Let’s Eat

Each of us can conjure up the image of a Thanksgiving table groaning under the weight of the ultimate feast. The musical equivalent is over at Fufu Stew this week, where Vincent the Soul Chef has cooked up a three-part Thanksgiving feast of funky music that is likely to leave you feeling like pushing back from the table and loosening your belt. Vincent invited many different music bloggers to contribute food-themed tunes to the buffet, and I am pleased to be one of them.

It occurs to me that such a mix could only come from a blog dedicated to funk and soul, because all of the truly great songs about food come from performers who are A) Southern; B) black; or C) both. As tasty as Chicago-style pizza, Philadelphia cheesesteaks, or the Wisconsin fish fry can be, they’re apparently not tasty enough to inspire widespread musical inspiration. But how many songs have been written that involve Southern staples like grits, ribs, black-eyed peas, or fried chicken?

My contribution to Vincent’s menu is one of the few tracks that doesn’t mention a food item in its title: “Leona” by Wet Willie. The band was formed in Mobile, Alabama, and rose to fame on the Capricorn record label out of Macon, Georgia. They never reached the heights climbed by their labelmates, the Allman Brothers and Marshall Tucker, but they weren’t especially comparable to either of those bands anyhow. Wet Willie was a Southern soul band; had they formed in Memphis instead of Mobile, they’d have likely found their way to Stax and could have fit right in there without changing a thing.

The band recorded its first album in 1971, but even sharp-eared listeners probably wouldn’t have heard of them until 1973, when they released a live album called Drippin’ Wet. Greater fame arrived in 1974, when their first hit single, “Keep on Smilin’,” made the Top 10. Dixie Rock and The Wetter the Better came in ‘75 and ‘76; the latter featured the superb “Everything That ‘Cha Do (Will Come Back to You”), and I am guessing that the cover got tacked up on a few bedroom and dorm-room walls as well. Another live album followed (what “special editions” are to bands today, live albums were in the 1970s), and then the original lineup splintered. The new lineup produced two more albums and two more modest hit singles, “Street Corner Serenade” and “Weekend,” before going out of business in 1979—at least until the inevitable new-millennium reunion, which has resulted in a shifting lineup producing a couple more live albums.

But let’s turn back to 1975 for a moment. For a band that could be plenty funky, it’s really saying something to call “Leona,” Dixie Rock’s lead single, the greasiest thing they ever made—not just in sound, but in subject matter, too. It’s about a guy who stops in at a café that doesn’t look like much on the outside, but is heaven within:

She fixed a good ol’ golden brown Southern fried chicken
That would make the Colonel run and hide
I had collard greens and fresh snap beans
And sweet potatoes on the side
I had homemade biscuits just as big as your fist
A-drippin’ with sweet creamy butter
A Mason jar fulla cold ice tea
So good it make you run home to Mother

By 1975, disco was on its way in and Southern soul was on its way out. That’s probably why “Leona” lasted only five weeks on the Billboard chart, peaking at Number 69 in March. But nothing more scrumptious ever hit the Hot 100. Here’s hoping your Thanksgiving dinner this year is at least that tasty.

During this holiday week, I am grateful to all readers of this blog, far and near. Our robot overlords at WordPress will provide a new post here on Thanksgiving Day, but apart from that, we’ll be on hiatus until Tuesday, November 27.

“Everything That ‘Cha Do (Will Come Back to You)”/Wet Willie (buy it here)