food songs

Subject: food songs
From: Susan A-R
Date: 14 Mar 99 - 08:49 PM

[Many song titles in this thread have been converted to links by a Mudelf.]

Since two of the major joys in my life are food and music (well there are others, but we've already explored them quite thoroughly under a few other threads) I thought I'd ask for favorite mudcatter food songs. I know that there are a lot on the database, but I want to know which ones you all LIKE. Too bad it's difficult to sing and eat at the same time.

Susan

Subject: RE: food songs
From:
Date: 14 Mar 99 - 10:08 PM

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME

Subject: RE: food songs
From: alison
Date: 14 Mar 99 - 11:14 PM

Hi,

Weird Al Yankovic..... Eat it... and Lasagne....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 14 Mar 99 - 11:35 PM

If you punch in @food in the DT, you get 135 listings including my favorite food song, "Home Grown Tomatoes" written by Guy Clark.

Some others that come to mind are "THE CHICKEN CORDON BLEUS" by Steve Goodman and a song by Chuck Brodsky called aptly enough "The Food Song."

An old blues song is "Biscuits" which is a double entendre, possibly not about food at all. It probably is no surprise to you Susan that sex and food get mixed up in our minds. We are definitely wired that way.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Night Owl
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 01:59 AM

"THE WATERMELON SONG" and Staines recording of "SWEET POTATOES".

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Allan Samuels
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 02:00 AM

First from the PozoSeco Singers the "DIET SONG"

Then I once heard a wonderfull song that told the receipe for beet borscht in rhythm, rhyme, and melody. It was on NPR and that's all I remember.....that and laughing so hard I nearly drove off the road.

Allan

Subject: RE: food songs
From: j0_77
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 02:28 AM

CARVE DAT POSSUM (Uncle Dave Macon)

Subject: RE: food songs
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 02:44 AM

Uh, that's like an interesting thought there Roger. I mean I have rarely if ever confused sex with a Hostess Ho-Ho...but sure, it could happen.

Perhaps if I were married to a woman that worked in a butcher shop, we might refer to it as carnal knowledge. I do remember one time I was on a diet and suddenly leaped out of bed and acreamed, "Christ, I gotta' have a bowl of cottage cheese!" When I returned, the girl was gone. Always figured that was her loss though, since I brought back two bowls. And then there was the confusion that one evening about the salmon mousse, but we got that cleared up and had a high old time. Women don't like to be compared to food in any way, even things that I consider complimentary. So I learned to stick to the tried and true metaphors, like, "Your eyes shine the pants on a blue serge suit."

But I'll keep on reading this thread in the hopes that I'll get some new ideas to use with Karen. We got lots of kids and damn near no time for us, so food HAS replaced sex in some ways...so I guess I do see your point.

catspaw

Subject: RE: food songs
From:
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 07:51 AM

COLCANNON?
And please, Night Owl, who wrote the Watermelon Song (if indeed it's the one about eating a watermelon, with all manner of 'non-verbal' action)? A friend sings it but has forgotten the author, and it's not in the DT - not under this title, anyway. - Thanks, Susanne

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Dani
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 08:31 AM

GREEN AND YELLOW / YELLER / YALLER

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Alistair Robb
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 09:46 AM

There's an extremely rude song called 'The Cucumber Song' by a guy that went out under the name of Ivor Biggun and the Red Nosed Burglars. He made the British charts back in the seventies with a song called the Winkers song (misprint) and he had other choice numbers such as 'I've Farted' 'My Brother's Got Piles' and heaps of others. I was at "that" age when I got hold of the album and it made a great impression on me. If anyone is interested in the lyrics...I was so impressed I still remember most of them.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Felipa
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 10:01 AM

SOME LITTLE BUG IS GOING TO FIND YOU (it's in the DT), SWEET POTATOES, GOOBER PEAS, MAIL MYSELF TO YOU
if feeling really silly: ON TOP OF SPAGHETTI or BOILED BEEF AND CARROTS
I recall a foody verse to Row row row your boat which begins Hoe, hoe hoe your wheat

Subject: RE: food songs
From: reggie miles
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 10:11 AM

There are a couple of songs that I sing at almost every show. I have a regular Friday evening gig at a little Cajun style restaurant so food songs seem to be appropriate. They were written by a very good friend, Robert Oneman Johnson, who hails from Iowa City. The first is Supper Time and the other is Life's Too Short. Another author I enjoy Bert Williams wrote a song about food that I like to play. Well actually it's about the hazards of eating, it's called Some Little Bug Is Going to Find You.

"When you eat banana fritters, every undertaker titters and the casket makers nearly go insane." Bert Williams

Reggie Miles

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 11:50 AM

More songs come to mind. Greg Brown used to sing a song called "Slow Food." Rod Mc Donald has a song about "Corn" that he's not recorded, but he occasionally does in concert.

Roy Blount, Jr. has a series of food poems that just beg for music, "How I love to eat an oyster, nothin's slicker, nothin's moister." This one ends with "I prefer my oysters fried, 'cause then I know my oyster's died."

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: Lyr Add: BREAKFAST BLUES (Trout Fishing in America
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 02:37 PM

I knew there was one lurking in my cranium that wanted to be found. I had to throw that other trash out first to uncover it.


BREAKFAST BLUES
As recorded by Trout Fishing in America on "Who Are These People?" (1994)

You give me hard eggs in the mornin'; cheese omelet you go.
Yeah, you give me hard eggs in the mornin'; cheese omelet you go.
You just hot butter grit your teeth and bear it, girl; I donut love you no more.
(And don't get that glazed look on your face).

Ham bacon you to leave me; I never sausage misery.
Ham bacon you to leave me, darlin'; I never sausage misery.
Well, you treated me so ungrapefruitly, you gave me raisin to be free.
(Orange juice ashamed of yourself now?)

Well, what do you eggs-benedict me to do now? I got muffin else to say.
Yeah, what do you eggs benedict me to do girl? (You butter come up with somethin'.) I got muffin else to say.
Yeah, you left such a waffle toast in my mouth, you biscuit out of town today.
(You know I ain't gonna keep those home fries burning for ya.)

[Repeat the first verse ending with:]
"Ain't gonna quiche you anymore"


I love the blues, I love food, and I love terrible puns. Here it is!!! All wrapped up in one song. What a blessing!

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 04:48 PM

I think that would have to be "The Tomato Vendetta". My second choice is "Green and Yeller". I did that one today for a group of 5th grade students and they just loved it.

Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Jo Taylor
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 06:47 PM

I LIKE BANANAS (BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO BONES)

I don't like your peaches 'cos they're full of stones
I like bananas because they've got no bones
Don't give me tomatoes, can't stand ice cream cones
I like bananas because they've got no bones
No matter where I wander with Mary, Jean or Anna
I want the world to know that I love my banana
Cabbages and onions, bring me out in moans
I like bananas because they've got no bones


Why can my memory retain stuff like that?
Jo

Subject: RE: food songs
From:
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 07:00 PM

CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE, Jimmy Buffett.

JUNK FOOD JUNKIE, which is in the database.

THE BOAR'S HEAD CAROL.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Susan A-R
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 09:37 PM

Wow! You've got me thinking now. Does anyone know the MotherFolkers song about chocolate? Also, seems to me that Greg Brown also does one about his grandmother putting a taste of summer in jars. (CANNED GOODS) John McCutcheon wrote a watermelon song with a pretty memorable spitting chorus. (WATERMELON)

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Ferrara
Date: 15 Mar 99 - 11:15 PM

"MISS FOGARTY'S CHRISTMAS CAKE." "BLACK, WHITE, YELLOW AND GREEN" (a song about "the rarest plum puddings you ever have seen"). "STRANGERS IN MY SOUP." "A LITTLE BIT OF CUCUMBER." "SAUERKRAUT," by the Berrymans (also called The Refrigerator Song).

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Night Owl
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 01:22 AM

To skw....I have no idea who wrote the "Watermelon Song" I learned. I'm not sure we have the same song. The chorus of the version I know has "creative" sound effects for children to "sing".....words are: Oh-hambone is sweet Chicken is good Possum meat is very,very fine But give me, oh give me I really wish you would That watermelon hanging on the vine.

The verses are about a failed attempt to steal a watermelon from a farmer's field.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Robin C.
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 02:45 AM

Ferrara, Is that ANIMAL CRACKERS IN MY SOUP?

Subject: RE: food songs
From: MudGuard
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 03:24 AM

Well, although it is more about fluid food (= drink), and even more exactly about the absence of it:
PUB WITH NO BEER!
Andreas

Subject: RE: food songs
From:
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 03:36 AM

Night Owl - thanks. There seem to be two songs (at least) about watermelon. Susan's description of a John McCutcheon song 'with a memorable spitting chorus' sounds more likely for the one I'm thinking of. We'll get there ... - Thanks again, Susanne

Subject: RE: food songs
From:
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 06:02 AM

I like "PRINCESS POO-POO-LY HAS PLENTY PA-PA-YA". I started a thread on this and supplied what lyrics I remembered. I never did get the rest of the lyrics but it doesn't hurt to try again.

Click here to read the thread.

Murray

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Banjer
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 06:15 AM

I would love to help, but at 6am all that comes to mind is Alabam..."some folks say that a tramp won't steal but I caught two in my corn field, I'm on my way...etc."

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Allan C.
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 09:00 AM

Another liquid song (or at least one of my favorite lines is in it): "Baby, You Look Good to Me Tonight"

"...though that I was in a dream when she asked me if I wanted cream."

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bert
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 10:00 AM

Yes We Have No Bananas
Jellied Eels
Picking All the Big Ones Out
Give us a bash of the Bangers and Mash me Muvver used to make
Food Glorious Food
Digging My Potatoes. (yes we do get sex and food mixed up)
Beautiful Soup (That Lewis Carroll song)
Jelly Bean

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bert
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 10:00 AM

Whoops, forgot Honeycomb

Subject: RE: food songs
From: AlistairUK
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 10:15 AM

I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

All there sitting in a row

Big ones, small ones some as big as your head...

and that's as much as I remember thank goodness

Subject: RE: food songs
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 10:28 AM

Pathetically enough I think I know most of the lyrics to that one Alistair...but I don't think they're worth posting.

I'm stii waiting for ideas from my previous post.

catspaw

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bert
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 10:47 AM

The Potato Song - Cheryl Wheeler

Subject: RE: food songs
From: AlistairUK
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 11:23 AM

catspaw: oh post them post them do...my great aunt used to sing it all the time and I always felt ashamed that I never remember it as it would have been a traditionally picked up song (extereme tounge-in-cheekness there)

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Ferrara
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 10:25 PM

Yeah catspaw, some of us would like the words (and tune!) of Coconuts. I remember a little more: "There stands me wife, the idol of me life, singin' Roll a bowl a ball a penny a pitch." (which more or less repeats for the chorus.) My dad loved it, sang fragments of it all the time. I think it was about an Italian carnival booth, he loved any spoof of things Italian.

Robin C, "Strangers in My Soup" is in the DT and is sung to the tune of "Strangers in the Night." First heard it at an Open Sing. A show-stopper.

Night Owl, in the 40's my mother sang a much less polite and fairly offensive (by today's standards) version of the watermelon song: "Oh the ham bone am sweet /And the taters am good /And the possum fat and cornbread mighty fine/ But give me, oh give me/ I really wish you would /That water-million hangin' on the vine." She learned it in Georgia....

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Night Owl
Date: 17 Mar 99 - 12:42 AM

Ferrara...the version of "Watermelon" I know came from New England. I'd be interested to know the verses your mother sang..if you remember them.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Ronn
Date: 17 Mar 99 - 11:42 PM

Hank Williams--Jambalaya;
Tom Waits--Eggs & Sausage;
Rufus Thomas--Fried Chicken;
Dan Penn--Memphis Women and Chicken;
Rev Billy C Wirtz--Your Greens Give Me The Blues;
Duke Tumatoe--Barbeque

These are the ones that AREN'T about sex.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 18 Mar 99 - 12:24 AM

Oh That Gorgonzola Cheese! Nothing ever like it, I suppose. Our tomcat fell a corpse upon the mat when the niff went up his nose. Talk about the flavor of the cracklin on the pork - nothing ever smelt so strong as the beautiful effluvial that filled the house...when the gorgonzola cheese went wrong. (I heard Robin Williamson and his Merry Band sing this one at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco).

Mark

Subject: RE: food songs
From: ddw in windsor
Date: 18 Mar 99 - 12:24 AM

Shel Silverstein's Beans Taste Fine (in DT) and Bo Carter's Beans

ddw

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Barry Finn
Date: 18 Mar 99 - 12:42 AM

"I once was A Cook on a Bark, cook on a bark, cook on a bark". What I had of this (I was searching for the missing rest) sea song of a sea cook who could kill with his cooking skills, is in the forum if you're interested. Barry.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Barbara
Date: 18 Mar 99 - 01:15 AM

The Hard Cheese of Old England has many puns, including one of my favorite food puns:
"Those Edam foreigners aren't worth cement
Though old Gorgonzola is known for his scent,
And his brother Emil wrote novels in French,
Singing oh, the hard cheese of old England
In old England very hard cheese.

Its something Wallace and Grommit would be proud of, and it's in the DT.

Catspaw, in the food as metaphor category, to go with your salmon mousse, "If girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice, how come they smell like anchovies?"
There's a wonderful old blues about getting the griddle nice and hot and cooking em slow and easy in lots of butter to make your, uhm, ...pancakes! that's what it was, pancakes -- come out right.
There's also Guy Clark's 'A Little of Both' (on the same album, Keepers as Homegrown Tomatoes, what he also wrote). The chorus goes:
"Give me a bowl of chili
Give me milk and toast
As long as you're dishing it out, Lord,
I'll take a little of both."

Here's the first verse for free:
I like drinking whiskey
I like being straight
I like voodoo spinners
And I like live bait

Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Penny
Date: 18 Mar 99 - 03:08 PM

The Irish Jubilee, posted to the Forum on 13th January 1998, has some very peculiar food in it. Thanks Wolfgang, for pointing me there.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: folk1234
Date: 18 Mar 99 - 03:32 PM

About 7 or 8 years ago I heard a great food song at Pinewoods, "How Can I Keep From Eating" done to the tune of ".....From Singing". I can't recall who did it and I don't know if it was ever recorded or even written down

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 Mar 99 - 03:53 PM

Kinky Friedman had "Get your Biscuits in the Oven and your Buns in the Bed". Had some humorous lyrics but I don't remember them. One of my favorites is Paul Barrere' (formerly of Little Feat) doing "Rad Gumbo".

"She don make no etouffee'
But she in the Seafood Hall of Fame
She makes Gumbo- She make a mighty Rad Gumbo
Dat's de only way she can go,
Down at de Club Rad Gumbo"

This song has a real menu of food references, and actually makes me hungry when I hear it. I LOVE that New Orleans food!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 19 Mar 99 - 02:53 PM

Get your biscuits in the oven and your buns in the bed,
That's what I to my baby said,
Women's liberation is a'goin' to your head,
Get your biscuits in the oven and your buns in the bed.

I think my first wife destroyed this album. I don't remember verses. Kinky was a tad short of politically correct.

Guy Clark sure does love food. Must be right up there with sex for him. He does another song called "Texas Cookin'".

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Arkie
Date: 20 Mar 99 - 01:16 PM

Haven't heard the Great Tomato Vendetta in over 20 years and would sure like to hear it again. I've searched for Mason Williams zany recordings for sometime and come up empty. As for other nominations to the list of 'food' songs there is "Coconut" from Harry Nilsson's Songwriter album and "Chicken on a Raft".

Subject: RE: food songs
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 20 Mar 99 - 02:41 PM

Greg Brown also does a wonderful song called (I think) "Taste a Little of the Summer" about his grandmother's magic with a canner. I wish I knew the words or what recording it was on- it's definitely my favorite food song. [=Canned Goods]
For my most favorite disgusting food song, it's got to be "Comet" as sung by Sandy and Caroline Paton!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Arkie
Date: 20 Mar 99 - 03:23 PM

Dang computer caved in under the weight of all these deep thoughts. A few others to add to the pot:

Just a Bowl of Butter Beans,

Beans In My Ears;

Turnip Greens;

and for another instrumental, Whiskey Before Breakfast.

Subject: Lyr Add: CANNED GOODS (Greg Brown)^^
From: rich r
Date: 20 Mar 99 - 04:38 PM

Greg Brown's great song "Canned Goods" is on three of his recordings; One Night (1983), One More Goodnight Kiss (1988), and The Live One (1995). The first one in an out of print LP recorded at the Coffehouse Extempore in Minneapolis. The latter 2 are available as CD on the RedHouse Records label. A complete discography, most of his lyrics and other stuff can be found at:

http://www.wing.net/gbrown/index.html?

"Canned Goods"
words & music by Greg Brown

Well let the wild winter wind bellow and blow
I'm as warm as a July tomato

[chorus:]
There's peaches on the shelf, potatoes in the bin
Supper ready, everybody come on in
Taste a little of the summer
Taste a little of the summer
Taste a little of the summer
Grandma put it all in jars

Well there's a root cellar, fruit cellar down below
Watch your head now, and down we go

[repeat chorus]

Well maybe you are weary and you don't give a damn
I bet you never tasted her blackberry jam

[repeat chorus]

Oh she got magic in her, you know what I mean
She puts the sun and rain in with her beans

[repeat chorus]

What with the snow and the economy and everything
I think I'll just stay down here and eat until spring

[repeat chorus]

When I go down to see Grandma, I gain a lot a weight
With her dear hands she gives me plate after plate
She cans the pickles, sweet and dill
And the songs of the whip-poor-will
and the morning dew and the evening moon
I really gotta go down and see her soon
Cause the canned goods that I buy at the store
Ain't got the summer in em anymore
You bet Grandma as sure as you're born
I'll take some more potatoes and a thunder storm

[repeat chorus]

While searching for something else on the net I encountered the following site that lists the title of 333 songs about food. There are no lyrics and they are primarily rock/pop/broadway material, but is is a long list that may get some folks thinking (or perhaps wondering what is in the fridge)

http://mixedup.com/foodsongs.htm

rich r

Subject: RE: food songs
From:
Date: 20 Mar 99 - 05:40 PM

While not about food alone, "Vanilla" by Shel Silverstein.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Susan A-R
Date: 21 Mar 99 - 12:09 AM

Catspaw, we're still waiting for "the Coconut Song."

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 21 Mar 99 - 01:58 AM

Joe Hickerson sings "Good Fish Chowder" on one of his Folk-Legacy recordings.

Has no one mentioned "Groundhog?"

Caroline sings "Sally's Quiche," but I can't tell you where it has been recorded (and she's asleep).

Sandy

Subject: RE: food songs
From:
Date: 21 Mar 99 - 06:37 AM

Oh yes, and there is "The Preacher and the Slave"

It is in the DT; but the chorus is:

You will eat bye and bye
in that glorious land above the sky
Work all day, live on hay
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

Just to pick nits, the DT has the penultimate line as "Work and Pray, live on hay". I like it both ways.

Murray

Subject: RE: food songs
From: AlistairUK
Date: 22 Mar 99 - 05:23 AM

Catspaw yeah where is the Coconut Song??

