The Journey to Sobriety in “S.O.B.” by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats debuted in 2015 with a self-titled album and a rollicking lead single, “S.O.B.”. After the band caught the attention of late-night host Jimmy Fallon, he booked them on the show. That led to “S.O.B.” going viral. But despite its fun, stomp-clap sound that makes it easily mistaken for a party song, the song’s lyrics reflect something darker.

“S.O.B.” and Sobriety

Alcohol is a common theme in Rateliff’s songs. But in “S.O.B.,” he sings about the negative impact it has and his desire to get sober. He has explained that the song is about developing a drinking problem after a breakup, based on his own experience. Despite the subject matter, Rateliff considered it to be a “joke song” the band played at the end of their shows. He had no intention of recording it. He felt his other material was “smarter” and a better reflection of his songwriting and the sort of musician he wanted to be.

“I wrote that song about having delirium tremors in order to make light of it, but it was a pretty traumatic situation,” he said in a 2015 interview with Westword. “I thought I was dying, I was in another country, and I was alone. When we first started to play the song, Joseph [Pope] — who I’ve been playing with for 21 years now — said at one point, ‘Man, when I first heard that song, I just wanted to cry because I feel like such a bad friend. I’m sorry I let it get to that and I wasn’t there to help you.’”

Rateliff’s inspiration is clear in the song’s lyrics. The first verse expresses a need for someone to help him get through not just the alcoholism itself, but the difficult process of withdrawal and getting sober.

I’m gonna need someone to help me
I’m gonna need somebody’s hand
I’m gonna need someone to hold me down
I’m gonna need someone to care
I’m gonna writhe and shake my body
I’ll start pulling out my hair.

This continues through the chorus. Rateliff begs for a drink while still recognizing the damage drinking is doing and how crucial it is that he stop. He’s drinking his life away, quite literally.

Son of a bitch
Give me a drink
One more night
This can’t be me
Son of a bitch
If I can’t get clean
I’m gonna drink my life away.

In the second verse, Rateliff wrestles with the addiction. He is simultaneously acknowledging how long he’s had a problem and that he’ll die if he doesn’t quit while also begging for one more drink.

Now for seventeen years I’ve been throwing them back
Seventeen more will bury me
Can somebody please just tie me down
Or somebody give me a goddamn drink.

In the song’s bridge, Rateliff repeats the same line, once again referring to withdrawal symptoms.

My heart was breaking, hands are shaking, bugs are crawling all over me

Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images