"Milk and Alcohol" | ||||
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Single by Dr. Feelgood | ||||
from the album Private Practice | ||||
B-side | "Every Kind of Vice" | |||
Released | January 1979 | |||
Recorded | 1978 | |||
Genre | Rock and roll, pub rock | |||
Length | 2:55 | |||
Label | United Artists Records — UP 36468 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Nick Lowe/Gypie Mayo | |||
Producer(s) | Richard Gottehrer | |||
Dr. Feelgood singles chronology | ||||
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Official audio | ||||
"Milk and Alcohol" on YouTube |
"Milk and Alcohol" is a song by the band Dr. Feelgood that reached number nine in the UK Singles Chart in 1979. [1] Written by Nick Lowe and Gypie Mayo, and produced by Richard Gottehrer, [2] the song was Dr. Feelgood's biggest hit and continues to be played by the band.
"Milk and Alcohol", written in 1978 by Nick Lowe and John "Gypie" Mayo, reportedly retells Lowe's 1970s experiences drinking one too many Kahlúa-milk drinks at or after a United States concert by bluesman John Lee Hooker. However, while the song anonymously criticises Hooker ("Main attraction dead on his feet, Black man rhythm with a white boy beat"), ironically it was inspired by Hooker's own lyric about "milk, cream and alcohol". [3] [4] [5] [6] The song was recorded in 1978 [7] and first appeared on Private Practice , an album by Dr. Feelgood that was released in October 1978. [7] The heavy riffs on "Milk and Alcohol" were added by Mayo, a guitarist who replaced Wilko Johnson in 1978, after Johnson left the band as a result of an argument over the recording of Dr. Feelgood's fourth album, Sneakin' Suspicion (1977). [8]
"Milk and Alcohol" was released as a single, on United Artists, in January 1979. [7] The vinyl material of the single record was issued in the three colours of black, white and brown, with the white and brown meant to call to mind white milk and brown alcohol. [9] The outline of a Kahlúa bottle appears on the record sleeve. [9] The background around the bottle on the different record sleeves was varied to match the vinyl colour. [9]
The song reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart in the same month it was released. [1] [10] The track reached number nine in the UK chart, and spent nine weeks in the listing. [11] Capitalising on the notoriety the song brought, the band presented "Milk and Alcohol" live to audiences around the world in 1979, including in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Russia and the United States. [1]
The song is in the key of C major, and has a tempo of 168. Like many other Dr Feelgood songs, it has a shuffle feel and a short guitar solo after the second chorus.[ citation needed ]
"Milk and Alcohol" was the band's fourth hit single in the United Kingdom, and their only top 10 single on the UK Singles Chart. [11] For much of the 1970s, the musical world was perceived as being dominated by "fey glam-rockers and 15-minute Mellotron solos." [12] When "Milk and Alcohol" was played in the pubs of Canvey Island in the late 1970s, the song came across as a radical departure that contributed to "a short, sharp shock of roots rock." [12] For a while, the song led to some drinking both alcohol and milk while listening to Dr. Feelgood perform live. [13]
In April 1989, a re-recorded version titled "Milk and Alcohol (New Recipe)" was issued by EMI in both 7" vinyl ((EM 89) with "She's Got Her Eyes on You" as the B-side); and 12" vinyl ((12 EM 89) with "She's Got Her Eyes on You" and "Mad Man Blues" on the B-side). [14] Both songs were later released on the "Rarities" disc of their Looking Back compilation album.
In 1997, "Milk and Alcohol" continued to be played by the band while making the rounds of the world's pubs, clubs and concert halls. [15] However, by 2003, "Milk and Alcohol" was seen as a "forgotten gem". [16] With the band continuing to present the song in concerts, the music community regained respect for the song. In 2005, the band's biggest hit was being called a "classic." [17] [18] In that same year, "Milk and Alcohol" was considered by the music magazine Q in its compilation of the top ten cigarettes and alcohol songs for the ultimate soundtrack to a drinking session, but lost out to the 1987 song "Nightrain" by the American rock band, Guns N' Roses. [19] Mayo's guitar performance on "Milk and Alcohol", which ranked as number four on a 2005 list of the top ten great British guitar heroes, [20] was cited in that same listing for waking "a generation of guitarists up to the sheer power and energy" of the guitar. [20]
More than four decades after reaching the UK's top ten, "Milk and Alcohol" continues to be a popular choice for the band during its concerts. [21] [22] [23] [24]
Dr. Feelgood are an English pub rock band formed in 1971. Hailing from Canvey Island, Essex, the group are best known for their hit singles "She Does It Right", "Roxette", "Back in the Night" and "Milk and Alcohol". The group's original distinctively British R&B sound was centred on Wilko Johnson's choppy guitar style. Along with Johnson, the original band line-up included singer Lee Brilleaux, John B. Sparks, known as "Sparko", on bass and John Martin, known as "The Big Figure", on drums. Although their most commercially productive years were the early to mid-1970s, and in spite of Brilleaux's death in 1994 of lymphoma, a version of the band continues to tour and record.
