October 18, 2024      —–     Chart #268   

Hello Music Friends,

Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. For those of you who think I am stuck in the 1970’s, you are mostly right, but not totally. Last week we had a humorous tune from 1993 and today we are fast forwarding to 2005. “As Good as I Once Was” is a song recorded by American country music singer Toby Keith. It was released in May 2005 as the second single from Keith’s album Honkytonk University. Keith wrote the song with Scotty Emerick.

The narrator, a man approaching or in middle age and apparently sitting in a bar, is put into situations that test his masculinity. Having outlived his glory days, he insists he now is no longer “as good as he once was” in his younger days, but although he no longer has the stamina to do what he used to do all the time, he can still be “as good, once, as he ever was.” Examples given include a set of twins who want to draw him into a threesome and a fight against two rednecks and a “big fat biker man” to bail his buddy, Dave, out of a botched pool hustle.

The music video was directed by Michael Salomon and premiered on CMT on May 16, 2005. It follows the narrative of the song and features Annie Sorrell and Alicia Loren as the frisky twins. At the beginning of the video, Keith is sat at the bar where he meets Bobbie Jo who invites him “for a rodeo” with her twin sister Betty Lou. Then, Keith’s best friend Dave gets into a fight with a “couple of redneck boys”, the beer starts sloshing, causing the music to fail, Keith yells in slow motion before the chorus resumes. As he goes to help Dave, Keith gets punched in the face by a tall bouncer. In the next shot, Keith was in an ambulance with a broken nose, as well as an intravenous drip. At the end of video, the ambulance drives off into the night.

This one is just entertaining. Music doesn’t always have to save the world or express our deepest emotions or make some heavy social point. Sometimes it’s just pure fun, and that’s what this song is. Pull out your guitar and give this one a whirl. I’ll bet most of you can relate to the simple chorus “I’m not as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was”. Enjoy.

Keep Rockin’,

Stan Bradshaw