Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren)

I'm glad to be alive and kicking...
My blood is up, my pulse is quickening..

For days now, I've had this song in my head, often from the moment I first awake, its lyrics taunting me with their near-perfect encapsulation of my current existence, its shuffling funkiness accompanying me from the bed into the kitchen and later into the street, where I often spot the one-legged hooker heading home on her crutches while I'm sitting there with my first cup of coffee and a cigarette, hearing ... Sometimes things don't work out the way you want, I don't know if I'm gonna laugh or cry... Got to be alive and kicking, glad to see the plot is thickening... so pass me the wine, and let's make some love.

What Sophia Loren has to do with any of this is beyond me, but since it is Sophia Loren who really cares. If I were to create a video for this tune it would have to use the scene above from Ieri, Oggi, Domani. Looking at that photo it reminds me that Marcello Mastroianni is the only actor I ever really wanted to be.

The harmonica playing is Jagger's. Out of all the bonus tracks on the Exile re-issue, this one is my favorite, though it sounds to me like it belongs on Tattoo You.

Sometimes things don't work out the way you want
I wonder why, I wonder why - ah yeah
Sometimes mistakes come back to haunt you, babe
And I don't know whether to laugh or cry, yeah...