Drinking Class

Album: I Don't Dance (2014)
Charted: 53
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Brice paying tribute to the hard-working man who gets up early and works hard every day. "We had a bunch of production going on that wasn't right," he told Billboard magazine. "It was too new and hip, and had too much electronic stuff going on."

    "It hit me one day that the song isn't about drinking, but it's about working class folks," Brice continued. "Working class, to me, seems like it needs to be organic - hands clapping, boots stomping, and it needs to sound like people humming along or whistling while they're working. And, literally, a sledge hammer hitting a railroad tie. So that's what we did. We went back in and took all that stuff out, and created those organic sounds to make it feel like the steel mills or the shipyards. When we got done, we felt we had gotten it right."
  • "Drinking Class" was penned by regular collaborators Josh Kear, David Frasier and Ed Hill. The working-class anthem came about when the trio were discussing current events and Kear threw out the title to his co-writers. "We know each other so well, any time we get together, we talk about life," Hill told Taste of Country.

    "There's hardly any middle class anymore," he lamented. "You have super-rich people, the half-percent, that when they make a billion dollars they just can't seem to think that that's enough. They go and make another billion dollars, and then you have this big Grand Canyon, and you have everybody on the other side. And that's all of us, trying to scrap out a living."

    "It's not really a drinking song," Hill added. "It's about people. It just happens to have drinking in the title."

Comments: 1

  • Efrain from California EVERYTIME I hear this song I think the lyrics were changed. When he says "...Monday through Friday we bust our BACKS..." I keep hearing "bust our ASS" because it rhymes with "working class" and "glass" . Does anyone else feel that too? Don't mean to upset anyone using the A-word.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Weird Al Yankovic

Weird Al YankovicFact or Fiction

Did Al play on a Beach Boys record? Did he have beef with George Lucas and Coolio? See if you can spot weird but true stories.

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple

Ian Gillan of Deep PurpleSongwriter Interviews

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan explains the "few red lights" in "Smoke On The Water" and talks about songs from their 2020 album Whoosh!

Jonathan Cain of Journey

Jonathan Cain of JourneySongwriter Interviews

Cain talks about the divine inspirations for "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Faithfully."

When Rock Belonged To Michelob

When Rock Belonged To MichelobSong Writing

Michelob commercials generated hits for Eric Clapton, Genesis and Steve Winwood in the '80s, even as some of these rockers were fighting alcoholism.

Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles

Timothy B. Schmit of the EaglesSongwriter Interviews

Did this Eagle come up with the term "Parrothead"? And what is it like playing "Hotel California" for the gazillionth time?

Tony Joe White

Tony Joe WhiteSongwriter Interviews

The writer of "Rainy Night in Georgia" and "Polk Salad Annie" explains how he cooks up his Louisiana swamp rock.