Subject: RE: food songs
From: AlistairUK
Date: 22 Mar 99 - 07:49 AM

Would you count "Think I'll Go and Eat Worms" as a food song?

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Ian
Date: 22 Mar 99 - 07:56 AM

What about Ilkla' Moor Ba' T'at then?

Subject: RE: food songs
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 22 Mar 99 - 08:17 AM

Thanks, rich r- that is the song! In the frozen northlands where I live it feels real good to taste a little of the summer. All is gray and rainy here today. MMMMmmmmmmm, peaches!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: steve in ottawa
Date: 23 Mar 99 - 05:24 PM

Goober Peas is my fave from the above.

Adding:
Cold Pizza for Breakfast
The Owl and the Pussycat (well, food's in it TWICE) :-)

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bert
Date: 23 Mar 99 - 05:43 PM

Cockles and Mussels/Molly Malone
Liverpool Barrow Boy
Strawberry Fair
Caller Herrin
The Lincolnshire Poacher
Old Macdonald

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Penny
Date: 23 Mar 99 - 06:14 PM

My nieces used to sing a song called something like The Super Supper March which started "Hungry, hungry, I am hungry, I could eat a frizzled flum, I could eat a goose-moose-burger, four pounds of pickles and a purple plum," becoming progressively more and more ridiculous.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Arkie
Date: 23 Mar 99 - 09:20 PM

Can the food be in its raw state or does it have to be prepared? If it does not have to be prepared, the is a fish song, probably by someones of the ilk of Pinkard and Bowden - only line I remember is "I Lobster and Never Flounder" or something like that.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Susan A-R
Date: 23 Mar 99 - 10:24 PM

Hey, as far as I'm concerned, anything goes. As long as I don't start using these posts in order to build my menu, although I COULD use it to do a bang-up April Fools menu Worms, eels, and MORE!!! and CATSPAWWW!!!! WHERE IS THE COCONUT SONG!!!!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 24 Mar 99 - 01:44 AM

From the Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) who won the Trinidad Calypso Competition for about 20 years running, comes "The Papaya Song" [="Mango Vert"] which I swear was the number-one AM radio hit when I moved to the Caribbean in 1970: "Well if you eat it right, the hair don't stick in your teeth. And you're sure to say it's tasting sweet sweet sweet. But if you eat it wrong you'd best not walk the street. Everybody gonna know, when they see the hair in your teeth." If you like that one, I could be persuaded to write down the lyrics to "Elaine and Harry" too.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Night Owl
Date: 24 Mar 99 - 02:17 AM

I haven't heard Sparrow's name in years..he used to be considered the Bob Dylan of the Carribean...(in hindsight not sure how much of a complement that is to him)Is he still recording? There was a time when his music was banned in the States.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bret Maiers
Date: 24 Mar 99 - 02:46 AM

SHORTENING BREAD!!

Ever since my dog's been dead, The hog's been ruinin' my potato bed. I do love; Shortening bread!

Everybody loves; Shortening bread!

Subject: food songs
From: Barry Finn
Date: 24 Mar 99 - 11:13 PM

I posted this some while ago, never got anywhere, hoping maybe in this thread I find so help, besides it is a great food song. Barry

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Lyrics: A Cook On A Bark ?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 06-Feb-98 - 11:56 AM


I have an old tape & this song is on it & through all the merrymaking can't make out alot of the words.Some of goes as follows:

I was cook ( onboard of a bark, 3 X )
That was the way I made my mark
Slinging up the hash
Many sailors eat my stew
They're all dead I'm telling you

When we're out of ( bacon fat 3 x )
Then I catch a juicy rat
I know what to do
You salt the critter well
He will last for quite a spell

You should try my ( lobster sauce 3 X )
Nothing taste as well with with horse
It's a lovely course
You should try my shark fin soup
It's the stuff to make you stoop


The rest of it, another 4 verses, about lobster tails, custards, whale blubber, beatles & water as rum & beer, I can't make out. The first 3 lines including the (3X) are to an A part melody & the last 2 line of the verse are of a different melody & timing. Has any one got any history and/or words, or anything to else to this, I've never seen or know of anyone who's heard of anything resembling this song. Thanks, Barry

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 26 Mar 99 - 12:17 AM

Hey Night Owl, Sparrow is still around. Over the last decade he's released some Soca albums, which I've seen in the stores but resisted buying. I just did a web search and noticed he had a new album come out on 3/16/99 called Supreme on the Musicrama label. I have some of the old Sparrow stuff - let me know if you want to pursue that subject. I didn't know he was banned in the states, but he's a master of the double-entendre: little kids as well as their parents can enjoy his singing about for example how he's afraid the pussy might scratch him. Whoops, the "If you eat it right the hair don't stick in your teeth" song I quoted above was the MANGO song [="Mango Vert"], not the PAPAYA song. I have papayas on the brain - I used to oversee a papaya farm! Mangos are often stringy and the hair DOES stick in your teeth.

Mark

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Les B
Date: 26 Mar 99 - 12:50 AM

Don't forget Bob Wills' "Roly Poly" ... eatin' corn and taters, hungry every minute of the day...

and "The Barnyard Dance" by Martin, Bogen & Armstrong (?) ... The little turnip top did the backwoods flop...

"Pans of Biscuits" by Hedy West ... pans of biscuits, bowls of gravy...

"Beans, Bacon, and Gravy" as sung by every folky from Woody Guthrie on down ... Oh them beans, bacon, and gravy, they're 'bout to drive me crazy...

and Uncle Dave Macon's "I'll Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" - Wow, that's enough cholesterol !

Subject: RE: food songs
From: MMario
Date: 26 Mar 99 - 11:57 AM

BARRY - I just did a very thorough search of the forum for your previous post about "a cook on a bark" ... and couldn't find it. In fact, no posts show for you on that date.

Maybe it needs to be reposted in a seperate thread? It apppears to have been "lost" at some point.

MMario

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Barry Finn
Date: 26 Mar 99 - 11:26 PM

Thanks MMario, I'll refresh it. Thanks Barry

Subject: Lyr Add: LIME JELL-O MARSHMALLOW COTTAGE ...^^
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 May 00 - 11:01 AM

LIME JELL-O MARSHMALLOW COTTAGE CHEESE SURPRISE
(William Bolcom, 1986)

Ladies, the minutes will soon be read today.
The garden club and weaving class, I'm sure have much to say
But next week is our culture night, our biggest best event
And I've just made a dish for it you'll all find heaven-sent.

It's my lime Jell-O marshmallow cottage cheese surprise,
With slices of pimento - you won't believe your eyes -
All topped with a pineapple ring and a dash of mayonnaise.
My vanilla wafers round the edge will win your highest praise.

And Mrs. Jones is making scones that are filled with peanut mousse,
To be followed by a chicken mold that's made in the shape of a goose.
For ladies who must watch those pounds, we've found a special dish:
Strawberry ice, enshrined in rice, with bits of tuna fish.

And my lime Jell-O marshmallow cottage cheese surprise -
Truly a creation that description defies.
It will go so well with Mrs. Bell's creation of the week,
Shrimp salad topped with chocolate sauce and garnished with a leek.

And Mrs. Perkins' walnut loaf that's crowned with melted cheese
Was such a hit last culture night, we ask, no seconds please.
Now you must try her hot dog pie with candied mushroom slices.
Those ladies who resigned last year, they just don't know what nice is.

And my lime Jell-O marshmallow cottage cheese surprise.
I did not steal that recipe! It's lies, I tell you, lies!
A grand surprise, a picture hat (?) and a seven-sequin gown
For any girl who tries each dish and keeps her whole lunch down.

I'm sure you all are waiting for the biggest news, dessert.
We've thought of things in molds and rings your diet to subvert.
You must try our chocolate layer-cake on a peanut-brittle base
With slices of bananas that make a funny face,

Around the edges, peppermints just swimming in peach custard,
With lovely little curlicues of lovely yellow mustard.
If all this is too much for you, permit me to advise
More lime Jell-O marshmallow cottage cheese surprise.

I made heaps!
- - -
As "sung" by Joan Morris with piano accompaniment by William Bolcom on "Lime Jello - An American Cabaret" RCA AML1-5830. Also on "Keepers: Morning Show Favorites," a CD available as a premium for membership in Minnesota Public Radio, MPR 102. This "song" is more a rhythmic recitation (like talking blues, but different). @food

This song was originally posted by rich r but I straightened it up and added some information. JTD

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 11 May 00 - 12:37 PM

I can't do a blicky or I'd link it myself, but there is a Recipe Songs thread running around too.

Remember, I'm trying to coin "blicky" as the neologism for "Blue cLICKY" (thing).

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,digger
Date: 11 May 00 - 01:35 PM

We sing a Watermelon song with my Girl Guide pack. It's an action song:

Just plant a watermelon right on my grave Let the juice (schlurp)slip through Just plant a watermelon right on my grave That's all I ask of you

Well southern fried chicken might taste mighty fine But nothing tastes sweeter than a watermelon rind...pizza!

So plant a watermelon right on my grave Let the juice slip through-oo-oo

(It sounds a little familiar to the one Night Owl talks about above...a children's action song with sound effects.)

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 11 May 00 - 02:54 PM

You might want to check out "Good Fish Chowder" on Mudcat's song database.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: TheOldMole
Date: 11 May 00 - 03:08 PM

Ray Stevens' "Gourmet Restaurant," and U. Utah Phillips' "Moose Turd Pie."

Subject: Lyr Add: HOW CAN I KEEP FROM EATING?^^
From: GUEST,Nancy King
Date: 11 May 00 - 07:36 PM

Folk 1234 referred to "HOW CAN I KEEP FROM EATING." I learned that one from Judy Cook a few years ago, and have the writer's name written down somewhere, but not handy just now. The words, as best I recall, are:

My life goes on in endless flow
Of breakfast, lunch, and dinner;
I eat them all with gusto, though
They will not make me thinner.
For eating brings me so much joy,
And joy in life is fleeting,
So while there's food still on my plate,
How can I keep from eating?

Some chicken soup with matzoh balls
Will bring me peace and pleasure;
An eclair or some chocolate cake
Brings joy no tongue can measure.
Some broccoli with hollandaise
Will set my heart to beating.
It sounds a rumbling deep within--
How can I keep from eating?

I'm getting rather plump these days;
I think I'll take up running.
To lose a meager pound or two
Takes self-control and cunning.
I've tried a million kinds of diets,
They're all so self-defeating.
I open up the pantry door--
How can I keep from eating?

---

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone 28-Dec-2000

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Susan A-R
Date: 11 May 00 - 08:58 PM

Still alive!! I love it!

Susan A-R

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Robo
Date: 11 May 00 - 11:00 PM

What about Loudon Wainwright III's "I Eat Out" . . . hilarious. "I can cook a little but it's not a lot to talk about/it's kind of mean cuisine, so I eat out."

Subject: RE: food songs
From: TheOldMole
Date: 11 May 00 - 11:21 PM

Carole King...Chicken Soup With Rice

House of Blue Lights -- fryers, broilers, Detroit barbeque ribs....

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Robo
Date: 11 May 00 - 11:33 PM

And John Prine's "Christmas in Prison" -- "It was Christmas in prison and the food was real good/We had turkey and pistols carved out of wood."

Subject: Lyr Add: A BOWL OF RED (Tom Russell)^^
From: Stewie
Date: 12 May 00 - 03:31 AM

One of my favourites is Tom Russell's bowl of red:

A BOWL OF RED
(Tom Russell)

You don't put beans in chilli
You never water good whiskey down
And never play poker with a man named 'Doc'
On the Spanish side of town
And if you want to go peekin' at the doctor's daughter
You better pay the old man his bread
Then it's a short, short ride from hell to heaven
Ridin' on a bowl of red

I'm talkin' about sweet Lorene, the chilli queen
Down at number nine Pecos Street
She's got bull meat hangin' up above her head
And chilli peppers down at her feet
She's got an iron pot smokin' on a woodsmoke stove
Near an antique feather bed
Where it's a short short ride from hell to heaven
Ridin' on a bowl of red

Here's the recipe:
Bull meat, crab meat, pig's feet, chicken feet
I've even seen her use a rabbit's head
Cemino, oregano, celanto, let it go
Then sop it up with sourdough bread
Let it boil one day – you'll be rollin' in the hay
Lorene keeps a man well fed
Just walk on down to number nine
Say, 'Give me a little bowl of red'

Peter Piper picked a bunch of chilli peppers
Tell me how many packs did Peter Piper pick
Then he took 'em on down to sweet Lorene
Said, 'I need a bowl of red real quick'
She put Peter Piper's peppers in a pot on the stove
She put Peter Piper in her feather bed
And now Peter Piper's pickin' peppers all day
Just to get his daily bowl of red

Repeat verses 1 and 2 (sung very fast)

Words and music Tom Russell End of Trail Music. Copyright 1963 CAPAC.
Source: Tom Russell 'Heart on My Sleeve' Bear Family BCD 15243.

Other good 'uns that spring to mind include Dan Penn's 'Memphis Women and Chicken',

the Cornish song 'Starry Gazy Pie' [="Tom Bawcock's Eve"]

and Lonnie Mack's wonderful 'Oreo Cookie Blues'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Stewie
Date: 12 May 00 - 03:45 AM

Actually, the correct title of the 'Starry-gazy pie' song is 'Tom Bawcock's Eve' - the eve before Christmas eve when the tradition was to eat a pie made of seven sorts of fish. The fish heads stuck out of the pie and hence the 'starry-gazy' line. Great song.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Airto
Date: 12 May 00 - 05:19 AM

Louis Jordan had a perfectly ridiculous song, 'Beans and Cornbread', about how they fall out and make up again.

I also like the song 'Bread and Gravy'. The only version I know was done by Freddy White, an Irish singer, but the original must be much better known.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE VEGETABLE SONG
From: GUEST,Joel
Date: 12 May 00 - 11:33 AM

The Vegetable Song

You're my sweet potato but I like to cauliflower dear
so honey let us beet it and squash this thing right here
I've got an 18 carrot ring bought with my celery
and onion finger I will place it because you've bean so nice to me
And if my rival turnip I artichoke him dead
or tie a string bean round his neck and pumpkin full of lead
so honey let us beat it to a taxi cabbage near
we'll have the parson-ip to-mate-us in a radish church right here

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 12 May 00 - 11:50 AM

I don't think anyone mentioned Fats Waller (someone else who loved food as much as music!): "HOLD TIGHT (Want Some Sea Food Mama)", "Shrimps and rice, they're very nice".
RtS (Built for comfort, not built for speed)

Subject: Lyr Add: DIET SONG (Shel Silverstein)^^
From: DADGBE
Date: 12 May 00 - 12:47 PM

Grant Rodgers can be found on a Folk Legacy recording singing 'Bread and Gravy'. Just ask Sandy.
But after enjoying many of these songs for years and enjoying their subject better, Shel Silverstein's 'Diet Song' comes to mind. It strikes as close to the bone as it can get these days.

Breakfast: black coffee, one slice of dry toast, no butter, no jelly, no jam;
Lunch: just some lettuce, two celery stalks, no booze, no potatoes, no ham;
Dinner: one chicken wing broiled, not fried, no gravy, no biscuits, no pie;
And this dietin', dietin', dietin', dietin' sure is a rough way to die.

So pass me a carrot stick, peel me a prune, one glass of skim milk and that's all.
Turn off the TV for the Big Mac commercial; it's drivin' me straight up the wall.
I'm thinkin' of French fries, sausage and waffles, spaghetti, and cookies and cake,
And each night I'm dreamin' of chocolate ice cream 'n' I'm starvin' to death when I wake—
All for your sake.

Well, you're fixin' the kids all those creamed mashed potatoes, but it's bullion and water for me,
And you've got a lock on the refrigerator; Lord knows where you're hidin' the key,
And while I am starvin' for food late at night, I'm starvin' for lovin' from you,
But you say that when I can see my own dick you'll be back to look at it too.

So, suffer two pieces of cauliflower raw, some beefsteak the size of a nail,
One slice of tomato, a small dab of slaw, Lord, I swear I ate better in jail.
Stop eatin' that pizza right under my nose; girl that's the least you can do,
And put down that candy bar while I am singin'; I'm starvin' my ass off for you.

And when I am dead, with the insurance paid, you'll look down at me and you'll grin.
You'll say:"Well, the boy tried, and he starved and he died, but don't he look good when he's thin?"

Subject: Lyr Add: ALL THAT MEAT AND NO POTATOES^^
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 May 00 - 01:06 PM

ALL THAT MEAT AND NO POTATOES
(Lyrics by Ed Kirkeby, tune by Fats Waller, 1941)

A man works hard then comes on home,
Expects to find stew with that fine ham bone,
He opens the door then start to lookin',
Says, "Woman, what's this stuff you're cookin'?"

All that meat and no potatoes
Just ain't right, like green tomatoes.
Here I'm waiting, palpitatin',
For all that meat and no potatoes.

All that meat and no potatoes
All that food to the alligators, yes,
Hold me steady, I am ready
For all that meat and no potatoes.

I don't think that peas are bad
With meat most anything goes
I look into the pot; I'm fit to bite
Cause woman you know that mess ain't right.

All that meat and no potatoes
Just ain't right, like green tomatoes.
Yes, I'm steamin', I'm really screamin'
All that meat and no potatoes.

Where is my fry & hambone? Where is it?
- - -
@food JTD

Subject: Lyr Add: I'VE GOT A LOVELY BUNCH OF COCONUTS^^
From: Metchosin
Date: 12 May 00 - 01:52 PM

Well by request because Spaw didin't do it, here is:

I'VE GOT A LOVELY BUNCH OF COCONUTS

Down at the county fair
One evening I was there
I heard a Barker shouting
Underneath the flair...

Oh, I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts
There they are all standing in a row.
Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head
Give 'em a twist, a flick of the wrist,
That's what the showman said.

Oi! I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts
Every ball you throw will make me rich
There stands me wife
The idol of me life,
Singing roll a bowl, a ball, a penny a pitch.

Singing, roll a bowl a ball a penny a pitch
Roll a bowl a ball a penny a pitch,
Roll a bowl a ball
Roll a bowl a ball
Singing, roll a bowl a ball a penny a pitch.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 12 May 00 - 06:41 PM

From Mudcatters, there's All God's Chillun Got a place in the Fire.

From Prairie Home Companion, there's What a Friend We Have in Cheeses.

And if Midchuck would be kind enough to post it, there's a fine food parody on a Woodchuck's Revenge CD called "Mama Fried". @food is a productive search item on DigiTrad.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 May 00 - 07:43 PM

Metchosin: It's admirable that you took the trouble to post "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts," but it will never end up in DigiTrad unless you either (a) use the "Lyr Add:" prefix in your subject line, or, failing that, (b) post a message on the thread called Songs you've posted.

Furthermore, the song has already been posted by Joe Offer here, so you could have saved yourself some trouble just by finding it and setting up a blue clicky.

I mention this because a LOT of people make this mistake, and there are a LOT of lost songs sitting in threads somewhere. I've found dozens of them. See my postings in "Songs you've posted" for examples.

Now, I wonder why Joe didn't harvest the song for DigiTrad himself?

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Susan A-R
Date: 12 May 00 - 10:34 PM

Keep 'em coming. This thread brightens the tired chef's day.

