Familiar Bedfellows?
7 Jun
“Whisky and music parings?” I hear you say. “Well, yes.” I answer.
“No but really? Whisky and music parings?”
In what is little more than a thinly veiled excuse to combine my two passions for whisky and music I will attempt to pair drams with songs. After all whisky and music are familiar bedfellows, no strangers in social scenes. What’s more, anyone who regularly attends tastings must by now be getting to find the prospect of yet another dark chocolate and sherried whisky pairing more than a little yawnsome. Or the endless articles about whisky and food matching, not that I don’t believe in the wealth of possibility and organoleptic potential in the joining of whisky and food, its just that I’ve always felt that these pairings and dinners were a little forced. They seemed clunky excuses that were desperately crying out to be noticed and hailed as innovative. Anyway I suppose I just wanted to write about whisky in relation to something different, so I ‘m no better than the dark chocolate crowd really. Whisky, music and film have always been tightly wound elements in my mind, fused in my life as they are in so many others, slipping in and out sometimes noticed, sometimes not. They are the cultures that have inspired, driven and frustrated me in equal measure and most importantly they have each been pillars around which great and enduring memories and friendships have been forged. Whisky and music are so much about mood so here is my humble (and not too serious) attempt to pair some aural diversions with suitable oral counterparts.
“Oh Well” by Fleetwood Mac. Paired with Aberlour A’bunadh (any old batch will do)
Ok something straight and simple to start. Whisky and Blues always went hand in hand and Oh Well is something of the blues ilk but manages to be so much more. Peter Green at the height of his oh so intriguing genius delivered this raw, dirty, witty, honest, subtly painful, potent three-minute slab of noisy beauty. Played with precision anger by all band members its one of those songs that you can’t help but listen to, it never passes you by but demands your attention for the three short minutes in exists in front of you, it owns you.
The Green God with his 1959 Les Paul.
So what can you drink with it. Not something to mull over and take your time, this is no place for complexity. Not something that has flavours so big and bold they try to compete with the music. We need something as demented and furiously focused as the song itself, something quick, powerful and enchanting but not over complicated. So I’d say any batch of Aberlour A’bunadh. A potent, heady whisky that, like the song, demands your attention for its brief blast of imperfect but uncompromisingly proud beauty.
Aberlour A'Bunadh, takes no prisoners.
“Not Fair” by Lily Allen. Paired with Bruichladdich 16yo ‘Bourbon Cask Aged’
Right lets get one thing straight, I’m very confused by how I feel about Lily Allen and her music. Maybe that is the problem, there is Lily and then there is her music. The more I divorce the two the easier they are to deal with. I think from an objective angle her songwriting is pretty fantastic really. She tells us something about her life and (along with those lyrics) she does it with that tool so often forgotten by modern songwriters, melody. Of course her songs are still dressed up in very glittery clothes, they fizz and spit that kind of attitude ridden plastic pop but in a way that just seems to hook itself into you and hang about like a hungover mate on your sofa. I get the feeling if I had to spend time with Lily herself I might try to dig my own brain out with a spoon (no disrespect Lily we’re just different vegetables from different pods) and that makes my enjoyment of her music all the more frustrating.
Lily Allen. Probably not a whisky drinker. At least not until all the wine and vodka has been polished off.
My immediate instinct on what to drink along with Lily (apart from the wine she sings about) would be Bruichladdich. Stick on Not Fair and it seems like the sonic personification of the attitude Bruichladdich thinks it has. Confrontational lyrics wrapped up in an almost primal bed of lush poppy instrumentation. Bruichladdich isn’t nearly as cool as this song but the whiskies do sometime extol the same vivid passions and ‘I don’t give a shit’ wackiness. The almost post modern titled ‘bourbon cask aged’ version is a fun one to drink with this song, and it even goes well with the barn dancy, synth banjo solo. Its light, its easy and it has something of the apparent disposable, plastic nature of the music. But like the song if you look a little deeper and pay a few more visits you discover there is quite a bit more substance than a quick first glance might suggest.
The slightly bonkers Bruichladdich Bourbon cask 16yo. Check out some more Wacky Laddies here.
