Jack Vs. Jose

by

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers

Album: Honky Tonk Union      Released: 2000

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"Jack" is Jack Daniels whiskey, and "Jose" is Jose Cuervo tequila. Clyne, who was lead singer in The Refreshments before forming The Peacemakers, is from Arizona and makes frequent trips to Mexico, where tequila is the drink of choice. Says Clyne: "That was basically a narrative of a real-life experience. It was the end of The Refreshments days. It was actually during the Bottle And Fresh Horses tour. I stepped off the bus in Memphis, Tennessee, and stepped inside. It was before the major proliferation of tequila; there was a time when tequila was a drink of banditos and pirates, and not cigar smoking executives so much. I went into this bar and ordered one up, and it was actually around the same time that my friend - my best friend, actually, at the time - had just died, and so I was purposely going to go on an afternoon bender. I stepped off the bus into the bar and ordered a shot of tequila, and the bartenderess just read me the riot act. It was a pretty quick melee, and I'd say she won. I didn't end up getting kicked out, but I did have to drink whiskey."

Roger made up the toast at the end of the song, utilizing what little Spanish he knows. Says Clyne: "'Adios, rogando' literally means, with a hammer, giving you, 'God be praised, and with the hammer given me, here are my tools,' 'Katie, bar the door, pass the gun powder and praise the lord,' kind of the same interpretation. They're both idiomatic in English and in Spanish. I made it up the day I was recording it. I knew there had to be something in there, but I didn't have it down exactly how I wanted it, so I woke up early on the day we recorded it, and worked out that toast. And that was harder than, actually, the rest of the song." (Thanks to Roger for speaking with us about this song. Read more in his full Songfacts interview. His website is www.azpeacemakers.com.)

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