Drowned in Wine

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"Drowned In Wine" is the opening song on A Song For Me, the third album from the British progressive rock band Family.

"Drowned In Wine" had been a popular number for Family in concert performances before it was even properly recorded for disc. The song is undoubtedly one of Family's most intense numbers, with lyrics focusing on paranoia and outside pressure to conform. On A Song For Me, released in January 1970, "Drowned In Wine" opens with a crisp, brittle acoustic guitar line that is quickly augmented by a quick heavy metal riff, and the song alternates between the two diametrically opposed styles from then on. The full rock ensemble eventually takes over more of the arrangement with some brutal hurdy-gurdy instrumental breaks accentuated by flutist Poli Palmer and anchored by bassist John Weider. Palmer's flute is especially overamplified for extra dramatic effect.

It is in such a setting that lead singer Roger Chapman's terrifying vocals unfold. Chapman delivers lyrics about how people are forced to conform and submit to society ("After the turn, you finally learn to play along / Your feelings are blind, so you don't really mind if it's right or wrong") along with paranoid musings of Orwellian enoforcement ("As sure as I see they're looking at me with glasses on / And as sure as I feel I know they're for real, and the gas is on / Well, I'm drowned in wine"), punctuated by some scorching melismatic phrasings. The title refers to the feeling of being inebriated to the point of senselessness regarding what goes on around oneself.

Chapman declares his intention to resist the impulse to conform and remain free to live and think as he pleases ("I could cry help /But I'd much sooner fend for myself / Don't wanna feel that I'm drowned in wine / Hate every thought of having to fall in line / Just want to grow, just want to grow and share what's yours and mine"). The song ends with Chapman wailing and screaming "I'm drowned, drowned in wine" as the music gets louder - only to have the whole song end abruptly, making the idea of resistance to society seem especially futile.

Family performed "Drowned In Wine" with even greater force in concert, as a clip of their June 1970 appearance at the Kralingen festival in Rotterdam from the documetnary movie Stomping Ground made clear; in one scene, Chapman seems ready to push a cameraman for getting too close to him on stage. Chapman spends much of the time involved in "idiot dancing", which resembled the movements of a demented scarecrow, and at the end of the song he throws his microphone stand to the floor in a final burst of rage.

Before Poli Palmer joined the band in November 1969, Family had arranged the song as more of acoustic number, with Jim King's saxophone being largely up front. King's random saxophone passages, combined with the lack of an electric guitar from guitarist Charlie Whitney, made "Drowned In Wine" sound far more chilling than what the band achieved in the studio with Palmer. A performance of "Drowned In Wine" with King was taped for BBC Radio on July 28, 1969, and has since been issued by Hux Records on a compact disc set of Family's BBC radio performances. Unlike the 1970 studio version, this recording has a fadeout ending.