A derivative of the French jus for juice, this rarely tasted mid-17th-century word means full of broth or soup, a deliciously evocative adjective that bubbles up a variety of associations, but does it appear in song? The word itself is lyrically evasive, but there’s no shortage of stock when it comes to song references to soup or broth. Here’s a sprinkling of example ingredients.
For some reason, soup references in song seem to have a connection to children, and none more famous, but also cringeworthy, and if you listen to the lyrics as sung by child star Shirley Temple in the 1935 film Curly Top, which brought her fame to boil. The lyrics were written by Irving Caesar and Ted Koehler and the music by Ray Henderson. It was also recorded by Don Bestor and his orchestra with Mae Questel, the voice of Betty Boop, who also did Popeye’s girlfriend Olive Oyl, releasing a recording of the song in the 1930s.
Once Mother said "My little pet
You ought to learn your alphabet!"
So in my soup I used to get
All the letters of the alphabet
I learned them all from A to Z
And now my Mother's giving me
Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop
Gosh, oh gee! but I have fun
Swallowing animals one by one
In every bowl of soup I see
Lions and tigers watching me
I make 'em jump right through a hoop
Those animal crackers in my soup
Perish the thought what is really in that soup, but there’s also another song that reveals the content, and here, rather surprisingly sung by Bruce Springsteen. Chicken Lips and Lizard Hips by John and Nancy Cassidy was an outtake from his 1992 album Human Touch, and ended up on a children’s album:
She made this soup
I ate it all in bed
I asked her what she put in it
And this is what she said:
"Oh, chicken lips and lizard hips
And alligator eyes
And monkey legs
And buzzard eggs
And salamander thighs
Rabbit ears and camel rears
And tasty toe-nail pies
Stir them all together,
It's Mama's Soup Surprise.”
They Might Be Giants did a children’s album themselves, and thrown into the pot was this number which mixed soup with dinosaurs and further surreal images:
Nine bowls of soup are balanced on the end of a rake
On an ichthyosaur's head
Woah, woah, woah, woah
Oh good, none of them spilled
Please can I have one Mr. Ichthyosaur?
No, you can't, I'm saving them for friends
But you don't have any friends
Yes, I do, no, you don't, yes, I do, now be quiet
I'm trying to concentrate
Nine bowls of soup on the wings of an airplane
Flown by an ichthyosaur
Woah, woah, woah
Lucky thing they didn't all spill
Is there one that's kind of extra? Can I have it for my own?
No, you can't, I can't break up the set
But the soup is getting cold, no, it isn't, yes, it is
No, I don't know what you're talking about
Nine bowls of soup are balanced on a snake
That the ichthyosaur is taking for a walk
Woah, woah, woah, waah
Phew, I really thought that that was it
I just think that you have more than you can handle
What's all the soup for anyway?
I didn't think you even really liked soup
Why do you need nine bowls? Why do you need
Why do you need nine?
If I tell you what these are for
Then will you stop bothering me
Nine bowls of soup arranged a certain way
Are some radar dishes in a very large array
And the message they detect from across the Milky Way
Says the aliens want to join us for lunch
I hope you guys like soup
In a children’s style Carole King also got in on the act with this song, so fond of chicken soup (presumably for health too) that it appears for each month of the year in this number.
In January it's so nice,
While slippin' on the slidin' ice
To sip hot chicken soup with rice
Sippin' once, sippin' twice
Sippin' chicken soup with rice …
But now let us stir in some deeper, sometimes murkier soup references. For Devo, in Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA, soup of the day has a touring association that spreads to bigger meanings:
He's been with the world
I'm tired of the soup du jour
He's been with the world
I went to end this prophylactic tour
Afraid that no one around me
Understands my potato
Think I'm only a spudboy
Looking for a real tomato
Meanwhile for Joan Armatrading, here with a little help from Sly and Robbie, a soup comes with mixed feelings in a relationship – “I love you like a broth”:
Things get stranger and murkier still in the hands of those prolific Australian proggers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard with Greenhouse Heat Death:
Heat death, hormones
Good broth, cook bones …
But surely there is no stranger mixture than Frank Zappa’s The Girl Wants to Fix Him Some Broth from 1971’s 200 Motels album. To add some spice to the soup, here’s an explanation from the man himself along with a wealth of assorted performers in the ingredients, and also a shorter version:
So then, what jussulent soup or broth songs might you like to stir into this week’s lyrical word section? Please feel free to share any further examples in songs, instrumentals, on albums, film, art or other contexts in comments below.
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