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- Home /
- The Annotated Lyrics /
- The 500 Dollar Bottle of Wine
The 500 Dollar Bottle of Wine
Lyrics
A 500 dollar bottle of wine
A 500 dollar bottle of wine
That's all we get for being with him all the time (1)
I give them a 500 bottle of wine
That's all they get most of the time
A 500 dollar bottle of wine
Two days in the desert
What did they get
For all of the tears and the grind
We've been through desert
And blew on our shirts
And all the lightning and life
We said so much to (just a) crazy and white (whine?)
A half filled (no) bottle of wine
A 500 dollar bottle of wine
That's all I get man most of the time
We been through the desert
Went through their last shirts
And all the lightning and crime
A half-filled bottle of wine
They're all fat gits and they get on our tits
They're all fat gits and they get on our tits
That's all you get most of the time
For all the life in crime
The 500 bottle of wine
Drive (been) through the desert (drive for) in 36 hours
But when we get the ending we took
The 500 dollar (bottle) of wine
A 500 dollar bottle of wine
And I feel real guilty
The babies are squealing
Starving and pleading all the time
A 500 dollar bottle of wine
A 500 dollar bottle of wine
You think it's gonna get on my tits
They all bitch
They just whinge
And drink my last bottle of wine
I feel real guilty I been through my last shirt
And I get guilty all the time
Yeah
C'mon
500 dollars
Get down the fucking liquor store boy.
Notes
1. From Hanley's The Big Midweek, p334: "The three Goths I successfully insulted back in LA enjoyed the experience so much they left it [a bottle of wine] for us at the hotel along with a note saying it cost them $500 and was worth every cent." However, in The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise, Brix Smith-Start has an account of the origins of this song which contradicts Steve Hanley's: "Craig [Leon] had taken it upon himself to educate me on fine wines and had bought me a 1982 bottle of Petrus Pomerol to get my collection started... He told me to hold on to it and one day it would be worth a lot of money. On one of my trips to Manchester, before Mark and I broke up, I left the bottle of Petrus in the kitchen. I put a note by the bottle saying 'Do not drink!'"
Of course, MES drank it, and told Brix "it tasted shit". "That was the inspiration for the Fall song 'The $500 Bottle of Wine'. The price of that bottle today is £6,900. " Well, to me Hanley's account fits the lyric better.
--Dan
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Comments (9)
"The three Goths I successfully insulted back in LA enjoyed the experience so much they left it [a bottle of wine] for us at the hotel along with a note saying it cost them $500 and was worth every cent."
The Goth anecdote appears earlier in the book.
Of course, MES drank it, and told Brix "it tasted shit".
Well, to me Hanley's account fits the lyric better.
Damn it, I realize that, not having read it yet, I keep referring to Brix's book as a "memoir," but it seems more accurate to call it an "autobiography," as you have been. I'll never remember everywhere I did it now, I'll just have to fix them as I come across them in the coming years...speaking of which, I killed several "Danny"s tonight! I have to think those are almost gone...
As far as what to do in the future, I suppose you can carry on as you have been, and I'll just try to remember to copy your text from this page rather than my email, which would have saved me some work the other night!
Thanks for your consideration.
Starving and pleading all the time"
I've always heard:
"The babies are screaming
Starving and bleeding all the time".
Also, I've thought that the song was about Elvis, but okay it isn't.