John Lee Hooker – One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer
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John Lee Hooker recorded the song as “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” in 1966. Hooker transformed Milburn’s song “into a vehicle for himself”. He used the storyline and chorus (but altered the order), but “edited the verse down to its essentials, filled in the gaps with narrative and dialogue, and set the whole thing to a rocking cross between South Side shuffle and signature boogie”. Part of Hooker’s narrative included:
And then I sit there, drinkin’, gettin’ high, mellow, knocked out, feelin’ good
About that time I looked on the wall, at the old clock on the wall
About that time it was ten-thirty then, I looked down the bar at the bartender, he said
‘What do you want, Johnny?’, one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
Hooker’s version is notated as a medium tempo blues with an irregular number of bars in 4/4 time in the key of E. It was recorded in Chicago in 1966.
(via wikipedia.org)
