Okay, so "muddy water" may be a stretch.
November 6, 2008 10:24 AM   Subscribe

Ultimate Thanksgiving music set: Help me find as many food-referential jazz, blues, jump-blues, swing, and generally dance-y songs as possible.

A few years back, I used to frequent a dance night in Chicago where, during the week of Thanksgiving, would play a "food set"--basically, 4-ish hours of jazz and blues dancin' music that was food-related (with no repeats--the regular DJ had a staggering music collection). I would like to recreate this for my Thanksgiving gathering this year, but I'm out of the country and no longer in contact with the scene, and the website where occasional setlists was posted is down indefinitely. And while I would know dozens of such songs were I to hear them, I'm not encyclopedic in my knowledge of titles, artists, etc.

So, music gurus, jazz aficionados, dancers out there, help me track down as many such songs as possible. Anything from the totally obvious to the most nebulously connected is great. Artists including and beyond names like Nina Simone, Lou Rawls, Slim Gaillard, Jimmy Witherspoon, Etta James, Diana Krall, B.B. King ...
Here's a sampling of what I've found, and the direction I'm looking in:

Frim Fram Sauce
Potato Chips
I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water
One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer
Sherry Flip
Why Don't You Eat Where You Slept Last Night
Sugar in My Bowl

... and so on. (Not all the links are the greatest versions, but they give an idea.)
posted by the luke parker fiasco to Media & Arts (23 answers total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
It night be a little too country for your taste, but i have always been partial to Home Grown Tomatoes.
posted by TedW at 10:42 AM on November 6, 2008


The album Milestones, with Miles Davis, has a great piano track played by Red Garlaned called Billie Boy. The tune is really the old folk-standard "Can She Bake a Cherry Pie". You'd have to be a stick of wood to not like it.
posted by vilcxjo_BLANKA at 10:44 AM on November 6, 2008


Beans and Cornbread - Louis Jordan
Greasy Greens
posted by timsteil at 10:45 AM on November 6, 2008 [1 favorite]


Cab Calloway - Everybody Eats When They Come to My House
Cab Calloway - A Chicken Ain't Nothin But a Bird
Louis Jordan - Beans and Cornbread
Little Milton - Grits Ain't Groceries
Professor Longhair - Jambalaya (originally a Hank Williams song)
posted by box at 10:46 AM on November 6, 2008 [1 favorite]


"Gimme a Pigfoot" - Bessie Smith
posted by baltimoretim at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2008


I could only come up with a handful off the top of my head:

Lou Monte - That's Amore ("When the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie...")
Dizzy Gillespie All Star Quintet feat. Charlie Parker - Salt Peanuts
Astrud Gilberto & Shigeharu Mukai - Champagne and Caviar
posted by kaudio at 10:48 AM on November 6, 2008


Charles Mingus: Eat That Chicken
posted by LionIndex at 10:56 AM on November 6, 2008 [1 favorite]


Jill Scott seems to be categorized more as soul and R&B but I think she's rather jazzy. Her song It's Love is extremely food-referential and quite danceable. In fact, she uses a (relatively) lot of food references in her music.
posted by fuse theorem at 11:16 AM on November 6, 2008 [1 favorite]


"Pass the Peas" - the JBs
posted by General Malaise at 11:41 AM on November 6, 2008


Louis Armstrong with Ella Fitzgerald - All That Meat & No Potatoes
posted by mattholomew at 11:42 AM on November 6, 2008


Willie Bobo - "Fried Neck Bones and Some Home Fries", off the Verve Remixed 2 album. Dance-y and jazzy!
posted by pised at 11:50 AM on November 6, 2008


Jimmy McGriff - Fat Cakes
posted by imposster at 12:08 PM on November 6, 2008








Bessie Smith does a version of "I Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl" as well.

Otherwise,
Bessie Smith - "Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine"
Lil Johnson - "Sam the Hot Dog Man"
Lil Johnson - "Hot Nuts (Get 'em From the Peanut Man)"
Faye Richmond - "Tony's Got Hot Nuts"
Eileen Barton - "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake"

And it's not exactly in your span of genres, but what about the Shitbirds' cover of "Beef Bologna," originally by Fear? Or Evolution Control Committee's excellent "Breakfast," "Lunch," and "Dinner," all off "Plagiarhythm Nation"?
posted by tugena13 at 12:40 PM on November 6, 2008


RJD2 - Bus Stop Bitties ("Cornbread, collard greens, candied yams...")
posted by radioamy at 2:06 PM on November 6, 2008


Um, Strange Fruit isn't really food-related...
posted by Bigfoot Mandala at 5:16 PM on November 6, 2008


Eat the lunch you brought - Janiva Magness
posted by meringue at 5:38 PM on November 6, 2008


"Shoo fly pie and apple pandowdy" sung variously by Dinah Shore, Ella Fitzgerald, and June Christie
posted by Queen of Spreadable Fats at 8:15 PM on November 6, 2008


Oh, and Cole Slaw by Louis Jordan (featured in a dance performed by the incomparable Silver Shadows)
posted by Queen of Spreadable Fats at 8:23 PM on November 6, 2008


Another Louis Jordan: Saturday Night Fish Fry
I love this song.
posted by rhinny at 10:27 PM on November 6, 2008


Er, yeah, Bigfoot. I meant to note that - but in my linky madness I forgot.
I put it in because the OP said "Anything from the totally obvious to the most nebulously connected is great." Thanks for the reminder...
posted by Kimothy at 8:20 PM on November 8, 2008


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