"Sweet Cherry Wine" is a song by Tommy James and the Shondells from their 1969 album Cellophane Symphony. The song hit number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number six on the Canadian charts. This psychedelic song was released at the height of psychedelia and right after one previous psychedelic song by Tommy James and the Shondells, "Crimson and Clover", and before "Crystal Blue Persuasion". It actually expresses Tommy James' Christian beliefs, particularly that "sweet cherry wine" is indeed the Blood of Christ. The song begins with the use of an organ, adds brass instruments, and ends with a solo flute that fades out at the end of the song. Adding to the psychedelia of this and other songs on the album was the then-new Moog synthesizer.
It is also a quiet protest of the Vietnam War. "Yesterday my friend went off marching to war...we ain't a marching anymore".
Famous quotes containing the words sweet, cherry and/or wine:
“There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“Lay down, lay down the bigly bier,
Lat me the dead look on;
Wi’ cherry cheeks and ruby lips
She lay an’ smil’d on him.
O ae sheave o’ your bread, true-love,
An’ ae glass o’ your wine,
For I hae fasted for your sake
These fully day [is] nine.”
—Anna Gordon Brown (1747–1810)
“Once in this wine the summer blood
Knocked in the flesh that decked the vine,
Once in this bread
The oat was merry in the wind;
Man broke the sun, pulled the wind down.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)