Susan A-R

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Robo
Date: 13 May 00 - 01:10 AM

One more, from John Prine, a number more aptly about the lack of food: "I come home from work this evening, there was note in the frying pan/it said fix your own damn supper, babe/I run off with the Fuller Brush man." [FRYING PAN]

Subject: from an old second city routine
From: GUEST,jeffs
Date: 13 May 00 - 10:56 AM

Oh, I hate liver! Liver makes me quiver Liver makes me curl right up and die, it makes me cry

jeffs

Subject: RE: food songs
From: BlueJay
Date: 13 May 00 - 02:13 PM

It's possible I didn't see it, but I don't think anyone's mentioned Guy Clark's "Homegrown Tomatoes". Really lively funny song. My favorite part:

If I could change this life I lead,
You could call me Johnny Tomato Seed
I know what this country needs,
It's home grown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cold dark cemetery
Out in the garden would be much better
Where I could be pushin up those home grown tomatoes.

BlueJay

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Croney
Date: 15 May 00 - 11:38 PM

These are so great! Also, check out the Recipe Songs thread. I'm still looking for songs that have the full recipe in it --

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 16 May 00 - 08:50 AM

Long thread but I don't think anyone's mentioned Flanders & Swann's Reluctant Cannibal "I won't eat people" (favourite line: "It must have been someone he ate"!).
RtS

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Roger in Baltimore
Date: 16 May 00 - 07:50 PM

Of course, the famous "One Meatball" performed by Josh White.

Richard McDonald did a love song to "yellow corn" which I must find one day.

As Sonny and Cher said "And the beet goes on."

Big Rib

Subject: RE: food songs
From: TonyK
Date: 17 May 00 - 11:50 PM

I love this thread. Of those mentioned, Chicken Cordon Bleus and Oreo Cookie Blues are my favorites.The Bobs do a couple of good ones:'Food to Rent' and 'Corn Dogs'.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 18 May 00 - 05:49 AM

...of course once you get into the blues there are a whole raft of 'em (some[?!] may contain sexual innuendo!):

Nuts;

Kitchen Man;

Hot Dog Man;

Put a hot dog in your roll;

numerous with references to "hambone" and/or "jelly roll", lots more in the Smith/Spivey/Rainey canon, many kept alive by artists like George Melly and Dana Gillespie.
Then when the meal is over, you have to clear away:to the strains of Champion Jack Dupree and "Garbage Man"
RtS

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 18 May 00 - 11:21 AM

For something of a more recent vintage, check out "Fast Food" -- Richard Thompson at his satirical best.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 May 00 - 03:59 PM

Here is Flanders & Swann's The Reluctant Cannibal, mentioned by Roger the Skiffler above.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 20 May 00 - 04:26 PM

Going back to my misspent youth in the late Pleistocene, there was a song called "Five Salted Peanuts."

One of my favorites out of the depression is "Beans, Bacon & Gravy", about being so poor that the only thing he can get to eat day in and day out, week in and week out, is beans, bacon and gravy. It is in the DT, I think.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: food songs
From: MMario
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 12:03 PM

*snicker*

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 05:12 PM

Cook with Honey sung by Judy Collins.

Friday Night Fish Fry.

Chittlin' Cookin' time in Cheatham County.

Someone mentioned Prairie Home Companion - - Powder Milk Biscuits theme.

Subject: RE: food songs (refresh)
From: maire-aine
Date: 16 May 02 - 06:18 PM

Dear folks,

In this thread on March 15th, the following was posted: "Another author I enjoy Bert Williams wrote a song about food that I like to play. Well actually it's about the hazards of eating, it's called Some Little Bug Is Going to Find You.

"When you eat banana fritters, every undertaker titters and the casket makers nearly go insane." Bert Williams

Reggie Miles"

The line about banana fritters is not in the version posted in the DT. Reggie Miles if you are still there, or anybody, please would you kindly post or PM the rest of your lyrics.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 16 May 02 - 07:22 PM

"On Monday we had bread and gravy.
On Tuesday was gravy and bread.
On Wednesday and Thursday was gravy and toast. On Friday we went to the landlord
To get something else instead.
So on Saturday morn, just as sure as you're born
We had gravy without any bread."

And how about Dave Webber's "May Song" which is all about Mayo and Pasta:
"Summertime is here and past-o" and
Hail, hail the First of May-o"

Linn

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Jim Krause
Date: 16 May 02 - 07:38 PM

Y'know, Uncle Dave Macon seemed to sing quite a few songs about food, or songs that at least mentioned food. Some that come to mind are:

• Country Ham and Red Gravy
• Gray Cat on a Tennessee Farm mentions food
• Roll the Woodpile Down also has a verse about flapjacks and molasses.
• Morning Blues mentions honey biscuits and a mutton chop

Jim

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,ozmacca
Date: 16 May 02 - 07:48 PM

For my money - which you're not going to get 'cos I need it to buy those non-essentials like food and clothing - a song performed by the Corries called "Food Blues" says it all.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Jeri
Date: 16 May 02 - 08:34 PM

Batty, this one?

Wintertime is gone and past-o
Salads grace our plates at last-o
We shall to our waitress say
Please to bring us all a side of may...
o. Hail, hail, the taste of mayo
Salad dressing, go away-o
Noodles, burgers, fries or hay
Always taste best with a side of may

o

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Lynn
Date: 16 May 02 - 10:39 PM

Couldn't scan the whole lot, but here's a couple that come to mind.

Guy Clark's 'Home Grown Tomatoes'

Greg Brown's 'Canned Goods'

Uncle Dave's 'Country Ham and Red Gravy' (I always used to call it 'The Hammy Song' till I learned otherwise).

Tasty thread!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Linda Allen
Date: 16 May 02 - 11:56 PM

Hi, Folks - This is a great thread! I can add one of mine: Sally's Quiche from my CD, October Roses. I started a recipe songs thread some years back -- I'll see if I can find it. This song has the complete recipe. If it's not already posted, I'll add it.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bearheart
Date: 17 May 02 - 08:18 PM

Well, being in a hurry I didn't check, but I'm guessing the posting by Joe Offer is the thread I came across some time ago all about the Coconut Song. I immediately shared it with my husband, who sings the first three lines to me regularly (in a very suggestive way, I might add) but who could not remember the rest of the song. If that is not the thread I remember, please look for it. everything you'd want to know about the song including lyrics.

In our house food and sex are definitely bedfellows. And definitely are both considered a route to ecstasy. Perhaps that's where the confusion is, since ecstatic states are a bit mindblowing?

Subject: Lyr Add: HOW CAN I KEEP FROM EATING
From: GUEST,Judy Cook
Date: 17 May 02 - 08:36 PM

Thanks, Nancy, I learned this from Deb O'Hanlon years ago.

HOW CAN I KEEP FROM EATING
words: Russell Aminzade & Sandy Pilskin (Sandy Pliskin ?)
tune: Trad

My life goes on in endless flow of breakfast, lunch and dinner
I eat them all with gusto though they will not make me thinner
For eating brings me so much joy, and joy in life is fleeting
So while there's food still on my plate, How can I keep from eating.

Some chicken soup with matzoh balls will bring me peace and pleasure
An eclair or some chocolate cake brings joy no tongue can measure
Some broccoli with hollandaise would set my heart to beating
It sounds a rumbling deep within. How can I keep from eating.

I'm getting rather plump these days; I think I'll take up running.
To lose a meager pound or two takes self control and cunning
I've tried a million kinds of diets; they're all so self-defeating
I open up the pantry door - How can I keep from eating.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Wayne
Date: 17 May 02 - 08:37 PM

"Them Hog Liver Likers" by Mason Williams; "A Box of Candy and a Piece of Fruit" by Tom Paxton and Bob Gibson.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Judy Cook
Date: 17 May 02 - 08:47 PM

Not just "Green & Yellow", but all Lord Randall versions, including "The Wild, Wild Berry" with that great refrain...

'Tis far better, I entreat, to have toads for your meat
Than to eat of the wild, wild berry.

I learned it from Gwilym Davies who learned it from Ray Driscoll - I put it on my second CD with two other Lord Randalls.

What A Friend We Have in Cheeses
Little Bit of Cucumber
Sour Cream

...But while I film the world of fashion
I really have a secret passion
I spend all my cash on...sour cream...

So many wonderful food songs, but I'm getting hungry so I'll stop here. --Judy

Subject: RE: food songs
From: DancingMom
Date: 17 May 02 - 08:53 PM

Was it Dave Van Ronk or someone else who sang, " I had ham, I had ham, I had HAM, AGAIN!"

My husband sings a silly one, "Little girls have pretty curls, but I like OREOS!"

One of my favorites is by Page Wilson and Reckless Abandon, from here in Richmond, who sings with gusto about a "Chicken Thigh":

I got a thang about a chicken thigh,
Bake, broil, barbecue, or fried.
It's a simple pleasure with a simple plan.
Clean to the bone with just one hand.

A chicken thigh has only one thigh bone,
takes a yard bird where it needs to go,
If you're a thigh man, the way I am,
Two thighs fit perfectly in you hands.

Clean to the bone with just one hand.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 07:34 PM

Subject: RE: food songs
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Oct 05 - 09:16 PM

STOP PRESS!!!

for a great new CD of recipe songs from Mudcatters - checkout our website : http://www.peculiarhand.com/pages/atogm.html

and also the two current Mudcat threads from :

Recipes in Songs
and
New! catchy Folk Food CD - from Oz!


Thanks!

ENJOY!!!


Cheers! R-J
Down Under

(sorry, I'm still learning about internal blickies ...)

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 27 Oct 05 - 09:53 PM

"Old Blue" has a stanza

"Baked that possum Good and brown,
Leaving sweet potatoes round and round,
Saying Come on, Blue, You can have some too."

A great American culinary experience, celebrated in song, that this company is unlikely to have had. Likewise, has anybody here had groundhog?

"Up jumped Sam with a snigger and a grin,
Groundhog grease all over his chin."

Someone shot & cooked one in the commune I belonged to, but I was away at the time & missed it.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: Pretense must be more perfect than performance. :||

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bard Judith
Date: 27 Oct 05 - 11:34 PM

Re RJ's post - I'd buy the CD on the strength of the 30-second clip "Fillet of Sole St. Germain" alone.

Heck, I'd buy it solely (sorry!) for the line "Place your sole in fine array...."

LOVE acappella!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: rich-joy
Date: 28 Oct 05 - 12:06 AM

Hey Bard Judith! - be our guest - please feel free to purchase our wonderful CD!!!!

LOL! :~)))

(and there are lots of other great lines! for example, in "Sticky Date Pudding", the gospel number : "We're on the road to salivation ...")


Cheers! R-J

Subject: Lyr Add: HOT CHILI (from Steve Miller Band)
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 28 Oct 05 - 12:25 AM

HOT CHILI
by Tim Davis (as sung by the Steve Miller Band)

Sittin' here thumbin' through the pages of a magazine
The pages tell me come right away, you know what I mean
The air is so spacey, the ladies are lacey
And there is nothing you gotta do
But eat hot chili

Hot chili is groovy
After a movie or watching TV
But when you order
South of the border
Soon you see
It's hotter than noon
It will melt your spoon
So buddy, you better get ready
For eatin' hot chili
It's not silly
To eat hot chili

Passport in hand
I made my plan to get away
Hopped on a plane
Rode out of the rain the very same day
Soon as I landed
My wish it was granted
Lovely senoritas always drinkin' tequila, yeah, yeah, yeah
And eatin' hot chili
Eatin' hot chili
I love hot chili

Ooh I love it hot chili
Hot chili, ooh

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 28 Oct 05 - 12:53 AM

I'm not sure if this is really food, but....

SPAM
Monty Python

Lovely spam, wonderful spa-a-m,
Lovely spam, wonderful S Spam,
Spa-a-a-a-a-a-a-am,
Spa-a-a-a-a-a-a-am,
SPA-A-A-A-A-A-A-AM,
SPA-A-A-A-A-A-A-AM,
LOVELY SPAM, LOVELY SPAM,
LOVELY SPAM, LOVELY SPAM,
LOVELY SPA-A-A-A-AM...
SPA-AM, SPA-AM, SPA-AM, SPA-A-A-AM!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: rich-joy
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 07:07 PM

sorry ... but in my post of the 27th about our new Food Songs CD just out, I forgot to mention that we do take PayPal.


AND that it's the perfect Chrissie Pressie for Food & Music Lovers!!!
:~)))


Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: food songs
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 07:28 PM

Don't you mean your 27th post?

:-P

Subject: RE: food songs
From: rich-joy
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 07:54 PM

Well Robin, I think it's a case of : "if you've got it, (you HAVE to) flaunt it" - otherwise all that money spent and time/energy expended has been somewhat wasted ...

As you know, it's hard enough to make a living in these uncertain times - ya gotta use every tool in the box!!!


Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: food songs
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 08:31 PM

I had IT, but I think I lost it..

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Amos
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 09:51 PM

Here's a whole thread of them, including a parody on Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, in this Song Challeenge.

Good laughs fondly remembered.


A

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 07:30 AM

OK, sometimes I get obsessed. These are all the food songs I can find at Mudcat. The name following each title is usually a performer, not necessarily the songwriter. I have deliberately omitted many songs that merely mention food, where food is not the main theme of the song.

30,000 POUNDS OF BANANAS, Harry Chapin
ALL THAT MEAT AND NO POTATOES, Fats Waller
ANIMAL CRACKERS IN MY SOUP, Shirley Temple
APPLES IN WINTER, Debby McClatchy
AT THE CODFISH BALL, Mitchell, Pollack
BACON AND CABBAGE (I'm a savage for ...), Brenda Shine
BACON AND GREENS, Sam Cowell
BAKE THAT CHICKEN PIE, Uncle Dave Macon
BANANA SONG (Mama, will you buy me a banana), Trad. Irish?
BARBECUE, Paul Williams
BARNYARD DANCE, Martin, Bogan & Armstrong
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU EAT, Animaniacs
BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN, Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock
BISCUIT BLUES, Roy Book Binder
BLACK BEAN SOUP, David Soul
BLACK STRAP MOLASSES, Groucho Marx, Danny Kaye, Jimmy Durante
BOIL DEM CABBAGE DOWN, Fiddlin' John Carson, et al.
B-O-R-S-C-H-T, Peter Ostroushko
BOWL OF RED, Tom Russell
BOX OF CANDY AND A PIECE OF FRUIT, Bob Gibson and Tom Paxton
BREAD AND GRAVY, Hoagy Carmichael
BREAD AND MARMALADE, Music hall song
BREAD, Billy Jonas
BREAKFAST BLUES, Ronnie Levine
BREAKFAST IN MY BED ON SUNDAY MORNING, Harry Lauder
BUTTER AND CHEESE AND ALL / THE GREASY COOK, Sam Larner
BUTTERBEANS (Just A Bowl of Butterbeans), Little Jimmy Dickens
CANNED GOODS, Greg Brown
CHICK, CHICK, CHICK, CHICK, CHICKEN (LAY A LITTLE EGG FOR ME), Earl Oliver's Jazz Babies
CHICKEN A LA BLUES, Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan
CHICKEN AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A BIRD, Cab Calloway
CHICKEN CORDON BLEUS, Steve Goodman
CHICKEN IN THE FRIDGE, Jeff Deitchman
CHICKEN IS NICE, Dave Van Ronk
CHICKEN LIPS AND LIZARD HIPS, Bruce Springsteen
CHICKEN ON A RAFT, Cyril Tawney
CHICKEN SONG, Jay Unger
CHITLIN COOKIN' TIME IN CHEATHAM COUNTY, Fiddlin' Arthur Smith
CHOC'LATE ICE CREAM CONE, Rose Maddox
CHOCOLATE SONG, Moira Austen
CHOCOLATE SONG, Zeke Hoskin
CHOCOLATE, Chenille Sisters
COLD PIZZA FOR BREAKFAST, Christine Lavin
COOK ON A BARK
COOKING BREAKFAST FOR THE ONE I LOVE, Fanny Brice
CORNBREAD AND BUTTERBEANS, Carolina Sunshine Trio
CORNBREAD AND BUTTERMILK, Little Jimmy Dickens
CORNBREAD, 'LASSES AND SASSAFRAS TEA, Pee Wee King
CORNBREAD, MEAT AND MOLASSES, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
COULTER'S CANDY, Trad. Scots
COUNTRY HAM AND RED GRAVY, Uncle Dave Macon
CUP CAKES, Charley Drew
CUSTARD CREAMS, Les Barker
DIGGIN' MY POTATOES, Lead Belly
DINNER FOR ONE PLEASE JAMES, Coleman Hawkins
DON'T SLAY THAT POTATO, Tom Paxton
DON'T TOUCH ME TOMATO, George Symonette
EAT BERTHA'S MUSSELS, John Roberts and Tony Barrand
EAT ORGANIC, Emerald City Jug Band
FOOD PUN SONG, Chuck Brodsky
FORBIDDEN FRUIT, Oscar Brown, Jr.
FRIM FRAM SAUCE, Nat King Cole
GARDEN WHERE THE PRATIES GROW, John McCormack
GARLIC SONG, Ruthie Gorton
GET A LOAD OF THIS, R Crumb
GOOBER PEAS, Burl Ives
GOOD BUNCH OF BISCUITS, Jim & Jesse McReynolds
GRAVY AND BREAD, Grant Rogers
GREAT MEAT PIE
HENRY'S FISH AND CHIPS
HERRIN' AND POTATOES
HEY GOOD LOOKIN' (WHATCHA GOT COOKIN'), Hank Williams
HOKEY POKEY THE ICE CREAM SONG, Richard & Linda Thompson
HOMEGROWN TOMATOES, Guy Clark
HOW CAN I KEEP FROM EATING, Russell Aminzade & Sandy Pilskin
HOW MANY BISCUITS CAN YOU EAT, Stringbean
I ALWAYS COOK WITH HONEY, Valerie Carter
I ATE THE BOLONEY, Harry Lee
I EAT DINNER, Kate and Anna McGarrigle
I LIKE BANANAS (BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO BONES), Hoosier Hot Shots
I LIKE MOLASSES, Hank Penny
I NEED A LITTLE SUGAR IN MY BOWL, Bessie Smith
I WANNA HOT DOG FOR MY ROLL, Butterbeans and Susie
IN SWEET ONION TIME (I'LL BREATHE MY LOVE TO YOU), Duncan Sisters
JAMBALAYA, Hank Williams
JELLIED EELS, Lionel Bart
JENNY GET YOUR HOE-CAKES DONE
JUNK FOOD JUNKIE, Larry Groce
KITCHEN MAN, Bessie Smith
LEFTOVER BISCUITS, Roger Handy
LIME JELL-O MARSHMALLOW COTTAGE CHEESE SURPRISE, William Bolcom, Jan Morris
LITTLE BIT OF CUCUMBER, Harry Champion
LONE FISH BALL
MALTED MILK, Robert Johnson
MAMA DON'T WANT NO PEAS 'N' RICE 'N' COCONUT OIL, Count Basie
MAN WHO EATS MEAT EVERY DAY, Parody by Dónal Thompson
MEAT CUTTIN' BLUES, Hunter and Jenkins
MEATLESS DAY, Ernie Mayne
MISS FOGARTY'S CHRISTMAS CAKE, C. Frank Horn
MRS. REILLY'S PEACHES, Eugene Field
MY DAD'S DINNER PAIL, Harrigan & Braham
NAVY GETS THE GRAVY BUT THE ARMY GETS THE BEANS, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis
NEW RESTAURANT, Malvina Reynolds
NORFOLK STIFF-RUMP or APPLE-DUMPLING EATER
OH THAT GORGONZOLA CHEESE, Harry Champion
ON TOP OF SPAGHETTI, Tom Glazer
ONE MEAT BALL, Ry Cooder
ONE MEATBALL, Josh White
ORANGE COCOA CAKE, Lou and Peter Berryman
OREO COOKIE BLUES, Lonnie Mack
PANCAKE RECIPE, John Kellermann
PASS THE BISCUITS, MIRANDY, Spike Jones
PEANUT-BUTTER SANDWICH, Shel Silverstein
PEPPERS AND TOMATOES, Ralph McTell
PLEASE PASS THE BISCUITS, Wiley Walker and Gene Sullivan
POLK SALAD ANNIE, Tony Joe White
POTCHEEN AND POTATOES, Julie Berrill
PRATIES THEY GROW SMALL
SEAFOOD SHOP CHANTYMAN'S SONG, Greg Trafidlo & Neal Phillips
SHOO FLY PIE & APPLE PAN DOWDY, Dinah Shore
SHORT'NIN' BREAD
SIDEMEAT AND CABBAGE, Little Jimmie Dickens
SOME HAE MEAT, Robert Burns
SOUP KITCHEN
SOUP, John McCutcheon, Si Kahn
SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN, Jimmy Work
SWEET POTATOES
TATTIES AND HERRIN', Isla St. Clair
TRINITY CAKE, Trad. Newfoundland
TURNIP GREENS
TV DINNERS, ZZ Top
VICTORIA DINES ALONE, Tom Paxton
WE'LL EAT AGAIN, Watt Nichol
WHOEVER INVENTED FISH FINGERS, Leon Rosselson
WHO'S GONNA STEAL THE PEANUT BUTTER, Jimmy Buffett
WITH MY LITTLE STICK OF BLACKPOOL ROCK, George Formby
YES WE HAVE NO BANANAS, Silver, Cohn
YOU CAN'T GET MANY PIMPLES ON A POUND OF PICKLED PORK, Fred Terry
YOUR BISCUITS ARE BIG ENOUGH FOR ME, Bo Carter

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Scoville
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 10:07 AM

Without resorting to novelty tunes:

Old-time edibles that don't involve alcohol

How Many Biscuits Can You Eat?
Corn & Beans
Ida Red [even if it's not named for the apple]
Red Apple Juice
Greasy Meat [good tune, lousy title]
Sugar in the Gourd [both of them]
Tater Patch
Crow Black Chicken / Old Joe Clark/anything involving the "chicken pie" verse

Others

Wayne Hancock's "Smell that Bread"
Crabs in the Skillet

I'm not going to speculate on how many of those are actually about sex, in the tradition of old-time/country/rockabilly/bluegrass borrowing blues themes.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 11:12 AM

"Five pounds of 'possum in my headlights tonight"

Arkie mentioned "The Butterbean Song" [="Just a Bowl of Butter Beans"] that is sung in Mountain View, Arkansas at the Jimmy Driftwood barn

"Old Time Nutrition" sung by Lorre Wyatt on his Folk-Legacy recording

"McDonald's Kitchen" sung by Seamus Kennedy

"Ham and Eggs" sung by Lonnie Donegan

"Peanutbutter Jam" sung by Sandy Paton

"Box of Candy and a Piece of Fruit" sung by Bob Gibson

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Scoville
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 11:49 AM

We sing it "Fifty pounds of 'possum". Five pounds is the appetizer. Shish-kebab if you can get enough of them.



I hope to God I never actually see a fifty-pound possum, though. Yikes.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Scoville
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 11:56 AM

This isn't quite a food song, but Marti Brom has a great one called "Eat My Words", about love gone wrong. The chorus goes:

"Well, gimme a fork, gime a knife,
I'm gonna eat my words . . .
Yeah, sit me down, fill me up a platter,
Great big platter of that love chitter-chatter,
And if I need a drink on the side,
I'll take a little swallow of my pride."

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Fred Maslan
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 12:02 AM

"Everything is food" from the Popeye movie with Robin Williams by Nilson., Not published as near as I can tell, or on the soundtrack recording. The only way to learn it is to play the movie over and over.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 04:55 PM

On the other hand you've got 'The Grey Coc-au-vin', 'Hang Down Your Head tandoori', 'The Unquiet Gravy', Alan Tyne of Marrow - et al.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: food songs
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 08:43 PM

from the links on my October 27th, 2005 posting above :

Chendie's Meatloaf Blues
Phil & Kylie's Sticky Date Pudding
Throw It On the Barbie
Val's Cherries Jubilee
MP's Vegie Slice
Pork Fillets in Apple & Guinness Sauce
Fillets of Soul St Germain
Sandy's Patent Leather Pie
Rayner's Scallops
Corrie's Coconut Cabbage Soup

all good, catchy, folkie, food songs!!!!!

... and yes folks, this CD is still available :~)))



Cheers! R-J
Down Under

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Rev
Date: 24 Mar 07 - 01:24 AM

Perhaps this is stretching a bit, because gum doesn't really count as food (and it's a TPA novelty song), but I've always loved "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight," if only for its very evocative title.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 24 Mar 07 - 11:27 AM

Grandpa Jones used to sing as ong called "Gooseberry Pie". Of course, Utah Phillips had a story about pie.............

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 09:06 PM

the I had ham song is by dan crow.

Subject: Lyr Add: GET A LOAD OF THIS (Armstrong/Dodge)
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 11:31 AM

And a classic from Robert Crumb's Cheap Suits:

GET A LOAD OF THIS
(Armstrong/Dodge)

My girlfriend's over but I sent her away
'cause she almost knocked the supper off my TV tray
Bring a loada'
RC Cola
TV Dinner
A plate of Twinkies
It takes a pink burrito
For to keep me clean
(For to keep me clean)

TV dinner is the meal that I'm lovin'
Take off the foil, 30 minutes in the oven
Bring a loada'
RC Cola
TV Dinner
A plate of Twinkies
It takes a pink burrito
For to keep me clean
(For to keep me clean)


Don't like no carrots, can't stand no peas
But a pack of Ding Dong bring me down to my knees
Bring a loada'
RC Cola
TV Dinner
A plate of Twinkies
It takes a pink burrito
For to keep me clean
(For to keep me clean)

Girlfriend's sweet, she ain't like no other
Let's me spend all day in front of that 24-inch color
Brings a loada'
RC Cola
TV Dinner
A plate of Twinkies
It takes a pink burrito
For to keep me clean
(For to keep me clean)

Only one thing makes me jump up and holler
TV breaks down during Bowling for Dollars
Get a loada'
RC Cola
TV Dinner
A plate of Twinkies
It takes a pink burrito
For to keep me clean
(For to keep me clean)

(Oh yeah)
(That's right)


--Stewie.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,PHINQUE
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 01:26 PM

"The Road Kill Cafe" has some interesting ideas on eating.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Rog Peek
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 02:39 PM

'Boiled Beef and Carrots'
'The Salt'

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 06:06 PM

Junk Food Junkie - from an old Dr. Demento album
One Meat Ball - Josh White & others
Acres of Clams - an old Seattle favorite (Remember Ivar's?)
Johnny McEldoo - The Clancy Brothers
Way Down Yonder in the Paw Paw Patch (assuming they're still edible)
Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?
Shoo-Fly Pie (and Apple Pan Dowdy)

Of course, if you lump drink in with food, it opens up a real Pandora's Box of possibilities....

Subject: Lyr Add: TASTES LIKE CHICKEN (Austin Lounge Lizard
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 08:34 PM

Transcribed from an archived radio program (and then I found it here). To hear it, click here and then advance to 00:24:43.

TASTES LIKE CHICKEN
Hank Card/Conrad Deisler/Gail Fisher/Eamon McLoughlin/Kristen Nelson Card/Tom Pittman/Boo Resnick

I have traveled round the world from Fiji to Nairobi,
Sampled the exotic fare from Chihuahua to the Gobi.
From Land's End to Helsinki and all points in between,
I've been fed the finest Finnish food and British haute cuisine

From the malts of Montezuma to the s'mores of Tripoli,
From the mints of Machu Picchu to the doughnuts of the deep Dead Sea.
Let me set you straight, my friends: it always seemed to be,
Mammals, fish, and reptiles all taste the same to me.

Chipped beef on toast, have a friend for pot roast,
Tender little piggy toes with a bit of Bordeaux,
French-fried mince pies right between the fish eyes,
Half-baked pound cake, Shake 'n Bake, and rattlesnake,

Slop, glop, (taste like chicken)
Gruel, drool, (taste like chicken)
Spumoni, baloney, (taste like chicken)
Taste like chicken to me.

Quattro formaggi in an ancient Tuscan palace,
Mystery meats impaled on sticks at the State Fair in Dallas,
Leaning towers of pizza and spaghetti bolognaise.
How I love thee, pu pu platter! Let me count the ways.

I've scouted out the finest kraut in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
I've filled a dish with gefilte fish with a Jew named Ole Yohnson,
The joys of vegan nut loaf with a side of lychee ramen.
From French nouveau to lutefisk, they all have this in common:

Alligator, Darth Vader skewered on a light saber
Burger topped with special sauce, a bit o' car exhaust
Hot corn, cold corn, bring along a demijohn,
Kumquats, Tater Tots, Devon cream with lots o' clots,

Stones, bones, (taste like chicken)
Slush, mush, (taste like chicken)
Hummus, pumice, (taste like chicken)
Taste like chicken to me.

Fillet of bunny when it's sunny is lip-smackin' good.
Monkey brains when it rains is my favorite food. [Pronounced to rhyme with "good"]
Artichoke is okey-doke with a slice of tongue.
Manatee's a dream to me, especially when it's young.

Catguts, rat butts, any-way-you-can nuts,
Groundhog, boiled dog, love a little legless frog,
Orange pop, gumdrops, Shari Lewis lamb chops,
Collard greens from New Orleans, Chianti and fava beans,

Blubber, flubber, (taste like chicken)
Masa, kielbasa, (taste like chicken)
Lizards, gizzards, (taste like chicken)
Taste like chicken to me.

Chalupas, pupas, (taste like chicken)
Cookies, Wookiees, (taste like chicken)
Soda, Yoda, (taste like chicken)
Order, chaos, (taste like chicken)
Dopey, Grumpy, (taste like chicken)
Donner and Blitzen, (taste like chicken)
Democrats, Republicans, (taste like chicken)
Betty, Veronica, (taste like chicken)
Taste like chicken to me.

[From the Austin Lounge Lizards' album "Strange Noises in the Dark," Blue Corn Music CD 303, 2003.]

Subject: Lyr Add: A PINK PORK CHOP AND A GRILLED LINK ...
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 02:35 PM

Food songs, ok...

A Pink Pork Chop And a Grilled Link Sausage    Bradley, Rivett & Hauenstein

A (C)Pink
Pork (Am)Chop(Am7)(Am)
And a (F)Grilled Link (C)Sausage,
There's (F)no bare (G)space on my (C)plate.(F) (C)
A (G)Pink
Pork (Am)Chop(Am7)(Am)
And a (F)Grilled Link (C)Sausage,
Yes, (F)I'm a (G)meat repro(C)bate. (F) (C) (G)(hold)

(E)I was weaned on (Am)corned beef hash
'Cause (F)mother's milk gave (G)me a rash.
(F)Now it's meat that (C)I a(Am)dore,
(F)Just call me a (G)carnivore! (G7)

A (C)pink
Pork (Am)Chop(Am7)(Am)
And a (F)Grilled Link (C)Sausage,
(F) I just (G)cannot tell a (C)fib, (F) (C)
A (G)Pink
Pork (Am)Chop(Am7)(Am)
And a (F)Grilled Link (C)Sausage,
(F) I'd kill a (G)cow for Prime (C)Rib. (F) (C) (G)(hold)

(C)Meat…(Am7) (F) (G)
(C)Meat…(F) (C) (G)
(C)Meat…(Am7) (F) (G)
(C)Meat!(F) (C) (G) (hold)

(E)Suck the marrow (Am)from a bone,
(F)Wear Mesquite (G)as a cologne
(F)Can't relate to (C)herbi(Am)vore
(F)What the hell are (G)their teeth for?(G7)

A (C)pink
Pork (Am)Chop (Am7)(Am)
And a (F)Grilled Link (C)Sausage,
(F) I don't (G)mean to cause dis(C)dain. (F) (C)
A (G)pink
Pork (Am)Chop (Am7)(Am)
And a (F)Grilled Link (C)Sausage,
(F)I've got meat (G)products on the (C)brain!

(E)Wheat germ and (Am)soy(Am7)(Am)
Were (F)never a (G)joy,
And (E)veggies were (E7)never a (Am)treat.(Am7)
My (F)love of crus(C)tacian
(F)Ended in frus(C)tration,
(Am) Let (F)me(G) eat
(C)Mea(Am7)ea(F)ea(G)eat,
(C)Mea(Am7)ea(F)ea(G)eat,
(C)Mea(Am7)ea(F)ea(G)eat,
(C)MEAT!! (F) (C)

written by Scott Bradley, John Rivett & Jan Hauenstein, December 2004

[e-mail]

Subject: Lyr Add: SEAFOOD DEPARTMENT BLUES
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 02:36 PM

Got one more

Seafood Department Blues    (Hauenstein, Henriksen, Otto & Barrett)

(C)Woke up this (F)morning,
(C)Blues swimming (G)in my (C)head.
(F)Smelt something (C)funny,
Had a (E)flounder (E7)in my (Am)bed. (F) (G) (C) (G7) (C)

Well, I woke up this (E7)mornin'
With a crus(A7)tacean in my shoes,
No shad, man! (F)Woke up this (C)mornin'(C/B)
With a (Am)lobster where I (Am7)didn't (G6)choose.(G)
(F)Sleepin' behind the (C)fishmart
Givin' me them (F)Seafood De(G)partment (C)Blues. (F)
(G) (C) (G7) (C)

I had clams in my pa(E7)jam's
And (A7)grouper in my BVDs,
(F)Seven bivalves in my (C)sleepwear,(C/B)
(Am)Givin' me a (Am7)seven (G6)seize. (G)
(F)Seafood Department (C)Blues, now,
(F)Like to bring me (G)to my (C)knees. (F) (G)

(C)And I found some (E7)caviar,
Da (Am)bass, dey laid some (F)eggs,
I (E)found dem oh so (Am)tasty
At da (F)bottom of mah (G)legs. (F) (C) (F) (G) (C)

Met a shark in the (E7)dark,
We (A7)had us a whale of a time,
And them (F)jellyfish made a (C)mighty fine (C/B)dish,
They´re (Am)seven dozen (Am7)for a (G6)dime.(G)
(F)Seafood Department (C)Blues,
(F)Sure feels (G)like a (C)crime. (F) (G)

(C)Down in Fishmart (E7)Alley
'S a barra(Am)cuda with a (F)gun,
(E7)Stickin' up the (Am)tourists
And (F)tuna'n' up for other (G)fun,
(F)Kelpin' hisself to other´s (C)goodies 'n
(F)Sellin' seaweed (G)by the (C)ton. (C7) (F) (Fm) (C) (F) (G) (C) (G7) (C)

written by Jan Hauenstein, Gene Henriksen, Joanne Otto and Tom Barrett,
no rights reversed.

A smelt is a small lake fish found in the great lakes.(Tom B)
A bivalve is a mollusk, such as an oyster or a clam, that has a shell consisting of two hinged valves.

Music Goettingen, 28 August 2004

[e-mail]

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: MEAT HATS (Bradley/Hauenstein/...)
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 02:39 PM

Almost forgot this one, goes to the tune of Blackbird

Meat Hats    Music Lennon/McCartney/Words Bradley/Hauenstein

(G)Meat Hats (C)worn by a (G)friend of mine
I am (A7)sure he's (Am7)mad, he (A°)thinks he's di(Em)vine,(C)
(G)Boy, (A7)be (C)wise,(Cm)
Your (G)Haute (A7)Couture is (C)only (D7) drawing (G)flies.(C)(G) (A7) (D7/4)

(G)Meat Hats (C)worn by a (G)friend of mine
Have a (A7)ten day(Am7) exipi(A°)ration (Em)date.(C)
(G)I'm (A7)i(C)rate.(Cm)
His (G)bacon top hat decom(A7)poses (C)at a (D7)rapid (G)rate.

(F) (C) (Dm)Bad (C)Meat (Bb)Hat, (C)
(F) (C) (Dm)Bad (C)Meat (Bb)Hat, (A7) (hold)
Walking with (D7)him,
Better walk up(G)wind.
- Instrumental verse -

(F) (C) (Dm)Bad (C)Meat (Bb)Hat, (C)
(F) (C) (Dm)Bad (C)Meat (Bb)Hat, (A7) (hold)
After ten (D7)days
Smelling awf´ly (G)bad.(C)

(G)Meat hat stinking in the (C)dead of (G)night,
10 days (A7)old, gives (Am7)off an (A°)eerie greenish (Em)light,(C)
(G)Shines (A7)all (C)night,(Cm)
(G)´Nuff to give old (A7)grandpa´s ghost (C)one hell (D7)of a (G)fright,
(C)Shinin´ (G)like a (A7)bacon in the (D7)wee hours of the (G)night,
(C)Grandpa´s (G)ghost will (A7)piss his pants a(D7)gain al(G)right.(C)(G)

© Music Lennon/McCartney
Words Scott Bradley/Jan Hauenstein

A°
E----2------------
B--1--------------
G----2------------
D--1--------------
A-----------------
E--xx-------------

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Feb 11 - 07:47 PM

Harry Champion (1866-1942), British music-hall star, recorded several songs about food:

A Little Bit of Cucumber
Boiled Beef and Carrots
Good Old Yorkshire Pudding
Home Made Sausages
Hot Meat Pies, Saveloys and Trotters
I Want Meat
Let's Have a Basin of Soup
Standard Bread
That Gorgonzola Cheese

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,open mike
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 01:41 PM

I did not have time to read nearly 150 entries but did think of these...maybe listed already..

