Wine Tunesday! Wine + Music
I’m pretty sure that our enthusiasm for this fermented liquid goodness that we call wine shines through on a daily, if not hourly, basis. Not only do we love the product itself, but we get caught up in the behind-the-scenes stories; the family that runs the winery, the decisions that weigh on the winemaker in a given vintage, the challenges and rewards that accompany the journey from ground to bottle. We are fans in the truest sense of the word.
So it doesn’t surprise me that one of our other passions is music. Music and wine is, perhaps, the ultimate pairing. Having spent the first six years of my career in the music industry, I have had a lot of time to draw parallels between my two favourite subjects. The similarities between music and wine are endless, both are products of deeply creative activity. Producing either one entails focus, sensory perception, practice, math, intuition and talent. Whether you are part of a band or a family estate winery, you do whatever it takes to manifest your product, share it with the world, and continue to perfect it. Rolling Stone, Billboard, and SPIN are tantamount to Wine Spectator, Decanter, and Wine Advocate. Viticulturists are like band managers, winemakers have the lead singer role, and liquor stores are reminiscent of major record labels.
For the past year, every Tuesday we let wine and music collide on our Facebook page by featuring a song that has the word wine in the title or lyrics. This can be extended to a type of wine (ie. Chablis, Crystal, or Cherry Wine) or the artist’s name (ie. April Wine, Iron & Wine). We call this celebration Wine Tunesday and although we have featured songs and artists of all genres spanning the past 70 years, we work hard to mix in songs that are contemporary, timely, and little known gems. We have our Billy Joel, Queen, and Paul McCartney days, but we also have our Joshua Radin, The Civil Wars, and Hozier days too.
In honour of bringing Wine Tunesday to the Wine Blog, today’s song is a legendary monster of a hit. Written by two of the most talked about musicians in recent history and continually ranked in the Top 100 Songs of All Time by various music publications, the song is “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” from the album Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones. Never one to shy away from getting to the point, Mick Jagger sings the wine lyric in the opening phrase. Check out this video of the band performing the song on the David Frost show in 1969, the same year that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards penned it. Stick around to the end and you'll be treated to David Frost's closing comment of the performance "A new form there…a slightly different form there of choral music with a slight difference."
I saw the Stones perform last summer at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre in their 50th year of touring and, I have to admit, like a fine wine they have aged beautifully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM_p1Az05Jo
