Song Lyric Sunday: Cream And Vinegar

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‘Song by a band with a food-related name’ was the brief for this week’s SLS, as you can see in Jim’s post, Sustenance. This gave me a fair bit of head scratching, and the little grey cells went into overdrive, but I eventually boiled it down to four possibles. I did toy with the thought of playing them all but decided that would be overkill, so with apologies to the Flying Burrito Brothers and Humble Pie I’m playing a song by each of the other two. They are both crackers, though, and once again I’m going back to my teen years.

The first one is from the bigger name of my two bands:

Apologies for the audio-only clip. I did find one that had some pictures but the sound quality wasn’t great, and the live ones were all much later and were missing one vital ingredient – a co-writer. The lyrics run like this:

I’m thinkin’ ’bout the times you drove in my car
I’m thinkin’ that I might have drove you too far
And I’m thinkin’ ’bout the love that you laid on my table

I told you not to wander ’round in the dark
I told you ’bout the swans, that they live in the park
Then I told you ’bout our kid, now he’s married to Mabel

Well, I told you that the light goes up and down
Do you notice how the wheels go ’round?
And you better pick yourself up from the ground
Before they bring the curtain down
Yes, before they bring the curtain down

I’m talkin’ ’bout a girl that looks quite like you
She didn’t have the time to wait in the queue
She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Eric Patrick Clapton / George Harrison

Badge lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Badge was a track on Cream’s aptly named final album, Goodbye, which was released in February 1969, three months after they had already disbanded. As swansongs go it was a pretty good one, reaching #1 in the UK and #2 in the US. You may have noticed that the song’s title doesn’t appear in the lyrics. George Harrison explained how it came about: “I helped Eric write “Badge.” Each of them had to come up with a song for that Goodbye Cream album and Eric didn’t have his written. We were working across from each other and I was writing the lyrics down and we came to the middle part so I wrote ‘Bridge.’ Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing – ‘What’s BADGE?’ he said. After that, Ringo walked in drunk and gave us that line about the swans living in the park.” And the line about “our kid” being “married to Mabel,” may well have been another drunken Ringo contribution, perhaps a joking reference to John Lennon recently marrying Yoko Ono – a much more exotic name than “Mabel!” The creative process sometimes works in mysterious ways, doesn’t it, rather befitting the credit George received for playing that great rhythm guitar on the track, for which he was identified as “L’Angelo Misterioso.” For contractual reasons, in case you hadn’t guessed. The song was released as a single in March 1969: it only got to #60 in the US but did much better here in the UK, peaking at #18. It spent a total of ten weeks in our chart, six of which were in the Top Thirty. It is one of those songs that I have loved ever since I first heard it, and it is a delight for me to play it again today.

My second choice of band may be much less well known to you, though it was the starting point for two who became successful solo artists. The band was Vinegar Joe, and those two were Elkie Brooks and the late, great Robert Palmer. Robert died of a heart attack at just 54, and it seems right to mark the twentieth anniversary of his passing (this coming Tuesday) with one of their songs. They were much more successful as a live band than they were in terms of record sales, and became known for their energetic performances. I had the delight of seeing them play, and can vouch for that. As you can see from this video, Elkie gave it her all:

And because I like you, here is an edited selection from the lyrics:

I’m sorry if the street I came from people say what they mean
I’m sorry for the way I was raised but I can’t help what I’ve been

You see the kids that I grew up with
They didn’t get much education
Just third rate low class dead end people
Bottom of the barrel place

I’m proud to be a honky woman
Proud to be who I am
Looking for a honky man
Looking for a honky man

Never chose the time or place I was born
Never had the choice to be rich or poor
Had to do what I can
To use what I am
And after it all
I turned out to be

Proud…

Elkie didn’t hold back, did she! Songfacts has this to say about this performance:

“Written by guitarist Pete Gage and running to 4 minutes 33 seconds, Vinegar Joe performed Proud To Be (A Honky Woman) on The Old Grey Whistle Test on October 30, 1973, and that was probably as good as it got for them in their four-year, three-album career. The song was the first track on their final album, Six Star General.” At that time Pete Gage was married to Elkie, though they later divorced.