Nicholas Drain Lowe is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in pub rock, power pop and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with being a vocalist, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica.
John Andrew Wilkinson, better known by the stage name Wilko Johnson, was an English guitarist, singer, songwriter and occasional actor. He was a member of the pub rock/rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood in the 1970s. Johnson was known for his distinctive guitar playing style which he achieved by not using a guitar pick but playing fingerstyle. This enabled him to play rhythm guitar and riffs or solos at the same time creating a highly percussive guitar sound.
Henry Campbell Liken McCullough was a musician and singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland. He was best known for his work as a member of Spooky Tooth, The Grease Band and Paul McCartney and Wings. He also performed and recorded as a solo artist and session musician.
Gypie Mayo was an English guitarist and songwriter, playing in Dr. Feelgood from 1977 to 1981, and from 1996 to 2004 in the reborn Yardbirds with Alan Glen.
Stupidity is a live album by English rock band Dr. Feelgood. It was released in September 1976 and is the band's third overall album. Their mushrooming popularity was confirmed when Stupidity (1976) topped the UK charts.
Be Seeing You was the fifth album by Dr. Feelgood, and was released in October 1977. After the departure of Wilko Johnson, this was Dr. Feelgood's first album with guitarist Gypie Mayo.
Private Practice was the sixth album by Dr. Feelgood, and was released in October 1978.
"Down at the Doctors" is a song by the band Dr. Feelgood. The track was recorded in 1978, and appeared on Private Practice, an album by Dr. Feelgood that was released in October that year.
"She's a Windup" is a song by the band Dr. Feelgood. The track was recorded in 1977, and appeared on Be Seeing You, an album by Dr. Feelgood that was released in September that year.
"Baby Jane" is a song recorded by soul singer Otis Clay in 1969 for Dakar Records. Dr. Feelgood covered the track in 1977, it first appeared on Be Seeing You, a Dr. Feelgood album released in September that year.
"Roxette" is the debut single by the band Dr. Feelgood released in 1974, from their 1975 debut album Down by the Jetty.
"Put Him Out of Your Mind" is a song by the band Dr. Feelgood. The track was recorded in 1979, and appeared on Let It Roll, an album by Dr. Feelgood that was released in September that year.
Roger Arnold "Deke" Leonard was a Welsh rock musician, "serving a life sentence in the music business". Best known as a member of the progressive rock band Man, which he joined and left several times, and for fronting his own rock and roll band Iceberg, which he formed and disbanded several times, he was also an author, raconteur and television panelist.
Twenty Five Years of Dr. Feelgood is a double compilation album by Dr. Feelgood, and was released in February 1997.
Lee Brilleaux was an English rhythm-and-blues singer and musician with the band Dr. Feelgood.
Peter Gage is a British blues musician. A vocalist, harmonica player and pianist, Gage is best known for fronting the Jet Harris Band and Dr. Feelgood, although he has also led his own band and has issued solo albums featuring artists such as Gypie Mayo.
Stephen Martin Walwyn is an English rhythm and blues guitarist, best known for his playing with Dr. Feelgood, but who has also played with Eddie and the Hot Rods, Steve Marriott and the DTs, the Roger Chapman Band, the Big Town Playboys and his own band Steve Walwyn and Friends. Steve Walwyn then joined up with Horace Panter and Ted Duggan from Badfinger, The Beat and The Selecter in The Dirt Road Band, touring from 5 March 2022.
Nick Lowe is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and producer. His discography consists of 14 studio albums, 1 live album, 3 EPs, 23 singles, and 6 compilations. In addition, he has been a performer and producer on numerous albums by other artists.
Whilst in the USA in the 70's the Feelgoods took to drinking a cocktail made up of milk and alcohol. A certain Nick Lowe was also present having gone along for the ride. No need to say where the milk came from but the alcohol part of the cocktail was kahlua – Mexican coffee liquor with herbs and vanilla around 26% alcohol. Sparko drank the most of this concoction during the American stay but one night the lads took a trip to see John Lee Hooker in concert and having drunk many a milk and kahlua, their journey back was interrupted when the arm of the law stopped them. This story is told in the song "Milk and Alcohol" written by Nick Lowe and Gypie Mayo several years later.Toasted Almond, White Russian, and Brown cow are/were popular Kahlúa/milk drinks.