Come and get it… Fufu Stew No. 8: A Fufu Stew Thanksgiving

This post is lovingly dedicated to my grandmother, Bertha Rose Myers (25 Jan 1917 – 24 Nov 1994)

Hello, kiddies.

Well the time has finally come. After weeks of preparation and many contributions from some of my favourite blogging colleagues, I am pleased to bring you A Fufu Stew Thanksgiving. Now for those of you living in parts of the world where Thanksgiving isn’t a part of the local culture, you are more than welcome to join in the occasion because as my mother likes to say, EVERY day is a day of thanksgiving. Why? Well, if you have your health and friends and family to share good times, then that in itself is a very good reason to be thankful. Believe me, it ain’t just about a turkey… One can have turkey any day of the week, besides, I don’t eat meat anyway.
Allow me to give you all just a brief glimpse into a typical Thanksgiving day the way I remember them growing up. I’m sure that some of you out there can relate. The dinner preparations usually begin about a day in advance with the sweet smell of pies and cakes baking non stop until the wee hours of the morning. My grandmother could bake a mean pumpkin pie, let me tell you. My uncles are also really good cooks as well. Their jobs come a little later. Starting at about six or so on Thanksgiving morning, and pretty much until it’s time to sit down at the table, the oven and stove are working overtime. Stuffed turkey, ham, roast beef… and let’s not forget the massive amount of side dishes like the mashed potatoes, collard greens, sweet potatoes, you get the picture. And then those hot cloverleaf rolls made from scratch. Mmmmm. Everyone gets invited from the neighbourhood, and of course the family comes in form various parts of town (we don’t have many relatives that live out of state). After a traditional blessing of the table, usually by my mother, we all proceed to “throw down” and fill our plates at least twice. The classic soul music plays in the background, and for about an hour or so, we all eat until we are so full that we need to loosen the belt… just to make room for the dessert. After that, we all usually take a quick power nap just to wake up and do it all over again. When it’s time for everyone to go home, they make sure to get the “care package” (some may call it a “doggie bag”) so they don’t have to cook dinner for at least a couple of days. Ahhh, memories.
Now at least for me, Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without watching the world famous Macy’s parade broadcast and of course, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I chose to use the Charlie Brown show as the basis for the first part of this post. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story, let me give you a quick synopsis. Peppermint Patty invites herself and a couple of friends over to Charlie Brown’s house for dinner, not knowing that he already has plans to go out of town to visit his grandparents. Since Charlie Brown is not too good at asserting himself, he commits to making dinner for his friends which consists mainly of snacks since he is not very good in the kitchen. This doesn’t set too well with Patty, and she makes sure to let him know about it “in no uncertain terms”. Patty’s sidekick Marcie in turn tells her that she had no right to make a scene. So after a small apology, everyone gets to go with Charlie Brown and his sister Sally to their grandparents for a more traditional dinner. Linus of course drops the usual knowledge about the first Thanksgiving celebration back in the 17th century, Lucy makes Charlie Brown look stupid once again with the old football gag, and there you have it. I’ve rambled on long enough, and since I know you are all hungry, let me get to serving…

Part 1
01 Introspeak by Linus Van Pelt, Sally and Charlie Brown
02 Everybody Eats When They Come To My House-Cab Calloway & His Orchestra
03 Interspeak by Peppermint Patty, Linus Van Pelt, Sally and Charlie Brown
04 Get In The Kitchen And Burn-Harmonica George
05 Funky Chicken Stew-The Dayton Sidewinders
06 18 Pounds Of Unclean Chitlings Pt. 1-Mel Brown
07 Lonesome Electric Turkey-Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
08 Cracklin’ Bread-Dave Hamilton
09 Pork Chops-Tony Valla and The Alamos
10 Beans And Cornbread-Louis Jordan
11 (Do The) Mashed Potatoes-James Brown
12 Gravy For My Mashed Potatoes-Dee Dee Sharp
13 Potato Salad (Dig)-Friday Saturday Sunday
14 Fried Okra-Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band
15 Polk Salad Annie-Tony Joe White
16 Candy Yam-Lee Dorsey
17 More Potato Salad-Broadway Eddie Band
18 Sardines & Turnip Greens-The Dynamic Eight
19 Hamhocks And Red Beans Pt. 1-Chuck Womack & The Sweet Souls
20 Interspeak by Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty
21 Pop Corn Part 1-Jimbo Jackson & The Violators
22 Buttered Popcorn-Juggy Sue
23 Interspeak by Peppermint Patty, Marcie and Charlie Brown
24 Breakin’ Bread-Fred Wesley & The New JBs
25 Pass The Plate (45 rpm version)-The Crusaders

When I originally planned to host this blogswarm of sorts, I had no idea just how many of my colleagues would participate. When all was said and done, eleven of them would chime in with contributions which was way beyond what I expected. There was enough in fact to make three mixes packed with tasty treats, so here comes part two. This one is for the fussy eater in all of us. Like King Curtis said in my all time favourite 45s “The Cook Out”, “Today we’re gonna talk about nothing but Soul food, nothing else, nothing else…” ahhh, smell the funky goodness.

