Frank Sinatra always talked about how he was one of the last living singers of Saloon Songs.  I think he meant songs with a honkey-tonk flavor and a certain inebriated view on the world.  I personally define “Saloon Song” to mean any song whose lyric specifically places the singer in a saloon (a bar will do just fine).  Examples include: “One for my baby (and one more for the road”, “Angel Eyes”, and, um… others.

Here’s my crack at the genre:

Hey there,
You at the bar,
Pour me another… one of these
‘Cause I’m in the mood to remember
The night when my man went away.

Well, I guess you’d have called him a drifter,
He just drifted right into my heart,
There was never much to him,
No good to pursue him
So why then did I ever start?

Hey there, so how ‘bout that drink?
I’ve got another verse to sing
About a cool autumn night in September,
The night when I first met my man,

He was a liar, a cheat, and a scoundrel,
But I had so little to lose,
I thought I could right him, refine, and delight him,
The night when I first hatched my plan.

Oh how I tried so to keep him from trouble,
But I couldn’t keep trouble from him,
‘Cause when trouble’s a mind to, it always will find you,
Like the night when I first met my man.

Well, I guess you’ve have called him a bastard,
Well I guess I’d have called him one too.
But when you’ve tried hard to hone him,
You feel like you own him,
And love is the cost that’s come due.

And on the night when he finally left me,
The law picked him up in a fray,
So that was his way out, and I lost my payout,
The night when my man went away.

So I’ll think of him when I feel lonely,
And I’ll think of him when I feel blue,
But I’ll never regret that I once cast a bet on
The best damned man I ever knew.

Hey there,
The sun’s comin’ up.
It’s gonna be a bright and fine day.
But oh, how the moon was an ember,
The night when my man went away.