'That Liquor Ain't Good for You'

Carol Forsloff--While some music performers use their talents to denigrate specific politicians in a toxic way, as does Kid Rock and Ted Nugent, others find ways to elevate one's thinking by examining social issues and elevating the ideas about what matters most in life, as is done often by Gene O'Neill.

O'Neill has the skills of guitar, vocal performance and writing that fuse ideas into songs that entertain while giving us that something good that makes us feel like we have learned, expanded our hearts and minds.  We soar with O'Neill on the wings of the good, looking at man with eyes that see the story and the whole of us, the very heart and soul of us as well, while using a variety of musical techniques and themes as the mechanism for the flight.


Country music often speaks of good girls gone wrong, the man who done her wrong, or the drunken dude who swaggers and boasts his manhood through the booze and the smoke that spills into whatever bar into which he wanders.  The guys gather, smack their women on the backsides with reference to "my old lady," as the band plays into the night.

O'Neill gives us that something else with his country song, "That Liquor Ain't Good for You."  He does it without a religious commentary or a style that just smacks one down for getting drunk again.  Indeed, the words and the music take us on a journey that allows us to see the consequences of too much of anything that ends up hurting us in the end.

Liquor, too much, and too long is that hurt, fun at first; but in an atmosphere where men see nothing else can be the ruin of a strength that goes far beyond the fist, the chest, the power that a lot of liquor saps away in sad and subtle ways.  So O'Neil tells us:

Don't try to drink no whiskey--
If you ain't learned how to drink
Don't want to hear your philosophy
If you ain't learned how to think
You just open that mouth--and stupid falls out.
That's all you seem to do.
Don't try to drink no whiskey--
That liquor ain't good for you.

O'Neil's song is available at: http://fandalism.com/geneoneill/duoq or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL5MEVJ7Bjk#t=158 , leading to songs of various genres composed and performed by this talented musician.