The Blues are filled with food references, many of which feature risqué double entendre. Some meanings are blatantly obvious like Bo Carter’s “Banana in Your Fruit Basket,” while others are a bit more subtle. Of the almost 50 slang terms related to food in Stephen Calt’s Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary (2009), the majority have a sexual double meaning. Some recurring terms include jelly roll, biscuit roller, pig meat, and coffee grinder.

Inuendo and hidden meanings have been part of the blues tradition since its earliest days. In addition to the humorous nature of such language, obscured meanings were likely one way of skirting decency laws governing the recording industry.

See the covers and labels from more food-inspired Blues recordings in our collections in eGrove.

In the display case:

• Banana in Your Fruit Basket / Bo Carter

• Publicity photo for The Jelly Roll Kings

• Candyman / Mississippi John Hurt (1928 Sessions)

• Cornbread for Your Husband and Biscuits for Your Man / Mr. Clifford Blake, Sr.

• The Crap-Shootin' Rev' / Pigmeat Markham