Ten Favorite Drunk/Hangover Songs: I Gotta Get Drunk (And I Shore Do Dread It) (#2)

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Welcome to obscure country singers Thursday, sponsored by your friendly neighborhood classic country music geek. Honestly, this wasn't intentional that two of the three songs I posted today are people that only Eddie Stubbs (the WSM disc jockey and historian who coined the term "deep catalog country music" to describe the obscure album cuts he plays) and I have heard of. With that said, here's the next song about having too much to drink. #2: I Gotta Get Drunk (And I Shore Do Dread It) - Joe Carson Joe Carson was killed in a car wreck in 1964 at the age of 26. At the time of his death he had scored a whopping two charted hits, both written by Willie Nelson. With the lovely diversity between "Helpless," the higher charting of the two, and this one, it's another sad case of what might have been. This was his first charted song. It's a very tongue-in-cheek look at the desire to go out and paint the town. Notice he doesn't say "I'm going out on the town." No, he's gotta get drunk. "I can't stay sober," he admits. It closes with one of those great, great lines that you can only find in country music: There's a lotta doctors that tell me I'd better start to slowing it down But there's more old drunks than there are old doctors, so I guess I'd better have another round Only Willie could give us a line like that. I Gotta Get Drunk (And I Shore Do Dread It) Written by Willie Nelson Recorded by Joe Carson Released as a single, 1963 I'll spend my whole paycheck on some ol' wreck: