Three Sheets to Kishkiyya · Track 11 · middle

Brahms and Liszt

VOLUME I — being gloriously, world-tilting DRUNK (the night at full tilt). The idiom and the song's title hook: "Brahms and Liszt". Its true history: UK (East End London), 1930s — Cockney rhyming slang for 'pissed'; the composers' names lend a witty highbrow twist to lowbrow drunkenness. Render this beat of the night as the band's affectionate, funny, celebratory tribute — the idiom itself is the chorus hook.

Lyrics

[Intro]
[Verse 1]
Step into the East End smoke, 1930s by the clock,
We're holding up the tavern bar so we don't take a drop.
The constable is on the prowl, looking for a fight,
But we are merely gentlemen of symphonies tonight.

[Chorus]
Oh, we're totally Brahms and Liszt!
A couple of maestros caught in the mist.
Waltzing the cobblestones, conducting the street,
Getting classical right down to our knees.
If the landlord asks why we sway and we twist,
Tell him we’re studying Brahms and Liszt.

[Verse 2]
Johannes and old Franz are here, swimming in the stout,
Making grand sonatas as we try to sort it out.
The piano in the corner room is missing half the board,
But we hear grand concertos that the patrons can't ignore.

[Chorus]
Oh, we're totally Brahms and Liszt!
A couple of maestros caught in the mist.
Waltzing the cobblestones, conducting the street,
Getting classical right down to our knees.
If the landlord asks why we sway and we twist,
Tell him we’re studying Brahms and Liszt.

[Bridge]
From the Bow Bells ringing to the posh estates,
We're borrowing the titles of the musical greats.
Cockney rhyming cover for the shine in our eye,
A masterpiece of stumbling in a clever disguise.

[Outro]
Brahms and Liszt!
Yeah, the finest composers that you've ever kissed.
Strike up the band, pour me a dram,
I'm a regular scholar, yes I am.
Just playing a... grand arpeggio.
And I think I left my coat at the bar.