin' Bryan that few people had the privilege to know, before he stopped being a rocker and became a "rock star" . . . the way he walked, the way he talked, the way he rocked.- Poison Ivy HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER - The Cramps (Vengeance) Back in the early 80's, one of my close friends, whose woman had done him wrong and was so skint he was living in his car and could only afford to eat mustard sandwiches and instant mararoni-and-cheese,listened to nothing but The Cramps for three solid months because it buoyed his spirits. My parents felt sorry for him, took him in, fed him, and let him sleep in my bed while I was away at college. No, he wasn't in a rock and roll band. Laid-off auto worker... While a down-and-out mindset isn't a prerequisite to the whole Cramps experience, it certainly helps to get down to their level. Some naysayers may argue that Lux Interior and Poison Ivy Rorschach's once-bright idea of hitting Sun rockabilly, filthy R&B, and juvenile delinquent film soundtracks with defibrillators coated with cobwebs, roadkill juice, and body parts stored down in the lab and shouting "It's alive!" at the night sky may have lost its sheen, but I say there's nothing wrong with finding a niche, running it into the ground for 20 or 30 some-odd years, and retiring at the top of the slag heap with a golden handshake. If nothing else, last year's "Fiends Of Dope Island" proved that although the band may be flogging a dead corpse, uh, horse, they can still deliver the goods (even though it may mean leaving you feeling a little less than minty fresh). Chances are if you're reading this, you aren't looking for an SACD/audiophile listening experience, which is good, because the quality of some of the early material included on "How To Make A Monster" makes most bootlegs sound like virgin vinyl, with the tape hiss on the 1976 rehearsal material recorded with guitarist (and Detroit boy) Bryan Gregory (nee Greg Beckerleg) threatening to drown everything else out. What emerges from the ether, however, is what might pass as background music for a party down in the torture chamber, early passes at now-established Cramps classics like "Domino," "Sunglasses After Dark," "TV Set," and "I Was A Teenage Werewolf," with Gregory's sister Pam (rechristened Pam Balam) and Miriam Linna (later of Zantees and A-Bones fame) handling the traps. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the (wait for it) four rehearsal takes of Link Wray's "Rumble Blues" recorded with Gregory's successor, Kid Congo Powers. Disc two is comprised of two sets of "Gravest Hits" and "Songs The Lord Taught Us" era tunes recorded at Max's Kansas City and CBGB in 1977 and 1978 respectively, when the band decided to take their vision public . Both shows were recorded in front of packed crowds of what sounds like over 15 disinterested people but apparently Lux must not have noticed, experiencing what sounds like an on-stage epilectic seizure or bout of Tourette's Syndrome, Gregory and Ivy bringing the fuzz and distortion. As if all of this sonic roughage wasn't enough, Lux and Ivy's liner notes are some of the best ever, loaded with personal and sometimes disturbing anecdotes (like drummer Nick Knox being left blind in one eye after a rare infection), photos, flyers, and detailed recording information. The Cramps have always been their baby and, as they stress in closing, nothing they've ever done has ever been meant as schtick, a popular misconception that "cuts us to our core." Point taken.- How To Make A Monster Vengeance - VENGEANCE 677 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Displaying their disdain for the myth of musical progress, The CRAMPS reach back into the clammy womb of their prehistoric past to release HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, a 2- disc 143 minute frightfest of previously unreleased rare tracks. Thrill to 1st ever rehearsals featuring Bryan Gregory's sister on drums and Lux Interior ripping out a guitar solo! Wonder what substance they abused during a 1982 rehearsal as they stumble through "Rumble Blues" and add an apocalyptic twist to "Lonesome Town". You'll actually hear a dope deal going on in the background during their 3rd ever live gig at Max's Kansas City! All this and more! Stupefying! Includes book with extensive liner notes by Lux and Ivy, themselves, and rare and unseen photos and flyers from their personal collection. All material previously unreleased. 1982 studio demos with the GUN CLUB's Terry Graham on drums. 3rd ever live gig at Max's Kansas City with relentless hecklers. 1 year later live at CBGB with shrieking chaos (not the name of a band). Global ad campaign in magazines/fanzines. Lotsa press coverage in international publications. Lotsa posters/promos for retail. Click to enlarge images
is a drunkard. Dipped in the wassail bowl Dipped one's beak/bill - Almost drunk. To "dip one's bill" means to imbibe, esp. to excess. From the action of a bird dipping its bill to drink. Dipped rather deep Dipped the schnozzle too deep Dipped too deep DPs - Possibly derived from "dipsomania." Cf. "Dipped." Shitfaced - Possibly a euphemism for "Shit faced." Anglo-Irish, 1900s. Discombobulated - Can mean "upset" or "weird" as well as "drunk." Discombobulated Discouraged - Odd, since alcohol usu. makes one bold. US, 1900s. Discomforted - See "Fuddled." US, 1900s. Disguised - In Shakespeare's plays, "disguise" means drunkenness. Since the 1500s. Disguised in liquor Disguised with drink Disgusting Dished Dismantled Disorderly - See "D and D." Dissipated Dissolute Distinguished Dithered - Tipsy. From "dither," to shake or quiver. Australian, since circa 1925. Dizzified Dizzy - Fairly drunk. Since circa 1791. Dizzy as a coot - US, since the 1700s. Noted by Benjamin Franklin. Dizzy as a dame Dizzy as a goose - US, since the 1700s. Noted by Benjamin Franklin. Does not show it - Holds one's liquor well, shows no symptoms of intoxication. Yet. Dog drunk Doing the emperor - Cf. "Drunk as an emperor." Doing the lord - See "Drunk as a lord." Done a Daniel Boone - To "do a Daniel Boone" means to get drunk. Done a Falstaff - After the Shakespearean character, who is fond of drink. Done a vanishing act Done an Archie Done an edge Done got out Done in - Can mean "very tired," "killed" or "ruined" as well as "drunk." Done over - Since the 1800s.
