Matthew Moran

My occasional foray into song origins

Some songs have a “real life” experience backing them up. This one doesn’t.

Those who know me know that I am “almost” a teetotaler. I drink a glass of wine every other night, maybe. Sort of funny when the bar you play music at gives you free drinks and you are ordering Arnold Palmers – that is my mixed beverage of choice.

This sort of came about as a phrase through some rapid random thoughts.

We had a bottle of wine on the counter next to some cheerios – and I thought.. “wine and cheerios.. breakfast of champions.” Then I thought, “It’s too early for wine and cheerios – so dump the cheerios and go for the wine.”

Almost immediately, the idea of this song arrived. I thought it would be too early for hard liquor and some heartbroken guy could choose wine instead. Hence:
“It’s too early for whisky so I’m starting with wine.”

I liked it!

I wrote the chorus before I ever picked up my guitar but I knew immediately that it was a honkytonk – simple sort of tune. I’ve played it once before for my band and they like it – although, we’ve yet to adopt it.

CHORUS:
It’s too early for whiskey so I’m starting with wine
Too late for forgiveness, she’s made up her mind
I should be heartbroken but you know I feel fine
It’s too early for whiskey so I’m starting with wine

In my mind I created a scenario – a simple scene played over and over again.  The woman, finally fed up, leaves. In the song, I have her leave her wine so that my anti-hero can drink it the next morning. Rather than “drink it down” he “drunk it down” – which is a purposeful grammatical mishap.

I wrote the chorus, sang it for about 2 weeks before writing the rest of the song. I had the chorus written first, so I usually sing it starting with the chorus.

Here is the song in it’s entirety. Enjoy!

Too Early For Whiskey (so I’m starting with wine)

Copyright © Matthew Moran – 2010

CHORUS:

It’s too early for whiskey so I’m starting with wine
Too late for forgiveness, she’s made up her mind
I should be heartbroken but you know I feel fine
It’s too early for whiskey so I’m starting with wine

VERSE:

The sun comes up and the sorrow starts to make me think
That what I want for breakfast is a long tall drink
But my friends tell me that morning and Jack don’t mix
So this bottle of cheap red wine had better do the trick
(chorus)

VERSE

She finally got the nerve to say she’d had enough
Put her glass of wine down, packed her bags and threw them in the trunk
When I woke the next morning she was nowhere to be found
I took that half-finished glass of wine and I drunk it down
(chorus)

Let me know what you think.