When Did We Have Sauerkraut? – by Peter & Lou Berryman
Homegrown Tomatoes – Guy (and Susanna) Clark
Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow – Trad.
Chocolate – Christine Lavin
Cold Pizza for Breakfast – Christine Lavin
Potatoes – Cheryl Wheeler
Applesauce – Christopher Smith

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 01:48 PM

Watching the Apples Grow – Stan Rogers
Farmer Song – Gary Fjellgaard(?)
“inch by inch, row by row” – The Garden Song – David Mallett
Banana Slug String Band has several:
Dirt Made My Lunch and others

John McCutcheon has a song about Soup..
and there is a song about The Wonderful Soup Stone – Shel Silverstein?
Apples and Bananas
Red Red Wine
Miss American Pie (is that food?)
I remember hearing a line about Apple Pan Dowdy [="Shoo-Fly Pie"]...in a song about the south
That's What I Like about the South...has ham in it too
Banana Pancakes – Jack Johnson
Guy Clark – "Texas Cookin'"
we sang a song at camp about Fried Eggs, Ham and Baloney and After the Macaroni We'll Have Pizza

Banana Boat Song – “come Mr. Tally Man tally me banana daylight come and me wanna go home” – Harry Belafonte

Subject: RE: food songs
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 01:58 PM

My "We Go Together" has a fair bit of (human and bee!) food in it - http://walkaboutsverse.webs.com/#109

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 10:33 PM

that guest at 1:48 was me without cookies..hey, that's food, too

Kate Campbell has a song about tomato seeds: “Jesus and Tomatoes”, coming soon.

and Stephanie Davis has a song about gardening, planting and canning food..”Talkin’ Harvest Time Blues”

also Peach Pickin’ Time in Georgia
and If You Don’t Want My Peaches don't shake my tree

Chris Smither has a song about a vegetable vender who calls out
the wares on his wagon...watermelon, etc.

Peanut, peanut butter, and jelly...is a kid's song with hand movements describing making bread, and jelly and spreading p.butter and jelly on bread

Norton Buffalo did a song about "Ain't No Bread in the Breadbox"
the Grateful Dead sang it..

John Prine has a line about a bowl of oatmeal staring him down and winning [=“Illegal Smile”]

Simon and Garfunkel had a line about raisin bran or corn flakes in a song about roger draft dodger....? [=“Punky’s Dilemma”]

any one remember that one??

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 12 Nov 12 - 04:29 AM

ahh...refreshing this thread...looking for food songs for my radio show ... my next 2 hour show will be around thanksgiving (NOV.24) and often the thing we are most thankful for on that day centers around food!

Isn't there a cowboy song about biscuits and gravy? (all i could find was this parody by Lady Antebellum www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXsN-J-ASqg

we sing several food songs including GROUNDHOG.

i just found an all girl bluegrass band called Sweet Potato Pie.
Their title song is featured online...

anyone have any other foodie songs not yet mentioned?

how about Junk Food Junkie ? By Larry Groce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLiVeRJTtqo

Subject: RE: food songs
From: CupOfTea
Date: 12 Nov 12 - 12:45 PM

Though the Berrymans' witty When Did We Have Sauerkraut? song was mentioned earlier, they regularly mention food in their songs. Crab Canape is a lovely duet of dueling food sensibilities. Orange Cocoa Cake is a whole recipe interspersed with mom-to-kids chat interruptions. As your show is Thanksgiving-oriented, their Uncle Dave's Grace would be a gem. Hills, Herdman & Mangsen recorded a great version of it on one of their Winter albums.

Cindy Mangsen's Cat Tales album includes Open That Can detailing food cravings feline, canine, and human.

Deb Cowan's latest album has a fun (how to sing along with) version of the previously mentioned Good Fish Chowder (and is one of MANY reasons to get this excellent album) Also previously mentioned Dad's Dinner Pail is the title song of another album of hers.

Hot Soup's Soup Happens has the song Soup detailing the pleasures of hot soup on cold winter days.

Chicago's duo Small Potatoes Time Flies album has their Avocado song that was featured in a car's sound system sample.

Les Barker is a great source of parody songs featuring food (for as many as there are, he ought to be a good deal wider than he is...) Besides Custard Creams and Hard Cheeses of Old England my favorite is My Husband's Got No Porridge in Him (Food and Fractured Faerie Tales all in one!). I can't remember the rest without digging the albums out - I just remember more.

Long before I got in over my head in folk, I had a brief flirtation with light Jazz, after falling in love with the writing of Michael Franks who does several food songs, though admittedly dripping cutesy innuendo. His Art of Tea album has what might be his best known song Popsicle Toes along with Eggplant

Good luck with your show & happy food contemplation for Thanksgiving

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bettynh
Date: 12 Nov 12 - 01:05 PM

Christine Lavin made a compilation CD, One Meat Ball with some great versions of food songs, including Dave Van Ronk explaining the title song, Tom Paxton singing "Bottle of Wine" in French, and Debi Smith singing "Pie" with Doc Watson accompanying.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: reggie miles
Date: 12 Nov 12 - 04:51 PM

Hmmm, I'm rather surprised after viewing my post in this thread from way back on March 15th of 1999. In that post my song suggestion is linked, via some strange computational algorithm, to another song, not the song that I had in mind. Weird!

I, too, enjoy food songs. I've written a couple of them since then. A nice video of my latest food songMakin' Bacon was captured on April 4th, 2012 as I was offering it to listeners at Sliders Cafe in Carnation, WA.

And here's a link to an audio file of my song A Dilly Of A Tale (The Pickle Song). This song was inspired into existence via a thread post that I was answering right here at The Mudcat Cafe. I recall that we were having a conversation about a woman who was going to take McDonalds to court, because she burned her lip on hot pickle. As I was writing my response, about having recently consumed some just plain bad dill pickles and wondering if I had a case of my own, my song was born. Enjoy!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: reggie miles
Date: 12 Nov 12 - 05:02 PM

I never did get litigious with the company that produced those awful tasting dills but I did get a great song out of the deal. I figure a jar full of sour pickles in exchange for a sweet song is a fair trade.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: BK Lick
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 01:26 AM


Old Woman From Wexford aka Marrow Bones

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 03:50 AM

hooray for the fresh and spicy additions to this smorgasboard of tunes.
Yes, it was while listening to Deb Cowan's version of Good Fish Chowder that I decided that my thanksgiving show would be centered around food! inspiring, that! luckily listening to songs about food is not likely to add pounds as actually consuming it does!

Kate Campbell has several songs about food...Funeral Food and casseroles as well as holy tomato seeds -- Jesus and Tomatoes coming soon! Let's see... who does Animal Crackers in my Soup? oh yes, Shirley Temple!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: moongoddess
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 02:38 PM

One Clam Cake by Jon Campbell over here in Rhode Island.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bettynh
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 03:16 PM

Junk Food by the Four Bitchin Babes

and


Slow Food by David Holt

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 08:58 PM

From barley we get home-brewed ale,
From malt our whiskey comes,
But from the oats in Staffordshire
Do come our lumpytums.

*

There's folk that's teetotalers, they drinks water neat.
It must rot their gullets and given them webbed feet,
But I always say that a man can't grow stale
On boiled beef and bacon and good English ale.

Ale, ale, glorious ale!
Served up in pewter, it tells its own tale.
Some folks likes cabbages, some curlye kale,
But give I boiled parsnips,
And a great dish of taters,
And a lump of fatty bacon,
And a pint of good ale!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Eddie1 (Still sans cookie)
Date: 14 Nov 12 - 10:33 AM

Here's the Playlist for a radio show I did a few weeks back:


Artist – Title – Length
Chet Atkins – Country Champagne – 02:36
Various Artists – Strawberry Fields Forever – 02:21
Jean Jacques Milteau – Gumbo – 01:49
Willie Nelson – Whiskey River – 04:04
Archie Fisher – Gunsmoke & Whisky – 03:34
The Carter Family – Chewing Gum – 03:05
Chet Atkins – Java – 02:41
Chuck McCabe – Meats in a Can – 01:48
Virginia Boys – Dill Pickle Rag – 01:30
Emmylou Harris – Another Pot o' Tea – 03:03
Flatt & Scruggs – Hot Corn, Cold Corn – 02:32
Grandpa Jones – Mountain Dew – 02:13
Gretchen Wilson – One Bud Wiser – 03:39
Hamish Imlach – Goodbye Booze – 03:10
Harry McLintock – Big Rock Candy Mountain – 04:39
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Jambalaya – 03:22
Janis Ian – Hunger – 06:28
Jerry Garcia – Whiskey in the Jar – 04:17
Jimmy Rodgers – Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia – 02:51
Lefty Frizell – Cigarettes and Coffee Blues – 02:37
Lonnie Donegan – Take a Drink on Me – 03:15
Merle Haggard – I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink – 03:58
Hank Thompson – What Made Milwaukee Famous – 02:08
Burl Ives – Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly – 02:39
Slim Dusty – Pub With No Beer – 03:00
Eddie – Put Another Log on the Fire – 01:39
Red Hot Chilli Peppers – We Will Rock You – 02:22
Red Ingles – Cigareets & Whuskey – 02:42
Red Foley & Ernest Tubb – Too Old to Cut the Mustard – 02:54
Johnny Paycheck – The Bottle Let Me Down – 04:23
The Dubliners – Rare Old Mountain Dew – 01:27
Iain MacKintosh – The New Restaurant – 02:15
Tom Paxton – Bottle of Wine – 02:54
Tom T Hall – Old Dogs & Children – 04:10
Emmylou Harris – Two More Bottles of Wine – 03:15
George Jones – White Lightnin' – 02:45
Young Tradition – Chicken on a Raft – 03:34

Eddie –

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 24 Nov 12 - 10:00 PM

ok,i am not hungry or thirsty any more!
what a great "menu" thanks all you mudcats
for sharing...hope everyone had a good thanksgiving...

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bert
Date: 24 Nov 12 - 11:15 PM

Found a peanut.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 08:11 PM

here is a playlist and a link to listen to the archived show: FOOD
Crossroads Show - November 25, 2012 - Thankful for Bountiful Harvest
KROV f.m. 91.1 f.m. Oroville, CA, www.orovilleradio.org, http://orovilleradio.org/shows/view/45
Host, Laurel Paulson-Pierce, "Your Radio Common 'Tater", veraloe@ gotsky.com
Artist / Song / C.D. / Record Label / approximate Time song starts in the show

Tom Russell / Bowl of Red / Heart on a Sleeve / Bear Family Records
Sweet Potato Pie / Roly Poly / Brand New Day / Mountain Fever Records
Dave Van Ronk / One Meat Ball / title Song / Appleseed Records
Tom Paxton, Anne Hills, Bob Gibson / Bottle of Wine / see above
Debi Smith, Doc Watson / Pie / See Above                                                             16:15
Chuch McCabe / Meats in a Can / Creatures of Habit in a World of Change / Scuppernong        20:30
Chuck McCabe / Hollandaise / see above
Lance Brown / Kitchen Blues / Too Busy to Work / www.lancetunes.com                        
"Uncle" Dave Osterreich / Beans, Bacon and Gravy / Mudcat Sampler / Blue Plate Special        31:00
Yvonne Hollenbeck / Bachelor Junk Food / Sorting Time /        Dorian Buttes Publishing         35:18
Joe Craven / Hot Turkey / Camptown / Acorn Music                                                37:05
Faith Petric / Highway Hunter / When Did We Have Saurkrout? / Center Records                        41:49
"    "    / Idaho Spud /    see above                                                                44:55
    "    " / Title Song / see above                                                                        47:40
Cathy Fink , Marcy Marxer / Orange Cocoa Cake / Parent's Home Companion/ Rounder                51:16
Rail Road Earth / Livin' the Good Life / Title Song / Sugar Hill                                        54:20
Greg Brown / Canned Goods / Prairie Home Companion 1983 /                                        1:00:00
Peter Cooper and L.G. / Mamma Bake a Pie / The Lloyd Green Album / Red Beet Records                1:02:15        
Ellis Paul / The Star in the Apple / Dragon Fly Races / Black Wolf Records                                1:06:32


Readings from several Farmer's Almanacs by Laurel                                                 1:08:00
Background music by Clare Milliner and Walt Koken/ Cookhouse Joe / Mudthumper
Kate Campbell / Pans of Biscuits, Bowls of Gravy / Blues and Lamentations / Large River                1:21:08        
   "    "    / Corn in a Box / Monuments / Large River Music                                        1:25:00
Dana and Susan Robinson / A - Z Farmer's Market / American Hornpipe /Threshold Music            1:28:15        
James Reames & Barnstormers / Cornbread, Molasses,and Sassafrass Tea /
                 One foot in the        Honky Tonk / Mountain Redbird Music                                1:32:00        
Flatlanders / Eggs of Your Chickens / Wheel of Fortune / New West                                1:33:45
Greg Brown / Out in the Country / Prairie Home Companion 1986                                1:37:15
Katie Lee / Ballad of Alfred Packer / Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle / Katydid Music                         1:42:00
John Walker / Red Beans and Rice / Nebraska Tall Grass Sampler / Prairie Dog Music                 1:45:19
Craig Werth / Zucchini Surprise / The Spokes Man / SELF                                        1:50:15        
Ann Hills and David Roth / Rhubarb Trees / Title Song / Wind River Music                         1:52:37        
Connie Kaldor / Okanagan Peaches / Postcards from the Road / Word of Mouth                         1:55:50        
Fiddlestix /The Beer Song / Live at the Conservatory of Music, Stockton, CA / SELF                1:58:30
Ian Tyson and Nanci Griffith / Canadian Whiskey / Wounded Heart of America,
                Tom Russell Songs/ High Tone Records                                                2:03:52
Water Tower Bucket Boys / Tequila and Lime / Sole Kitchen / Monkey Trench Studios                 2:07:23        
Dandelion Wine / Miss V Gypsy Cowgirl / Range Rider, Songs of the Trail / Self (Eagle)                2:11:45
David Grisman and Jerry Garcia / Drink Up and Go Home /
                Been All Around This World / Acoustic Disc                                         2:15:39
Whiskey Before Breakfast / Huckelberry Flint / Pillowfort                                         to end

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Arkie
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 09:50 AM

Impressive lists and it seemed like everything was covered but I did not find the following:

Lacy Dalton - Black Coffee
Bill Haley - Forty Cups of Coffee
fiddle tune - Sugar in the Coffee
Gene Autry, Red Foley, Lulu Belle & others - Methodist Pie
Guy Clark - Instant Coffee Blues
Merle Travis - Too Much Sugar for a Dime
Baxter Black - A Vegetarian's Nightmare or a Dissertation on Plant's Rights (poem)

Baxter Black

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Arkie
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 10:15 AM

Ok a few more and I will call it quits for now, but I found these on my computer.

old fiddle tune - Paddy Won't You Drink some good old Cider
Bradley Kincaid - I Had but 50¢
Prickly Pear - The Big Food Chain
Bob Campbell - Arbuckle Coffee
Bob Newman - Leftover Hash
Johnny Silvo - Cornbread, Peas, & Black Molasses
old fiddle tune - Sal's Come to the Cider Mill

Did not check to see if this was already posted - All Go Hungry Hash House

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 01:47 PM

Blickie for Open Mike's radio show featuring food songs

Subject: RE: food songs
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 09:49 PM

Not a folk song, but "Food, Glorious Food!" (from "Oliver!") would seem an obvious candidate...

Subject: Lyr Add: CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE (Jimmy Buffett)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 May 13 - 09:33 AM

CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE
As sung by Jimmy Buffett on "Son of a Son of a Sailor"

Tried to amend my carnivorous habits.
Made it nearly seventy days,
Losin' weight without speed, eatin' sunflower seeds,
Drinkin' lots of carrot juice and soakin' up rays,
But at night I'd had these wonderful dreams:
Some kind of sensuous treat,
Not zucchini, fettuccine, or bulgur wheat,
But a big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat.

CHORUS: Cheeseburger in paradise (paradise),
Heaven on earth with an onion slice (paradise),
Not too particular, not too precise (paradise),
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise.

Heard about the old time sailor men.
They eat the same thing again and again.
Warm beer and bread they said could raise the dead.
Well, it reminds me of the menu at a Holiday Inn.
Times have changed for sailors these days.
When I'm in port, I get what I need:
Not just Havanas or bananas or daiquiris,
But that American creation on which I feed:

CHORUS: Cheeseburger in paradise (paradise),
Medium rare with mustard'd be nice (paradise),
Heaven on earth with an onion slice (paradise).
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise.

I like mine with lettuce and tomato,
Heinz 57 and french-fried potatoes,
Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer.
Well, good God almighty, which way do I steer for my—

CHORUS: Cheeseburger in paradise (paradise)?
Makin' the best of every virtue and vice (paradise),
Worth every damn bit of sacrifice (paradise),
To get a cheeseburger in paradise,
To be a cheeseburger in paradise.
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise.

I like mine with lettuce and tomato,
Heinz 57, and french-fried potatoes,
Big kosher pickle, and a cold draft beer.
Well, good God almighty, which way do I steer?

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SUPER SUPPER MARCH (Dr. Seuss)
From: May Queen
Date: 21 May 13 - 05:24 PM

Here's my favourite as a kid and probably now too :) I sing this to my husband when its his turn to cook.

The Super-Supper March

Hungry, hungry I am hungry
Table, table here I come
I could eat a goose-moose burger
Fifteen pickles and a purple plum

I could eat three bowls of goulash
Half a pound of wuzzled wheat
I could eat a peck of poobers
Then I`d really get to work and eat

Oysters, noodles, strawberry stroodles
French fries, fish hash, one red beet
Lamb chops, wham chops
Huckleberry mish mash
Oh, the things that I could eat

Doughnuts, dump-a-lings
Blueberry bump-a-lings
Chocolate mush-mash, super sweet
Clam stew, ham stew,
Water melon wush wush
Oh, the stuff that I could eat

Deep dish rhubarb, upside-down cake
I could eat a frittered flum
Hungry, hungry, I am starving
Table, table, here I come

Any one else remember this one from school? It was in the Apusskidu children's song book used in UK primary schools in the 60's and 70's

Subject: Lyr Add: COME AROUND TO MY HOUSE (Georgia White)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 May 14 - 06:18 PM

COME AROUND TO MY HOUSE
As sung by Georgia White, 1941.

If you want good cookin',
You can get good cookin'.
If you want good cookin',
Come around to my house.
You can get some corn bread,
And if you like good corn bread,
And if you want good corn bread,
Come around to my house.
Well now, you like ham; I like ham
All circled 'round with candied yam.
You like pastry; I've got pastry,
Sweet and hot and oh so tasty.
You can get good cookin'.
If you like good cookin';
And you want good cookin',
So come around to my house.

You can get good gravy
If you like good gravy,
And you want good gravy.
Oh, come around to my house.
You can get hot biscuits
If you like hot biscuits,
And you want good biscuits,
Just come around to my house.
Now you like jam; I like jam,
Grape, for mint or leg o' lamb.
You like pot pies; I've got pot pie,
Guaranteed first time you try 'em.
You can get rice puddin',
If you like rice puddin',
And you want rice puddin'.
Say, brother, come on 'round to my house.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 14 May 14 - 06:15 AM

Has anybody mentioned the ballad of Lumley Kettlewell?

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bert
Date: 15 May 14 - 01:07 AM

Fried Bread and Brandy-O - The Spinners
Pickin' a Chicken - Eve Boswell
When Your Pickle Glows at Night - Amos Jessup

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Bert
Date: 15 May 14 - 01:08 AM

The Quartermaster's Store.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 15 May 14 - 09:07 PM

I once wrote a song about Stovies - a real staple Scottish dish. Might post it later.

Subject: Lyr Add: PAPA DON'T WANT NO FISH AND RICE AGAIN
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 May 15 - 06:04 PM

You can hear this on YouTube:


PAPA DON'T WANT NO FISH AND RICE AGAIN
Written by Sam Manning, Sam Johnson & Oscar E. Johnson
As sung by Sam Manning & The Felix Krazy Cats on Decca 18257a, 1941.