"Live Stiffs": "Heart Of The City" (Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Larry Wallis, Penny Tobin, Pete Thomas, Terry Williams) 1977
From the beginning, Stiff's proprietors knew that promotion was key, and they were never above a shameless publicity stunt. Stiff revived the 45 picture sleeve, popular with collectors, which soon caught on with major labels as well. They also introduced giant posters, 60x40 monstrosities designed by Barney Bubbles, which also became an industry standard. In addition to Riviera's quirky, provocative slogans ("If it ain't Stiff, it ain't worth a fuck"), Stiff also benefited from Riviera's relentless and volatile personality, driving the label forward at every step. As Costello recalls, "It was very thrilling to go in there, with bottles of cider sailing through the front door at moments of exasperation. That's my favourite memory, during a heated moment of negotiation with Swansong. I don't think Jake ever felt intimidated by anybody and if he did, there was a tremendous amount of bravado going on."7 One of the first major undertakings of the new label was to reinvent the package tour of the 60s Volt/Stax revue with their own Live Stiffs tour, featuring several of their best acts including Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric and Larry Wallis. The tour was to consist of 24 UK shows, with each act playing a 30 minute set and the lineup changing nightly to give everyone their fair due. Elvis Costello and the Attractions had one pub circuit under their belt at the time the tour embarked, and Ian Dury, formerly of pub rock's Kilbourn and the Highroads, was now being backed by the much more reliable Blockheads. These two quickly established themselves as the most ambitious of the lineup and a fierce competition sprang up between them. This competitive spirit was boosted by the fact that they were, technically, no longer labelmates. Before the tour was even underway, Riviera and Robinson had a major clash and Riviera defected to start his own label, taking Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello with him. The tour went on, but this was effectively the end of the volatile partnership between Stiff's two strong-willed founders. Starting in High Wycombe, the Live Stiffs tour opened with Nick Lowe, dressed in a neon green suit decorated with question marks. Despite the air of competition, the tour was also markedly collaborative, with each band sharing not just equipment, but also musicians. Both Larry Wallis and the Attractions' Pete Thomas played backup for Nick Lowe, frontman Ian Dury played drums for Wreckless Eric and both Nick Lowe and Pete Thomas in turn backed Larry Wallis. To close each show, the entire bunch would get on stage together to perform the tour's anthem, Ian Dury's "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll." On October 18 at the Lyceum, the show was recorded for release on a live album, with Costello surprising everyone by performing a fiery rendition of Bacharach and David's "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself," before the entire group was rounded up on stage for the final song. "I'm very grumpy by the end of it," Costello remembers. "I was usually somewhere else when the finale was going on, but I had my arm twisted at the Lyceum. I was extremely drunk."8 Though financially the tour took a loss, its main success was in helping to launch the career of Ian Dury, which in turn saved the fledgling label. The impressive Live Stiffs LP now serves as a time capsule of the incendiary performances of Stiff's road-weary musicians as they finished their grueling UK tour. With Riviera off to start the new Radar Records, Robinson soldiered on with what was left of the Stiff roster, maintaining enough success with Ian Dury's New Boots and Panties!! LP and a handful of other acts to keep the label afloat. In the early 80s, Stiff's major act was Madness, with whom they had a successive string of 23 hit records. But by 1986, Stiff could no longer sustain itself and collapsed with an estimated debt of over £3.5 million. One of the label's last signings before its ultimate disintegration was of Dr. Feelgood, bringing full circle Lee Brilleaux's £400 loan which gave the now legendary Stiff Records its humble beginnings. 1-8. Birch, Will. No Sleep Till Canvey Island: The Great Pub Rock Revolution. 2000. Stiffs Live [Stiff, 1978]but the real threat there is Nick Lowe's "Let's Eat," which garnishes a hot-and-greasy Mitch Ryder organ pump with lyrics like "I wanna move move move move move my teeth" and "Let's buy two and get one for free." "I Knew the Bride" (Lowe's answer to "You Never Can Tell"), Larry Wallis's "Police Car" (grand theft automatic),"The World's Most Flexible Record Label". Other slogans were "We came. We saw. We left.", "If It Ain't Stiff, It Ain't Worth a Fuck", and "When You Kill Time, You Murder Success" (printed on promotional wall clocks).On the label of Stiff's sampler compilation Heroes & Cowards was printed: "In '78 everyone born in '45 will be 33-1/3".A very early Stiff sampler album, A Bunch of Stiff Records, introduced the slogan, "If they're dead, we'll sign them" and "Undertakers to the Industry".Stiff also produced eccentric but highly effective promotional campaigns, such as the two package tours in 1977 and
1978, Stiffs Live, featuring most of the label's roster of artists performing at alternating times each nightBarney Bubbles was responsible for much of the graphic art associated with the early Stiff releases.
