Old Crow

For the community in Yukon, see Old Crow, Yukon.

Old Crow Bourbon whiskey

Old Crow Reserve Old Crow
Type	Bourbon whiskey
Manufacturer	Beam Inc.
Country of origin	Kentucky, United States
Introduced	1835
Alcohol by volume	40.00%
Proof	80
Related products	Jim Beam

Old Crow is a low-priced brand of Kentucky-made straight bourbon whiskey, along with the slightly higher quality, but still inexpensive Old Crow Reserve brand. It is distilled by Beam Inc., which also produces Jim Beam and several other brands of bourbon whiskey. The Old Crow brand has a venerable history as one of Kentucky's earliest bourbons,^[1] and is distinctive for being the first sour mash process bourbon whiskey.^{[dubious – discuss]} Old Crow is aged in barrels for three years, and in the United States is 80 proof while Old Crow Reserve is aged for four years and is 86 proof.

Origin

James Crow, a Scottish immigrant, started distilling what would come to be Old Crow in Frankfort, Kentucky, in the 1830s. Reportedly a very skilled distiller, he made whiskey for various employers, which was sold as "Crow" or, as it aged, "Old Crow" — the brand acquired its reputation from the latter.^[2] He died in 1856, and while W.A. Gaines and Company kept the name and continued to distill the bourbon according to his recipe, the original distillation formula died with its creator.^[1] The last remaining stock of Old Crow (of which there seemed to have been quite a bit^[2]) acquired near-legendary status, and offering drinks of it reportedly secured a re-election for Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn, senator for Kentucky.^[1] A dispute over ownership of the name "Old Crow" was decided in 1915 in favor of the Gaines company.^[2] Old Crow's logo, a crow perched atop grains of barley, is rumored to stem as a symbol bridging the North and South during the Civil War. A Pennsylvania brigade training at State College, Pennsylvania thought Old Crow was the only good thing to ever come out of the south.^{[citation needed]} Fearing never being able to drink Old Crow again, the soldiers wrote Lincoln proclaiming "We must not let the fine gentleman Old Crow escape. Remember Mr. President, the crow with the sharpest talons holds on to barley forever." After the War the logo was changed from a picture of James Crow to the current crow holding on to barley.

Famous drinkers of Old Crow

Besides Blackburn, many American politicians have declared their love for Old Crow.^{[citation needed]} It was the drink of choice for American general and later 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant.^{[citation needed]} An apocryphal story about Grant's drinking has the general's critics going to President Lincoln, charging the military man with being a drunk. Lincoln is supposed to have replied, "I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals."^{[citation needed]}

Another famous politician who preferred Old Crow was Henry Clay, of Kentucky.^[1] Common apocrypha of the Senate holds that he would sit through Senate sessions, boots upon his desk, whittling and sipping from a jug of Old Crow within easy reach.^{[citation needed]}

An advertisement for Old Crow Rye Whiskey in the December 31, 1909 edition of The New York Times.

World War II "triple ace" Bud Anderson named his P-51 Mustang Old Crow, after the whiskey.^[3]

Old Crow in popular culture

A quick glance at American culture reveals that Old Crow has made quite an impact,^{[citation needed]} and is often lovingly portrayed as the drink of choice for characters who might be down and out but are often still sympathetic.^{[citation needed]} Reportedly the archetypically American writers Mark Twain and Hunter S. Thompson loved this bourbon. Twain reportedly visited the distillery in the 1880s, and Old Crow advertised this heavily;^[4] John C. Gerber sees in this commercial exploitation a sign of Twain's continuing popularity.^[5] As for Thompson, the frequent occurrences of the drink in his writing, semi-autobiographical^[6] as well as fictional^[7][8][9] have led to similar associations. The manufacturer actively pursued such publicity: in 1955, they took out an ad in College English, the journal of the National Council of Teachers of English, offering $250 for every literary reference to their product.^[10]

In popular music, Old Crow is to be found in many different genres—from hip-hop, in the Beastie Boys song "Slow Ride" (on the album License To Ill), to rockabilly, in The Reverend Horton Heat song "That's Showbiz" (on the album It's Martini Time), which contains the lines "You could have a fever and the dry heaves / From that left handed cigarette / And shot of Old Crow you did between the first and second show", through punk-rock in Suits and Ladders from NOFX on Coaster album. Stereotypically a favorite of the lower classes, Old Crow is used in the very name of the old-time string band Old Crow Medicine Show, and in the song "Doreen" by alternative country band Old 97s. In the song "Gin Soaked Boy," Tom Waits presents Old Crow as a definitive blue-collar bourbon: "I come home last night, full a fifth of Old Crow / You said you goin' to your Ma's, where the hell did you go?"

Old Crow is also mentioned in the original recording of the R&B song "Hi-Heel Sneakers", by Tommy Tucker, in a third verse which was edited out of the released version: "I've got my Old Crow liquor / And my paycheck in my hand / Because Big John's bootleg whiskey / Cost much more than I can stand."

Brad Paisley and Alan Jackson team up in a song named "Out in the Parking Lot," originally written by Guy Clark and Darrell Scott. Lyrics include: "I'm sittin' on the fender of someone else's truck Drinkin' Old Crow Whiskey and hot 7 Up Out in the parkin' lot"

In an episode of Beavis and Butt-head titled No Laughing, Beavis and Butt-head are sent to the principal's office for disrupting their class by their continuous laughing. After deciding on the boys punishment, Principal McVicker removes a bottle of Old Crow from his desk drawer and begins drinking heavily from it.

David Spade's character in Grown Ups drinks Old Crow.

The fictional detective Nick Danger, created by The Firesign Theater and voiced by Phil Austin, is known^{[citation needed]} to drink Old Crow.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Alvey, R. Gerald (1992). Kentucky Bluegrass country. Oxford: UP of Mississippi. pp. 230–32. ISBN 9780878055449. http://books.google.com/?id=xqWr4n9DcGwC. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} The Trade-mark Reporter, Vol. 6. United States Trademark Association. 1917. pp. 10–27. 
3. ^ O'Leary, Michael (2000). VIII Fighter Command at war: 'the long reach'. Osprey Publishing. pp. 142. 
4. ^ For instance, in an ad in Look magazine, from 1953. See also this ad from Kiplinger's Personal Finance, 1981.
5. ^ John C. Gerber, "Collecting the Works of Mark Twain," in Davis, Sara deSaussure; Philip D. Beidler, John C. Gerber (1984). The Mythologizing of Mark Twain. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P. pp. 3–14. ISBN 9780817302016. http://books.google.com/?id=_6c4kaU_X7QC. 
6. ^ Thompson, Hunter S.; Douglas Brinkley, David Halberstam (2000). Fear and loathing in America: the brutal odyssey of an outlaw journalist, 1968-1976. Simon and Schuster. p. 93. ISBN 9780684873152. http://books.google.com/?id=R34syw0vpZ4C. 
7. ^ Thompson, Hunter S. (2002). Songs of the doomed: more notes on the death of the American dream. Simon and Schuster. p. 6. ISBN 9780743240994. http://books.google.com/?id=wuHsCVa4TAsC. 
8. ^ Thompson, Hunter S. (2003). The great shark hunt: strange tales from a strange time. Simon and Schuster. p. 62. ISBN 9780743250450. http://books.google.com/?id=VHxgGvF9ugAC. 
9. ^ Thompson, Hunter S. (2000). Mescalito. Simon and Schuster. p. 21. ISBN 9780743215220. http://books.google.com/?id=5jNAar89FfcC. 
10. ^ "News and Ideas". College English (National Council of Teachers of English) 17 (2): 119. 1955.