Hearing Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee" recently reminded me that there's a whole genre of music out there devoted to coffee. It's often used as a metaphor for taking a break to slow down for a moment. Experience life, get deep in thought. The coffee break is our time to reflect. Love is also a constant in the coffee as metaphor genre. Great loves compared to coffee, one more cup to prolong the moment.
Coffee, much like music, and faith has the power to bring us together. It's a Holy Trinity of sorts. 3 things that give our lives a higher power. Here are some jams to make you jitter...or at least stare poignantly at a wall as you sip your cappuccino...
"The Coffee Song" - Frank Sinatra - 1946
Frank Sinatra crooned "The Coffee Song" a hilarious look at Brazil's obsession with coffee (can anyone judge, coffee IS a necesidad). The lyrics joke that coffee is the one and only beverage available in Brazil. There is no soda, tea, or juice. A politician's daughter was fined for drinking water. Coffee is the law in Brazil. Oh cheeky Frank! He continues that there is so much coffee in Brazil they have to find new uses for it. How about some coffee ketchup, and coffee perfume. "They put coffee in the coffee in Brazil," he sings.
"Black Coffee" - Ella Fitzgerald - 1949
A tune about coffee as the ultimate pick-me-up, Ella Fitzgerald sings about life's lonely, downtrodden, and exhausted moments when we need a cup of coffee to perk us up, inspire us, or just to pass the time in-between.
"One Cup of Coffee" - Bob Marley - 1962
In "One Cup of Coffee" Marley laments on lost love. The one cup of coffee before he goes. He compares the "sweet and warm" coffee like his love's embrace. Coffee is often representative of those little moments in life that we take a second to slow down and feel our emotions. It's our break from the moving sidewalk of life constantly drawing us forward and further from the past.
"Coffee Blues" - Mississippi John Hurt - 1963
So many great life moments and metaphors to be found in coffee. Mississippi John Hurt provides give props to Maxwell's House coffee. He says, "this is the 'Coffee Blues', I likes a certain brand Maxwell's House, it's good till the last drop." The blues comes in because the girl who used to make him coffee has left, and the coffee he makes can't compare. Of course he's not lamenting a lost brew, he's lamenting the lady's company he misses.
"One More Cup of Coffee" - Bob Dylan - 1976
Covered by the White Stripes in 1999, Bob Dylan's epic ballad is a coffee classic. Yet another tune about love and coffee. Dylan drinks in love. He asks for "one more cup of coffee" before having to leave the lady that he loves. He aches to prolong those minutes, with just one more cup. Comparing her heart, "mysterious and dark" to staring into a cup of coffee. The song ends on a hopeful note, promising that perhaps that one more cup of coffee might save their relationship.
"Black Coffee" - Heavy D & The Boyz - 1994
Heavy D uses coffee as a metaphor for what he's looking for in a woman. His ideal African Queen is strong like "black coffee no sugar, no cream."
"Cold Coffee" - Ed Sheeran - 2010
One more song comparing love and coffee. Sheeran describes his lady like a cup of cold coffee in the morning, she sobers him, but makes him laugh like he's "in on a joke." The perfect combo.