Song #58: Neal McCoy - "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On"

Song #58: Neal McCoy - "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On" (2005)

That's Life

"He'll fall apart when he gets home. Right now, his worries are gone, and life looks good, good, good."

Irish-Filipino country singer Neal McCoy has been one of the most low-key artists in the genre today, still steadily cranking out new music and content despite having very little of it make the rounds on the country/Billboard charts. Despite admirable persistency, McCoy has seemingly just been nudged out by the success of attractive, talented, if slightly manufactured country musicians, like Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, and others. 

"Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On" was the first single of McCoy's to achieve any kind of charting success in almost a decade, making it to the top ten on the Billboard country charts. Listening to the song and watching the video, it's pretty unsurprising as to why that is. The song is free-spirited, fun, and very relatable, forgoing the somber and heartbreaking route the song could've easily taken for a more fun-loving one. The zippy country ballad concerns a man named Billy (played by Rob Schneider in the music video, in probably the first thing I've seen him do that I've liked to this date), who's girlfriend left him broke with his new truck at a local tavern, meaning Billy's "temporary fix for his heartbreak" is alcohol. Throughout the night, we watch Billy slug away endlessly at beers, and seeing the bar and its patrons through his "beer goggles," or his distorted vision, mistaking scuffling bikers for energetic and promiscuous women, and cross-dressing men for some of the most heartbreaking cuties around.

The song captures a brilliant idea about alcohol in a line that even resonated with me as a young child (I was nine when this song came out in 2005). When McCoy leans next to Billy at the bar and says, "he'll fall apart when he gets home. Right now, his worries are gone, and life looks good, good, good" is one of the most accurate representations of alcohol and boozing that I've ever heard. Even the way McCoy sings the line is a bit lower than the rest of the song, a bit more humbler and less enthusiastic as opposed to the other lyrics of the song. When Billy's drinking now, he probably has numerous stupid, impulsive thoughts racing through his head and all he wants is some more fun and another round. When he gets home, however, the feeling of sadness and disappointment will come back to him and he'll be left hungover, dehydrated, and lonesome all the more. It's almost like McCoy's song is a prequel to those country heartbreak songs of Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, and Johnny Paycheck.

Focusing on the party, however, "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On" has the ability to turn one up and cut one loose from all the conventions, as it and its music video perfectly replicate the idea of fun-loving, neverending party. Here's to the good times, the rough mornings, and a McCoy single that will hopefully take off in similar vein to this one and be just as good.

Give "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On" a listen (and take note of the "GAC" logo in the bottom corner, for that right there defined my childhood in three simple letters), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORqzaOFUCsg