by Richard Skelly » Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:11 pm
By way of nothing, I remember being gobsmacked visiting mid-70s Montreal how bar patrons couldn’t get enough of 50 Ale (aka “Cinquante”). Back in BC, lagers prevailed.
Kim Mitchell’s biggest hit, Go For Soda, clearly warned against heavy drinking. It even won an award from the North American Mothers Against Drunk Driving society. Lager and Ale came from the same Akimbo Alogo album. At first hearing you might think it champions getting smashed. But on second or third listening, you notice the narrator casting himself in a bad light. Indeed, he’s a “drunken bar slob” who staggers to the jukebox. Lacking spare change, he must hum a song from 16 years prior In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Good grief, he won’t impress a modern gal (in 1984) with that psychedelic relic. The bar is soon to close. But our sluggish narrator still boasts he’s “ready, willing and able” for a hookup.
Between the two songs, methinks young Kim had recently weaned himself off the sauce. Another great song from a fab album.