On 14 August 1976, Lowe's "So It Goes"/ "Heart of the City", a publisher's demo recorded for around £50, became the first Stiff 45 and made single of the week in two of the five music weeklies.
| Buy 1 | 1976 | UK | So It Goes | Stiff sleeve | X |
| Heart Of The City | Black&white label, push-out centre | ||||
| Buy 1 Plug | 1976 | UK | So It Goes | Stiff sleeve | X |
| Heart Of The City | Plug Copy stamped on B&W label | ||||
| SRS 510.054 | 1978 | HOL | Heart Of The City | Unique picture sleeve | X |
| I Don't Want The Night To End | Beige label, no centre | ||||
| Not Stiff | 1978 | USA | So It Goes | Columbia sleeve | X |
| Heart Of The City (live with Rockpile) | Columbia 3-10734 | ||||
| Not Stiff | 1978 | USA | So It Goes (stereo) | Plain sleeve | X |
| So It Goes (mono) | Columbia promo 3-10734 |
Stiff REcords'STIFFRECORDS Jake Riviera capitalized on the new music coming out the London suburbs and ghettos, and signed a handful of bar bands that they could promote as punk and New Wave. They put together a highly successful U.K. package tour with some of these artists, called "Live Stiffs."andSo they recruited the likes of Nick Lowe, Ian Duty and Elvis Costello right out of the pubs.The first official Stiff Records release in the United States came late in 1978, in the form of Live Stiffs Live, a short album featuring live performances by Nick Lowe, Freckles Eric, Larry Wallis, Elvis Costello and Ian Duty from the package tour.
Americans, however, later came to recognize these artists as the forefront of the New Wave movement that continued well into the early 1980s. One could argue that Costello and Lowe have never been better; possibly, but it was a moment that started a movement.http://www.buythehour.se/stiff/bilder/history2.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors." />
Be Stiff and behave!
Stiff & Co at the BBC (1/2) - BBC 4. 8.30pm - 9.00pm Archive hits from Stiff Records artists. With Elvis Costello, Dr Feelgood and Ian Dury. Continues at 11pm.If it Ain't Stiff... - BBC 4. 9.00pm - 10.30pm Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Suggs and Shane MacGowan share memories of the maverick record label Stiff. Adrian Edmondson narrates. First shown in two parts.
It was the quirky catchphrases leaping out of the pages of the weekly music press, the rude and irreverent slogans adorning T-shirts, badges, posters, sleeves and other types of merchandising that grabbed you first. "If it ain't Stiff, it ain't worth a fuck". "The world's most flexible record label". "When you kill time, you murder success". "We came, we saw, we left". "Today's sound today". The music turned out to be just as quirky, irreverent, and rude. Released in October 1976, "New Rose", by The Damned, the sixth single on Stiff, was the first UK punk 45. "Sex & Drugs & Rock'n'Roll" by Ian Dury, a year later, became the catchphrase of Live Stiffs, the first package tour put together by the label, featuring Dury, fellow veteran pub-rocker Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, grizzly rocker Larry Wallis, and Wreckless Eric, a newcomer who just walked in off the streets and recorded the original low-fi single "Whole Wide World". By early 1979, Dury was topping the British charts with "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" and Stiff had its first million-seller. In 1982, Madness, the natural heirs to Dury's music-hall-meets-ska, reached No1 with "House of Fun", a rites-of-passage song about buying condoms, and the Complete Madness compilation. Yet, by 1987, the Pogues, who also made their name on Stiff with their second album, Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, had become the last major act to leave the sinking ship and the label went bankrupt. Stiff was the brainchild of Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera, two buccaneering entrepreneurs. Robinson had tour-managed Irish band Eire Apparent on a legendary 1967 package bill with the Nice, the Move, Pink Floyd and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and later worked with Hendrix and Brinsley Schwarz. This brought Robinson into contact with Riviera, who managed pub rockers Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, and also shepherded Dr Feelgood on tour. The Naughty Rhythms tour, featuring both Chilli Willi and the Feelgoods in 1975, sealed their partnership, and, with a £400 loan from the Feelgoods' frontman Lee Brilleaux, they were off.On 14 August 1976, Lowe's "So It Goes"/ "Heart of the City", a publisher's demo recorded for around £50, became the first Stiff 45 and made single of the week in two of the five music weeklies.Robinson would later claim to have had "a bit of masterplan. We were really putting together what I consider to be the best songwriters of the period." But this was something of an exaggeration since Stiff's original roster mostly comprised survivors of the pub rock era, ie Roogalator, Plummet Airlines, the Tyla Gang (a group fronted by Sean Tyla of Ducks Deluxe fame), and Lew Lewis, who had just left Eddie and the Hot Rods. Still, Robinson and Riviera's ears-to-the-ground approach paid dividends when they licensed Blank Generation, the EP by Richard Hell, the ex-member of Television and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, and the New York-based artist who originated the spiky hair and T-shirt held with safety pins punk look in 1976. Stiff were punk and new-wave talent-spotters extraordinaires, releasing debut singles by the Adverts - the epochal "One Chord Wonders" in 1977 - the Members - "Solitary Confinement" in 1978 - the all-female California band the Go-Gos - "We Got the Beat" in 1980 - and licensing three 45s by Devo, the