Keith Whitley's barroom ballad "Brother Jukebox" was released on his last album, I Wonder Do You Think of Me -- after the singer drank himself to death at age 33.
The song tells of a man who's hit rock bottom, whose only friends left in life are "Brother jukebox, sister wine / Mother freedom, father time."
Under different circumstances, "Brother Jukebox" might play more bittersweet than fatalistic. But the shadow of the singer's death, and lifetime of alcoholism, hangs over it.
Although Mark Chesnutt took the tune to number one in 1991, "Brother Jukebox" was never one of Whitley's most popular songs.
But it just might be his most revealing.
- Purchase/Download "Brother Jukebox" recorded by Keith Whitley
- Video of Mark Chesnutt performing "Brother Jukebox" live
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Image courtesy of RCA Records
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