Polk Salad Annie Explained

Polk Salad Annie
Cover:Polk_Salad_Annie_-_Tony_Joe_White.jpg
Type:single
Artist:Tony Joe White
Album:Black and White
B-Side:Aspen Colorado
Released:June 1969
Recorded:May 16, 1968
Studio:RCA Studio B, Nashville, Tennessee
Genre:Swamp rock
Length:3:37
Label:Monument Records
Producer:Billy Swan
Prev Title:Soul Francisco
Prev Year:1969
Next Title:Roosevelt and Ira Lee
Next Year:1969

"Polk Salad Annie" is a 1968 song written and performed by Tony Joe White.[1] Its lyrics describe the lifestyle of a poor rural Southern girl and her family. Traditionally, the term to describe the type of food highlighted in the song is polk or poke salad, a dish of cooked greens made from pokeweed.[2] Its 1969 single release peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, the song made No. 10 on the RPM Magazine Hot Singles chart. Elvis Presley's version also made the song popular.

Song

The song vividly recreates the Southern roots of White's childhood and his music reflects this earthy rural background. As a child he listened not only to local bluesmen and country singers but also to the Cajun music of Louisiana, the hybrid of traditional musical styles introduced by French settlers at the turn of the century.

His roots lie in the swamplands of Oak Grove, Louisiana, where he was born in 1943. Situated just west of the Mississippi River, it's a land of cottonfields, where pokeweed, or "poke" grows wild, and alligators lurk in moss-covered swamps. "I spent the first 18 years of my life down there", said White. "My folks raised cotton and corn. There were lotsa times when there weren't too much to eat, and I ain't ashamed to admit that we've often whipped up a mess of poke sallet. Tastes alright too — a bit like spinach."[3] In the song, after gathering the leaves, Annie drags them home in a 'tote sack'. The alligators are used to her antics, despite the fact that they were chomping the Granny. Her mother worked in a chain gang, while her father was lazy and no-count, with a bad back, and her brothers were stealing the watermelons out of the narrator's truck patch. The song's intro is spoken, as well as the lines between the chorus, the other 2 verses, and the outro. White makes grunting and other nonsensical noises, especially towards the ending of the instrumental as well as the outro.

In a January 17, 2014, interview with music journalist Ray Shasho, White explained the thought process behind the writing of "Polk Salad Annie" and "Rainy Night in Georgia".

Background

The single, released in 1969 by Monument Records,[4] had been out nine months before it finally charted, and had been written off by Monument as a failure. Said White: "They had done given up on it, but we kept getting all these people in Texas coming to the clubs and buying the record. So we would send up to Nashville saying, 'Send us a thousand more this week.' They would send us these 'Do Not Sell' examples, so we would have to sit down and mark out the 'Do Not Sell' and then send them to the record stores. All these stores in South Texas kept calling our house saying, 'We need more.' So we just kept hanging on. And finally a guy in L.A. picked it up and got it across. Otherwise, 'Poke' could have been lost forever."[5]

In 2014 White performed the song with Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters on Late Show With David Letterman.[6]

Personnel

Chart history

Weekly charts

Chart (1969)Peak
position
Australia Go-Set [8] 8
Canada RPM Top Singles[9] 10
South Africa (Springbok)[10] 18
US Cash Box Top 100[11] 9

Year-end charts

Elvis Presley cover

Elvis Presley picked up the song, and it became a staple of his live performances during the 1970s.[13] Not a studio recording but his February 1970 live recording became the only version of "Polk Salad Annie" to chart in the UK and Ireland.

