About The Song
“Misery and Gin” is a late-career classic from Merle Haggard, released as a single on June 16, 1980 and included on his thirty-first studio album, Back to the Barrooms (issued October 10, 1980). Written by veteran hitmaker Snuff Garrett with John Durrill, the track runs a succinct 2:45 and arrived on MCA Records just as Haggard was entering a powerful run in the new decade.
The song came with a cinematic pedigree: Garrett and Durrill wrote it specifically for Clint Eastwood’s 1980 film Bronco Billy. Haggard not only cut the tune for the soundtrack, he also folded it into Back to the Barrooms, linking his studio album to a major motion picture at the exact moment country was crossing further into pop culture. Haggard even made a brief cameo in the film, underscoring how closely the project was tied to the movie.
Production-wise, “Misery and Gin” balances Haggard’s plain-spoken vocal with polished touches. Snuff Garrett produced the single, and arranger Steve Dorff added strings that gently shadow the melody without blunting the lyric’s sting. The record’s economical length and radio-friendly sheen helped it stand out on country playlists of 1980 while staying true to Haggard’s honky-tonk core.
Lyrically, the narrator does what Haggard characters so often do: he walks into a bar looking to drown the past, only to find the memories rising stronger with each drink. It’s a portrait of loneliness and self-reproach told in simple, direct images—the kind of writing that made Haggard a poet of working-class heartbreak. The song’s “barroom confessional” point of view places it alongside his earlier drinking songs while reflecting the wearier tone of his MCA era.
Commercially, the single was a substantial hit. “Misery and Gin” climbed to No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart and reached No. 4 on Canada’s RPM Country Tracks, reaffirming Haggard’s chart power in 1980. The Back to the Barrooms album also performed well, peaking at No. 8 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums.
The track’s dual identity—as both a soundtrack cut and an album opener—helped broaden its reach. On the LP, it sets the emotional tone for a cycle of songs about bars, bruised romance, and the uneasy solace of the bottle; within the film’s world, it lends Eastwood’s modern Western a rueful country authenticity. That two-front exposure is part of why the recording became one of Haggard’s most recognizable 1980s sides.
“Misery and Gin” has endured far beyond its initial chart run. It’s been revisited by other artists—most notably Billy Dean on his 1994 album Men’ll Be Boys—and remains a staple on country playlists that favor storytelling and hard-won truth. Forty-plus years on, the record still captures that universal moment when the barroom’s promise of forgetting turns out to be just another way of remembering.
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Lyrics
Memories and drinks don’t mix too well
Jukebox records don’t play those wedding bells.
Looking at the world through the bottom of a glass
All I see is a man who’s fading fast.
Tonight I need that woman again
What I’d give for my baby to just walk in.
Sit down beside me and say its alright
Take me home and make sweet love to me tonight.
But here I am again mixing misery and gin
Sitting with all my friends and talking to myself.
I look like I’m having a good time but any fool can tell
That this honky tonk heaven really makes you feel, like hell.
I light a lonely woman’s cigarette
We start talking about what we wanna forget.
Her life story and mine are the same
We both lost someone and only have ourselves to blame.
But here I am again mixing misery and gin
Sitting with all my friends and talking to myself.
I look like I’m having a good time but any fool can tell
That this honky tonk heaven really makes you feel, like hell.
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