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Supermarkets in Popular Music

Posted: 16 Mar 2007 21:48
by Dave
I somehow doubt that there are quite as many references to supermarkets in popular music as there are in the movies and television, but I thought it might make for an interesting topic.

I'll start off with "Billy the Mountain" by The Mothers of Invention ("Just Another Band from L.A.", recorded live at Pauley Pavilion, released 1972). There are several references to markets - Ralphs on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, and notably Ralphs on Sunset (where Studebacher Hoch buys "some Aunt Jemima syrup, some Kaiser broiler foil and a pair of blunt scissors"). There's also a reference to "Boney's Market" which some say was in Ontario, CA and others say was in Studio City (as "Boni's Market").

Interestingly, The Mothers changed the supermaket references depending on where they were playing - they used Gristedes in New York, A&P in Boston and Toronto, Safeway in Chicago and Kansas City, etc. A website showing differences in the song lyrics by performance location is here:
http://members.shaw.ca/fz-pomd/vaudeville/btm.html, and the song has it's own Wikipedia article as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_the_Mountain

Anyone have other songs?

Posted: 16 Mar 2007 22:27
by TheStranger
The one that definitely comes to mind is Neil Young's "Safeway Cart" from 1993. (He grew up in Winnipeg and currently lives in the Bay Area, both Safeway strongholds.)

Re: Supermarkets in Popular Music

Posted: 16 Mar 2007 23:21
by runchadrun
Dave wrote:I'll start off with "Billy the Mountain" by The Mothers of Invention ("Just Another Band from L.A.", recorded live at Pauley Pavilion, released 1972). There are several references to markets - Ralphs on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, and notably Ralphs on Sunset (where Studebacher Hoch buys "some Aunt Jemima syrup, some Kaiser broiler foil and a pair of blunt scissors").
I wonder which Ralphs on Laurel Canyon they are talking about. The Vons at Laurel Canyon and Ventura is a former Ralphs, but was a Food Giant/Smith's Food King in the 1970s. The one at Valley Plaza is a former McDaniels/Hughes. There's another one way up in Sun Valley but it wasn't built until 1980.

The one on Sunset is no doubt the Rock n Roll Ralphs, which was torn down and rebuilt 10 years ago or so.

As for songs, there's "Lost in the Supermarket" by The Clash, recently covered by Ben Folds, but it doesn't mention any stores. And there's "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses with the line "A&P has provided me with the world's smallest turkey."

Posted: 12 Jun 2007 11:36
by runchadrun
I completely forgot about this song until it just came up in my iTunes library. Glen Phillips, the lead singer from Toad the Wet Sprocket, had a solo album called Abulum with a song called Fred Meyers, though it seems to be about a local mom and pop store instead of the chain of (almost) the same name. You can find the lyrics at http://www.endor.org/glen/lyrics.asp?Su ... &SongID=56

Supermarket reference

Posted: 14 Jun 2007 20:34
by WalgreensDude
From "The Beat Goes On" by Sonny & Cher:

"The grocery store's a super-mart, uh-huh..."

Posted: 07 Dec 2007 10:40
by Toby Radloff
From The Kinks' "Come Dancing":

"They put a parking lot on a piece of land, where the supermarket used to stand, before that they put up a bowling alley, on the site that used to be the local Pali"

In the song, I am guessing that "the local Pali" was a ballroom or nightclub.

Posted: 07 Dec 2007 20:16
by TW-Upstate NY
Just thought of another one and it's in keeping with the season:
"Met my old lover in the grocery store. The snow was falling Christmas Eve."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the title is "Another Auld Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg.

Posted: 08 Dec 2007 03:03
by Daniel
close... it's "Same Old Lang Syne"

Posted: 08 Dec 2007 12:27
by shane
I just remembered a country music song by Diamond Rio called Bubba Hyde. It mentions something about Barney working down at the A&P and if you do a quick google search you can find the lyrics.

Posted: 14 Dec 2007 21:09
by Dean

Re: Supermarkets in Popular Music

Posted: 07 May 2021 21:55
by Ohio Man
There's this from the Wings song "Junior's Farm":

"I took my bag into a grocer's store/the price is higher than the time before/old man asked me why is it more"


Also, a punk band from New Jersey called Adrenalin O.D. put out a song in 1988 called "My Mother Can't Drive" which had a lyric about the title mom recklessly racing to Shop RIte on double coupon day. The song is on YouTube.

Re: Supermarkets in Popular Music

Posted: 11 May 2021 10:51
by Super S
Walmart is mentioned in a number of country songs, although not always in the grocery aspect.

Re: Supermarkets in Popular Music

Posted: 09 Jul 2021 02:09
by rudyvalencia
There's always Ray Stevens' The Streak. He mentioned that the streaker running around was at the supermarket first.

Re: Supermarkets in Popular Music

Posted: 30 Sep 2021 23:18
by retailfanmitchell019
The Dead Kennedys song "Night of the LIving Rednecks" mentions Fred Meyer.

Re: Supermarkets in Popular Music

Posted: 06 Oct 2021 17:57
by trainman
Two 1990s mentions of Safeway:

"Uh, Zoom Zip" by Soul Coughing (Ruby Vroom album, 1994) includes the line, repeated several times, "Recombination, then Viacom, Safeway." (It's a mondegreen version of a line from a different song, "Jazz (We've Got)" by A Tribe Called Quest, which is "Competition dem try fe come sideway/But competition dey must come straightway")

"In Every Place" by Nick Heyward (The Apple Bed, 1998) -- "You're like a Safeway's new price/You're Mister Ever-So-Nice"