Story Behind The Song

Started off with the pun on 12-bar and how drinking in twelve bars in one night could be blues inducing

Song Description

Start off drinking the good stuff in the good places; end up drinking the bad stuff in bad places and feeling bad in all imaginable ways

Lyrics

Before I went out last night I made a promise to myself/ Tonight I'd stick to drinking off the top shelf/ Hobnobbing with lawyers doctors and such/ Where it would be unseemly for me to drink too much/ Before too long I felt a tug on my sleeve/ The hostess told me that I'd have to leave.
So I started walking down the hillside/ I found a nice establishment with a cocktail lounge inside/ I went in to have a good time/ And I ordered up a bottle of vintage French wine/ I was saying S'il vous plait and merci beaucoup/ When the maitre 'd told me it was time to say adieu
So I walked on down to the bottom of the hill/ I stopped in for a cold one at Lucky's Bar and Grill/ I had a bottle of imported German beer/ That place was really raucous, it was hard to hear/ I ordered a round for everyone but I really had to shout/ I was still explaining myself when the bouncer showed me out.
I lost track of the places after the eighth or tenth or twelfth/ You know, I could have a thousand drinks and still not lose myself/ Things were getting hazy and I was running out of dough/ But I must have hit a dozen joints before I found skid row/ When I came to in the doorway of a flophouse hotel/ I was holding a paper bag drinking a bottle of muscatel
Well, it's another night wasted, another promise broke/ The way I feel this morning buddy, it isn't any joke/ Lost count of my money and the number of drinks I drank/ The last part of the evening my mind's a total blank/ So I'm going on the wagon, I'm giving up the booze/ 'Cause I'm tired of living these twelve bar blues.