Papa don't want no fish and rice nor hominy.
That's not the kind of food for a man like me.
My favorite dish is fish,
But for fish sake, finish!*
Papa don't want to see no fish and rice again.

Big fish, little fish, catfish, fresh fish, all the same.
Swordfish, pickle-fish—fish is fish by any name.
Why, the doctors all explain
Fish would help my brain,
So papa don't want to see no fish and rice again.

Mama, ain't there nothin' else that you can buy?
Tummy ache all night, papa want to die.
Tuna swallowed a whale.
Any more fish and I'd go to jail.
Oh, papa don't want to see no fish and rice again.

Oh, papa don't want no fish and rice nor hominy.
That's not the kind of food for a man like me.
My appetite is big,
But, mama, I ain't no pig.
Oh, papa don't want to see no fish and rice again.


* pronounced with the accent on the second syllable.

This song seems related to "Mama Don't Want No Peas and Rice an' Coconut Oil" which was published in 1932.

Subject: Lyr Add: I HEARD THE VOICE OF A PORK CHOP (Jackson
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 May 16 - 08:57 AM

These words seem to be a parody of "I HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS SAY (COME UNTO ME AND REST)" but it is sung to a different tune.


I HEARD THE VOICE OF A PORK CHOP


[I. As recorded by Jim Jackson, 30-Jan-1928. YouTube.]


I walked and I walked and I walked and I walked; I stopped for to rest my feet.
I set down on an old oak tree, there went fast asleep.
I dreamt I was settin' in a swell cafe as hungry as a bear.
My stomach sent a telegram to my throat: "There's a wreck on the road somewhere."

I heard the voice of a pork chop say: "Come unto me and rest."
Well, you talk about your stewin' beef; I know what's the best.
Well, you talk about your chicken, ham and eggs, turkey stuffed and dressed,
But I heard the voice of a pork chop say: "Come unto me and rest."


[II. As recorded by Ben Curry (a.k.a. Blind Bogus Ben Covington), 1-Sep-1928. Jim Jackson is credited as songwriter. YouTube.]


I ain't had no use for chicken since way back yonder last spring,
For a chicken tried to peck me 'cause I stepped on his wing.
Old chicken caused me to go to jail; I don't let no chicken do that.
I would have stoled ev'ry hen he had, but I found out they was fat.

I was walking down the street today just as hungry as I could be,
And I walked right in a swell cafe; this is what they said to me:
"Hey, won't you have some chicken?" "Oh, no, I'll have some beef."
"Anytime a man refuse chicken here, he has to pay before he eats."

I heard the voice of a pork chop say: "Come unto me and rest."
You talk about liver, stew and beans, but I know what's the best.
That's pork chop, veal chop, ham and eggs, turkey stuffed and dressed.
I heard the voice of a pork chop say: "Come unto me and rest."

Well, I walked and I walked and I walked and I walked and I stopped to rest my feet.
I set down beside of a great big tree; then I soon was fast asleep.
I dreamed I was settin' in a swell cafe just as hungry as a bear.
My stomach sent a telegram to my throat: "There's a wreck on the road somewhere."

I heard the voice of a pork chop say: "Come unto me and rest."
You talk about liver, stew and beans, but I know what's the best.
That's pork chop, veal chop, ham and eggs, turkey stuffed and dressed.
Heard the voice of a pork chop say: "Come unto me and rest."

Subject: Lyr Add: BANGERS AND MASH (Kretzmer/Lee; Sellers)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Aug 16 - 01:17 AM

This was mentioned by Bert on 16 Mar 1999:


BANGERS AND MASH
Words by Herbert Kretzmer ; music by Dave Lee.
As recorded by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren, 1961

I met her down in Napoli and didn't she look great!
And so I brought her back to Blighty just to show me mates;
And though we're married happily, I'll tell you furthermore,
I haven't had a decent meal since nineteen forty-four.

—Eat your minestrone, Joe. —That's all you ever say.
—Eat your macaroni, Joe. —Ev'ry blinking day.
—No wonder you're so bony, Joe, and skinny as a rake.
—Well then, give us a bash at the bangers and mash me mother used to make.

Bangers and mash! —Minestrone!
—Bangers and mash! —Macaroni!
—Give us a bash at the bangers and mash me mother used to make.

—Eat your tagliatelle, Joe. —That's all I've heard for years.
—Eat your vermicelli, Joe. —It's coming out me ears.
—You've got to fill your belly Joe; Joe, for heaven's sake!
—Well then, give us a bash at the bangers and mash me mother used to make.

Bangers and mash! —Tagliatelle!
—Bangers and mash! —Vermicelli!
—Oh, give us a bash at the bangers and mash me mother used to make.

Subject: Lyr Add: ENGLISH MUFFINS AND IRISH STEW
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 Aug 16 - 01:16 AM

I must admit this is one of the stupidest songs I've transcribed.


ENGLISH MUFFINS AND IRISH STEW
Words by Bob Hilliard, music by Moose Charlap.
As recorded by Sylvia Syms, 1956.

You'd never think they'd go together, but they certainly do:
The combination of English muffins and Irish stew.
I must admit that they're quite delicious and so easy to chew:
The combination of English muffins and Irish stew.

I've tried macaroni and Spanish rice.
That's not so very nice.
That's not so very nice.
I've tried French pancakes with German sauerkraut,
But that's one dish I'd do without.

You'd never think they'd go together, but they certainly do.
The combination of English muffins and Irish stew.
The Mexican army has eaten salami and onions from Peru,
But it don't compare with English muffins and Irish stew.

The English and the Irish have been firish(?) now and then,
'Cause the Irish think that they can knock the stuffin'
Out of any old English muffin.

So you'd never think they'd go together, but they certainly do:
The combination of English muffins and Irish stew.

I've tried sukiyaki in Labrador,
And I don't want no more.
No, I don't want no more.
I've tried hot tamale with Turkish shish kebab,
But I prefer corn on the cob.

You'd never think they'd go together, but they certainly do:
The combination of English muffins and Irish stew.
The Mexican army has eaten salami and onions from Peru,
But it don't compare with English muffins and Irish stew.
No, it don't compare with English muffins and Irish stew.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 24 Aug 16 - 07:46 AM

One of the songs on that compilation that Christine Alvin put together on the c.d. one meat ball was "Tomato Puddin'". I can't recall the artist's name....Jeff?? He is an actor and the name escapes me now I think he is involved with a theater group called rose?? Oh my.s aged y Google...Jeff Daniels

Subject: Lyr Add: MEMPHIS WOMEN AND CHICKEN (Dan Penn)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Sep 16 - 09:55 PM

This was mentioned by Ronn on 17 March 1999:


MEMPHIS WOMEN AND CHICKEN
As recorded by Dan Penn on "Do Right Man" 1994.

[spoken:] I see the sign: "Memphis, twenty-five miles"
It goes like this:

I'm headin' into Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.
There's one place in this world I can get some'n' good to eat.
I'm hungry for some lovin', some fried chicken
Cooked up greasy an' finger-lickin'.
I know just where to go; there's this woman I know.
She shakes it up right and lets it simmer real slow—
Memphis women and fried chicken.
Memphis women and fried chicken.

Over on Union there's a good ol' gal.
She can smoke a pig; she can fry some fowl.
She got biscuits in her oven, cornbread in the pan.
I get by to see her ever' chance I can.
I catch a whiff when I turn the corner.
My mouth starts to water and I'm a goner
For them Memphis women and fried chicken.
Memphis women and chicken.

Yeah, I take my old guitar and I go down on Beale,
Play some good blues and get a read good meal.
I don't care if whiskey ever hits my lip
As long as I get a taste o' them barbecued ribs.

Now that ol' woman up on the bluff makes her livin' makin' pies.
Got them choc'late-covered fingers, dark blueberry eyes.
Got the light powdered sugar sprinkled all in her hair.
Her apple turnover is beyond compare.
When it's hot, late and sticky and you want some'n' cool an' sweet,
She keeps her handle crankin' on that homemade ice cream.
Memphis women, good fried chicken.
Memphis women and chicken.

[spoken:] That's the thing about Memphis:
Ever' time I come down here it speaks to my senses.
It's got some'n' to do with—
They got that fried chicken.
They got that fried chicken.
They got that fried chicken.
They got that fried chicken,
Down in Memphis—
Fried chicken.
Barbecue too!
[ad lib and fade]

Subject: Lyr Add: YOUR GREENS GIVE ME THE BLUES (Wirtz)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Sep 16 - 11:15 PM

Another one mentioned by Ronn:


YOUR GREENS GIVE ME THE BLUES
As recorded by the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz on "Deep Fried and Sanctified" 1988.

Baby, don't you know it's a sad circumstance
That I wear the apron and you wear the pants?
Yo, but baby, I love you; that ain't the question.
Your cookin' would give Godzilla indigestion.
Your chicken ain't clickin'; your greens just gi' me the blues.

Your biscuits don't rise; your muffins don't work.
If Betty Crocker saw 'em she'd go completely berserk.
You burned the toast.
You even burned up the roast.
Your fried chicken ain't clickin' and your greens just gi' me the blues.

You deep-fried the jello; you boiled the bacon.
The artichoke told me his heart was breakin'.
I ate one of your biscuits; the dog ate seven,
And now he's restin' up in canine heaven.

Now that cake recipe that you got from your mom,
It looks like Hiroshima after they dropped the bomb.
You totaled the toast.
Just look at this roast!
Your fried chicken just ain't clickin' and your greens still gi' me the blues.

You even fouled up the turkey.
You make my beef kinda jerky.
Well, your chicken ain't clickin' and your sweet potato, stewed tomatoes, ravioli, guacamole, … chowmein, quiche Lorraine, and most of all, your greens just gi' me the blues.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Anne Neilson
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 03:33 PM

Adam McNaughtan from Glasgow (Scotland) has two grand food-related songs.

The first is Cholesterol, inspired by a west of Scotland health campaign for healthier eating. To the tune of the WW2 song 'Bless 'em All', Adam produced memorable lines like '"Brown bread with a low fat paste thinly spread on' (margarine) / May be healthier than a meat pie / But I don't give a hoot for their yogurt and fruit / I'll have Black Forest gateau and die! / Cholesterol, cholesterol -- my chance of surviving is small. / The cream I consume, it might lead to my doom, / but I love my cholesterol!

And a wonderment of word smithery is to be found in his tribute to a very local Scottish delicacy, the Tunnock's Caramel Wafer! Scots are well known for their sweet tooth/teeth and this song celebrates the hundredth anniversary of the baking company who became renowned -- following the removal of rationing restrictions post-WW2 -- for sweet biscuits/cakes such as the tea-cakes and the aforesaid Caramel Wafers.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 03:37 PM

Not forgetting 'The Unquiet Gravy'
Jim Carroll

Subject: Lyr Add: MANGO VERT (calypso - Mighty Sparrow)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Sep 16 - 07:13 PM

This was mentioned by Mark Roffe on 26 March 1999 (who earlier referred to it incorrectly as a "papaya song." This is my transcription; it needs some correction. In particular, I'm sure the last half of the last line is very wrong, but I can't get do any better. Also, I don't know what "mango vert" means—does it mean an unripe mango?


MANGO VERT
As recorded by Mighty Sparrow.

1. A Yankee man and a woman was in confusion.
This Yankee man and a woman, whoa-ah! was in confusion.
The woman give him something to eat with stringy, stringy hair but it tasted sweet.
He say: "I rather do without; you stick up in me teeth and don't(?) wash me mouth."

CHORUS: She said: "You eat it right, the hair won't stick in your teeth,
And you're bound to say how it tasted sweet, sweet, sweet;
But if you eat it wrong, don't walk in the street.
Ev'rybody will know when they see the hair in your teeth."

2. So the Yankee man tell her: "Honey, tell me why you're forcin' me.
As a rule, when I'm done, scrub me teeth, I want nothing more to eat."
So she said: "Take it easy, Joe; it seem to me like if you don't know,
But this thing is tasting so nice, if you eat it once, you must eat it twice." CHORUS

3. At the time, I living next door; what they talking 'bout, I don't know,
But the conversation interest me, so I listenin' attentively.
She try to rub the thing in he mouth; he started runnin' and jumpin' 'bout.
She said: "You think I making sport; keep a-runnin' or I push it straight down your throat, Joe." CHORUS

4. As I leave, I wanted to know; I ain't care if they call me mango.
After listening attentively, I knock on the door very boldly.
When I bust the door and I enter, I see them standing up in the center.
The stupid Yankee catching cold feet; he's a mango barely man 'fraid to eat(?). CHORUS

Subject: Lyr Add: BOOGIE WOOGIE BLUE PLATE (Louis Jordan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 07:55 PM

BOOGIE WOOGIE BLUE PLATE
Words and music by Joe Burhkin & Johnny De Vries.
As recorded by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, 1947.

There's a gal at the local beanery.
She's a pretty hunk o' scenery.
She can make a choc'late soda go s-s-s-s-s.
You oughta go around and dig it
When she's workin' at the spigot.
You can hear her calling orders like this:

Give me a ham white down and a burger rare,
Side o' slaw an' a seven-layer,
O.J. up, wreck two in a cup,
And a boogie-woogie blue plate.

Give me a crippled beef on a load o' hay,
Combo rye and a bottle of "A,"
Comin' through with a slab o' moo,
And a boogie-woogie blue plate.

Draw one; draw two.
Get that coffee perkin'.
Draw three; draw four.
Hold that mayo on the chopped egg workin'.

Want a tuna wheat with a side o' fries,
Eighty-six on the cherry pies,
Side o' greens on the franks and beans,
And a boogie-woogie blue plate.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Cool Beans
Date: 15 Dec 16 - 11:46 AM

Here's a link to my song "Cinnamon Rolls" (They come eight to a pack/ Give 'em a whack)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN4s8EuQ95A

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Thompson
Date: 15 Dec 16 - 04:16 PM

And it's bainne na bó is na gamhna, and the juice of the barley for me!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 15 Dec 16 - 04:29 PM

Eggs, eggs, and marrowbone
Won't make your old man blind.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Thompson
Date: 15 Dec 16 - 06:46 PM

Oh, you did, so you did, and so did he and so did I,
And the more I think about it sure the nearer I'm to cry,
Oh weren't them the happy days when troubles we knew not
And our mothers made Colcannon in the little skillet pot

Subject: Lyr Add: RED BEANS AND RICE (Gladys Bentley)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Dec 16 - 12:22 AM

RED BEANS AND RICE
As recorded by Gladys Bentley, 1928.

Red beans and rice, greasy bacon in the pot. (2x)
Cold bread in the oven, coffee on the stove ain't hot.

I don't get no chicken; ham and eggs would poison me. (2x)
He won't buy no sugar, just to sweeten his own tea.

Walked to work this mornin' 'cause I only had one dime. (2x)
Wouldn't spend it on myself; spent it on that man o' mine.

He don't buy no clothes; he don't keep his laundry clean. (2x)
He short-ordered lovin', stingiest man I've ever seen.

I take all my pay to the man I call my pal. (2x)
And he's always broke; my man must have an outside gal.

I'm gonna to leave for work, but I'm gonna double back, no doubt. (2x)
If I can't get in, no one better not come out.

Red beans and rice, mornin', noon and ev'ry night. (2x)
I can't keep on workin' with only rice and beans in sight.

Subject: Lyr Add: RED BEANS AND RICE (Kokomo Arnold)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Dec 16 - 12:43 AM

RED BEANS AND RICE
As recorded by Kokomo Arnold, 1937.

When I was down in Georgia, I was doin' mighty well. (2x)
Since I been here in Chicago, I been catchin' a bit o' hell.

Said I'm goin' down to the station; ain't gon' take no one's advice. (2x)
Said I'm goin' back to Georgia where I can get my red beans and rice.

Now these Chicago women have give me such a hard way to go. (2x)
Said they done took all my black(?) money and they got me runnin' from do' to do'.

Now I'm just settin' here lookin', way down on that lonesome road. (2x)
Says I'm raggedy and I'm hungry, and I ain't got no place to go.

Now I been rollin', I been rollin' from sun to sun. (2x)
Ever' time I can't get no lovin', … my payday comes.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Felipa
Date: 16 Dec 16 - 07:19 AM

Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake has already been mentioned, but I thought I'd remind you due to the season that's in it.

all the songs that came immediately to my mind have already been mentioned by people who got to this thread earlier.

Subject: Lyr Add: MEAT MAN PETE (Monette Moore)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Dec 16 - 02:21 PM

MEAT MAN PETE
As recorded by Monette Moore, 1924.

Did you ever hear 'bout Pete?
Just Pete, plain Pete.
He had a market down the street.
Pete was a dealer in meat.
Ask anybody you meet
About Pete, and they'll repeat:
His ways are sure a mess,
But his meat is always fresh.

[§] All the butchers, how they envy Pete,
'Cause ev'rybody's crazy about his meat.
They hang around his store
And gang right in his door.
One thing sure: I know that Pete don't cheat.

People come from down in Alabam'
'Cause they've heard about his boneless ham.
They never get enough
Because his meat ain't tough,
And ev'rybody's crazy about his meat. [§§]

Once he was dealin' in wood,
And bus'ness wasn't so good,
And he started dealin' in ice,
But things didn't turn out nice,
So he took it in his head,
Commenced sellin' bread,
But bus'ness was complete
When he started dealin' in meat.

[REPEAT FROM § TO §§.]

[Barbecue Bob (1928) and Vance Dixon (1931) each made recordings that seem to be derived from this version.]

Subject: Lyr Add: LET ONIONS BE
From: beardedbruce
Date: 16 Dec 16 - 02:29 PM

Let Onions Be


Come all you who would be flatter
Raise your forks and pass the platter
For to live is to grow fatter
While we are together.

cho: Let onions be in all our stews
    Let all our stews be made with wine
    We show them all just how to dine
    We'll end each meal with chocolate.

    Right fol de rol de ri too ra li do
    Right fol de rol de ri too ra li do
    Right fol de rol de ri too ra li do
    While we are together.

Eating and drinking are quite charming
Cakes and ice cream there's no harm in
All these things we take delight in
While we are together.

Grab the platter as it passes
Join with us at all repasses
Those who diet are but asses
While we are together.

Subject: Lyr Add: STEW MEAT BLUES (Lucille Bogan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Dec 16 - 09:04 AM

In a lot of old blues songs, food has a double meaning.


STEW MEAT BLUES
As recorded by Lucille Bogan, 1935.

A man say I had something looked like new.
He wanted me to credit him for some o' my stew.
Say he's goin' up the river, tryin' to sell his sack.
He would pay me for my stuff when the boat get back.
Now you can go on up the river, man, and sell your sack.
You can pay me for my stew when the boat get back.

I got good stew and it's got to be sold.
The price ain't high, I want to get you told.
Go on up the river, man, and sell your sack.
There'll be stew-meat here, baby, when the boat get back.

Now look here, man: what you want me to do?
Give you my stew-meat and credit you too?
You go on up the river, try an' sell your sack,
'Cause I'll have my stew-meat here when that boat gets back.

I credit one man; it was to my sorrow.
It's cash today, credit tomorrow.
So hurry up the river, baby, an' try to sell your sack.
It's gonna be meat here, when that boat get back.

