> Martin Carthy > Songs > Cigarettes, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women

Cigarettes, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women

[Tim Spencer]

The Nashville songwriter Tim Spencer penned this song in 1947 and recorded it with his group Sons of the Pioneers. In 1950 it was a hit for Red Ingle; on different releases of the single the song is titled either Cigareets, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women or Cigarettes, Whiskey, and Wild, Wild Women.

Cyril Tawney wrote Five Foot Flirt as a British counterpart.

Martin Carthy (verses 1 and 3), Sydney Carter (verse 2), and chorus sang Cigarettes, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women in 1966 on the ABC Sunday evening TV series Hallelujah.

Lyrics

Martin Carthy and Sydney Carter sing Cigarettes, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women

When I was a young man I had a good wife,
I had enough money to last me for life.
I met with a gal and we went on a spree,
She taught me to smoke and drink whiskey.

Chorus (twice after each verse):
Cigarettes, and whiskey, and wild, wild women,
They’ll drive you crazy, they’ll drive you insane

Well, now I am feeble and broken with age,
The lines on my face are a well-written page.
They all tell the story how sad and how true,
Of women and whiskey and what they can do.

And write all these words at the head of my grave
“For wimmin and whuskey here lies a poor slave.”
Take warning, dear stranger, take warning, dear friend,
They’ll write on my coffin these words at my end: