Is there more perfect music to bake to than Louis Jordan? For the uninitiated Louis Jordan was a singer and saxophonist who lead his own band the Tympani 5 (there were never 5 members though – much in the same vein as Ben Folds Five) in the 1930s-50s. Not only is the music boisterous and the lyrics warm and witty but Louis also favours food themes. Having given it some thought, I can break his food songs down into the following genres; there are songs about:
Food – Beans & Cornbread, Cole Slaw
Things that will become food – Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens
Places that sound like food – Salt Pork West Virginia
Places that serve great food – Saturday Night Fish Fry
People that probably enjoy their food a little too much – Fat Sam From Birmingham, I Like ‘Em Fat Like That
Equipment that helps with food preparation – I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts of Town. This song contains the line “don’t need no ice man, I’m gonna buy a Frigidaire”
In fact, there’s only one thing I have to disagree with Louis about and it’s a serious grievance. His, admittedly great, song ‘Knock Me a Kiss’ contains the following:
I like cake and no mistake, but baby if you insist
I’ll cut out cake, just for your sake
Baby! C’mon knock me a kiss
I needn’t tell you how wrong this is on every level.
I recognise that as the first comment on your shiny new blog I should not be courting controversy... but ... I think Louis might have had a point on the kiss over cake business.
ReplyDelete(Hold on. Just read the lyrics again. Does he mean give up cake forever?? I thought he just meant til the kiss was over. How can someone sing about giving up cake forever? Freak.)
Great looking cakes! If I can stop knitting long enough I might even attempt the almond one.