Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
raise a glass to the groove
Brother and sister duo match up the perfect cocktails and vibes
BOOZE AND VINYL
DO YOU know what drink would pair well with Pink Floyd’s iconic The Dark Side of the Moon? Or Prince’s landmark Purple Rain?
Brother-and-sister authors
Andre and Tenaya Darlington want to enhance your music listening experience, one drink at a time.
Their book isn’t just a sonic exploration of music’s greatest hits of the past 60 years – it’s also a retrospective on how cocktails became a part of American culture.
“We did a lot of listening to music and making drinks while writing our last book ( The New Cocktail Hour),” Andre said.
“We started to notice that there was a really good synergy between cocktail stories and music history.”
Each of the 70 records featured in the book is matched with an “A-side” and a “B-side” cocktail. In finalising their list, the siblings wanted a diverse group of albums that are easily available for readers to buy and could also evoke interesting drink stories. The mood and imagery of the music were key drivers for their cocktail selections.
Take Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which is paired with a Moon Walk cocktail. The drink was created by a bartender in the 1960s to commemorate the moon landing.
The Rolling Stones’ 1971 classic Sticky Fingers is matched up with a Tequila Sunrise. According to Andre, the choice is a nod to Keith Richards describing the band’s 1972 concerts as “the cocaine and Tequila Sunrise tour”.
We wondered what drinks Andre would pair with records by notable Washington, DC-area musicians.
Album: Money Jungle (1963)
Artist: Duke Ellington Cocktail: Millionaire
I usually have it with bourbon or rye, and you can make it with gin. But it was popular in the Jazz Age during Prohibition. It feels like a jazzy cocktail and it has the money connection, so it seems like the perfect choice.
Album: Red Medicine (1995)
Artist: Fugazi Cocktail: Sazerac
“Fugazi were straight-edge – they probably didn’t drink,” he said.
“As an F-you to them, I could do a Sazerac, which is a drink that contains a very high alcohol content. This feels appropriate – I’ve been to a couple Fugazi shows and they were amazing, but we definitely drank at those shows even though the band was straight-edge.”
Album: Bustin’ Loose (1979)
Artist: Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers Cocktail: Pina colada or Pink Squirrel
“It is such a late-’70s soul album,” Darlington said. I would drink a pina colada or a Pink Squirrel, which was huge in the late ‘70s.
Album: Live at the Cellar Door (1975)
Artist: The Seldom Scene Cocktail: Moonshine julep
“It’s just a mint julep, which normally uses bourbon, but you use white dog instead.” I The Washington Post