Green On Red – Cheap Wine

When I was recommended this band years ago ,it led me to a much bigger picture. They came from the Paisley Underground Scene of the 1980s, which caught my attention. The more I hear them, the more they interest me. 

What makes this band so appealing is that they were not trying to write top 40 hits; it’s just natural music. They were not trying to force a style in this to make it fit the status quo on the radio at the time. The guitars are raw but melodic, with a raw sound; no overproduction on this. This song has been covered by The Bo-Weevils and Rain Parade. 

Green on Red started in Tucson, Arizona, as The Serfers, a teenage garage band that was influenced by the Stones. Dan Stuart (vocals/guitar) had the charisma, while Chris Cacavas (keys) brought that carnival-organ swirl that would become a trademark. They eventually packed up and headed for Los Angeles, where the Paisley Underground scene was starting around bands like The Dream Syndicate, The Bangs (pre-Bangles), and The Rain Parade.

They changed their name to Green on Red (TV test patterns), they became the scene’s ragged outsiders, more Neil Young & Crazy Horse grit than chiming ’60s Rickenbackers, more bar than ballroom. They were never the most famous band of the scene, but probably the most unpredictable, which is a plus in my book. What set them apart was Dan Stuart’s writing and singing. 

This song was on their 1983 debut album, Gravity Talks, released in 1983. Green On Red has been described as Desert Rock, Paisley Underground, Alternative Country-Rock, Garage-Country, and Country-Punk. They made their mark in the 80s, touring college towns on the circuit with REM, the Replacements, and other alternative bands.

They never pigeonhole themselves into one style. They would be produced by some great producers such as Jim Dickinson, Glyn Johns, and Al Kooper, but could not connect with the masses; however, they connected with people like me who wanted something more than the top 40. 

Here is the band live in 2006, and they open up with Cheap Wine.

Cheap Wine

I can’t seem to clear my mind
Foreign seeds and cheap wine
I’m drifting back in an awful way
The cartoon is real this is what it says

I’m just a man who doesn’t know
Right from wrong who can tell
I’m just a man who cannot see
Just dissed so easily, as you

It’s late at night
All the booze is gone
I see the light through my window at home
I stare right in, to the rising sun
My God what kind of pain, what have I done?

I’m just a man who doesn’t know
Right from wrong who can tell
I’m just a man who cannot see
Just dissed … so easily

If i had a boat, man I would sail
away from this town
To save my soul
All the trees are dying
All the faces are glowing
With the pain of life
Man it keeps flowing

I’m just a man who doesn’t know
right from wrong who can tell
I’m just a man who cannot see
Just missed so easily as you

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

35 thoughts on “Green On Red – Cheap Wine”

  1. Pingback: Green On Red – Cheap Wine – MobsterTiger

  8. Interesting. I vaguely, and I do mean vaguely, remember seeing videos by them in the ’80s on Much Music, infrequently. I really only remember their name. I thought being Paisley Underground they were a Los Angeles band but being Arizonan maybe explains this sound more. To me it’s a mix of Neil Young & earlyish Stones. Not terrible but I kinda have to agree with Randy, it probably didn’t register if I did hear it then & it doesn’t win me over now…again, not a bad tune just kind of pedestrian to my ears. But it’s nice to learn more about the acts from that ‘scene’

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    1. I just wish I would have known about them and this scene then…no Louise, no bad synths, no top 40 at all whatsoever, I would have been in heaven and actually liked the 80s. But the only two alternative acts I knew and got played here were The Replacements and REM…but I guess I’m making up for lost time now.

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      1. that you are. I notice more and more that while I listened to a lot of alternative rock in the ’80s, the Toronto alt scene was different than the LA one which seems to be what the US market is used to (as shown by First Wave satellite radio which is largely the staff and collection of LA’s KROQ from back then). Obviously, Canadian acts did better up north, but I also found we were skewed more to British acts, LA was more American. Some, like Depeche Mode, Howard Jones, Smiths, REM, were big everywhere but we heard a lot more Stranglers, Silencers, Tom Robinson etc, and a lot less Oingo Bongo, B52s, and your Replacements than the KROQ-ers did. Ergo, bands like this one really didn’t get noticed in Canada but perhaps did in places here

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      2. Hell Dave, they didn’t get noticed here! Well at least not where I was…. I didn’t know about that scene until like the past few years and I didn’t have a clue that the Bangles came from there.
        I would have thought you would have heard more Replacements because of where they were located…that is odd. I do agree…there was more Americana here….which fits…but see we didn’t hear The Smiths as much as well…thats why I didn’t know them as well…but I’m picking up on bands that I missed like The Long Ryders, Green on Red and a few others. My music selection now is huge compared to what it was 3 years ago….and it’s more Americana for the most part. I guess I needed that because growing up with British bands dominating my collection.

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      3. Toronto was always quite British-based musically I think, which wasn’t a bad thing. Genesis and Supertramp were gigantic there long before in the States for example. Conversely, a lot of R&B and soul stuff outside of Motown (universally popular I think) weren’t as well known up there as here

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      4. It’s all where you were but Max did the British thing…believe me. It was the only music I would listen to for the longest. Now that music was from a generation earlier but still British.

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      1. I like how you shed limelight on those who need it. Record companies should not be gods. I think that with people sharing directly on YT and other platforms, recognition can be more likely these days.

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      2. I do try my best to. These platforms have helped these bands so much. The Replacements were selling out 20 thousand seat arenas in the teens when they regrouped for around 4 years…so yes those cult bands have turned into real ones because of social media.

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  11. The lyrics sure ain’t happiness and sunshine. No ,the vocalist isn’t going to be a Mercury or anything like but some voices work well in the songs the group is playing. Distinctive, sort of like the first Cold War Kids ‘Hang Me Up To Dry.’

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    1. Thanks obbverse…yea his voice is different…which I kinda like because of that. I guess like Neil…you have to write songs to fit your voice…not someone else…and it worked.

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  12. I came on board with the EP, ‘No Free Lunch’. A no brainer band for me. Good write up Max. I’ve been listening to a lot of Chuck Prophet in the last while. Green On Red were off the radar but man they hit the spot. People making music the way they wanted. I kinda like that idea. Everytime you throw these cuts at me I go on a jag. These guys really grew on me.

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    1. They grew on my as well since you reccomended them to me…always in my playlist. The album that hooked me was Gas Food Lodging. I’ll give Prophet a listen…I know that name somewhere…maybe from you.

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