Mary's Danish - The Bottle Let Me Down (live 1987-11-28 - music machine) (Merle Haggard cover)

"The Bottle Let Me Down", a cover of country legend Merle Haggard's 1966 hit and song #6 in the set from Mary's Danish on November 28, 1987 at The Music Machine in West Los Angeles. All credit should be given to the uploader, Nick Ziegler (@theleonards) (original Mary's Danish drummer who played at this performance) who originally posted the full-length show back on June 15, 2014 which you can see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dczSRWPV-lk&t=9s . I wanted to break the set apart into individual songs for several reasons as outlined below: 1. This is a historic document of the band early on in it's club life (1987 - two whole years before the first Mary's Danish record was issued) and it features the band before notable additions Louis Guiterrez (guitar) and James Bradley Jr. (drums) joined the band in 1989, I believe. This is also one of the few performances available (thus far) of the band with founding guitarist Matt Colleran & drummer Nick Ziegler. Colleran co-wrote much of the band's early key material including "Don't Crash The Car Tonight" which started getting airplay on local KROQ-FM radio and eventually led to their label deal with Chameleon Records in 1989. 2. This show is a great straight-forward representation of the band as they were at the time. The sound is clear and the band sounds good; they seem to be having a good time with each other onstage. And the club video captures them quite distinctly with several angles covered clearly. Almost as if it was shot for a local television show or public-access show...i was somewhat impressed. and finally 3. Since this was such early footage of the band we actually get to see several unheard and unrecorded songs by the band that never made it onto any Mary's Danish albums. Of the 12 songs performed at this gig only 5 would ever see the light of day as fully realized studio versions on their debut album "There Goes The Wondertruck" in 1989 (those songs being "Ashes", "Hey There Man", "Shanty Pig", "What To Do" and "Don't Crash The Car Tonight"). Two songs performed are cover versions ("The Bottle Let Me Down" by Merle Haggard and "She Cracked" by The Modern Lovers) however the remaining 5 appear to be unrecorded originals in their early raw state. Because I do not know the actual song titles of these tunes I have titled them with a best guess from what I can decipher from the lyrics, so if any band members, or old-school MD fans or anyone associated with them want to correct me as far as what the songs are actually called, please do... I welcome that & will correct them. In the meantime, the set list is as follows below: Mary's Danish Live at The Music Machine, West Los Angeles CA 11/28/87 1. Ashes 2. Hey There Man 3. Takin' His Fill (unrecorded song) ("unknown" song/"guestimated" song title) 4. Pulled Bang Dead (unrecorded song) ("unknown" song/"guestimated" song title) 5. Pre-nuptial Scream (unrecorded song) ("unknown" song/"guestimated" song title) 6. The Bottle Let Me Down (Merle Haggard cover) 7. Elvis's New Suit (unrecorded song) (song title per Nick Ziegler, original MD drummer) 8. She Cracked (Modern Lovers cover - sung by Matt Colleran) 9. Shanty Pig 10. Discontented (unrecorded song) ("unknown" song/"guestimated" song title) 11. What To Do 12. Don't Crash The Car Tonight

Added 11 Sept 2026