art-rockers from Akron, Ohio, but failed to sign any of these acts to long-term deals. Costello, born Declan MacManus, was another artist launched by Stiff whose tenure on the label was short-lived. He'd recorded his debut album, My Aim Is True, in the UK with the US West Coast band Clover, and took up the Elvis Costello alias at the behest of Riviera, his manager. His first two singles - "Less Than Zero" and "Alison" - stiffed and he struggled until he was arrested in July 1977 for busking outside the London Hilton where CBS were holding their sales conference. Robinson shopped the singer by putting a phone call in to the police. The following month, Costello performed "Red Shoes" on Top of the Pops and eventually signed to CBS for the US. In the autumn of 1977, he joined the Stiffs Live tour, one of Robinson's better ideas. "I always liked package tours and so did the public," said Robinson, whose hunch was proved correct when "Watching the Detectives", Costello's fourth single for the label, made the Top 20. However, Costello didn't join the 24-hour drinking club on the tour and described the experience and his feelings in "Pump It Up". By the time that single and This Year's Model, his second album, came out in the spring of 1978, Costello and Lowe, the producer of many of Stiff's early releases under the Basher moniker, had followed Riviera, who formed Radar Records after dissolving his partnership with Robinson. Stiff survived, with Dury's New Boots and Panties spending close to two years in the album charts.Robinson revisited the package idea with the Be Stiff Route 78 Tour, using good old British Rail to launch the Akron teenage singer Rachel Sweet, Lene Lovich - the scream siren of "Lucky Number" - and Jona Lewie, of "You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties" fame. However, the Son of Stiff tour, which attempted to introduce not only Britain, but also continental Europe to the delights of the greasy sword-wielding rockers Tenpole Tudor, British ska band the Equators and the Tex-Mex rocker Joe "King" Carrasco was a step too far. But no-one seemed to care as long as Madness were doing their trademark nutty dance to "One Step Beyond" on television shows across Europe. Jona Lewie's "Stop the Cavalry", became a festive favourite. The maverick Robinson always kept a baseball by his desk in case negotiations got tricky. Directing videos for Madness and the comedienne Tracy Ullman himself, with the help of press officer Nigel Dick was a good way to keep costs to a minimum. Over the course of its 11-year existence, Stiff and its various subsidiary labels issued around 400 singles and 100 albums, with a strike rate of about one in five. In 1981, the label had another chart-topper when Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin put a synth spin on a revival of Lesley Gore's "It's My Party", but their most successful act remains Madness, who scored 18 Top 20 singles and six Top 10 albums before leaving for Virgin in 1984. The same year, a link-up with Chris Blackwell's Island Records - the original inspiration for Stiff - saw Robinson dissipate his energies on U2, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the other acts signed to the Island-funded ZTT. By the time that Stiff had gone indie again, in 1986, the Pogues were dragging their feet and refusing to deliver their third album. The Pogues defected to WEA and had the Christmas hit of 1987 with "Fairytale of New York", their collaboration with Kirsty MacColl, who had herself scored a Top 10 hit on Stiff with "A New England" in 1983, and seen Ullman do the same with a note-for-note cover of MacColl's sublime composition "They Don't Know" the same year. Stiff soldiered on with the vocal group Mint Juleps and a Dr Feelgood album called Brilleaux before going bankrupt in 1987. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on Robinson, especially when Trevor Horn's ZTT operation picked up Stiff's assets for a paltry £300,000. In November 2006, the label was even reactivated under the auspices of ZTT, and many alumni of the label are still active. The Stiff spirit lives on.
Don't get me wrong, you'll enjoy the Stiff Weekend on BBC4, and especially the two-part documentary If it Ain't Stiff..., which attempts to tell the story of the label that gave us The Damned, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Madness, the Belle Stars and The Pogues, but it doesn't tell the whole story.Dave Robinson, the pub-rock-manager-turned-entrepreneur who started the original British indie label in August 1976 with his business partner Jake Riviera and a £400 loan from the Dr Feelgood singer Lee Brilleaux, only to see it collapse all around him with huge debts 11 years later, has already seen the documentary. "It was good but, at the end, they got their figures wrong. They mention this very large figure - £3.5m - and they said it came from a newspaper article, but the figure we owed was more like £1.4m. And I was the biggest creditor," claims the buccaneering Robinson, who always kept a baseball bat by his desk, and not just for show."Anyway, that's just a small thing. I thought I got treated pretty good. It's always a pain in the arse when somebody's doing a documentary about work you did," he adds. At least Robinson was a consultant on the project, and agreed to be filmed either at the race track or at the helm of a boat on the Thames. "It was the BBC's idea but I thought it was better than sitting in the pub," he explains.Of course, pub-rock is where it all came from for Robinson, a former tour manager for Jimi Hendrix and for the Animals who went on to look after Brinsley Schwarz in the early Seventies. "All