Wellll, yes, but not exactly the whole story. “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” did not originate with John Lee Hooker; it “was written by Rudy Toombs and carried by Amos Milburn to the #2 position on Billboard’s R&B chart in 1953” according to the liner notes of the John Lee Hooker Ultimate Collection 1948-1990 (which this thread has inspired me to dig out of my stacks - thanks Quasi!). But Thorogood’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” is actually a mash-up of that song prefaced by a John Lee Hooker original - “House Rent Boogie” or “John L’s House Rent Boogie.” In “House Rent Boogie” (written by Hooker in 1950), John Lee does indeed quote the landlady as saying, “That don’t confront me.”
Thorogood begins his “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” with “House Rent Boogie,” which is the story of the landlady, and segues into “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” which is the tragic story of his missing girl and the damnable closing hours of the local bar.
Now that you mention it, that’s the way it sounds on the Thorogood version I have. Google finds two references to it, one each from the Urban Dictionary and Yahoo Answers (I know, I know) which say that “befront” has pretty much the same meaning as we’re attributing to “confront,” i.e., “To concern or bother. To matter to.”
Is it too late for me to ask for an Amos Milburn compilation for Christmas? And which one should I get? All I have is Chicken Shack Boogie and Bad Bad Whiskey. This thread has shown me my deficiencies.
