The Bottle Rockets are a rock band which formed in Festus, Missouri, United States in 1992. The band currently consists of Brian Henneman (vocals, guitar), John Horton (guitar), Keith Voegele (bass) and Mark Ortmann (drums). Henneman and Ortmann are original members; original bassist Tom Ray left the band in 1997 and original guitarist Tom Parr left the band in 2002. The band have released ten studio albums since the release of their debut self-titled album in 1993.

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Uncut - Rip This JointThe Bottle Rockets

The Mississippi River of Song: A Musical Journey Down the MississippiThe Bottle Rockets

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01Welfare Music The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

02Radar Gun The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

031000 Dollar Car The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

04I'll Be Comin' Around The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

05Indianapolis The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

06Gravity Fails The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

07Nancy Sinatra The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

08I Wanna Come Home The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

09Pot of Gold The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

10Idiot's Revenge The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

11Sunday Sports The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

12Mountain to Climb The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

13Take Me to the Bank The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

14Lucky Break The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

15Stuck in a Rut The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

16Queen of the World The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

17Young Lovers in Town The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

18Kerosene The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

19Middle Man The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

20Better Than Broken The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

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Welfare Music
The Bottle Rockets Lyrics

Quit school when she was seventeen
Senator on TV calls her welfare queen
Used to be daddy's little girl
Now she needs help in this mean ol' world

Buys cassette tapes in the bargain bin
Loves Carlene Carter and Loretta Lynn
Tries to have fun on a Saturday night
Sunday morning don't shine too bright

It's welfare music
Watch the baby dance
To the welfare music
Well she ever stand a chance?

Takes two to make three but one ain't here
Still chasing women and drinking beer
Says nobody understands how he feels
But that don't pay the monthly bills

Angry fat man on the radio
Wants to keep his taxes way down low
Says there oughta be a law
Angriest man you ever saw

Welfare music
Just watch the baby dance
To the welfare music
Well she ever stand a chance?

Solo

Baby dance circles on the floor
Round and round just like before
Baby fall down
Baby get up
Baby needs a drink from a lovin' cup

It's welfare music
Watch the baby dance
To the welfare music
Well she ever stand a chance?

Welfare music
Just watch the baby dance
To the welfare music
Well she ever stand a chance?

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: BRIAN HENNEMAN, S. TAYLOR

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

To comment on specific lyrics, highlight them

Comments from YouTube:

Bill Troester Sr.

5y↑49

This video touched my heart deeply. My Mother, God rest her soul, was born and raised in a very poor family a few miles outside the tiny little town of Sugar Grove, West Virginia. She used to tell me of the hard times of her childhood. How she and her 10 siblings would carry live chickens to the country store in town to trade for provisions. How they would all sit on the front porch of their little shack nestled in the beauty of the mighty Blue Ridge Mountains and play Bluegrass after a hard day in the fields. I think of those stories often, and thank God for being raised poor. This kind of music will forever be deep in my soul.

The WestPointRouteGuy

18w↑2

Bill, my late father-in-law was born and raised at Sugar Grove...a half mile west of the little white board Methodist church, where he & his wife are buried. (Nicholas County) Years later when he was in a nursing home in Richmond, he would tell me about the times there during his youth before he went off to WWII. Growing their own food....slaughtering farm animals, and walking miles along the dirt road (it's still unpaved today) to Quinnwood for supplies. They grew quite a bit of crops and he told me that especially during the hard years of the great depression, they would give food to neighbors whose children were going hungry Hard times indeed. .

Spider Monkey

30w

Wilsondale little town ..hell nothing there

Spider Monkey

30w↑1

Mine too Wayne West Virginia..still poor country.

Marilee Dent

41w↑1

My mom too West Virginia up Turkey Creek Wilsondale near Cabwaylingo my family buried on tick ridge

Marilee Dent

52w↑1

Bill Troester Sr. Cabwaylingo

1 More Replies...

Duke Briney

4y↑11

breaks my heart. I watch it over and over. I love the Bottle Rockets

Lube's Iron-CSL Farms llc

44w↑3

Awesome tune! Sounds like a cross between the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Steve Earl

Danny Ginnane-Gannon

5y↑5

I totally agree with the comments of Bill Troester Sr.

William Miller

2y↑4

My God, this is a great song. I saw these guys open for Lucinda Williams in Portland, ME around 20 years ago. Great live show.

Rev Eddro

5y↑2

quit school when she was 17

Marilee Dent

I was 16

Marilee Dent

1y↑2

Reminds me of my mother and the depression. She had that life ..

freak49

4y↑11

Some songs just grab you by the throat even though you may not be into that genre. For me this is one of those.

lonewizzard

5y↑4

Welfare Music. My all time favorite bands would be considered of this type. Most of my most prized albums and cds were found in the cutout bins. Long live the underdog!!

Mikayla Smith

6y↑3

Awesome,reminds me granny storys and where we grow up.glad life is better now.still awesome.cant get enough if it.

Mikayla Smith

6y↑3

This is kaylas dad that posted that. wish my old man could see this vid..

