‘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 😊🎶