That Songfacts quote kind of sums them up. But Elkie and Robert both went on to have huge success with their solo careers, though the smooth jazz crooner that Elkie became is almost unrecognisable from her younger self. Standing fairly close to the stage and watching her wiggling around like that made quite an impact on an impressionable teenager, I can tell you! Out of curiosity I looked up Vinegar Joe in the Official Charts Company’s archives. I said that they hadn’t enjoyed much chart success, didn’t I, and I was right: a grand total of one placing for a fairly recent compilation album in 2021, which spent the equally grand total of one week at #96. As I said, they were much better live!

That’s it for my ‘food band’ choices. Hopefully you enjoyed them, and may have found a new one. I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes 😊🎶

32 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Cream And Vinegar”

  1. Pingback: September Grass | Take It Easy

  4. Cream has been a favorite for many years, and I know this song well. We have their greatest hits CD, too. Vinegar Joe is new to me. Interesting story about them and how they went on to different things later on. 🙂

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  5. I had never heard the song by Cream, though I thought it was great. While I remember Cream, Vinegar Joe is a new band for me. I think the sound of this song and the harmony wasn’t bad, but I’m not usually a fan of screamer-type lead singers.

    What a fun challenge! I started searching my brain for groups with food names. Some of the ones that came to mind are The Cranberries, Black-Eyed Peas, Korn, Bananarama, and Bowling for Soup.

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    • I’m a bit surprised you didn’t know the Cream song, but not at all surprised you liked it! Vinegar Joe were best seen live, as I said in the post, and the two leads went on to have successful careers with very different styles from their beginnings.

      It was a good theme, wasn’t it. Of your suggestions the only one I considered was Bowling For Soup, who I really like, but they didn’t make my top four and then I decided to go for the obscure instead.

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      • Obscure is part of the fun for a challenge like this. By the way, I see we share an appreciation for Bowling for Soup, who I think are great.

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      • I think so – it’s a chance to show Americans – and in this case Brits – what they missed out on! Bowling For Soup actually raised my musical credibility with my older daughter: I was driving her back to uni and had forgotten that one of their CDs was in the player. She was pleasantly surprised!

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      • Chocolate, man. Maybe they don’t sell them in England. They were a favourite treat in North Amrica for decades, and still might be for all I know. I barely touch sugar anyomore…😀

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      • Yeah, I thought of them, but could not remember anything they did. Turtles are milk chocolate with toffee and pecans, I believe it was, sort of shapec Iike turtles with head and feet sticking out of their shells. They used to be the most popular gift for bitrhdays and Valentine’s, etc.
        The Turtles biggest hit was Happy Together, but I preferred when they were doing Dylan songs.

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      • I think they were much bigger here than over there, to be honest. I loved The Turtles and had a couple of their albums. But those chocs don’t ring any bells at all. I must have had a deprived childhood!

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      • Early adulthood, more like. I was probably in at least my late teens when they arrived in Winnipeg. Winnipeg was late-blooming as far as commercial products went. But that wzs what made us such a good test market. We got to decide what made it and what did not for most of white North Americs.

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      • Out of curiosity I looked them up on Wikipedia. They started in 1923 in the US and were first sold in Canada in 1949. But never over here, so at least my ignorance is understandable!

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      • We never knew things that weren’t available in our home districts in those days. You might say our home d8stricts were our worlds. Now lookat the children of today. Ghry know do much snout the whole eorldso e pardnts wznt them to know less. Go figure!

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    • Happy as always to take part, Jim. I like the story around Badge but would have played it without that, as it is such a good song. I think Vinegar Joe went under the radar for most people here, too, but as I said in the piece they were a great live band.

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    • Thank you, Bernadette, I’m pleased you like it. I’ve been joining in with SLS for fifteen months and it has been a lot of fun for me to do. Always happy to introduce new music!

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    • Thank you, Darlene. I thought this one would be hard but surprised myself at how many I found to choose from. The RHCP are indeed a good fit for the theme, but I played them for this series a few months ago so went with something different. And any excuse to bring back memories of a gig fifty years ago was worth taking!

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