ALberto Martinez

3y↑4

Always just loved this tune. Great video sequencing. Frames the tune perfectly. A real treat. Thanks for posting

Stephen ONeill

52w↑4

This is a powerful song. Sad and telling on what's needed in this country.

Stephen ONeill

@real american Now that is funny bitch. Don't like me I will send you my address. I have grand children and am a Marine veteran. COme on down I will put one in your face punk. Does anyone know what the fuck you are talking about? LOL SUMC 3rd Recon 3rd Marines.

real american

@Stephen ONeill Does grandma know that you are playing on the computer Little boy ?

Stephen ONeill

@real american Ok maybe this makes sense f**k yourself bitch

real american

@Stephen ONeill WTF are you trying to say ? You make no sense Fuckstain.

Stephen ONeill

@real american Oh and btw real American, what a joke did you serve you little girl, if not your opinion was paid for by guys like me, remember that punk.

3 More Replies...

amphionification

26w↑1

Oh man, this song wrecked me.

real american

Real , right ?

Bower Power

4y↑2

Love this song.

Spider Monkey

30w↑1

To be continued generation after generation

real american

While lazy folks won’t get a job .

Danny McElroy

4y↑10

Where did this footage come from? Depression time I guess. What a homage! Great song by a under rated awesome band!

Alan Schuster

@Ann Mestres thank you. Festus is a nice area. I am about 2 hours from there on Illinois side. I-64 to 270/55. I have been getting into a group Powder Mill. I think that they are VanBuren area. That could be the Appalachian in the video. It could also be part of Missouri. I am familiar with the WPA and Franklin D. Roosevelt. I believe that the WPA was a good thing and accomplished a lot. I believe that we should implement the principal of it again. definitely remember that the W stands for Work and the P stood for Progress.

Ann Mestres

2y↑2

@Alan Schuster they are from Festus primarily-or they used to be. This vid is more Appalachian probably done through a WPA project. I sure would like to know-

Alan Schuster

Probably Missouri. They are from around Cape Girardeau.

Danny Ginnane-Gannon

5y↑2

Wonderful!

Mike LeValley

3y↑2

great tune. These guys never sold out.

holmeed

3y↑2

Very moving song... very sad really

Adam Clark

4y↑5

I grew up with this life...so honest & true

Marilee Dent

1y↑1

Me too. My mother really.

Ron Jeter

Another great band from Granite City, IL

2inchesofink

42w↑3

They’re not from Granite City Illinois
They’re from Festus Missouri

Harold Brodie

3y↑1

Such a great song.

Sandra Van Meter

3y↑2

Great song....Sharing..

ALberto Martinez

3y↑2

Great Tune.

Errol Waguespack

🚼

jjam002

6y↑4

nice video for a great song

Dale Duncan

5y↑1

+jjam002 ...Thank You..

Jordan Cashen

31w↑3

Poor people still exist, and they’re not much different than your romanticized ideal of poor people from days past. We are all products of different times, but the class distinctions and our relation to capital hasn’t changed a bit. The purpose of our existence within the capitalist economy is to make others rich. And If anything, we’ve become even more alienated from our labor and the wealth it creates. Crime and addiction products of desperation, hopelessness, and the desire to escape.

Working people need to benefit directly from their labor. Workers’ collective ownership over their workplaces is the only long term solution to poverty and exploitation. Profit is unpaid wages, wealth distribution under capitalism is inherently unethical.

real american

“ wealth distribution “ ? Isn’t that communism ?

Scott Boutin

14w

I'm poor. I exist.

Virgil Caine

24w

Its about to get darker too. With automation and robots and AI..more jobs up in smoke. Food and medicine going up in price. Large groups of people with hungry mouths and no work? Hope gone? Civil unrest..destabilization. Desperation and the ancient animal drive to survive will snuff out the high ideals of brother..sister..state..country...history most certainly does not progress in an orderly fashion. Im sorry kids. We fell asleep at the wheel and sold the beautiful work of art that was the American Experiment for nothing. All thr work..All the blood. Became paper in a pocket and numbers in a microchip. Hold onto each other..and.a guitar or banjo. You might also want a firearm of some sort. Theres been more than once in my life when I wanted to shoot a banjo. Ya never know. Good luck everybody.

Marilee Dent

1y↑2

Thank you!

Controlled Chaos

6y↑1

Awesome stuff... check Lucid Rivers out too...

multicaruana

1y↑3

I love the song and the video , but, obviously the video footage is, at least, two generations before the era in which the music's lyrics take place. Still, it's awesome. Where does the footage come from?

Frederick Schreyer

1y↑3

Great video, thanks.
Fat man on the radio? Now who could that be?

Frederick Schreyer

@JCKAMK I don't think so.

JCKAMK

Angry fat man...and the band is from Festus, not far from Cape Girardeau...coincidence?

Marilee Dent

50w↑1

Poor has no race

dunnlanguage41

29w

This sucks compared to john hiatts

Tom Finley

Fine song. The vintage film is professionally produced and should at best be considered a limited snapshot. There was political propaganda back then we should be mindful of considering how poor, mostly women and children, are often now a permanent government welfare class -- drug abuse, mental illness, sexual exploitation, etc.