Love, sex, drugs…these topics are the staples of popular music. However, there are those lesser pleasures and lesser stimulants that, while perhaps not ubiquitously revered in song, do pop up from time to time.

If it’s morning and you’re reading this at your desk, it’s quite possible you’re sipping at a mug of coffee right now. If you’re reading this at night, and you’re anything like me, you’re also probably chugging a fresh pot of joe, trembling and white-knuckled, wondering how you’re ever going to fall asleep before tomorrow’s sunrise. Either way, here are five musical tributes to that wonderful beverage you can’t live without: coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee…

Aesop Rock – “Coffee”

A song about coffee with a music video that pays tribute to the horror movie classic Night of the Living Dead? Aesop Rock, you certainly know the way to my heart.





Johnny Cash – “Cup of Coffee”

A great folk tune written by Ramblin’ Jack — this is something you’d love hear on your car stereo during an early morning drive while clutching a travel mug and squinting into the sun.





Blur – “Coffee and TV”

Coffee is there for me every morning when I need to wake up. It’s there for me in the afternoon when I need to be picked up. And sometimes it’s there for me when I’m feeling apathetic and morose, staring at the television.





Black Flag – “Black Coffee”

Coffee and paranoia also go hand in hand — at least, according to Henry Rollins. The song may be loud, but the picture it paints is silent, except for the tick of the clock on the kitchen wall and the periodic slurp of the titular black coffee.





Descendents – “Coffee Mug”

Minor Threat told the punks not to drink. The Descendents gave them an alternative: “I don’t need no booze or drugs, I just chug-a-lug my coffee mug!” I’m fairly certain that drinking a cup of coffee with Milo Aukerman is the most punk rock thing a person could do — well, next to lifting weights with Rollins.

There are plenty other great songs about coffee out there. What are your favorites?