the raw material from Stiff came from the pub circuit and the studio at the Hope & Anchor," he recalls. "I did have a bit of a masterplan and a list of people we wanted to sign: Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, or rather Declan McManus as he was then, Mickey Jupp, who we eventually signed, and Nick Lowe kind of came with Jake. We were putting together what I consider to be the best songwriters of the period."Starting with "So it Goes" by Nick Lowe, issued in August 1976, the world's most flexible label issued singles by pub-rock acts Roogalator, Lew Lewis, and The Tyla Gang (featuring Sean Tyla of Ducks Deluxe fame) before hitting its stride and signing The Damned, who swiftly became the first English punk band to release a single, "New Rose", in October 1976 - an album, Damned Damned Damned, in March 1977, and to tour the US, beating The Sex Pistols, Clash and Stranglers on all three fronts. "It was a bit more by luck than judgement, but the first Damned album still stands up today. It was a memorable record. 'New Rose' was, and still is, a great riff," says Robinson of the track that was covered by Guns N'Roses on The Spaghetti Incident, their punk homage album, in 1993.He's also fond of Richard Hell's Blank Generation EP, another defining Stiff punk release of 1976, by the New York musician who came up with the spiky hair and torn-T-shirt-and-safety-pins look.All the while, Robinson and Riviera had Costello's debut album - recorded in the UK with the US West Coast band Clover - ready for release, but the singer's first two singles - "Less than Zero" and "Alison" - stiffed, though a Top of the Pops appearance for "Red Shoes", his third 45, eventually helped to launch My Aim is True in August 1977. "We had a great plugger called Sonnie Rae. She was phenomenal. John Peel really backed the label and it gradually filtered through to daytime Radio 1," says Robinson.Costello had also just been arrested after busking outside the London Hilton, where CBS was holding its sales conference, but this stunt was small beer compared to the ambitious Live Stiffs tour in the autumn of 1977. With a line-up of Costello - with his new backing band The Attractions - Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Nick Lowe, the Pink Fairies guitarist Larry Wallis and the newcomer Wreckless Eric, the tour played universities and polytechnics up and down the country. The venture was obviously inspired by the Motown and Stax package tours, though Robinson also namechecks a tour he did "with Hendrix, the Move and Pink Floyd on the same bill in 1968. I always liked package tours, and so did the public".With its 24 dates, 24-hour drinking club, and grand finale of Dury's "Sex and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll", the Live Stiffs tour certainly put Stiff on the map (the trick was used again in 1978 with the Be Stiff tour, and in 1980 with Son of Stiff).New Boots and Panties, Dury's debut album, entered the charts and stayed there for two years while, in November 1977, Costello finally went Top 20 with "Watching the Detectives". However, Costello hadn't taken too kindly to the debauchery on tour and wrote "Pump it Up" about his bottled-up feelings. Worse, Riviera decided to end his partnership with Robinson, took Costello, Lowe and new signing The Yachts with him, and launched Radar Records the following year.Robinson was livid. "We had a big deal with CBS lined up, which was going to fund us for a couple of years, but Jake pre-empted it, saw an opportunity for himself and took it. He didn't think we would survive without him, so that was an extra reason to carry on."Thankfully, Dury and Stiff built on the success of New Boots and Panties, with "What a Waste" going Top 10 in 1978, and "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" becoming the first Stiff No 1 single at the end of January 1979, selling 900,000 copies in the UK alone. A licensing agreement had finally been struck with Arista for the US but, as Robinson remembers, "Kosmo Vinyl, Ian's press guy at the time, had a row with Clive Davis, the head of Arista, and threw him out of the dressing room. That kind of turned Clive off us."We opened a label there, Stiff Inc, but it became a financial burden on the British company, though we did very well with The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan. I got the idea from the writer Richard Williams, who reviewed the wrong side of a vinyl test pressing. I thought it would be a great joke to do a record with nothing on it. We sold 40,000. People in America liked the idea and bought it as a Christmas present for friends who didn't like Reagan."Stiff did much better across Europe, with quirky releases by the likes of Lene Lovich - "Lucky Number" - and Jona Lewie - "You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties" - featuring their wacky humour and Barney Bubbles' wonderful sleeve and poster designs. Off-the-wall slogans such as "When You Kill Time, You Murder Success", "Pure Pop For Now People" and "Today's Sound Today" even seemed to work in translation."We had 36 licensees globally. Jona Lewie's Christmas single, "Stop the Cavalry", was a huge hit in Europe in March 1981, and Madness, of course, were very big in France," says Robinson, who thought he might as well direct videos for Tracey Ullman and Madness himself since he'd been a photographer."Doing videos was very expensive and, once they'd got your money, directors would go off and make exactly what they wanted, as a stepping-stone to Hollywood. I did a couple and then started doing all of them. We weren't an MTV label, particularly, but I made them funny. People remember the humour in "It Must Be Love" and "House of Fun" long after they forget the good-looking haircuts," he says in a pointed reference to the likes of Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet.Between 1979 and 1984, Madness ruled the roost, scoring 18 Top 20 singles and six Top 10 albums on Stiff before leaving for Virgin. "Another chapter in the rock'n'roll romance. They didn't want to make singles, they wanted to make serious albums," muses Robinson, but I wonder if it wasn't a case of the Nutty Boys realising that they'd replaced Dury as the big-selling act keeping the Stiff ship afloat.Robinson bristles at the notion. "Every single year, every group would come to me, first of all The Damned, then Costello, Dury the same, and say, 'We're really paying for this record company and we don't like who you're signing'. It didn't affect me."Still, Robinson admits that the link up with Chris Blackwell's Island Records in 1984-1985 was a mistake. "Island was in a bad financial state and I spent too much time worrying about his label and not enough about my own. I had a big hand in the success of Legend, the Bob Marley compilation; U2 went multi-platinum; and I had a lot to do with the marketing of Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Blackwell kind of double-crossed me after I'd essentially saved his arse," says Robinson, whose original inspiration had been Island when he launched Stiff.By 1986, the label had gone indie again and Robinson had signed The Pogues and their incorrigible singer Shane MacGowan. Elvis Costello even produced Rum Sodomy & the Lash, the group's second album, but, following "The Irish Rover", their Top 10 collaboration with The Dubliners, events took a dramatic turn. "The Pogues' manager, Frank Murray, ran off with the tapes at a crucial time, when we would have released an album. And, by the time we issued the 'Furniture' album, to follow the success of 'Brilliant Mind', the timing was off," says Robinson, whose label went into liquidation in 1987 after releasing a couple of singles and an album, entitled Brilleaux, by Dr Feelgood. Stiff had gone full circle and gone under. The label's assets were eventually bought for £300,000 by ZTT, one of the labels Robinson had helped to establish during his time at Island.There was talk of reviving Stiff as a stand-alone operation to coincide with its 30th anniversary but, when he isn't consulting or wondering who is selling T-shirts with the infamous "If It Ain't Stiff, It Ain't Worth A Fuck" slogan, Robinson is happy to just celebrate the label's legacy."Stiff has many fans. I didn't know Jonathan Ross was a fan until recently. He knows more about the label than I do. These kind of people keep the Stiff flag flying. It wasn't just a flash in the pan. Anybody creative who worked for the label has done well. We always told other people who wanted to start their own labels how to do it. We were always there as an encouragement. If we could do it, you could do it!"'Stiff Nights', a weekend of programmes about Stiff Records, BBC4 tonight and tomorrow; 'If It Ain't Stiff...' is on both nights at 10pm
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Done to the wide - See "Dead to the wide." Done up - Variation of "Done in." Also, to "do up" is drug slang for to take narcotics. Doomed Doped - Properly, "dope" is a thick liquid, from Dutch "doop." The sense of dope meaning "drugs" comes from the fact that opium is a thick liquid at one stage of preparation. "Dope" for a stupid person comes from the behavior of those high on opium. Doped over Doped up Dopy/Dopey - Originally a drug term meaning stuporous from narcotics. Can mean "confused" or "stupid" as well. Since the late 1800s. Dornke - Very old (1300s to 1500s) form of "Drunk." Dornke is as a mous - Drunk as a mouse. Dotted Dotty - Dizzy, feeble or idiotic due to intoxication. This word can mean "mad," "unsteady" or "feebleminded" as well, and may come from "dotard." Double-headedDouble'tongued Doubled up Down Down among the dead men - One the floor amidst the empty bottles. An empty bottle of liquor is called a "dead man," "dead marine" or "dead soldier" because the "spirit" has gone out of it. Cf. "In the down-pins." Down and out Down for the count - Unconscious, like a boxer who has been knocked out. Down in drink Down the hatch - From the toast response "down the hatch." A hatch is an opening into the hold of a ship. Down the creek Down the tubes - See "Tubed." Down with barrel fever - "Barrel fever" is drunkenness or delirium tremens. Cf. "Barrelhouse drunk." Down with the blue devils. Down with the fish - Dead drunk, blotto. Dragged - Northeastern college slang. A "dragger" is somebody who gets drunk frequently and has to be dragged back to one's room. Dragging one's bottom Dragging the load Dramling - Probably from "dram," a glass of spirits. Drank more than one bled Drank oneself dead Drank the three outs - Having imbibed copiously - drank until one was OUT of one's head, one's money was OUT of one's pocket, and the ale was OUT of the pot. Alternately, means that one has drunk by the dozen, the yard (as in a yard of ale), and the bushel. 