"Drunk on red wine, and I was feelin' just fine, just looked at the time, late again."
Story of our lives, right?
Actually, it's the first line of "Milwaukee Walking," a track from British disco singer Mick Jackson's 1979 Atlantic Records LP, "Weekend." (How did he know 1970s Milwaukee was more a wine town than, say, a beer city?)
I don't know what Jackson thought was going on in Milwaukee in 1979, but, hey, not every city has a disco anthem, so we'll take it, right?
The intro -- c'mon, you know you can hear the track somewhere online, don't you? -- has slick horns, a smooth disco guitar peck and a chorus singing "Mihl-wah-kay." The effect is nothing less than a potential theme song to play while the credits roll after a local talk show (can anyone say Bobby Rivers).
Although the great harmonica and guitar legend Toots Thielmans (a hero of one Paul Cebar) performed on "Weekend," he's not on "Milwaukee Walking."
I've tried contacting Jackson -- who is better know for his earlier hit "Blame it on the Boogie" -- without success, to ask him more about the song and the inspiration for it. Should I manage to contact the U.K.-based disco mothership, I won't hesitate to update you.
In the meantime, Google "Milwaukee Walking" and take a stroll down memory lane.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
