A Food Songs Mixtape

It all started with Mike Doughty. Dan and I had his albums on heavy rotation during our drives out West earlier this year, and after a few hours in the car, I started noting the many food references in his songs. “Down to This,” a song from way back in the day with Soul Coughing, mentions “blood like a panful of boiling ratatouille” and “muscles in mess like a mess of spaghetti,” as well as food-related phrases like “break down in a diner / then I paid the bill” and “I could get lost in a lunch box.”

In “Sunken-Eyed Girl” (see below), Mike’s ode to a Lower East Side lady from his solo album Haughty Melodic, he talks about her duty to “ladle my soup from the kettle pot” and the KFC’s bulletproof glass to “keep the man safe in his paper hat / keep the wrong hands off the biscuit fortune.” Not to mention his instructions in “Unsingable Name” off the same album to “mix the salt the sugar and flour.” (That particular quote’s painted on my kitchen wall, actually.)

Listening to these lyrics as we drifted through the high desert, my mind turned to other songs that prominently feature food themes. And I decided to make a playlist.

There are so many ways to interpret this theme, like it’s-a-clever-metaphor-for-a-woman-get-it? songs such as the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar” and Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” (which can never be mentioned without a link to its terribly ’80s video). Or food-centric locales, like the Lemonheads’ “Kitchen” or Steely Dan’s “Lunch with Gina.”

Then there are songs that ostensibly aren’t about food at all, but have a killer phrase that mentions something edible, like the line from my favorite Buffalo Tom song “Porchlight” that rhymes “scrambling eggs” with “shambling legs.”

I could go on for hours, but here’s my initial selection of 20 (please, how could I keep it to a Top Ten with a topic like this?). I anticipate a spirited discussion in the comments and on Facebook. Is anyone else getting hungry listening to these?

Fast Food Rockers, “Fast Food Song” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/fast-food-song” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

The Clash, “Lost in the Supermarket” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/lost-in-the-supermarket” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Mike Doughty, “Sunken-Eyed Girl” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/sunken-eyed-girl” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

They Might Be Giants, “Dinner Bell” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/dinner-bell” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Van Morrison, “Tupelo Honey” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/tupelo-honey” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Morphine, “French Fries with Pepper” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/french-fries-with-pepper” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Lyle Lovett, “Pantry” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/pantry” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Jimmy Buffett, “Cheeseburger in Paradise” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/cheeseburger-in-paradise” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Simon & Garfunkel, “Punky’s Dilemma” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/punkys-dilemma” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Martin Sexton, “Diner” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/diner” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Squeeze, “Black Coffee in Bed” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/11-black-coffee-in-bed” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Jack Johnson, “Banana Pancakes” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/banana-pancakes” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

The Beatles, “Savoy Truffle” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/beatles-savoy-truffle” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Presidents of the United States of America, “Peaches” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/06-peaches” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Bunjie Jambo, “Chicken Pot Pie”*

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/chicken-pot-pie” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Pete Yorn, “Burrito” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/burrito” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Beastie Boys, “Finger Lickin’ Good” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/finger-lickin-good” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Flaming Lips, “She Don’t Use Jelly” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/she-dont-use-jelly” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Harry Nilsson, “Coconut” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/coconut” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Rufus Wainwright, “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/cigarettes-and-chocolate-milk” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

And a bonus Mike Doughty song:

Mike Doughty, “More Bacon Than the Pan Can Handle” Lyrics

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/good-food-stories/more-bacon-than-the-pan-can-handle” params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

*This ditty by an obscure Pittsburgh ska band may be the only song out there about one of my favorite dishes. I realize probably fewer than a thousand people have heard it, but I do love chicken pot pie… with carrots! and POTATOES! If anyone can find another, please send it my way and maybe one day I’ll have a whole pot-pie-themed mixtape.