1600s. Drank till one gave up one's halfpenny - Drunk to the point of vomiting. Noted by Benjamin Franklin. Drank till one's teeth caught cold - To "drink until one's teeth catch cold" means to drink too much booze. Draped - Somewhat inebriated, tipsy. Possibly means draped in black for mourning. Also, an "ale-draper" is an alehouse keeper. Or, may be a shortening of the following term. British military since circa 1939. Draped about a lamp post - Probably from the traditional image of a souse leaning against a lamp post. Drawn a blank - Very drunk. From the loss of awareness. This term's original meaning is to make an unsuccessful entry in a lottery. Drenched Drenching the gizzard Drink Drink taken - Tipsy Drinkative Drinking Drinking like a beast Drinking like a camel - Cf. "Playing camel." Drinking like a fire engine Drinking like a fish - Drinking excessively. Because many fish swim with their mouths open and thus appear to be drinking constantly. Used to describe someone who has an extraordinary capacity to consume liquor. Since at least 1640. Drinking like a lord - See "Drunk as a lord." Drinking out of a nigger's clog - Imbibing intemperately. Liverpool slang since circa 1945. Drinks gone on one Drinks gone woozy on one Drinky - British, since the 1800s. Dripping tight - Completely drunk. British, early 1900s. Driving home 'cause one can't fucking walk Driving the brewer's horse - A "brewer's horse" is a sot. Driving the porcelain/big white bus - Throwing up due to inebriation. Driving turkeys to market - Reeling and staggering due to drunkenness. Dronk - Afrikaans. Dronke - 1400s variation of "Drunk." Dronken han wyn ape - See "Drunk as an ape." Dronklew Drop on - Cf. "Has a drop in the eye," "A drop on." Drowned Drowned the shamrock - Perhaps because the Irish have a reputation for being heavy drinkers. Drowning brain cells Drowning frustration in rum Drowning one's reason in the bottle Drowning one's sorrow(s) Drowning one's sorrows in the wreathed cup Drowning one's sorrows in the flowing bowl Drowning one's troubles - Seeking solace in booze, and getting more than tipsy. Drowning one's wits Drowning oneself in the bottle Drowning the shamrock - Drinking esp. on St. Patrick's Day. Cf. "Drowned the shamrock." Drucking funk Druffen Drugged with wine Drumbled - Can mean "sluggish," "muddy" or "thick" as well as "drunk." Souses are bound to be sluggish and "muddy" in the head. Druneena - Very old form of "drunk" dating back to circa 1050. Drunk - Certainly the most widely-used term for "intoxicated." The oldest form of this word recorded is "Dryne," which appeared around 800 (in early Middle English, "u" was the equivalent of "y" in Old English). Took its present form by the late 1500s. Drunk and disorderly - Intoxicated and uncooperative. Cf. "D and D." Drunk and down Drunk and incapable - See "Incapable." Drunk and Irish - Fighting drunk. Because the Irish have a reputation for being belligerent when inebriated. Military, 1860 to 1920. Drunk as a badger Drunk as a barrel full of monkeys - Appears in Elton John's song "Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting." Drunk as a Bassarid - In an intoxicated frenzy. The Bassiards were devotees of Dionysus who honored their deity with wine orgies and danced about in their drunken excitement. Drunk as a bastard Drunk as a bat Drunk as a beast - 1800s. Drunk as a beggar - 1600s. Drunk as a besom - Very drunk. A besom is a broom used in the sport of curling, moving a stone or other object across ice. From the motion of a besom, or from the fact that it can't stand up by itself. Drunk as a big owl Drunk as a billy goat Drunk as a boiled/biled owl - A "boiled owl" or "biled owl" is a drunkard. Possibly from "Tough as a boiled owl." British & US, since the late 1800s. Drunk as a brewer's fart - Drunk and reeling. British, 1800s. Drunk as a broken cart wheel Drunk as a broom - Cf. "Drunk as a besom." British, 1800s. Drunk as a cock Drunk as a coon Drunk as a coot - Very drunk. Patterned on "crazy as a coot." US, early 1900s. Drunk as a cooter Drunk as a cootie Drunk as a cunt - Very drunk. Patterned on "black as a cunt." Underworld slang, since the late 1800s. Drunk as a devil Drunk as a dog Drunk as a drowned mouse - Very intoxicated. Cf. the following. Drunk as a drowned rat - Worse than drunk as a drowned mouse. Cf. "Drunk as a rat." Drunk as a drum - Variation of "Drunk as [the drum on] a wheelbarrow." Also, cf. "Tight as a drum." Drunk as a Dutchman - Dates from the days when England and the Netherlands were great rivals. Cf. "Full of Dutch courage." Drunk as a fart Drunk as a fiddle Drunk as a fiddler - Because fiddlers of old were often paid with ale instead of money. Since the early 1600s. Drunk as a fiddler's bitch - In this case, "fiddler" may mean "trifler" instead of a musician. Still head in the armed forces. Drunk as a fiddler's clerk - Cowboy slang. Drunk as a fiddler's whore Drunk as a fish - Cf. "Drinking like a fish." Since the early 1700s. Drunk as a fly - British, 1800s. Drunk as a fool Drunk as a fowl - Variation of "Drunk as an owl." Australian, since circa 1925. Drunk as a Gosport fiddler Drunk as a handcart Drunk as a hillbilly in a rooster fight - Cowboy slang. Drunk as a hog - 1600s. Drunk as a hoot owl Drunk as a kettlefish Drunk as a king Drunk as a kite - Possibly patterned on "high as a kite." Drunk as a lion - Cf. "Lion drunk." 1600s. Drunk as a little red wagon Drunk as a log Drunk as a loon - 1800s. Drunk as a lord - Especially in the 1700s and 1800s, men prided themselves in the amount of liquor they could consume at one sitting; overindulgence was considered a sign of gentility (perhaps because one could afford so much drink). Cf. "Under the table." Since the 1600s. Drunk as a Mexican opal Drunk as a monkey - Army slang. Drunk as a mouse - Appears in Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale" as "dornke is as a mous." From "Drunk as a drowned mouse." 