Now it's ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
You try my stuff one time, you can't get enough.
So go on up the river, man, and sell your sack,
'Cause the stuff'll be here, baby when the boat get back.

Subject: Lyr Add: MEAT CUTTER BLUES
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Dec 16 - 04:55 PM

MEAT CUTTER BLUES

I. As recorded by Roosevelt Sykes with St. Louis Bessie (Bessie Mae Smith), 1930.

I been … all day; ain't had a bite to eat.
Walkin' the street … for a butcher to cut my meat.
Now it's night; still lookin' for a butcher to cut my meat.
'Cause I cannot sleep till I get a butcher to cut my meat.

I want you cut my bacon and grind my sausage, too. (2x)
You's a real good meat cutter an' you know just how to do.

I want you to cut my liver, chop my ribs, and cut my steak. (2x)
Ev'ry time I think about you, it make my poor heart ache.

I've had a fire in my range an' water in my pot. (2x)
You ain't cut my meat yet, an' my range is still gettin' hot.

If you can't cut my meat, I'll get a butcher from way downtown. (2x)
But my range is still heatin' an' my damper need turnin' down.

Mm-mm, [mister] butcher please cut my meat. (2x)
I been standing here all day long, beggin' you to cut my meat.

II. As recorded by Kansas Joe McCoy, 1934.

I'm th'old meat cutter; babe, I can cut your meat.
Anything in(?) a lot o' trimmin', I can do it so nice an' neat.

I can grind your sausage; I can cut your pork chop too.
I can do any kind o' cuttin' [you] want ol' Joe to do.

I can slice your bacon; I can cut your ham.
I'm th'only cutter right out o' Alabam'.

Now bring me my cleaver an' my ol' butcher knife.
While(?) some low-down rascal sure done cut my wife.

Now listen here, babe; oh, please don't be no fool.
Some o' these ol' meat cutters will use you as a tool.

Now come in here, babe; let me look on(?) your ham.
I'm th'old meat cutter an' I sure don't give a dozen(?).*

I got a brand-new knife and I grind it on my stone.
When I go to cut your meat, I can cut it to the bone.

[* McCoy substitutes a non-rhyming word for the expected "damn" ]

III. As recorded by Peetie Wheatstraw, 1936.

I been walkin' all day, walkin' up an' down the street. (2x)
I'm gon' put you out of a job, whoo, well, well, then I want to chop somebody's meat.

[Said] I want to cut your bacon, mama; grind your sausage, too.
And then I'm a good meat cutter; whoo! Well, well, babe, I know just what to do.

I can cut your liver, [and] chop your ribs, mama, and I can cut your steak.
Because now you know I'm a good butcher, whoo! Well, then again, you know I know just what it takes.

[I said] I keep fire in my range and hot water in my pot. (2x)
Well, I keep this water boilin', whoo! Well, well, mama, and it steams really hot.

Whoo-hoo, well, well, mama, let me cut your meat. (2x)
Well, well, I been walkin' the streets all day, whoo! Well, well, like a policeman on his beat.

Subject: Lyr Add: PIG MEAT MAMA (Mae Glover)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Dec 16 - 07:11 PM

PIG MEAT MAMA
As recorded by Mae Glover, 1929.

I'm a pig meat mama; pig meat's all I crave. (2x)
Pig meat's gonna carry me, carry me to my grave. (yodel)

Some women like their pork chops; some women like their wine. (2x)
But I'm a pig meat mama; give it to me all the time. (yodel)

I got pig meat in Texas, pig meat in Tennessee. (2x)
My pig meat in Virginia, Lord, he's wild about me. (yodel)

[I want to] Tell all you women what you better do. (2x)
You better lay off my pig meat, or it won't be good for you. (yodel)

[It's] Pig meat for breakfast, pig meat when I'm in bed. (2x)
If I don't get my pig meat, Lord, I'd rather be dead. (yodel)

Subject: Lyr Add: RAD GUMBO (from Little Feat)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 07:00 PM

RAD GUMBO
As recorded by Little Feat on "The Best of Little Feat" (2006)

If you walk right in off the street,
You can take the load right off your feet.
Mama'll bring a menu to your seat,
But the bill of fare be short an' sweet.

Won't find no étouffé.
Mama never ever could cook that way.
She's all ancien regime,
No nouvelle cuisine.

She cookin' gumbo,
A mighty rad gumbo.
It's the only way she can go
Down at the Club Rad Gumbo.

Heads and shells stay in the stock.
She stirs her roux and really rocks.
One gallon shellfish stock or water.
Man, this gumbo is made to order!

Two toes of garlic finely chopped.
Man, this party just can't be stopped!
Mama's pots are boilin', band starts to blow,
Piano keys flyin' like a Fats Domino.

She cookin' gumbo,
A mighty rad gumbo.
It's the only way she can go,
Down at the Club Rad Gumbo.

Oh, no, no escargot, no cordon bleu.
This ain't the place to go lookin' for beef stew,
But if you like a tender shrimp and rice,
If you think you can stand the spice,

She cooks a gumbo,
A mighty rad gumbo.

Now the people come from miles around
To dig what Mama's puttin' down.
Ever'body knows her name.
She in the Seafood Hall of Fame.

I gotta get that recipe
If it means the death of me.
Get my spy-boy to sneak a look
In Mama's book.

She cookin' gumbo,
A mighty rad gumbo.
It's the only way she can go,
Down at the Club Rad Gumbo.

She cookin' gumbo.
It's a mighty rad gumbo.
It's the only way she can go,
Down at the Club Rad Gumbo.

Subject: Lyr Add: CHICKEN SOUP WITH RICE (Carole King)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 08:19 PM

CHICKEN SOUP WITH RICE
Words by Maurice Sendak, music by Carole King
As recorded by Carole King on "Really Rosie" (1975)

In January, it's so nice,
While slippin' on the slidin' ice,
To sip hot chicken soup with rice,
Sippin' once, sippin' twice,
Sippin' chicken soup with rice.

In February, it will be
My snowman's anniversary,
With cake for him and soup for me,
Happy once, happy twice,
Happy chicken soup with rice.

In March, the wind blows down the door
And spills my soup upon the floor.
It laps it up and roars for more,
Blowin' once, blowin' twice,
Blowin' chicken soup with rice.

In April, I will go away
To far off Spain or old Bombay,
And dream about hot soup all day,
Oh my once, oh my twice,
Oh my chicken soup with rice.

In May, I truly think it best
To be a robin lightly dressed,
Concoctin' soup inside my nest.
Mix it once, mix it twice.
Mix that chicken soup with rice.

In June, I saw a charming group
Of roses all begin to droop.
I pepped them up with chicken soup:
Sprinkle once, sprinkle twice,
Sprinkle chicken soup with rice.

In July, I'll take a peep
Into the cool and fishy deep,
Where chicken soup is selling cheap,
Sellin' once, sellin' twice,
Sellin' chicken soup with rice.

In August, it will be so hot,
I will become a cooking pot,
Cooking soup, of course, why not?
Cookin' once, cookin' twice,
Cookin' chicken soup with rice.

In September, for a while,
I will ride a crocodile
Down the chicken soupy Nile.
Paddle once, paddle twice,
Paddle chicken soup with rice.

In October, I'll be host
To witches, goblins and a ghost.
I'll serve them chicken soup on toast.
Whoopee, once! Whoopee twice!
Whoopee chicken soup with rice!

In November's gusty gale,
I will flop my flippy tail,
And spout hot soup; I'll be a whale,
Spoutin' once, spoutin' twice,
Spoutin' chicken soup with rice.

In December, I will be
A baubled, bangled Christmas tree,
With soup bowls draped all over me.
Merry once, merry twice,
Merry chicken soup with—
Merry chicken soup with—
Merry chicken soup with rice.

I told you once, I told you twice:
All seasons of the year are nice
For eating chicken soup,
Eating chicken soup with rice;
Chicken soup, chicken soup with rice.

Subject: Lyr Add: SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN (Hank Penny)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Apr 17 - 02:45 PM

SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN
Written by Jack Aberth, Jack Davis, & Tennessee Williams (!)
As recorded by Hank Penny, 1956.

SPOKEN: You know they tell me the shortest way to a man's heart is through his stomach,
And woman, if you listen, I got a few shortcuts fer ye, by doggies!

1. Now southern fried chicken, good hot biscuits like my mama used to make,
Good hot biscuits smothered in gravy—that's what really takes the cake.
I love you, darlin', but my heart is in my mouth,
And you gotta make fried chicken like my mama makes down south.

CHORUS: I love you, darlin', like I love that good fried chicken,
And good hot buttered biscuits like my mama makes down south.

2. Now, baby, if you really love me and you want to be my wife,
You'd better practice up on your cookin' cause mine's a hungry life.
Be like my mama; put some coffee in the pot,
And fry me a lot o' that chicken, and keep them biscuits hot.

3. Now you'd better look out there, little darlin', 'cause I know that chicken's hot.
If it won't fit into a skillet, then you'd better go get a pot.
I like your cookin' and I want you to be mine.
Your biscuits taste like mama's and that chicken sure is fine.


[Not to be confused with another song by the same title, recorded by Jimmy Work. I classified that one as a train song.]

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 13 Apr 17 - 07:23 PM

Only nearly 3 years since I said I might post it later! (Recipe included!)

JANET'S STOVIES                                © Trish Santer 20.10.06.
                                                                                        
For my friend Janet Weatherston, who makes such superlative stovies.

Chorus
Janet's stovies are the best
We lo'e them abune the rest,
But we ha'e only ane request,
Bring us a plate o' stovies.

Slice yer onions nice and thin
Fry them gently, then throw in
Loads o' tatties wi'oot skin,
You've started makkin' stovies.
Salt and pepper tae your taste,
Scraps o' meat ye neednae waste,
Cannae be in awfy haste
When yer makkin' stovies.

Mak' them in yer muckle pot
Dinnae ha'e the ring ower hot,
Let them sweat until ye've got
A gey guid pan o' stovies.
Stovies ayeways fill ye up
Skoosh them in a plate or cup,
Dinnae bide, jest serve us up
Oor Janet's hamely stovies.

She mak's them for the Christmas ceilidh,
Tops them aff wi' sprigs o' holly,
You micht think that awfy silly,
Daein' that wi' stovies.
When Burns supper cam's aroond,
In the kitchen she'll be foond,
Haggis, neeps and tatties roond,
But ye cannae beat her stovies.

Of stovie-makkin' she's the master,
Better than a bowl o' pasta,
Mak's the eightsome reel gae faster
Efter Janet's stovies.
Never gi'e ye constipation,
Ideal form of regulation
Maybe too much information,
But that's why we tak' stovies.
Final chorus: Stovies, stovies, stovies, stovies,(x3)
We lo'e Janet's stovies.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE PIZZA SONG (Trish Santer)
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 13 Apr 17 - 07:30 PM

Closely followed by my Pizza song, which arose out of a wee family disagreement, when my daughter wanted to give her friends that pizza that had had been languishing in the freezer far too long, and Dad said no!


THE PIZZA SONG
Trish Santer - Oct 2002

Chorus
Well, you can't eat that pizza, 'cos it's mine,
I bought it for a very special reason,
There ain't another pizza quite like it in the world,
So leave it in that freezer just a-freezin'.

I went to Tesco's Friday 9 p.m.,
I waited for the girl with the stickers and the marker pen,
When she marked that pizza down to less than half a crown
I had the very best bargain in the end.

Chorus

It may be just a simple Margarita,
But I have plans to make it taste much sweeter,
With a full tin of anchovies, and half a pound of stovies,
And pepperoni, cheese and more tomater.

Chorus

I'm saving it for after the theater,
We won't have time to eat till so much later,
It's then when we're both starving, that pizza we'll be halving,
So tonight you'd better have a baked potater.

Chorus

So now it's at the bottom of the freezer,
Where maybe it could be forgot for ever,
But in a year or two, when it's perma-frosted through,
I'll be so glad I kept that bargain pizza.

Chorus

Subject: Lyr Add: TEXAS COOKIN' (Guy Clark)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 May 17 - 07:10 PM

This was mentioned by Roger in Baltimore and an unnamed guest:


TEXAS COOKIN'
As recorded by Guy Clark on "Texas Cookin'" (1976)

I'm going down to Austin, Texas.
I'm going down to save my soul,
Get that barbecue and chili,
Eat my fill, and come back home.

I'm gonna take my baby with me.
We gonna have a high ol' time.
We gonna eat till we get silly.
Sho' do make a beer taste fine.

CHORUS: Oh, my, mama, ain't that Texas cookin' somethin'?
Oh, my, mama, it'll stop yo' belly and backbone from bumpin'.
Oh, my, mama, ain't that Texas cookin' good?
Oh, my, mama, eat it ever' day if I could.

I know a man that cook armadillo.
Tastes so sweet he called it pie.
I know a woman makes pan dulce.
Tastes so good it gets you high.

Get them enchiladas greasy.
Get them steaks chicken fried.
Sho' do make a man feel happy
To see white gravy on the side. CHORUS

I know a place that got fried okra.
Beat anything that I ever saw.
I know a man that cook cabrito.
It must be against the law

We gonna get a big ol' sausage,
A big ol' plate o' ranch-style beans.
I could eat the heart of Texas.
We gonna need some brand-new jeans. CHORUS

Subject: Lyr Add: FOOD BLUES (The Corries)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 May 17 - 09:46 PM

This was mentioned by GUEST,ozmacca back on 16-May-2002:


FOOD BLUES
As recorded by The Corries on "Flower of Scotland" (2009)

I was sittin' in the motorway restaurant
When the waiter came up; he said: "What do you want?"

I looked at the menu; it looked so nice
Till he said: "Let me give you some advice.

"Spaghetti and taters they got too much starch.
Pork chop and gravy are bad for your heart.

"There's hormones in chicken and beef and veal.
Ravioli is a dead man's meal.

"Bread's got preservatives, nitrates in ham,
Artificial coloring in jellies and jams.

"Stay away from doughnuts; run away from pie.
Pepperoni pizza's a sure way to die.

"Sugar rots your teeth and makes you put on weight.
Artificial sweetners got cyclamates.

"Eggs got cholesterol; there's fat in cheese.
Coffee ruins your kidneys; so does tea.

"Fish's got mercury; red meat is poison.
Salt's goin' to send your blood pressure risin'.

"Hot dog and salami got deadly red dyes.
Vegetables and fruits are sprayed with pesticides."

I said: "What can I eat that's gonna make me last?"
He said: "A small drink of water in a tiny wee glass."

Then he stopped and he thought for a minute.
"Never mind the water; there's carcinogenics in it."

I got up from the table, walked out into the street,
Realizin' there was nothin' I could eat.

Ain't eaten for a month but I'm feelin' fine,
'Cause he did not mention beer, whisky and red, red wine.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WAR IN SNIDER'S GROCERY STORE
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Nov 17 - 08:08 PM

Today I went to see the "WW1 America" exhibit at the Minnesota History Center (which will soon go on tour), and one of the things I discovered there was this remarkable novelty song, where various foods represent nations at war.

The following lyrics are from the sheet music at the The University of Illinois at Chicago. You can hear it at YouTube sung by Billy Murray, Ian Whitcomb, or Bob Michel.


THE WAR IN SNIDER'S GROCERY STORE
Words and music by Hank Hancock, Ballard Macdonald, & Harry Carroll, 1914.

1. Hans Gustav Snider,
A local provider
Of groceries, canned goods and such,
Had read of the war,
Till himself and the store
Were both what is known as "in Dutch."
His brains he'd been feeding
On so much war reading,
He woke up one night in a fright.
He rushed down the stairs,
Fell over two chairs,
And turned up the groc'ry store light.

CHORUS: There were eggshells bursting near and far,
Above the Russian caviar.
A Bismark herring by itself
Was pushing all the French peas off the shelf.
An Irish potato started to cry
When a Spanish onion hit its eye?
Frankfurters fighting all over the floor,
Howling and growling: "We're the dogs of war!"
There was "Sunny Jim," upon a horse,
Swooping down with all his "Force."
The paprika,
Growing weaker,
Shouted out: "Won't you open that door?"
And a couple of tough Vienna rolls,
Shot a poor Swiss cheese all full of holes,
In the terrible war in Snider's groc'ry store.

2. Dutch pumpernickel
Had joined a dill pickle,
Attacking the fresh navy beans.
A Limburger cheese
Greatly strengthened the breeze,
And anchovies, prunes and sardines
Were fighting an army
Of dago salami,
And that's only half what he saw.
He jumped into bed,
Put ice on his head,
And went on the wagon once more. CHORUS

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Nov 17 - 08:09 PM

Another watermelon song:

Just plant a watermelon on my grave
And let the juice [slurp] run thru.
Just plant a watermelon on my grave --
That's all I ask of you.
Now a chicken or a duck or a turkey may be fine,
But nothing could be sweeter than a watermelon rind,
So just plant a watermelon on my grave
And let the juice [slurp] run thru.

Subject: Lyr Add: SANDWICHES ARE BEAUTIFUL (Bob King)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 12 Nov 17 - 07:53 AM

It's wonderful to scroll through old threads like this and see beloved late-lamented Mudcatters, from Spaw to Sandy Paton.

I can't believe this one didn't make the list: Sandwiches Are Beautiful

SANDWICHES ARE BEAUTIFUL
Bob King

CHORUS: Sandwiches are beautiful; sandwiches are fine.
I like sandwiches; I eat them all the time.
I eat them for my supper; I eat them for my lunch,
And if I had a hundred sandwiches, I'd eat them all at once!

1. A-roamin' and a-travelling and wanderin' along,
And if you care to listen to me I will sing a happy song.
I will not ask a favour; I will not ask a fee,
But if you have yourself a sandwich, won't you give a bite to me?

2. Once I went to England and visited the Queen!
I swear she was the grandest lady that I've ever seen.
I told her she was beautiful and could not ask for more.
She handed me a sandwich and she threw me out the door! CHORUS

3. Once I knew a pretty girl, the fairest in the land.
All the young men in the county, they were asking for her hand.
They?d offer her the moon and they would offer her the sea,
But I offered her a sandwich and she said she'd marry me.

4. Now a sandwich may be egg or cheese or even peanut butter,
But they all taste so good to me it really doesn't matter.
Jam or ham or cucumber, just any kind will do,
But I like sandwiches; how about YOU?! CHORUS

Repeat CHORUS

Subject: Lyr Add: GREEN ONION TOP (Roosevelt Sykes)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 12:02 PM

I almost put this in the thread called Lyr Req: Onion Songs, but since it mentions and praises several other foods, I figured it would be a better fit here.

You can hear this at the Internet Archive:


GREEN ONION TOP
Written & recorded by Roosevelt Sykes, 1951.

Pig tails and sauerkraut
Make your belly stick way out.
Dig the pig with solid bop.
Don’t be green like a onion top.

Slipp’ry okra and collard greens,
Best stuff that you ever seen.
Slide the okra with a solid bop.
Don’t be green like a onion top.

Pickled pepper, sliced tomatoes,
Oh, boys, what a plate!
Lemonade, slice of pie,
Hurry, hurry, don’t be late.

