Origins: Locally Grown(Tom Chapin)-name that tune

Subject: ADD: Locally Grown (Forster/Chapin)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 03:00 AM

I'm editing songs for the Rise Again Songbook, that's scheduled to be published in the Summer of 2015. One of the songs being considered for inclusion is a cute little thing called "Locally Grown," by John Forster and Tom Chapin.

I listened to this recording of the song, and the melody of the verses was immediately familiar to me. I think it's the same tune as "We've Got Franklin D. Roosevelt" back again, but I think that song comes from a tune that is even older. I e-mailed Tom Chapin, and he says he tried to pick a tune that was NOT from something earlier, and he'd like somebody to identify the tune, too. He thought it was his creation, but maybe it was something that was in his memory. So, can anybody identify the tune for the verse? I think the chorus is original - buy maybe it isn't.


LOCALLY GROWN
(John Forster & Tom Chapin)

If I were an apple I'd be very unhapple
Traveling 4000 miles or more
From far off Tasmania,
In a shipping contain-ia
To a shelf in a New Jersey store.
Why should I be tortured
When some New Jersey orchard
Would be totally thrilled to the core
To pick me and crate me
And load me and freight me
Not 4000 miles, but 4.
An apple should be not far from the tree
Where it ripens in the fall.

Locally grown and locally eaten
Is globally good, good, good for us all.

If I were a berry I expect I'd be very
Contrary and hardly inclined
To get shipped out from Chile
To a store in North Philly,
Hey, I'd have to be out of my mind.
It seems paradoxic and carbon dioxic
That we force all our food to commute
Wasting gallons of fuel,
Which we know isn't cool
For people or planets or fruit.
A berry is fine not far from its vine,
Near the farmer's market stall.

Locally grown and locally eaten
Is globally good, good, good for us all.

So when you're walking the aisle
Past a beautiful pile
Of the fruit you might want to take home,
Do not buy for your table
'Til you check out the label
And determine how far it did roam.

Aside from the karma of helping the farma
Who lives in your county or state.
There is one more good reason
To buy what's in season
The taste is incredibly great!
So keep buying foods from regional dudes,
Keep your carbon footprint small.

Locally grown and locally eaten
Is globally good, good, good for us all.
Good, good, good for us all.


© 2011 Limousine Music Co. & The Last Music Co. (ASCAP)

Subject: RE: Origins: Locally Grown(Tom Chapin)-name that tune
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 06:44 PM

There are certainly some similarities between LOCALLY GROWN and FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S BACK AGAIN. The metrical structure is nearly the same, and maybe even the chords are the same, but enough notes are different that I don't think you can say it's the same tune.

If Chapin did borrow a tune and modify it or adapt it, whether consciously or unconsciously, he's only doing what hundreds of folk singers have done before him.

By the way, since you're editing this for publication, I suggest that you either put every rhyming word at the end of a line like this:

If I were an apple
I'd be very unhapple
Traveling four thousand miles or more
From far off Tasmania,
In a shipping contain-ia
To a shelf in a New Jersey store.
Why should I be tortured
When some New Jersey orchard
Would be totally thrilled to the core
To pick me and crate me
And load me and freight me
Not four thousand miles, but four?
An apple should be
Not far from the tree
Where it ripens in the fall. [etc,]

Or, if you prefer internal rhyme rather than lots of short lines, use it consistently, like this:

If I were an apple I'd be very unhapple
Traveling four thousand miles or more
From far off Tasmania, in a shipping contain-ia
To a shelf in a New Jersey store.
Why should I be tortured when some New Jersey orchard
Would be totally thrilled to the core
To pick me and crate me and load me and freight me
Not four thousand miles, but four?
An apple should be not far from the tree
Where it ripens in the fall. [etc,]

Regardless, every verse should have the same number of lines, and the line breaks should come at places that are consistent from one verse to the next.

(The boldface is just to show you what I mean; I don't think you should use boldface in the publication.)