# Songs about card games
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 21, 2008, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610 "2008-02-21T20:16:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/1 "2008-02-21T20:16:31Z")
Was listening to the Tull, and noticed a gambling reference, then realised I’d listened to a lot of songs this last week with card game references:
“Joker is the name, Poker is the Game” - Chris De Burgh, _Spanish Train_
“Slip the night from a shaved pack, make a marked card play” - Jethro Tull,\* Dun Ringill\*
“You’ve got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em” - Kenny Rogers, \*The Gambler
\*
“the only card I need is The Ace Of Spades, The Ace of Spades” Mötorhead, \*The Ace of Spades
\*
“He knows that the Spades are the Swords of a Soldier” - Sting, _Shape of My Heart_
Any to dd to the list?
---
### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/2 "2008-02-21T20:21:47Z")
_Dealin’ card games with the old men in the club car.
Penny a point ain’t no one keepin’ score._
**The City of New Orleans** - Arlo Guthrie
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### Author:  [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/3 "2008-02-21T20:21:53Z")
Some of yours aren’t strictly about card games, so in that vein:
> [@Juice Newton](#):
>
> Playing with the queen of hearts
> Knowin’ it ain’t really smart
> The joker ain’t the only fool
> Who’ll do anything for you
>
> - Queen of Hearts
---
### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/4 "2008-02-21T20:22:17Z")
Dark Lady, Cher. Not really gambling, but the dark lady uses a regular deck of playing cards for her fortune telling.
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### Author:  [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/5 "2008-02-21T20:24:02Z")
“Black Queen” by Stephen Stills. He used to introduce it by saying, “This is a song about a card game,” so I know it fits here.
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### Author:  [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/6 "2008-02-21T20:34:22Z")
It’s not entirely about a card game, but the Tom Waits song “Tango Till They’re Sore” includes “Deal out Jacks or Better on a blanket by the stairs.”
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/7 "2008-02-21T20:36:22Z")
_War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y’all_
😃
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/8 "2008-02-21T20:37:07Z")
A fatal card game is at the center of “Stagger Lee” by Lloyd Price and many other artists. Another fatal card game figures prominently in a verse of “Mr. Saturday Night Special” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
“Do It Again” by Steely Dan. (“Your black cards can make you money, So you hide them when you’re able.”)
“Ooh Las Vegas” by Gram Parsons and covered by the Cowboy Junkies. (“Well, the queen of spades is a friend of mine. The queen of hearts is a bitch”)
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/9 "2008-02-21T20:43:52Z")
“That Was A Crazy Game of Poker” - O.A.R.
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### Author:  [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/10 "2008-02-21T20:57:07Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01]
Dark Lady, Cher. Not really gambling, but the dark lady uses a regular deck of playing cards for her fortune telling.
[/QUOTE]
Ooh, good one! First 45 single I ever bought!
“What the winner don’t know, the gambler understands” Heart, “Straight On”
And that Kenny Rogers song, don’t make me quote it.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/11 "2008-02-21T21:01:48Z")
The Eagles’s “Desperado”
_Don’t you draw the Queen of Diamonds, boy,
She’ll beat you if she’s able.
The Queen of Hearts is always your best bet_
Dylan’s Lily, Rosemary & The Jack of Hearts
_Backstage the girls were playing five card stud by the stairs
Lily had two queens and she was looking for a third to match her pairs.
Outside the streets were filling up and a window was open wide.
A gentle breeze was blowing, you could feel it from inside.
Lily called another card and drew up the Jack of Hearts_
---
### Author:  [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/12 "2008-02-21T21:02:40Z")
“Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts,” Bob Dylan
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/13 "2008-02-21T21:04:29Z")
[Does this help?](http://drneau.com/poker_soundtrack_ideas.htm)
I love the Internet
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### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/14 "2008-02-21T21:11:30Z")
Townes van Zandt wrote [Mr Mudd & Mr Gold](http://http://www.cmt.com/lyrics/townes-van-zandt/mr-mudd-and-mr-gold/6258048/lyrics.jhtml).
> [@](#):
>
> Now, here’s what this story’s told
> If you feel like Mud you’ll end up Gold
> If you feel like lost, you’ll end up found
> So amigo, lay them raises down
And Bob Dylan wrote an epic called [Lily, Rosemary & The Jack of Hearts](http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/lily.html). There \*\*is \*\* a card game in the song…along with a lot of other stuff.
And he wrote [Rambling, Gambling Willie](http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/willie.html). Which Townes used to sing…
> [@](#):
>
> It was late one evenin’ during a poker game,
> A man lost all his money, he said Willie was to blame.
> He shot poor Willie through the head, which was a tragic fate,
> When Willie’s cards fell on the floor, they were aces backed with eights.
Leonard Cohen’s [The Stranger Song](http://www.leonardcohen.com/music.cgi?album_id=18&song_id=4) is another one that **may** be about poker. Darn those poets!
(And darn my long posts–allowing others to mention Dylan first!)
---
### Author:  [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/15 "2008-02-21T21:43:36Z")
[Lonesome Loser- Little River Band](http://www.afn.org/~afn30091/songs/l/little-lonesome.htm):
-
Have you heard about the Lonesome Loser?
Beaten by the Queen of Hearts every time.
Have you heard about the Lonesome Loser?
He’s a loser but he still keeps on trying.
\*
Okay, so it’s not so much about playing an actual card game as much as it refers to the game as an analogy for dating and finding love (the story of my life, incidentally).
---
### Author:  [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/16 "2008-02-21T21:54:36Z")
XTC’s [“Happy Families”](http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_Happy.html) is about the [U.K. children’s card game](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Families) of the same name.
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### Author:  [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/17 "2008-02-21T21:56:01Z")
The Mick Jagger song (a mid-80s solo hit) [Lucky In Love](http://www.lyricsdomain.com/13/mick_jagger/lucky_in_love.html) is rife with cards and card game references, ending with:
> [@](#):
>
> I’m sitting here with a full house
> I just can’t believe I’ll lose out on this
> Okay! Okay! Your ten thousand and ten thousand more
> You want to raise me, you want to raise me? How about this?
> Twenty thousand and twenty thousand more
> Okay! You want to see me? Well I got, I got a full house
> What’s that? A royal flush?
> Well, ain’t that a bust, I’m broke!
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/18 "2008-02-21T21:58:46Z")
[QUOTE=brujaja]
that Kenny Rogers song, don’t make me quote it.
[/QUOTE]
You don’t need to, it’s in the OP.
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/19 "2008-02-21T22:17:00Z")
There are tons of poker references in Grateful Dead songs–“Loser,” “Dire Wolf,” “Me and My Uncle” (a cover, but one the Dead played frequently)–but my favorite is in “Doin’ That Rag”:
_One-eyed jacks and the deuces are wild
And the aces are crawling up and down your sleeve…_
Also “The Card Cheat” by the Clash.
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### Author:  [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-card-games/438610/20 "2008-02-21T22:27:56Z")
_That Song About The Midway_, by Joni Mitchell
_was it hard to fold a hand you knew could win…_
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