Ballad of the Horse Brass Pub
Words and Music by Tom May


A bit of fun ... Still the best pub in the USA 4534 SE Belmont, Portland, Oregon. Have a Grant's Ale on my tab.


Verse 1
If you’re ever in Portland with the old hangtown blues
Your pockets as lowdown as a bum’s pair of shoes
Take the Morrison Bridge, head up Belmont way
There’s a horse, with a collar, on a sign that will say

Chorus
Have a Grant’s beer for me, at least two or three
Beneath the soccer flags flying from the ceiling up above
You’re a stranger no more, when you walk through that door
You’ll find what you’re after at last
A drink and smile at the old Horse Brass!

Verse 2
After one beer you’ll find, that the bartender’s kind
But don’t play him in cribbage, or darts all the same
For you’ll find that if you do, he’s better than you
And you’ll have only your bad luck, and the good beer to blame

Chorus
Have a Grant’s beer for me, at least two or three
Beneath the soccer flags flying from the ceiling up above
You’re a stranger no more, when you walk through that door
You’ll find what you’re after at last
A drink and smile at the old Horse Brass!

Verse 3
From a ship at the pier, came a sailor for BEER
Birmingham seemed such a long ways away
Then he walked in the Brass, sat and ordered a Bass
Now he’s drinkin’ there nightly, til this very day

Chorus
Have a Grant’s beer for me, at least two or three
Beneath the soccer flags flying from the ceiling up above
You’re a stranger no more, when you walk through that door
You’ll find what you’re after at last
A drink and smile at the old Horse Brass!

Verse 4
Don is at the bar that Brian is behind
Marge serves the brew with some mischief in mind
Howard moves his pegs, Mike smokes his pipe
Here at the Horse Brass, it’ll be a good night

Chorus
Have a Grant’s beer for me, at least two or three
Beneath the soccer flags flying from the ceiling up above
You’re a stranger no more, when you walk through that door
You’ll find what you’re after at last
A drink and smile at the old Horse Brass!

Verse 5
Now I’ve traveled this country from pillar the post
There’s weak beer and strangers from coast to coast
There’s a bit of old England, kind faces to be found
In the Oregon rain, of old Portland town

Chorus
Have a Grant’s beer for me, at least two or three
Beneath the soccer flags flying from the ceiling up above
You’re a stranger no more, when you walk through that door
You’ll find what you’re after at last
A drink and smile at the old Horse Brass!

Then tags;

a drink and a smile at the Old Horse Brass
I’ve gotten in lots of trouble, at the old Horse Brass!

©1989 Blue Vignette Publishing, ASCAP