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Singled Out: Paradise Kings' Poor Me, Poor Me, Pour Me Another Drink

03-07-2018
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Paradise Kings

Santa Barbara blues-swing band Paradise Kings just released their new album "Controlled Burn" and to celebrate we asked George Lambert to tell us about the song "Poor Me, Poor Me, Pour Me Another Drink." Here is the story:

My name is George Lambert, and, among other things, I play drums for the rockin' blues, swing band Paradise Kings. I produced our latest, award-winning album, Controlled Burn, and I wrote the lyrics to seven of the eight songs on that record. Some might think it a bit odd that the drummer writes the majority of the lyrics, but it just works that way in our band. A few reasons might be that I have some time, and I also used to write screenplays, so writing is something that I've done throughout my life.

The song I've chosen to "Single Out" for this segment is titled Poor Me, Poor Me, Pour Me Another Drink. This was the second song I wrote on the record; the first being Money Ain't My Friend.

Poor Me�..is a very personal song for me, because since the age of sixteen, I was of marginal emotional maturity, boarding on insanity, and I was basically an alcoholic. I used alcohol to make me feel like I was part of society, part of the crowd; I could finally relate to people when I had a beer in my hand. When I was without, I instantaneously felt like an outsider, full of anxiety, fear and dread. This went on for a long, long, long time. I did get in trouble with the law a few times, and the last time I spent the night in jail, I swore things had to change. To make a long story short, they did change. I've been sober for nearly six years now, and life is completely different for me. With the help of AA and my Higher Power (God), I've managed to maintain a (somewhat J) sound mind and can relate to people and life on life's terms, not my own. It's a monumental change and basically a miracle.
So, Poor Me��. Basically chronicles me sitting in a bar, banging my hand on the bar asking myself, "Why even try?" The Cat I mention in the song is drugs, as one can guess. I think the song describes a lot of alcoholics in that, deep-down, we know we need to change our ways, but then we get some booze in our system and everything starts looking better; it's all great, as in the lyric, "One of these days I'll get off this broken bar stool, and get my sorry ass back to school, that's right, I'm gonna show 'em how, a million ideas, but for now�."

This is obviously not a drinking anthem, which it could easily be construed as. If you notice the spelling, the title is POOR ME! It's actually one of many sayings, which made me laugh in a meeting of AA. It was one of the first times I'd ever laughed without help from a substance, and it was great. I'll never forget that laugh, because it was real.

If you take the time to listen to the song, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing the lyrics.

Peace.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

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