Tue 31 May 2005 @20:08
You know how you get part of a song stuck in your head? And how much worse it is when you can’t remember all of it so that fragment just keeps rattling around and around and around….? I don’t even remember what stuck this back in my consciousness recently, but there was a song that we sang as kids that I haven’t been able to either remember or get away from.
The version we sang started with “Girls are made of greasy, grimey gopher guts,” and that was all I could remember. (Can you tell this was early enough in my childhood that boys and girls did not, as a rule, play together very much? If we didn’t have cootie shots, we might all have died!)
Thank god for Google! I searched for “lyric greasy grimey gopher guts” and BAM! I found way more than I ever thought possible. Apparently every neighborhood had its own version of this song. Or maybe just because this was passed on through oral tradition, and you know how six-year-olds screw up the details to EVERY story they tell…. (I suspect that grandpa helped perpetuate the tune in more than a few cases too.)
Anyway, I learned that most versions start with “great green gobs of” rather than “girls/boys are made of”. There was a less clear consensus on whether one needs a spoon or a straw. Yum! Here, for your edification are some of the versions I found:
Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meat, little birdies dirty feet,
Great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts,
And I forgot my spoon!Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meat, itsy bitsy birdie feet,
French fried eye-balls rolling down a muddy street,
And I forgot my spoon.
(pause)
But I got my straw!Great green gobs of greasy grimey gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meat, saturated birdie feet,
All wrapped up in all-purpose porpoise pus.
And me without a spoon!Gee whiz! (but I’ve got a straw)
Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Mutilated monkey meat, chopped up dirty birdie feet.
A one pound jar of all purpose porpoise pus
And me without a spoon!Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Scab sandwich, spit on top, monkey vomit, camel snot,
Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Swimming in pink lemonadeGreat green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Eagle eye and cookie goo, made a sandwich just for you.
Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
And I forgot my spoon.
May 31st, 2005 at 21:40
I’ve never heard this .. it’s funny. The only song I can think of on the top of my head that I wished I could get the lyric to and Im sure if I googled it, I would find it is “Hello Mother, Hello Father, here I am at Camp Green Meadows…”
May 31st, 2005 at 21:50
Hello Muddah
Hello Fuddah
Here I am at
Camp Grenada
Camp is very entertaining
And they say that we’ll have fun when it stops raining.
(and it goes on from there–it can be found on that wonderful repository of craptastic songs from the 60’s and so on by Rhino Records called “Goofy Gold.” It’s by Alan Sherman. Another perennial favorite of the era, although not quite so graphic as the greasy grimy gopher guts, is “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?” which sounds more like a personal problem. . .
Love the nostalgia, guys.
May 31st, 2005 at 21:53
Okay..I figured out what poem I really like that I can’t seem to find on the internet. I think its Emily Dickenson but I’ve already exhausted her sites online for this poem and can’t fine it. It’s something along the line of a jilted lover. Something with needle going through the heart. Very short poem — maybe 7 lines? Not a haiku. I can’t remember it.. but I read it in school once.. and can’t remember who wrote it…
May 31st, 2005 at 21:54
JENN…yes..that’s the song.. Coooooool!!! I need to look at up “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?”
May 31st, 2005 at 22:19
Note to Aymiee (sorry to use your blog, Tim. . .)
I googled the phrase you’re looking for, and fear that I can’t find it. I did find a collection of short stories called “A Needle in the Heart” by New Zealand writer Fiona Kidman, but no poem. And on a completely irrelevant note, did you know that you can sing almost every single Emily Dickinson poem to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas”? Try it some time. It’s fun. “Because I could not stop for Death/He kindly stopped for meeeeeee. . .” “I never saw a moooooor, I never saw the seaaaaaaaaaa. . . .” You’ll never see her poetry quite the same way again.
Good luck in your poetic quest. It’s always frustrating to have verbiage floating about in your head unlabeled. . .
May 31st, 2005 at 22:23
It’s always okay to use the comments for things like this. No worries. But Jenn, I thought for sure you would find the poem! I’m disillusioned….
May 31st, 2005 at 22:35
Working on it, O Tim. I don’t have a lot of text clues to go with. And you seem to have an over-reaching estimation of my literary abilities. I am a dilettante.
BTW–I have another button for your collection. You might like this one–snide political overtones. I’ll leave it in your mailbox tomorrow a.m.
Back to googling poetry. . .
May 31st, 2005 at 22:41
TIM I SWEAR THIS IS MY LAST COMMENT. MOST LIKELY. THIS IS TO AYMIEE AND ANY OTHER INTERESTED READERS WITH POETIC SOULS:
This is the closest I can find, from Syvia Plath:
Jilted
My thoughts are crabbed and sallow,
My tears like vinegar,
Or the bitter blinking yellow
Of an acetic star.
Tonight the caustic wind, love,
Gossips late and soon,
And I wear the wry-faced pucker of
The sour lemon moon.
While like an early summer plum,
Puny, green, and tart,
Droops upon its wizened stem
My lean, unripened heart.
It’s probably not the one you’re looking for, but I like the image of the “wizened stem.” Plath is one of the best. . .
Happy reading!
May 31st, 2005 at 23:08
“My thoughts are crabbed and sallow, My tears like vinegar”
made me get out my guitar to play “Your Good Bye left me with Eyes that Cry” - (All of Me).
June 1st, 2005 at 09:41
Bill Murray sang the first line from “Great Green Gobs” in Caddyshack. Wanna hear?
June 1st, 2005 at 11:03
I have NEVER heard that song!!
I was so sheltered….
June 1st, 2005 at 15:32
You should have emailed me! I was like, “I know that song!” as soon as I read this post. I have refrained from commenting because I don’t want to look like the weirdo girl who remembers all the stupid song lyrics from her childhood…but alas! That is what I am.
I laughed very hard and squeezed out a coupla tears. You are hilarious Tim!