Earth to New York Times, Come In Please

Not to pile on, but how does a very long -- and otherwise very interesting -- piece on the odd popularity of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer fail to mention David Lynch's 1986 movie Blue Velvet? In it Dennis Hopper's totally unhinged Frank Booth screams at Kyle MacLachlan's import sipping Jeffrey Beaumont, "Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!"

If that isn't the genesis of PBR's hipster cool, it is at least an interesting tidbit that even the oft culturally tone deaf folks at the The Washington Post picked up on, although the Post printed not a letter of Frank's warcry. This was back in April. In the Post's "PBR is back" story.

Comments

[Anonymous]

it's not saying much, but the Post has always been less culturally tone-deaf than the Times, at least since the advent of the Style section

[Jim Walsh]

I don't trust any newspaper that doesn't have a comics section...

[Tom]

"There's no place that I'd rather be than right here/ With my red neck, white sox and Blue Ribbon beer."

An all-but-forgotten C&W standard. Anyone remember who sang it? Ever since I read this posting, that goddamn refrain has been running through my head, and I can't remember who sang it.

[T. Blankley]

Jim, you ARE kidding, of course? All of the New York Times is one big comic section. You should be having a field day with this rag.

[Undertoad]

Naw, the people who make a beer "hip" are in their mid-20s and unlikely to have even seen the film.

[tim]

They missed it because they don't read Suck, which not only included the Blue Velvet reference but saw Pabst's hipster revival some seven years before the Times, the Post or anybody else got wind of it:

http://www.suck.com/zerobaud/96/12/05/

[DC]

Ok, Suck was way ahead of everyone. But this Times story is a ripoff of a story I read in the WSJ about 2 months ago.

[Anonymous]

still think undertoad is right. I think we're all showing our age by thinking the kids I see in bars are influenced by Blue Velvet.

[B.P.]

Good stuff... the only beer that ever gave me a rash/hives. Perhaps that was the company I was keeping.

[Russ]

Was it Pabst that marketed it's "light" beer as "The one to have when you're having more than one." Someone ought to revive that tag line.

[FastNBulbous]

"Rednecks, White Socks & Blue Ribbon Beer" was popularized by Johnny Russell, who didn't write it, but wrote "Act Naturally," which should have made him a very wealthy man.

[Warren]

"Blue Velvet" my ass. The origins of PBRs comeback can be traced to that hilarious teenage romp "Midnight Madness" (aka "The Great All Nighter"). Love that Paul Rueben. Also worth mentioning is Michael J Fox who had a slightly bigger role and went on to have a slightly bigger career.

[bomb bomb]

Russ, it was Schaefer that used that line. I do not know if Schaefer and Pabst are related.

[Douglas Fletcher]

'...but wrote "Act Naturally," which should have made him a very wealthy man."

Johnny Russell died a year or two back. For some years he used to introduce the song "Act Naturally" by noting all the people who had recorded the song and how many records they sold, and then he would say something like "if it wasn't for three marriages and a hell of a lot of child support, you'd be looking at one rich fat boy."

He wasn't rich apparently but he was a good songwriter.

I'm no hipster but I'd rather have a Pabst than a Bud. If I had to drink piss beer though what I'd really want would be a Falstaff.

[Anonymous]

Russ, no -- it was neither. That line was used for "near beer." (Burp!)

Excuse me, gotta go now. Gotta go bad!

[scott]

The thing is PBR is not brewed by Pabst anymore. So what is being revived is the can. Boy I miss National Boh.

[$2.95]

Isn't Pabst already so 1999 trailer-trash revival?

Next!

[Virginia]

Wasn't that line "Fuck that foreign shit!" ?

[fyodor]

Virginia,

I remember it the way Taylor transcribes it myself, except I would have made used all upper case letters for the last three words!

[J]

as a college student, I must chime in that the main reason PBR is so freakin popular (among the college crowd, at least) is that it's at least a buck cheaper per case than anything else (10.99 here in NC). But yes, it went from de facto to official beer of choice after I first saw Blue Velvet.