I didn't realize how few food songs I've written. This week's "Yum" theme made my lack of edible verses all-too-apparent. A few weeks ago I posted a performance of "Red-eye Gravy" which is about travel exhaustion back when we used take our arts to out-of-town audiences. I first experienced red-eye gravy - sausage or bacon drippings with black coffee - as a breakfast dish over eggs. I also know that there is a song about black coffee ("Black Coffee Blues?") somewhere in my archives. The only other song that fits the bill is "Lady Lucy's Soulfood Emporium." I wrote this song shortly after I moved to Nashville, TN. It's inspired by all of the great Southern cooking I discovered after after moving to Tennessee from Detroit. Soul food is the connection between the two places -- citities like Detroit and Chicago are full of Southern soul food restaurants given all the Southerners who moved to the North in the 20 century to work in manufacturing industries. That diaspora gave us electrified blues and spaghetti as a side dish to fried chicken. This song is on my first album, Plain Jane.
Lyrics:
Louisiana back road, Cajun lagoon,
I got bourbon on the brain and I smell like perfume.
Well, I spent last night with a voodoo queen.
She had a smile like a reptile and eyes like James Dean.
I got Zydeco on the radio and there’s only one place that I want to go.
Well, I drive down past that burnt out church,
Take a left turn at that gallows birch.
I met a man at the crossroads dressed in black,
He’s got a cane made of silver and a smile full of gaps.
He says, “boy I know what you came here for”,
And he took me by the hand and lead me right up to the door to get
Chorus:
Hog backs, pigs feet and black-eyed peas,
Her grits and gravy make me fall to my knees.
I need a big plate of ribs that’ll stick to mine,
Corn on the cob and watermelon wine.
I want some fuel for my spirit gonna get me some,
Down at Lady Lucy’s Soulfood Emporium.
Well, she’s a long lost mamma with her hair in a net.
She’s got a smile like a piano and I just bet
That if you ask real nice she’ll show you her tattoos.
She got one on her shoulder that says “born to lose”.
She’s got one on her heart of a black angel in blue,
Cookin’ dinner for sinners like me and you.
Chorus
Well if you got the cravin’ buddy, if you got the need,
You put the pedal to the metal and pick up that speed.
For fresh blackberry pie and pink lemonade to wash it down,
Lord I was lost, but now I’m found.
Bless us our lord and these thy gifts,
That have left this shine on my smilin’ lips.
I been newly baptized in your bar-b-cue sauce,
Born again and come down from the cross.
For salvation from the crematorium
Go to Lady Lucy’s Soulfood Emporium.
Have a great week, everybody!
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"Yum!" Tasty song here. This one sounds like a classic to me—the soundtrack to a road trip through Louisiana. What a delicious blend of poetry, music, and memories.