Part 2
01 Introspeak by Peppermint Patty and Linus Van Pelt
02 Soul Food Redux-Lonnie Youngblood
03 Hot Chilli-Nat Hendrick & The Swans
04 Soul Pot-The Soul Ones
05 Poke Bones and Rice-Sam and The Soul Machine
06 The Sad Chicken-Leroy & The Drivers
07 Fish, Chips And Sweat-Funkadelic
08 Chitlins & Cuchifritos-Joe Thomas
09 Ribs On’ Chips-Johnny Hammond
10 Pig Snoots Pts 1 & 2-The Natural Bridge Bunch
11 Mr. Chicken Shit (alternate take)-The Soul Seven
12 Neck Bones & Hot Sauce-L Anderson
13 Black Pepper-The Soul Smoochers
14 Monkey Hips & Rice-Hank Jacobs
15 Grits Ain’t Groceries (All Around The World)-(Little Milton)
16 Bar-B-Q Ribs-Raynel Wynglas
17 Stuffed Peppers-Frank Armstrong
18 Grits N Corn Bread-The Soul Runners
19 Funky Chicken-The New York Jets
20 Soul Food-Rufus Thomas
21 Hot Grits!!!-Elijah & The Ebonies
22 Cookin’ Catfish-Albert Collins
23 Hot Potato Pts 1&2-The Rinky Dinks
24 Egg Roll-The M & S Band
25 Egg Foo Fried Rice-Race St. Chinatown Band
26 Soul Food (Reprise)-Funk Shone

And finally, the dessert. The third part of this post is made up of tunes that represent the second helpings, the slices of pie and cake, and the “care package” to take home when you realise that your eyes are bigger than your stomach. There’s also some extra goddies thrown in for good measure. The original plan was to have each contributor choose a couple of their all time fave songs along with the food related songs. Not everyone stuck to that plan, but then again, it doesn’t really matter because with all of this good music, how can you go wrong… Loosen up those belts, y’all

Part 3
01 Every Saturday Night-Maceo Parker
02 Cold Turkey-Del Jones
03 Watermelon Man-King Curtis
04 Pass The Hatchet-Roger & The Gypsies
05 The Blacker The Berrie-Isley Brothers
06 Is It Funky Enough?-Communicators & Black Experiences Band
07 Soul Cake-Dyke & The Blazers
08 Chocolate Sugar-Six Feet Under
09 Delights Of The Garden-The Last Poets
10 Bad Girl (Part 1)-Lee Moses
11 I’m Your Puppet-James & Bobby Purify
12 Leona-Wet Willie
13 Maximum Consumption-The Kinks
14 Black Coffee-Percy Mayfield
15 Troglodyte-The Jimmy Castor Bunch
16 You Can’t Have Your Cake-Tommie Young
17 Jelly Roll-The Granby St. Redevelopment (Plus Merrily Pick)
18 Strawberry Snowcone-Seven From Eleven
19 Chocolate-Mickey & the Soul Generation
20 Butter Your Popcorn-Hank Ballard
21 Ice Cream Man (The Gimme Game)-Don Covay
22 Loose Juice-Andre Williams

You can, as always, listen to these joints on demand right here…
http://www.mixcloud.com/fufustew/a-fufu-stew-thanksgiving-another-classic-repost/ for part 1

http://www.mixcloud.com/fufustew/a-fufu-stew-thanksgiving-part-2-dinner-with-soul/ for part 2

http://www.mixcloud.com/fufustew/a-fufu-stew-thanksgiving-part-3-room-for-desert/ for part 3

I must give a huge round of thanks to these fine blogs and their operators for helping to make this post possible. I know I’ve said it time and time again, but it’s always worth repeating. I’m thankful for all of your continued support, and you will always have mine.

AM Then FM and The Midnight Tracker’s Jeff Ash
Rich the Cratedigger
Funky 16 Corners and Iron Leg’s Larry Grogan
Dave B. the HeavySoulBrutha
The Hits Just Keep On Coming with J.A. Bartlett
Colin Dilnot’s In Dangerous Rhythm
Todd and Brian from It’s Great Shakes
Soul Psychadelicyde’s Sister Lily Kane
The Scholar’s Souled On Music
Jason Stone, The Stepfather Of Soul
the mighty DJ Blueprint from This Is Tomorrow
and last, but certainly not least, Uchenna’s With Comb And Razor

And for all of you satisfied patrons who helped Fufu Stew reach 50,000 hits last week, I am thankful for your continued support as well.

I’ll be taking some time away from the land of blog for a bit so that I can enjoy Thanksgiving with my family and friends, and to once again be a part of DJ Prestige’s Asbury Park 45 Sessions. I had so much fun back in September and met so many groovy people, I just had to go back for more. It also helps that Lou the pusherman will be in attendance. I’ve gotta get my fix of new 45s because December is fast approaching. Everybody knows that he’s got the funky heat, so needless to say, I’m gonna get me some… You can be a part of the sessions too by visiting www.jamnow.com/asburylanes, or dropping by the World Famous Asbury Lanes. The next time we meet, the funkiness will commence. Enjoy yourselves, enjoy the holiday and as always, be safe.

Peace and blessings.

P.S. For the newest member of the Fufu family, I have not forgotten your proper welcome… Stop by and say hello to Dirty Waters, with more of that soulful goodness that keeps you coming back for more and more. I’m looking forward to checking out your wares. I also want to send some extra love to Colin for hipping me to Parkdale Funk and the awesome podcasts available over there, as well as this all star extravaganza from the Oslo Soul Experience. I’ll see you all soon.

UPDATE: I was just informed by my friend DJ Blueprint that you can all go to his place for a helping of the latest installment in his excellent “Funk Workout” series. Where I come from, that would be the equivalent of what we call “house hopping”. I’ve been known to hit up a couple of extra houses for thanksgiving dinner myself, or for the occasional party. Amazingly enough, when I first asked him to join in, he agreed although he doesn’t normally celebrate Thanksgiving in his native Luxembourg. I kind of get the feeling that may change after this year because he has certainly picked up on some of my traditions. Thanks a lot for being an intregal part in the making of this post, Mike…