Your challenge today is to cite rock ‘n roll songs containing euphemistic fruit references: fruit, not vegetables, although our highly unscientific judges will allow the blurring of categories regarding tomatoes and melons. (One judge does know this much: technically, almonds are a fruit not a nut.) By “rock ‘n roll songs” I mean songs released during the rock ‘n roll era, so that rules out the excellent and not-naughty (as I would expect most entries will be) “Strange Fruit.”
I’ll kick things off with an entry some might quibble over if suggested by anyone else, an unexpected banana reference in Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band”:
Four young chiquitas in Omaha…
Surely, this will be one of the most exclusive Last Man Standing competitions in the history of Rock Town Hall…or not!
This, I’m sure, won’t count since it’s not euphemistic, but rather overt.
“… squeeze my lemon till the juice runs down my leg.”
Traveling Riverside Blues by Robert Johnson
The Lemon Song by Led Zep, stolen from Killing Floor by Howlin Wolf
I re-read the rules, Mr. Mod, and I’m way off on both the euphemistic element and the rock and roll era deal.
I don’t care, as rock and roll is all about breaking your silly rules.
“Really love your peaches wanna shake your tree” Steve Miller (stolen from Lovey Dovey by the Clovers)
“She’s my Cherry Pie” Warrant
Tutti Frutti — in Italian, meaning “all fruits.” I suppose this won’t count.
Isn’t the squeezing of the lemon used euphemistically? And since Zeppelin claimed authorship of so many old blues songs for themselves, I’m counting this as a Led Zeppelin rock-era original song. It was one of about three examples that came to mind as I developed this LMS.
It’s not specific, hrrundi, but good try!
Does any of this count?
“It seemed to happen in a dream
Like the corn at Summer’s end
She was standing fully grown
Peaches hanging on the tree
I shook some loose, she bit too quick
All the juice came running down
Your littler sister’s a big girl now”
Paul Kelly and the Messengers
Yes, cdm is currently LMS!
Mod, if I may don the pince-nez, chiquita just means young girl. In the case of the Grand Funk song, I don’t see the banana reference.
On the other hand, in Wings’ Hi Hi Hi, we find: “I’m Gonna Do It To You, Gonna Do It, Sweet Banana, You’ll Never Give Up.”
Which might not mean much of anything but I’m pretty sure it is supposed to be some sort sexual something.
You are currently LMS with that fine Wings’ citation, but let’s not discount the verse that follows the “chiquita” one in “We’re an American Band”:
What woman actually refers to guys as “dudes?” We know what the banana signified on the first VU album, don’t we? These “chiquitas” were packing bananas. Those fine ladies were dudes.
Way back when and for a long time I thought this line was “Really love your peaches, wanna taste your cream” – peaches & cream, get it? – and I still think it’s a better line.
It’s hard to improve on the lyrics of Steve Miller Band, but mister, you have done just that!
I for one can’t believe there is not a single reference to any kind of fruit in Spinal Tap’s “Sex Farm”:
Working on a sex farm
Trying to raise some hard love
Getting out my pitch fork
And poking your hay
Scratching in your henhouse
Sniffing at your feedbag
Slipping out your back door
I’m leaving my spray
Sex farm woman
I’m gonna mow you down
Sex farm woman
I’ll rake and mow you down
Sex farm woman
Don’t you see my silo risin’ high
Working on a sex farm
Hosing down your barn door
Bothering your livestock
They know what I need
Working up a hot sweat
I’m scratching in your pea patch
Plowing through your beanfield
Planting my seed
Sex farm woman
I’ll be your hired hand
Sex farm woman
I’ll let my offer stand
Sex farm woman
Don’t you feel my tractor rumbling by
by-by-byyyy
Working on a sex farm
Wolfing down some cornbread
I’m turning on the TV
Joining the grange
The Stranglers’ “Peaches” is pretty clear in its meaning… “Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches”
Ooh — Nanker’s reminds me of Elvis’ version of Girls! Girls! Girls!
“On the beaches,
Oh, what peaches…
So pretty, Lord, I could cry.”
I am LMS!
The B-52s “Strobe Light” contains the line, “I’m gonna kiss your pineapple.”
Fruit Tree by Nick Drake doesn’t mention which particular fruit (in Northern England probably apples or pears) but the fruit tree is a metaphor for fame. And it is one of the few non-sexual metaphors here.
Steely Dan’s “Josie”
Jo would you love to scrapple
She’ll never say no
Shine up the battle apple
We’ll shake ’em all down tonight
We’re gonna mix in the street
Strike at the stroke of midnight
Dance on the bones till the girls say when
Pick up what’s left by daylight
When Josie comes home
I think we’ve discovered which fruit fires the imaginations of rock songwriters. From Capt. Beefheart:
All of those peaches up in one tree
I know one of them belongs to me
I seem them peaches fallin’ down by me
I know you see me standing under your tree
Long as you’ve got so many peaches
Why don’t you throw one down to me?
If I was a cherry-red bird
I’d fly up and take you off with me
Ok, so it’s not his best song. And maybe he’s just hungry.
A Tribe Called Quest: “Bonita Applebum.” Pretty self-explanatory.
Or “Peaches and Cream” by Beck. You make the garbage men scream.
And finally, the “nature’s candy in a hand or pie,” Peaches by Presidents of the USA.
Sorry, I was on an evening fruit bender there.
The peaches/tree concept is at least 100 years old, but I offer up Carl Perkins’ take on it from “Matchbox”:
“If you don’t want my peaches, honey, please don’t shake my tree.”
I’m still working out the gender implications.
Ladymisskir’s “Benita Applebum” reminded me of Nelly and “Apple Bottoms”, which is the name of his line of designer jeans. I looked it up and the song itself is by T-Pain and FloRida.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyrAq89_Z7w
My boss recommended this one: Poi Dog Pondering, “Diamonds and Buttermilk.” Discussion of pomegranates: “split your pomegranate and suckle on your seeds.” The above video does double duty with a previous LMS about derrieres.
I can’t believe it took me this long to remember Zappa’s “Dinah-Moe Humm”.
I whipped off her bloomers ‘n stiffened my thumb
An’ applied rotation on her sugar plum
I poked ‘n stroked till my wrist got numb
But I still didn’t hear no Dinah-Moe Humm
Dinah-Moe Humm
Am I the “Last Man Standing”? What does that mean?
Winners of Last Man Standing competitions typically win the patented RTH No-Prize and a hearty round of congratulations – but beware: this thread will remain open, so there’s always the chance that you will end up being thanked for your broad shoulders, on which another Townsperson might stand!
Cool! I’ll keep one in my pocket for later if I need it. I want that No-Prize.
Is Sassafras a fruit?
It’s actually a tree:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassafras
Doh!