A colourful word for an intoxicatingly visual subject, and in parallel relating to people who may be a labeorphilist or labeorphile, this noun refers to the enthusiasm for, and collection of beer bottle labels. A related term is tegestologist, which refers to someone who collects beer mats or coasters.
There are many songs about beer, but with a twist of the bottle top, what about some music-themed labels? There’s Brewdog Punk IPA, or Elvis Juice, as well as a varieties such as the AC/DC-inspired 21st Amendment Brewery’s Back in Black IPA, Heavy Seas’s Smoke on the Water Porter echoing the famous song by Deep Purple, a Pink Floyd-inspired pun-heavy Dark Side of the Moose by Purple Moose Brewery, Sgt. Pepper Farmhouse Ale by Cambridge Brewing Company, to the jazz-loving North Coast Brewing Co.’s Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale. Here are a fewin including some Beck’s specials:
But can a label assist playing of a bottle? The brand Tuned Pale Ale sets liquid levels, so if you blow at the top of the bottle, it will produce different notes:
But what of producing music by blowing a beer bottle? Certainly not needing to check beer levels, Denmark’s Copenhagen group The Bottle Boys have turned it into slick entertainment. Here they give the Micheal Jackson hit Billie Jean a very decent blow:
They have a wide repertoire of pop and more, but here’s a playlist of classical masterpieces, blow by blow:
There are also other ways to turn a beer bottle into an instrument. Here’s a bit of percussive fun - Bouteillophone (Bottle Xylophone) a short Satie's Parade played by Brice Burton, who can also play water jug, typewriter, roulette wheel, tap shoes and handgun (subbed with balloons).
But perhaps the best known use for a bottle is on slide guitar. Since the the 1930s, blues players including Robert Johnson, Robert Nighthawk, Earl Hooker, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters have used bottles, or other bottle-like devices to make that distinctive sound, but it was Danny Gatton, the Maryland guitarist (1945-1994) who is best known for playing with an actual beer bottle. Also known as “The Humbler” for his peerless talents in this respect, here he is in in a live setting showing versatility and skill:
So then, any more musical connections to beer bottles and labels you’d care to pour out onto these pages in comments? Feel free to share anything more in relation to it, whether in music or wider culture, such as from film, art, or other contexts, in comments below.
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