Lyr Add: Tuna, the Food of My Soul (G Keillor)

Subject: Lyr Add: Tuna, the Food of My Soul
From: Haruo
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 04:27 AM

This is apparently a song Garrison Keillor has done on his show; I was just listening to "Whispering Hope" at the CyberHymnal, pursuant to a hymn info request from the other side of the continent, when Mrs Haruo (aka Rootbeer) piped up and said "Ha ha! Garrison Keillor sang the ingredients of tuna casserole to that tune!" So I'm guessing that this is the tune. A Google search turns up the following lyrics, but it's possible there's more (in which case consider this post Lyr Req as well as Lyr Add):

Only a small can of tuna,
Mushroom soup, celery and peas,
Mixed with a quart of egg noodles,
Sprinkled with chips and with cheese . . .

(source thread at the Daily Kos: The Greatest Food Songs Ever)

Haruo

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tuna, the Food of My Soul
From: Haruo
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 02:22 AM

refresh

or maybe the tune is closer to "After the Ball"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tuna, the Food of My Soul
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 04:28 AM

When I saw this thread title, I heard "Mother, the Queen of My Heart".

Dani

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tuna, the Food of My Soul
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Apr 09 - 02:12 AM

Well, it might work to "Mother, the Queen of my Heart, but the original is here (click) the Prairie Home Companion broadcast of November 8, 1997:

GK: Your talking about the world being dark and all---- it reminded me of an old song that my mother used to sing. It'd be dark and I was scared of the dark and she'd tuck me into bed and she'd sing me this song....

(HE SINGS)


Soft as the voice of an angel
Breathing a message unheard,
Hope with its gentle persuasion
Whispers her comforting word.
Fixes a comforting hotdish
Served from an old china bowl,
Noodles and tuna and mushroom soup.
Tuna, the food of my soul.

Whispering tuna, how gentle thy voice,
Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.

Then when the night is upon us,
And the sad toll of the bell,
What is that light in the kitchen?
What is that heavenly smell?

(THEY BOTH SING)
Whispering tuna, how gentle thy voice,
Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tuna, the Food of My Soul
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 05 Apr 09 - 02:40 AM

(sigh) lovely.

Dani

Subject: Lyr Add: WHISPERING HOPE (SOFT AS THE VOICE)
From: Haruo
Date: 05 Apr 09 - 11:45 AM

So the stanza from the Daily Kos, with the cheese sprinkles and the celery, is, what? A parody? Folk-processed tuna casserole? Spurious? Or did GK add it later in his career.

Thanks, Joe. The APHC text makes it clear that "Whispering Hope" is indeed the target of the parody. For those who may want a hymnal copy of the music, it's in the Broadman Hymnal, 1940, and the Christian Life Hymnal, 2006.

----------

WHISPERING HOPE
(incipit: Soft as the voice of an angel)
Words and music by Septimus Winner,
     under the pseudonym Alice Hawthorne, 1868

Soft as the voice of an angel,
Breathing a lesson unheard,
Hope with a gentle persuasion
Whispers her comforting word:
Wait till the darkness is over,
Wait till the tempest is done,
Hope for the sunshine tomorrow,
After the shower is gone.

Refrain:
Whispering hope, oh how welcome thy voice,
Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.

If, in the dusk of the twilight,
Dim be the region afar,
Will not the deepening darkness
Brighten the glimmering star?
Then when the night is upon us,
Why should the heart sink away?
When the dark midnight is over,
Watch for the breaking of day.

(Refrain)

Hope, as an anchor so steadfast,
Rends the dark veil for the soul,
Whither the Master has entered,
Robbing the grave of its goal.
Come then, O come, glad fruition,
Come to my sad weary heart;
Come, O Thou blest hope of glory,
Never, O never depart.

(Refrain)

----------

Love that poetic syntax, especially where the deepening darkness brightens the star. ;-)

Haruo

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tuna, the Food of My Soul
From: Haruo
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 02:53 AM

My wife now says that, on second thought, this is not the one she was thinking of. She now thinks it was more to the tune of "The Church in the Wildwood". Anybody know that one? (Still about tuna casserole, and still from APHC.)

Haruo

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tuna, the Food of My Soul (G Keillor)
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 09 - 11:38 AM

The original song - Tuna the food of my soul - is based on 'Whispering Hope,' a famous old song.

Soft as the voice of my mother
Calling when night shadows fell
Calling her children to supper
Oh what a glorious smell

There on the dining room table
Served from a steaming glass bowl
Eaten with Jell-O and Kool-Aid
Tuna, the food of my soul/

Tuna casserole, oh how dear to my lips
Noodles and tuna and cream of mushroom and potato chips.

Only a small can of tuna,
Mushroom soup, celery and peas,
Mixed with a quart of egg noodles,
Sprinkled with chips and with cheese (Velveeta cheese)

When my eartlhy journey is over
Gladly I'll take to the air
Afterwards, in the church basement
They'll serve tuna casserole there (Lord willing)

Tuna casserole, oh how dear to my lips
Noodles and tuna and cream of mushroom and potato chips.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tuna, the Food of My Soul (G Keillor)
From: GUEST,Carolyn
Date: 13 Oct 12 - 02:12 PM

After the "sprinkled with chips and with cheese" Garrison added in his best basso profundo, "Velveeta cheese."