Boiled corn and lima beans,
Best dish that you ever seen.
Dig the corn with solid bop,
And don’t be green like a onion top.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Mo the caller
Date: 08 Feb 19 - 08:33 AM

Well, Bert beat me (by several years) with Found a Peanut.

But I don't think anyone has mentioned
"Life is but a Meloncholy Flower"
repeated several times to the tune Frere Jaque
On the page it doesn't look like a food song, but try singing it.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 12 Mar 19 - 07:51 PM

written by Carole Prior: a humorous look at what constitutes the Scottish diet with the "strapline" -
"The Nation that was built on OATS!"

https://youtu.be/-Yju71UvxxQ?t=6m30s
Keith Festival 2017

Subject: RE: food songs
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Mar 19 - 12:18 PM

Thank you Jim Dixon:

"Chicken Soup with Rice"
was a Maurice Sendak book
marketed to the very youngest of children --
so young,
that the book would have to be read to them
by somebody old enough to read.
I can see the little drawings now.

Subject: Lyr Add: SOME CALL IT SODA (John C. Bunnell)
From: John C. Bunnell
Date: 15 Mar 19 - 04:28 AM

I am minded to offer a lyric of my own to the ongoing thread (there is no recorded version, but I do know that East Coast filker Mark Mandel has performed a version with at least one adapted verse). Note that the refrain is one of those where the second half changes with every verse, indicated by the lines given in parentheses -- and that every brand name and flavor mentioned actually exist, or at least have existed.)

SOME CALL IT SODA

words: John C. Bunnell © 2000
music: traditional (“Sweet Betsy From Pike”)

You begin with plain water, as clear as you might,
Then flavor and sweeten until it tastes right;
With CO2 bubbles this mixture infuse,
and you’ll have a bev’rage that few can refuse.

REFRAIN:
Now some call it soda, and some call it pop,
And some cannot drink it, and some cannot stop;
(With cherry fudge cola white grape lemon-lime,
You’re sure to find something you like, given time.)

Now first came the colas, with sugar and spice;
The taste, it was bracing, the fizz, it was nice;
Though one little tidbit is hard to explain:
That once classic Coke got its kick from cocaine.

(Squirt Dr. Brown’s Bubble-Up Canada Dry;
You’re sure to find something you like, if you try.)

The flavors of citrus are frequently found,
As sure as the orange and grapefruit are round;
If lemon-lime bores you, then try tangerine,
Perhaps Mello Yello, or something in green.

(With green apple celery kiwi root beer,
It’s certain that something you like will appear.)

The spices in soda are sometimes obscure
(What is sarsaparilla? I’m really not sure);
The roots in my root beer I fear I don’t know;
As for Dr. Pepper – no, there let’s not go.

(Since Mr. Pibb Sunkist Tab Jones Minute Maid,
It’s certain that something you like is displayed.)

If sugar’s off limits, we’ve still drinks for you,
With saccharine, Splenda, and NutraSweet too;
Just fill up your beaker and cheerfully swig –
But try not to think of the words “guinea pig”.

(With passion fruit bubble gum almond cream peach,
You’re sure to find something you like within reach.)

Now some folk use soft drinks to keep them awake;
The sodas taste better than pills they might take;
For true sleep avoidance, the choice must be Jolt –
The cola so strong it makes rattlesnakes molt!

(On Green River Mountain Dew Schweppe’s Diet Rite,
You’re sure to find something you like within sight.)

Much more could I tell you, and someday I might,
But if I tried now, I’d be singing all night;
Suffice that there’s more in that can than you think –
And now that I’m finished, I sure need a drink!

(With strawberry fufu ginseng ginger ale,
It’s certain that something you like is for sale.)

////

Subject: RE: food songs
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 03 Apr 19 - 05:52 PM

(cold)COWD STRINGY PIE

Over in Yorkshire, a farmer do dwell
And they call 'im Yaddy 'ughes, ...
thread.cfm?threadid=36152#497461

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Apr 19 - 05:16 PM

My fav is "That is why you're overweight"

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Apr 19 - 06:59 PM

Dried Apple Pies
I forget who sings this, but it does have a tune.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Apr 19 - 04:00 PM

Koberoxu... The Nutshell Library. I still have mine. Pierre, Alligators All Around, and One Was Johnny were the other 3.

Why O why, to get back to the thread, has Johnny McAdoo not been listed? Or is that an eating song rather than a food song? He swallered tripe and lard by the yard, he did.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Kenny B
Date: 07 Apr 19 - 06:08 PM

Tuna the food of my Soul - Tune - Whispering Hope
Sung by Jean Redpath & Garrison Keillor

Subject: Lyr Add: PICKLE IN THE MIDDLE (And the Mustard on
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Feb 21 - 05:38 PM

My mother used to quote this to me! I never heard her sing more than the first 2 lines. So I was thrilled when I ran across this today. I did my best to transcribe it, but there are still a few gaps. I couldn’t find any other source.


PICKLE IN THE MIDDLE (And the Mustard on Top)
Words and music by John Tackaberry and Carl Sigman.
As recorded by The Four King Sisters with Buddy Cole and his Orchestra, on RCA Victor 20-1903-A, 1946, as heard at the Internet Archive.

Pickle in the middle with the mustard on top,
Just the way I like ‘em an’ they’re all red hot,
Tasty little hot dog, toasted right,
With a bark as tender as its bite.

Ev’rybody’s happy and the laughter runs high,
Till the sun gets pickled in the sauerkraut sky,
Plus a little raindrop when you’ve got
Pickle in the middle,
Sizzlin’ off the griddle,
Pickle in the middle and the mustard on top.

The peanut man, the ice-cream man,
Shout their wares like nobody can;
Like nobody can except one man:
Favorite funny old frankfurter man.

Red hot! red hot!
Red-hots are all he’s got.

Pickle in the middle and the mustard on top.
I could eat a bushel but my tummy says stop.
You may laugh at frankfurters and their sort,
But you’ll find one in the Supreme Court.

Never hear the vendor shoutin’ “turkey” or “duck,”
Still I bet they end up with a million bucks.
Leavin’ that dog dry(?) in their shop,
Pickle in the center,
Summer or the winter,
Pickle in the center with the mustard on top.

[Instrumental break]

Red hot! red hot!
Red-hots are all he’s got.

Pickle in the middle and the mustard on top,
Just the way you like it with a bottle of pop.
Eat ‘em at the circus ...
They’re out there … at a baseball game.

Shouldn’t have to worry ‘bout the number you ate.
You can get a bottle of bicarbonate.
You will have more ulcers than you’ve got.
Pickle in the middle,
Sizzlin’ off the griddle,
Pickle in the middle with the mustard on the top.


[Louis Prima also recorded this in 1946, on Majestic 7179 A, but he omitted some of the above lyrics.
The catch phrase that the song is based on was introduced by Artie Auerbach, a comedian who appeared regularly on the Jack Benny Program, and the song was written later.]

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 08:34 PM

For over a decade I hosted a radio show. On Thanksgiving, I always produced a 2-hour segment that featured songs about food (and drink) I will see if I can find a playlist of one or more of those shows.
Right now the first song to come to mind is by the recently deceased Peter Ostroushko ... B O R S C H T. a song about beet soup. (it is in the Mudcat database)
Here are the songs I played in 2014 on the Crossroads show KROV-FM

A Cornucopia Of Food – You Are What You Eat – krov.fm
Thanksgiving show – You Are What You Eat – A Cornucopia of Food

Who Will Watch the Home Place – Blackberry Winter – In These Ozark Hills – Self
Woodsmoke and Oranges – James Keelaghan – Home – Appleseed
Ol' Cook Pot – The Duhks – Migrations – Sugar Hill Records
Old Dan Tucker – Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum – Guest House – Hightone
Working on the Food Chain – Mark Graham – Natural Selections – Self
Good Fish Chowder – Debra Cowan – Among Friends – Muzzy House
Potato – Cheryl Wheeler – Greetings From: Cheryl Wheeler Live
Pop-Tarts & Spam – Cheryl Wheeler – Greetings From: Cheryl Wheeler Live
Down on the Farm – Steve Wacker – Shadows and Grace – Wacker Words and Music
Corn Bread Nation – Tim O'Brien – Title Song
Collard Greens – Patrick Sylvest – A Little Less Louisiana – Self
Shortnin' Bread – Ron Block – Walking Song – Rounder
Don't Leave the Farm – Martha Burns – Old-Time Songs – Self
Some Little Bug and Whiskey Seller – Martha Burns – Old-Time Songs – Self
A Cherry With No Stone – Stolen Thyme – Time Is Possibility – Blackbeard’s Fiddle Music
Roly Poly – Cow Bop – Cowlifornia Swing – B4Manmusic
I'm Puttin' All My Eggs in One Basket – Carolyn Martin – Java Jive
Blackjack Supper Club – Trout Steak Revival – Flight – Self
Diner in the Sky – The Amigos – Title Song – self
Spoon – Dehlia Low – Tellico – Caught by a Train
Almanac Readings – Laurel
Come on in My Kitchen – Kristina Olsen Live From Around the World – Philo
Methodist Pie – Tom Paley
Applesauce – Christopher Smith – Sweet River Grace – Small Time Production
Ground Hog – Wild Mountaineers String Band – Live at Paradise Gold Nugget Museum
The Caldera / The Silver Spork – Three Bean Salad – Reels and Fakes – Self
NaCl *(salt) – Kate and Anna McGarrigle – The McGarrigle Hour – Rykodisc
Sugar Enough for Me – Jack Williams – Four Good Days
Gingerbread man – The Border Band – It's a Short Life – Wolf Dog Studio

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 08:36 PM

Here are the food songs from my 2013 November radio show
XRDS 2013-11-23 GRATEFUL AND ALIVE Giving thanks in November.

Played
Title
Album
Artist
Label        
2:55pm, 11-23-2013        Salty Dog        Blue Sky Boys        Blue Sky Boys                
2:55pm, 11-23-2013        title song        Water From Another Time        John McCutcheon                
2:41pm, 11-23-2013        Whittlin' Boy        Twilight the Taj Mahal        David Massengill                
2:39pm, 11-23-2013        title song        From the Pasture to the Future        The Waybacks                
2:38pm, 11-23-2013        Home From TN, and Mexico        Knee Deep in Mossy Creek        Mossy Creek                
2:30pm, 11-23-2013        Thanksgiving        Thanksgiving        Si Kahn et al                
2:21pm, 11-23-2013        The Old Cross Road        Way Out West        Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen                
2:18pm, 11-23-2013        Girl at the Crossroads Bar        Almost Acoustic        Jerry Garcia Band                
2:15pm, 11-23-2013        Bright Morning Stars        Ragged But Right        Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band                
2:06pm, 11-23-2013        Left Out in the Cold        Dirty Kitchen        Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen                
2:02pm, 11-23-2013        Harvest        Harvest        Kathy Chiavola                
1:51pm, 11-23-2013        Wheat Field Annie        Flip City        Ranch Romance                
1:49pm, 11-23-2013        Bloody Mary Morning        To All the Girls        Willie Nelson , Wynonna Judd                
1:46pm, 11-23-2013        Headlights and Hubcaps        Headlights and Hubcaps        Make it So                
1:38pm, 11-23-2013        Happy American Solstice        We The People        Lou Dominguez                
1:34pm, 11-23-2013        Midnite on H2O, Bonaparte's Retreat        Long Time Comin'        Vi Wickham                
1:27pm, 11-23-2013        Long Story Short        Copper and Coal        Copper and Coal                
1:25pm, 11-23-2013        Killing the Blues        Raising Sand        Robert Plant Alison Krauss                
1:22pm, 11-23-2013        Settled Down LIke Rain        Hollywood Town Hall        Jayhawks                
1:21pm, 11-23-2013        Daddy's Little Girl        Bryndle        Bryndle                
1:20pm, 11-23-2013        River of Stone        Bryndle        Bryndle                
1:19pm, 11-23-2013        No Time To Cry        My Life        Iris Dement                
1:18pm, 11-23-2013        Let the Mystery Be        Infamous Angel        Iris Dement                
1:17pm, 11-23-2013        Brother Warrior        Song and Sigh        Dan Schatz

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 08:39 PM

and 2012 show..... thanksgiving (see previous 2 posts for more info)

Tom Russell / Bowl of Red / Heart on a Sleeve / Bear Family Records
Sweet Potato Pie / Roly Poly / Brand New Day / Mountain Fever Records
Dave Van Ronk / One Meat Ball / title Song / Appleseed Records
Tom Paxton, Anne Hills, Bob Gibson / Bottle of Wine / see above
Debi Smith, Doc Watson / Pie / see above 16:15
Chuck McCabe / Meats in a Can / Creatures of Habit in a World of Change / Scuppernong 20:30
Chuck McCabe / Holidaze / see above
Lance Brown / Kitchen Blues / Too Busy to Work / www.lancetunes.com
"Uncle" Dave Osterreich / Beans, Bacon and Gravy / Mudcat Sampler / Blue Plate Special 31:00
Yvonne Hollenbeck / Bachelor Junk Food / Sorting Time / Dorian Buttes Pub. 35:18
Joe Craven / Hot Turkey / Camptown / Acorn Music 37:05
Faith Petric / Highway Hunter / When Did We Have Sauerkraut? / Center Records 41:49
" " / Idaho Spud / see above 44:55
" " / Title Song / see above 47:40
Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer / Orange Cocoa Cake / Parent's Home Companion / Rounder 51:16
Rail Road Earth / Livin' the Good Life / Title Song / Sugar Hill 54:20
Greg Brown / Canned Goods / Prairie Home Companion 1983 / 1:00:00
Peter Cooper and L.G. / Mamma Bake a Pie / The Lloyd Green Album / Red Beet Records 1:02:15
Ellis Paul / The Star in the Apple / Dragon Fly Races / Black Wolf Records / 1:06:32
Readings from several Farmer's Almanacs by Laurel 1:08:00
Background music by Clare Milliner and Walt Koken / Cookhouse Joe / Mudthumper
Kate Campbell / Pans of Biscuits (Bowls of Gravy) / Blues and Lamentations 1:21:08
" " / Corn in a Box / Monuments / Large River Music / 1:25:00
Dana and Susan Robinson / A-Z Farmer's Market / American Hornpipe / Threshold Music 1:28:15
James Reams & The Barnstormers / Cornbread, Molasses, and Sassafras Tea / One foot in the Honky Tonk / Mountain Redbird Music 1:32:00
Flatlanders / Eggs of Your Chickens / Wheel of Fortune / New West 1:33:45
Greg Brown / Out in the Country / Prairie Home Companion 1986 1:37:15
Katie Lee / Ballad of Alfred Packer / Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle / Katydid Music 1:42:00
John Walker / Red Beans & Rice / NE Tall Grass Sampler / Prairie Dog Mus. 1:45:19
Craig Werth / Zucchini Surprise / The Spokes Man / SELF 1:50:15
Ann Hills and David Roth / Rhubarb Trees / Title Song / Wind River Music 1:52:37
Connie Kaldor / Okanagan Peaches / Postcards from the Road / Word of Mouth 1:55:50
Fiddlestix / The Beer Song / Live at the Conservatory of Music, Stockton, CA / SELF 1:58:30
Ian Tyson and Nanci Griffith / Canadian Whiskey / Wounded Heart of America, Tom Russell Songs / High Tone Records 2:03:52
Water Tower Bucket Boys / Tequila and Lime / Sole Kitchen / Monkey Trench Studios 2:07:23
Dandelion Wine / Miss V Gypsy Cowgirl / Range Rider, Songs of the Trail / Self (Eagle) 2:11:45
David Grisman and Jerry Garcia / Drink Up and Go Home / Been All Around This World / Acoustic Disc 2:15:39
Whiskey Before Breakfast / Huckleberry Flint / Pillowfort

Subject: RE: food songs
From: open mike
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 08:40 PM

I am still wondering about a food song ... the title of an album by the backwoods string band... "feed your Babies Onions" i think the next line was "so you can find them at night" but I cannot find this song anywhere, only the title on an album that does not even include the song....any clues???

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 10:04 AM

My favorite food song is Thats why you're overwieght
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEXggWES7Fc

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,James Phillips
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 06:09 PM

Brose and Butter

Subject: Lyr Add: OH, HOW THAT WOMAN COULD COOK (Kahn/LeBoy
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Jan 22 - 01:47 PM

I became aware of this song by hearing a recording of “An Evening with Groucho” (1972) in which Groucho Marx sang the first verse and chorus, accompanied by Marvin Hamlisch on piano. The following is my transcription from the sheet music, which you can see at Indiana University. You can hear Groucho’s version at YouTube, which also has a more complete and much older version by Maurice Burkhart. The latter recording has quite different lyrics, but it would be difficult to transcribe.


OH, HOW THAT WOMAN COULD COOK
Words by Gus Kahn, music by Grace Le Boy, ©1914.

1. I once knew a woman who couldn’t spell “cat,”
And she was as homely as “cinch.”
In winter she always wore last summer’s hat,
And a size ‘leven shoe in a pinch.
When she played piano, weak women would faint
And strong men would cry out in grief,
While as for her singing, well, that made you feel
That it wasn’t so bad to be “deef.”
Yet still, she had company most ev’ry day,
And her looks and her voice couldn’t drive them away,
For—

CHORUS 1: Oh! How that woman could cook!
Her bread was like Angel’s Fool’s cake!
She could take soup meat and give it a look,
And it tasted like tenderhouse steak!
Her “Zup” had a flavor like peaches and cream,
Her pan-a-cakes, oh! What a beautiful dream!
With a table between us, she was pretty like Venus.
Ach Gott! How that woman could cook!

2. I once had a meal in a high-toned hotel,
Where the waiters was dressed up like dudes.
The crock’ry and silver was terrible swell,
But I did not care much for the foods.
I ordered “Con-soom-me” account of the name.
I said I’d be swell when in doubt.
It made me quite crazy to find when it came,
It was soup with the filling left out!
When I paid the waiter, I said: “Here’s a tip:
When you’re hungry to my friend’s house just take a trip,
For—

CHORUS 2: Oh! How that woman could cook!
I could not prescribe it to you!
She had receipts which was not in no book,
And what nobody else ever knew!
She made “Vegetabubbles” like never before,
And you “et” and you “et” till you couldn’t no more!
And her “Eysters” and fishes was simply delicious,
Ach Gott! How that woman could cook!

CHORUS 3: Oh! How that woman could cook!
I tell you the words won’t come out!
She made a pie called a plum pudding cake
And it simply would melt in your mouth!
Her strudels with noodles would just make you weep,
And when you drank her coffee, your feet fell asleep!
While her liver and onions would cure corns and bunions,
Ach Gott! How that woman could cook!

Subject: RE: food songs
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 21 Jan 22 - 08:59 PM

Can it really be Mudcat has no dedicated chocolate thread? So many songs in D.T.! And since thoroughly modern food songs are already here, try: Baby Metal Gimme Chocolate!.

Headphone volume warning. It's loud. Not in English but there are translations available on ytube.

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Sol
Date: 22 Jan 22 - 07:14 AM

"Jambalaya" here
"Mashed Potato" here
"Chocolate Girl"

Subject: RE: food songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Jan 22 - 11:38 PM

Smells like winter at our house, smells like souP! There was just a thread on it.

That final P is kinda overpronounced.