1300s to 1500s. Drunk as a newtTight as a newt." British military, 1900s. Drunk as a nurse at christening Drunk as a parrot - A friend of mine has an African gray parrot. One year she had a New Year's party at her house, and her parrot dipped his beak in everybody's champagne and got quite blitzed. Ever since then, when one of her friends overindulges, she says "You're drunk as a parrot!" Drunk as a Perraner Drunk as a pig - Cf. "Drunk as David's sow." Drunk as a piper - Very drunk. Cf. "Drunk as a fiddler." British, late 1700s. Drunk as a piper-fou Drunk as a pissant/piss-ant - Nicety for "Drunk as piss." Australian, early 1900s. Drunk as a Plymouth fiddler Drunk as a poet Drunk as a Polony Drunk as a Pope - Refers to Pope Benedict XII, who imbibed copiously. 1300s. Drunk as a porter - 1600s. Drunk as a rat - Hopelessly drunk. A "rat" is a drunken person who has been picked up by the authorities. Since the 1500s. Drunk as a rolling fart - Heavily intoxicated. British, since circa 1860. Drunk as a sailor Drunk as a skunk - Very drunk. Rhyming plus the concept of "Stinking drunk." US, 1900s. Drunk as a skunk in a trunk - Nonsense rhyme. Drunk as a soot Drunk as a sow - Immobile as a sow. Based on "Drunk as David's sow." British, 1800s. Drunk as a swine - 1400s. Drunk as a tapster - The tapster is the person who pulls that taps that allow spirits to flow. Drunk as a tick - From "Full as a tick." US, 1900s. Drunk as a tinker - To "swill like a tinker" means to imbibe excessively and without stopping. Drunk as a top - Wobbling like a top that is running down. Drunk as a wheelbarrow - Since the 1600s. Drunk as a whistle Drunk as Abel Boyle Drunk as all-get-out Drunk as an aardvark Drunk as an ape - Appears in Chaucer's "The Manciple's Tale." Early 1300s. Drunk as an ass Drunk as an autumn wasp Drunk as an earl Drunk as an emperor - Ten times as drunk as a lord. Also, an "emperor" is a drunken man. (Would an "empress" then be a drunken woman?) Drunk as an owl - Very drunk. Cf. "Drunk as a boiled owl." Widespread since the 1800s. Drunk as Bacchus - Extremely drunk. Bacchus is the Roman god of wine and viniculture. British, 1800s. Drunk as Ballylana/Ballylannan - Anglo-Irish colloquialism. Possibly from "Drunk as blaizers." Drunk as blaizers - From the Feast of St. Blaize. Celebrants were called "blaizers," and clearly this feast was a time of crapulence. Drunk as blazes - Extremely drunk. Either a variant of the above term, or from the intensive "as blazes." Drunk as buggery - Extremely intoxicated. British, 1800s. Drunk as Chloe/Cloe - From the cobbler's wife of Linden Grove, who was notorious for her drinking habits. Her claim to fame is via the poet Prior, who was attached to her. Widespread 1845 to 1890. Drunk as (a) Cooter Brown Drunk as dancing pigs Drunk as David's/Davy's sow Drunk as Dionysus - Dionysus is the Greek equivalent of Bacchus. He is also the god of fertility and the powers of nature. From his name we get "Dionysian" for "frenzied." Drunk as Elpenor - Elpenor was a friend of Ulysses who got sloshed while at Circe's dwelling and fell asleep on the roof. In his slumber he rolled off the roof and broke his neck. Hence, said person is due for a fall. Drunk as Eurytion - Uncontrollably drunk. Eurytion is the centaur who tried to carry off Hippodamia. See "Drunken as a guest at Hippodamia's wedding." Drunk as Floey - From "Drunk as Chloe." Drunk as forty billygoats Drunk as hell Drunk as hoot Drunk as mice Drunk as muck - Late 1800s. Drunk as one can hang/stick together Drunk as owls Drunk as piss Drunk as polony - From "Drunk as a polony." Drunk as puffed-up pigeons Drunk as rolling farts Drunk as soft mick - Very drunk. "Soft mick" is British army intensive. Drunk as soot - Late 1800s. Drunk as the Baltic - Noted by G. L. Apperson, a collector of phrases and proverbs. 1800s. Drunk as the devil - Since the 1300s. Drunk as the drum of a wheelbarrow - Very inebriated. Drunk as Zeus Drunk back - Patterned on "Laid back." Drunk for sure Drunk in one's dumpes Drunk like wedding guests Drunk more than one has bled - Noted by Benjamin Franklin. Drunk oneself dead Drunk to the pulp - Drunk to the point of passing out. Drunk to the utmost - Since the late 1800s. Drunk up Drunk with a continuando - Drunk for days on end. Drunken Drunken as a guest at Hippodamia's wedding - In Greek mythology, at the wedding feast of Hippodamia and Pirithous, king of the Lapiths, the centaurs got intoxicated and attempted to abduct the bride. The result was the legendary battle between the centaurs and Lapiths. Drunker than a boiled owl Drunker than a cannon Drunker than a hoot owl Drunker than a monkey Drunker than a skunk Drunker than five thousand Indians Drunker than hell Drunker than Scootum Brown Drunker than 300 dollars Drunker than whisky Drunkity drunk Drunkulent Drunkok Drunks - Abbreviation of "Drunk and disorderly." Drunky/Drunkey - Often used with one's name, as in "Drunky Sue." British, mid 1800s. Drunky drunk Drunok - Tipsy. Corruption of "Drunk." British, since the 1930s. Druuncen - Predecessor of "Drunk," dating back to around 950. Dry - An odd synonym for "intoxicated," since "dry" usually means without liquor, as in a dry county, or abstaining from liquor. D.T.'s - Abbreviation for "delirium tremens." Since the early 1800s. Other terms for this condition include: barrel fever, bats, black dog, blue devils, blue horrors, bottleache, gallon distemper, heebie jeebies, horries, horrors, jerks, jim-jams, jimmies, jitters, jumps, ork-orks, rams, rats, rum fit, screaming Abdams, screaming meanies, seeing snakes, seeing pink elephants, shakes, shim'shams, snake in the boots, snakes, triangles, uglies, whammy, whoops and jingles, willies, and zings. DUI - Driving Under the Influence. Dull-eyed Dull in the eye - Tipsy. British, since the 1600s. DumpedDWIed - Driving While Intoxicated. Dyeing scarlet - Drinking deep or hard. Appears in
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