Top Me Off, Mickey

from Songs For Fred by Jay Williams

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about

The pit of despair in a martini glass. This one is an obvious nod to another of my Angeleno idols, Tom Waits. Exploring the seedy side was always something Tom and Fred encouraged. For my 21st birthday, they took me to the sleaziest strip club in Hollywood, The Ivar Theater. Tom Waits has a song about that place, with a line Fred loved to quote: Colder than the ticket taker's smile at the Ivar Theater on a Saturday night. I was a bartender for several years, though I was never a drinker. I was sort of the voyeur. For all their boast as cheerful places, I've always found most bars incredibly lonely. There's a game being played: pretend you're happy. Fake it 'til you make it. The booze doesn't hurt. "A place where good Joes go to meet good Joes," - that was the slogan at the old gang's favorite watering hole in Pasadena. But it's only a vacation if you're not marooned. In bars the adages are reversed: seeing the light means the party is over; the last one standing loses, and has to go home alone. I was always struck by the unspoken struggle between bravado and quiet desperation. The tears of the clown. This one's for all the Smilin' Joe's in the house.

lyrics

Top me off mickey, I’ve gone on a bender
I’m learning the hard way, the easy surrender
Top me off Mickey I've gone on a bender
I’m so stinking drunk I’m a fragrant offender
It should be a crime how I spend legal tender
I’d send her my love but that’s all I could send her

So top me off Mickey, top me off Mickey
And Mickey, while you’re at it pour one for yourself
Pour one for yourself, ‘cause drinking alone ain't so swell
And Mickey the truth to tell, I’m not really that strong

I can’t go home mickey, my apartment is freezing
My hands get to shaking, I can’t fit the keys in
I can’t go home Mickey, it’s like a meat locker
My fingers get stuck on the little door knocker
There’s parts of Alaska with climates much hotter
I’d ask her to stay if I thought that would stop her

So top me off Mickey, top me off Mickey
And Mickey, while you’re at it pour one for yourself
Pour one for yourself, ‘cause drinking alone ain't so swell
And Mickey the truth to tell, I just come here for you

Top me off Mickey, I’ve gone on a bender
And keep the change, Mickey, I’m quite the big spender
Don’t want you think that I’m just some high roller
I’m well-read, well-traveled, bi-coastal, bi-polar
Got first class to spare I’m so suave and debonair
But mickey here’s a secret, I can’t be a loner…

So top me off Mickey, top me off Mickey
And Mickey, while you’re at it pour one for yourself
Pour one for yourself, ‘cause drinking alone ain't so swell
And Mickey the truth to tell... no one cares where I am

credits

from Songs For Fred, released September 23, 2014

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Jay Williams Bainbridge Island, Washington

Grew up in L.A., next door to Rodney King. Foster kid, on welfare, muttsville. Heard John Prine at the Roxy when I was 16, changed my life. Stumbled into KROQ in the 1980s, got my 15 mins of fame. Moved to the Northwest, found community, then lost them when compassion became their justification for fascism. I'm over humans. These songs feel like phantom limbs. Cats are my gurus now. ... more

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