Beer and a Burger--Last Call for Schlitz

Last Call for Schlitz and Old Dark Bars

By Frank | Country Hugs Music LLC

Schlitz beer announced its last production run.

Heard about this today after I'd written a song a year ago about a bar serving Schlitz.  “Beer and a Burger”.

The bar was real. Out in the rural edge of a big town, the kind of place the city eventually gets around to tearing down. They got around to it — cleared it out for a freeway. Gone now. But it existed, and if you were there you didn't forget it.

Gravel driveway. An old dog out front. He barked once at you and went back to watching.

Inside — dark. Just the way a bar ought to be.

No TVs. No printed menus. No chrome spigots.  One kind of beer. Schlitz. Cans.  No substitutions.

Boots hung from the rafters, laces tied together.  Seventy-two years of history. A bison head stared down from the corner, nose knocked crooked, a rubber band holding it together. Nobody ever fixed it. Outdoor bathroom down a path.

That was the place as I remember it from  60 years ago.

Some things you write about then life catches up and makes them true.  

After 175 years in production.  Schlitz stops production. Today people are raising a can for Schlitz. I already did when I wrote the song— just didn't know it at the time.  Good run Schlitz!

"Beer and a Burger" is part of the Country Hugs Music LLC catalog, available for artist licensing.