food songs

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: 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: 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 - 11:00 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: Susan A-R
Date: 11 May 00 - 08:58 PM

Still alive!! I love it!

Susan A-R

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: TheOldMole
Date: 11 May 00 - 03:08 PM

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

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: 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: 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: 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: Barry Finn
Date: 26 Mar 99 - 11:26 PM

Thanks MMario, I'll refresh it. Thanks Barry

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Ian
Date: 22 Mar 99 - 07:56 AM

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

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: AlistairUK
Date: 22 Mar 99 - 05:23 AM

Catspaw yeah where is the Coconut Song??

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: 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: Susan A-R
Date: 21 Mar 99 - 12:09 AM

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

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

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

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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Bert
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 10:47 AM

The Potato Song - Cheryl Wheeler

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