On Thanksgiving Day the local public radio station played Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie, which in great detail describes an ordeal that befell the singer on the holiday of the last Thursday in November. Few other songs seem to fit the theme of Thanksgiving, especially if you are searching for songs about turkeys.
John Lennon’s Cold Turkey is probably the most well-known, but it is less about the bird on the dinner table than it is about a personal struggle. In spite of all the different types of food found in songs, few of them seem relate to items traditionally served on Thanksgiving.
Over many years of listening to music, I have discovered that some of the foods mentioned in my favorite songs are actually metaphors for something else. The colitas I mistook for a Mexican cuisine in Hotel California by the Eagles are in reality the buds of an inedible plant.
Just as famous is the assumed food mentioned in Penny Lane by The Beatles, the “four of fish and finger pie.” The first part of that line does indeed refer to chips, but the latter dish is not at all a dessert. Similarly, the seafood in Squeeze’s Pulling Mussels From A Shell actually refers instead to a physical act.
Unlike the three previous examples, most songs mentioning food really are referring to something to be eaten. Here are ten of the most unusual types of food found in popular songs.
Vegemite Sandwich from Down Under
Colin Hay and his Australian band Men At Work topped the chart with the Business As Usual album, boosted this hit video featuring a “six foot four man full of muscles” handing Hay something resembling a Vegemite sandwich.
Kippers from Breakfast In America
The title track from the band’s number one album had them asking “Could we have kippers for breakfast, Mummy Dear?”, meaning they are desiring to partake of fish for the morning meal.
Jambalaya from On the Bayou
Hank Williams used this Louisiana treat, along with craw fish pie, for one of his most famous songs.
Mrs. Wagner Pies from America
These desserts mentioned in the Simon and Garfunkel hit were sold as single servings from a bakery in Ocean Grove, New Jersey until 1969.
Bulgar Wheat from Cheeseburger In Paradise
Jimmy Buffett, as he admits in the hit song from Son of a Son of a Sailor, far prefers the title sandwich over this Middle Eastern cuisine.
Baguettes from Hustle Hard Remix
Rick Ross mentions these biscuit-like items, contemplating a watch “embedded with princess and baguettes.”
Truffle from Savoy Truffle
George Harrison contributed this ode to odd food combinations on the White Album by The Beatles, and it has become one of the most delicious tracks on it.
Minestrone from Life Is a Minestrone
After buying 10cc’s The Original Soundtrack for the hit “I’m Not In Love”, I soon looked up minestrone to find that it was a kind of soup.
Sorrel from Sorrel
The sixties and seventies band Wishbone Ash dedicated this entire song to the spinach-like vegetable.
Quinoa from Premade Sandwiches
This vegan food, along with many others, appears in the song by alternative band Glass Animals.
