There stands the glass that will ease all my pain. That will settle my brain. It's my first one to day. There stands the glass that will hide all my tears. That will drown all my fears. Brother, I'm on my way!
A truly wonderful clip here where Webb Pierce sings his biggest hit "There Stands the Glass" on the Grand Ole Opry TV show back in late Fifties. They really don't make country music - or performers - like this anymore!
Dylan fans will be aware of "There Stands The Glass" after it was featured in Scorsese's 2005 documentary 'No Direction Home' as one of the early influences on Bob. It's is a song I first got into in the Nineties via the fine cover version that appeared on the late great Ted Hawkins' final album "The Next Hundred Years" from 1994.
The song was actually composed by Russ Hull, Mary Jean Shurtz and Audrey Greisham. It became a massive country hit in in 1953 for the flamboyant Webb Pierce - one of the most popular 'honky tonk' vocalists from country's heyday of excess in the 1950s.
In an ages-old tradition going back to oldest folk music from Ireland and Scotland etc. and making its way into the modern age mainly via the Blues and Country genres, it's a song that's a paean to and condemnation of the double-edged power of alcohol. A dark and poignant tale of the evils of alcohol addiction and the damage it causes. Evils lost in its dark dark lure.
The main damage 'the auld stuff' does, of course, is to those the drinker loves, leading to a somewhat inevitable consequence. One which, in turn, feeds the poisonous vicious circle. When you've driven a loved one away, you drink in an attempt to forget the pain of a lover's loss. Like this guy!
In the depths of his loneliness he says ... "I'm wond'ring where you are tonight. I'm wond'ring if you all right. I wonder if you think of me, in my misery."
His only hope is his curse, another bottle of the hard stuff .. "There stands the glass. Fill it up to the brim. Till my troubles grow dim. It's my first one to day."
It's the only 'solution' that "will hide all my tears. That will drown all my fears." ... Well, until he sobers up again and the same heartbreak and problems remain!
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