The recent purchase of the Rolling Rock beer brand by megabrewer Anheuser-Busch has been a topic of conversation here a couple of times, so I thought that this tribute to the brewery would be of interest. I find that the song is especially well-done (these things are usually cringe-worthy to the extreme, since they are related to the song parody, perhaps the lowest form of humor-hell, even slapstick aficionados ridicule it). Maybe it's just having the good taste to pick John Prine's classic song which is on a related subject.
It kinda touched me, as did some interviews with the workers I found last night (sorry, lost the link from a Pittsburgh TV station), maybe because I lost my factory job awhile back and am still "haunted" by it. Perhaps the saddest thing for them will probably be seeing the bottles of RR labeled "Latrobe Brewing Co., St. Louis, MO" on the shelves in their hometown, a brand they feel they helped build. (If the town's got any pride, they'll remain on the shelves, too...)
City Brewery (the former flagship brewery of the late, great Heileman Brewing Co.- which now specializes in energy drinks and contract beers) bought the brewery, so most of the jobs will be preserved (for awhile, brewing's a tough industry for that size brewery) but they can't brew "Rolling Rock", of course. Now, City supposedly makes a clone beer of it's old brand- LaCrosse Lager is, supposedly the old Old Style recipe. BUT, they can't even market a clone using the logical name of "Latrobe Lager" since A-B also bought THAT name, the name of the town. Sure, it's not unusual in the US brewing industry (Old Milwaukee's made in North Carolina, Milwaukee's Best is made in California, Milwaukee Beer used to come from South Jersey, heck even a beer named for the Bohemian town of Budweis comes from St. Louis ....) but it's got to be annoying for those workers, especially since the "new" A-B RR still says, "From the tanks of Old Latrobe..." on the back label.
Note- Was never much of a fan of Rolling Rock or US light lagers in general (tho' I did use to like the occasional National Premium or Heileman Special Export)- the RR six pack I bought when the sale was announced this summer was probably my first in 20 years- but I am a fan of the old breweries (all but gone) and of good paying industrial jobs.
One of the saddest things about being a fan of old beer brands (unlike musicians or authors, say) is that once a beer is gone, it's gone. No re-issues or reprints, no unreleased material from the vaults...
And, I don't care to hear any cracks about RR's new home of Newark- as I've said before, when your city can boast of a brewing history that includes Ballantine Beer, Porter, Brown Stout, Bock, XXX Ale, India Pale Ale AND Burton Ale (perhaps the greatest pre-micro beer of all) THEN you can ridicule Newark or New Jersey.