“Hey Bartender”, written by the recently departed Floyd Dixon in 1954, made popular by the Blues Brothers, starts out:
I went balling the other night
I started drinking and got real tight
I blew each and all my friends
I felt so good I had to blow it again
This was a popular song in 1954. I can’t imagine that this was sexual content. So what does he mean by balling, and blowing his friends? :eek:
Back in The Old Days, “ballin’” was a term for partying. It appears in a lot of R&B and blues records. In one such drinking song, a guy plans to get really drunk and laments “I’ll be crawlin’ instead of ballin’”. I’m not sure about “blowing my friends” but I think it could refer to buying them all a drink. Anybody have another idea?
Ditto on “balling.” The Stray Cats’ second album “Gonna Ball” features a song of the same title. Related to “have a ball.”
But “blowing”? That’s thrown me for a while.
It makes one realize how ripe this song is for a gay club disco remake, though.
According to my old school blues singing’ neighbor, “I blew each and all my friends” means to buy a round or pass around a joint.