Chart history

Elvis' rendition was issued on several albums, including:[13]

Though not on the Elvis Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis (1974) album, it was put on the legacy edition of that album in 2014; the song was performed at the concert from which the album was taken. From the Garden version on, it featured a rare fuzz bass solo by Jerry Scheff. Tony Joe White reportedly liked Presley's interpretation of the song.[1] (Refer to each album stated for citation)

Cover versions

Notes and References

  1. https://www.martin-doppelbauer.de/TJW/music4.htm
  2. Web site: Adams. Alison. A Mess Of Poke. Southernspaces.org. September 8, 2015.
  3. Web site: Tony Joe White, Leocort, Ayrton Senna, Boudewijn de Groot, Citroën, Modelspoor h0 NS . Leocort.nl . January 1, 2022.
  4. Web site: Tony Joe White - Polk Salad Annie / Aspen Colorado (Vinyl) at Discogs . Discogs.com . October 1968 . 2015-05-03.
  5. Web site: Tony Joe White - his life 2/3 . Martin-doppelbauer.de . 1968-08-01 . 2015-05-03 . 2016-03-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303200113/http://www.martin-doppelbauer.de/TJW/life2.htm . dead .
  6. Flashback: Tony Joe White, Foo Fighters Play 'Polk Salad Annie' on 'Letterman'. Joseph. Hudak. . October 25, 2018. In his dark hat and glasses, White growled out the lyrics on Letterman, a snakeskin guitar strap slung over his shoulder, as the Foo Fighters laid down a greasy groove behind him. At one point, Grohl tentatively approaches the mic to handle a verse, before White retakes the spotlight with a nasty harmonica and guitar solo..
  7. The Monument Story. Various. Sony Music Entertainment. A2K66106. New York, New York.
  8. Web site: Go-Set Australian charts - 8 November 1969. Poparchives.com.au. 25 October 2018.
  9. Web site: Tony Joe White - Polk Salad Annie. 45cat.com. October 25, 2018.
  10. Web site: SA Charts 1965–March 1989. September 5, 2018.
  11. Web site: Cash Box Top 100 8/23/69. Tropicalglen.com. October 25, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20170809091158/http://tropicalglen.com/Archives/60s_files/19690823.html. August 9, 2017. dead.
  12. Web site: Top 100 Hits of 1969/Top 100 Songs of 1969. Musicoutfitters.com. October 25, 2018.
  13. Web site: Elvis Presley – Polk Salad Annie – Listen and discover music at . Last.fm . 2015-05-03.
  14. Web site: Bruce Eder . On Stage - Elvis Presley | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards . . 2015-05-03.
  15. Web site: Live at the Lighthouse - Richard "Groove" Holmes | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards . AllMusic . 2015-05-03.
  16. Web site: Andrew Hamilton . Dancin' With Nobody But You Babe - Clarence Reid | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards . AllMusic . 2015-05-03.
  17. Web site: Stephen Thomas Erlewine. Stephen Thomas Erlewine. Tom - Tom Jones | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards . AllMusic . 2015-05-03.
  18. Web site: 我为平台代言. https://web.archive.org/web/20081231144938/http://www.txhighlands.com/Deccalisting.htm. dead. December 31, 2008. www.txhighlands.com.
  19. Web site: 1977 Rockabilly - Sleepy LaBeef | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards . AllMusic . 2015-05-03.
  20. Web site: Hal Horowitz . Tomorrow Never Comes - Sleepy LaBeef | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards . AllMusic . 2015-05-03.
  21. Web site: Blue Country - Joe Dassin | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards . AllMusic . 2015-05-03.
  22. Web site: Wish Me Luck - Dutch Mason | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards . AllMusic . 2007-01-01 . 2015-05-03.
  23. Web site: Alligator Records - Genuine Houserockin' Music Since 1971 . Alligator.com . 2015-05-03.
  24. Web site: Nashville Gold (Switched On Moog) - Gil Trythall | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards . AllMusic . 2015-05-03.
  25. Web site: Swampland:Jimmie van Zant: My Name is Jimmie .
  26. 'Ford v Ferrari' Soundtrack Revealed . . November 13, 2019 . January 1, 2020.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Polk Salad Annie".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.