Corona (song)
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| “Corona” | ||
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| Song by Minutemen | ||
| Released | 1984 | |
| Format | LP, cassette, CD and Digital download | |
| Recorded | November 1983/April 1984 | |
| Genre | Alternative/Punk | |
| Length | 2:25 | |
| Label | SST | |
| Producer | Ethan James | |
"Corona" is a song by American punk/alternative trio Minutemen, which was composed by the band's lead singer and guitarist D. Boon.
The song was inspired by a day trip the band members (Boon, bassist Mike Watt, and drummer George Hurley) had taken to Mexico on the Fourth of July, 1982. (The same trip also inspired the Mike Watt composition "I Felt Like A Gringo" on Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat.) Moved by some of the more downtrodden elements of the area that he had seen, D. Boon set about writing a song in sympathy with the people of Mexico.
In contrast to the more frantic hardcore punk tempos of the day, "Corona" uses an almost polka-like country swing rhythm for the song. The open chord figures in the song, composed and performed in the key of G major, suggest that Boon may have composed the song on acoustic guitar rather than his trademark electric.
The title comes from the beer of the same name. An empty bottle of the beverage was lying on the beach next to where D. Boon sat when he came up with the initial lyrics to the song, hence the song's closing lyric "I only had a Corona/Five-cent deposit."
An early version of the song, as performed by the band on a live video shot by Flipside magazine in 1983, for some reason has the deposit on the bottle being ten cents, not five.
The intro and outro of the song was used as the theme for the controversial MTV stunt show Jackass and its spinoff movies; the soundtrack to the first also features the full version of the song.
A solo version of the song by D. Boon can be heard on the CD D. Boon and Friends, released in 2003.
The indie rock band Calexico covered "Corona," with mariachi horns in the style of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," on their 2004 EP Convict Pool.
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