Taylor was born as Cora Walton on a farm just outside Memphis, Tennessee. In 1954, Taylor left Memphis for Chicago with her husband, truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor. In the late 1950s she began singing in Chicago blues clubs and was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, leading to wider performances and her first recording contract. In 1965, Taylor was signed by Chess Records, for which her single Wang Dang Doodle (written by Dixon, and a hit for Howlin' Wolf five years earlier) became a major hit, reaching number four on the R&B charts in 1966 and selling a million copies. Taylor recorded many versions of this Dixon-penned song over the past several decades and added more material, both original and covers, but never repeated that initial chart success.
National touring in the late 1960s and early 1970s improved her fan base, and she became accessible to a wider record-buying public when she signed with Alligator Records in 1975. Recording over a dozen albums for that label (many nominated for Grammy awards), she came to dominate the female blues singer ranks, winning 24 W. C. Handy Awards -- more than any other artist. After her recovery from a near-fatal car crash in 1989, the 1990s found Taylor in movies such as Blues Brothers 2000. She opened a blues club on Division St. in Chicago in 1994, but closed it in 1999. Taylor released a new album in 2007 called "Old School."
Koko Taylor influenced such musicians as Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi.
Koko Taylor died on the afternoon of June 3rd 2009 (at the age of 80), while recovering from surgery to repair gastrointestinal bleeding. Koko Taylor is still referred to by fellow blues musicians and her fans as the "Queen of the Blues".
Beer Bottle Boogie
Koko Taylor Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
lt was only an old beer bottle
A floatin' o'er the foam;
It was only an old beer bottle
A million miles from home
In it was a paper
With these words written upon:
Finds the beer all gone.
The lyrics to Koko Taylor's Beer Bottle Boogie song tells the story of an old beer bottle that was found floating in the ocean. The singer of the song tells us that it was only an old beer bottle that traveled a million miles from its origin, and inside was a paper with a message. The message is a playful one. It reads "Whoever finds this bottle, finds the beer all gone." This phrase has a double meaning. On the one hand, it means that the beer is gone because it's in someone's belly, which is why the bottle is floating in the ocean. On the other hand, it could be interpreted as a metaphor for someone who is down on their luck, isolated and alone like the beer bottle that has traveled a million miles.
The song's lyrics also evoke a sense of longing and melancholy. The beer bottle is far from home, and it's unclear if it will ever make it back. The beer is gone, and the message in the bottle is an invitation to whoever finds it, to share in this old beer bottle's story. The song is a reminder that in life, we often find ourselves floating in unfamiliar places, searching for a way back home.
Line by Line Meaning
lt was only an old beer bottle
This item was merely a discarded container commonly used to hold a type of fermented beverage
A floatin' o'er the foam;
This bottle was motionlessly drifting on a mass of air-filled bubbles on the surface of some liquid
It was only an old beer bottle
Once again emphasizing that this object was of little value or importance
A million miles from home
Despite being just a bottle, it appears to be far from its place of origin or any familiar territory
In it was a paper
There was a written document inside the bottle
With these words written upon:
The contents of the letter were as follows:
Whoever finds this bottle
The message that follows is intended for the person who discovers this vessel
Finds the beer all gone.
Unfortunately, the intended recipient of this message will not actually find a cold, fermented beverage inside the bottle
Contributed by Caden C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.