Gordon: I didn't know that the sure-shot and master of poker, the legendary Poker Alice, was still alive.

Faye: If she was still alive, she'd be 219 years old now.

Gordon: Of course. You sure don't look over 200. Besides, Alice never lost during her lifetime. She kept winning, without cheating.

-Gordon, owner of the Spiders from Mars Casino, and Faye Valentine talking shop.
Honky Tonk Women is the 3rd episode of the 26 episode television anime series, Cowboy Bebop. This episode was written by Ryota Yamaguchi, and originally broadcast as episode 2 on 04.10.98, WOWOW broadcast this episode in its proper place on 11.06.98.

Cowboy Bebop is a science fiction show that follows a crew of misfit bounty hunters. Spike Spiegel, an ex-assassin for a crime syndicate; Jet Black, an ex-law enforcement agent; Faye Valentine, a thief, gambler, and seductress; Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, a teenage computer genius; and Einstein, a data dog. In this episode we stil haven't met Ed, but we do get introduced to the lovely Faye Valentine.

Faye Valentine has a big debt. No matter how much she cheats, she's always under. Well, her debts have finally caught up with her, and she has to play the receiver in some sort of blackmarket scheme. Unfortunatly, the picture of her contact is not of the best quality.

Meanwhile, Spike and Jet have come to this casino, because of a dream Jet had in how to make money. Spike just goes along and walks his different path through the casino. He picks up a chip on his way, and stops at a blackjack table being manned by Faye Valentine. Faye mistakes him for her contact and proceeds to win all his money, except for one dealer's chip. The chip that she was supposed to receive from the contact. Spike leaves the table and bumps into the real contact, who drops his dealer's chip, and Spike switches chips with him.

In failing her objective, Faye takes her ship to go to the Bebop only to be captured by Jet and Spike. They shortly learn how much the bounty is on Faye's head, and what the dealer's chip really is. It's a microchip that contains the passkey to decode a program that would allow someone to crack their way through any security. Sounds like it's time to get some cash, and finally put some beef back into that beef with bell peppers.

Session Info
Session #: 3
Written by: Ryota Yamaguchi
Original BroadCast #: 2
Original Airdate: 04.10.98
WOWOW Airdate: 11.06.98
Miscellanous Info
Title Reference:
Honky Tonk Women by The Rolling Stones
Bounty:
Faye Valentine - 6 million Woolongs
Songs:
American Money
Bindy
Black Coffee
N.Y. Rush
Piano Bar I
Piano Black
Spy
Ending Line:
Easy Come, Easy Go...

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Honky Tonk Women is the song by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, upon which the Cowboy Bebop episode takes its name from. First released as a single in July 1969, and was only released later on compilation and live albums. This song comes from the period of The Rolling Stones in which they played very blues/jazz songs.

Some people might notice the similarities between this song and the song Country Honk, which was released on Let It Bleed that same year. Country Honk is actually the original way the song was written as described by Keith Richards as a "Hank Williams/Jimmie Rodgers 30s country song." Mick Taylor, however, turned Country Honk into Honky Tonk Women, which followed a blues jazz mood instead.
I met a gin-soaked, barroom queen in Memphis,
She tried to take me upstairs for a ride,
She had to heave me right across her shoulder,
'Cause I just can't seem to drink you off my mind.

It's the Honky Tonk Women,
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.

I played a divorcee in New York City,
I had to put up some kind of a fight,
The lady then she covered me in roses,
She blew my nose and then she blew my mind.

It's the Honky Tonk Women,
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.

Yeah! It's the Honky Tonk Women,
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.

Sources:
The Jazz Messengers - http://jazz.trancetechno.com/
Real Folk Blues - http://www.geocities.com/RFBlues
Time is On Our Side - http://www.mlink.net/~ian/stones.html

While in an elevator within the Spiders From Mars casino, Jet informs Spike that they are in a no smoking area. Spike responds by swallowing his lit cigarette, leaving Jet nonplussed. Shortly after exiting the elevator the two have another exchange which Spike concludes by spitting the coffin nail into an elaborate casino ashtray.

Later in the episode Spike suprises Faye by swallowing the casino chip she thought he was going to give her. After returning to the Bebop and interrogating Faye, Spike once again coughs up the foreign object.

Cartoon character shenanigans, right? Well if the usenet post I found today is to be believed, both of these tricks are actually possible. The person who wrote this post compared the following incident to the two I just described from this episode:

I used to work moving office furniture way back when (circa 1990) and there was a guy who had spent 20 years in the Navy and was now working with us. He was a peculiar sort of chap and one night after a 16 hour move, we all sat around at the office drinking beer and this guy swallowed a lit cigarette, talked clearly for about 5 minutes and then spit it back up. He did the same trick with some nickles and pennies.

This was posted to a binaries group, so you won't find it in Google's archive. The author seemed pretty convinced that the guy who did this actually kept the objects lodged in his throat. Even if it was just prestidigitation though it's still a neat trick and an interesting piece of trivia.

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