GranolaBox

Fat Babies
by Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen

I said I don’t like hippies
And I don’t like cornbread
And I don’t like much
I said I don’t hippies
And I don’t like cornbread
And I don’t like much
But that’s okay

Fat babies have no pride
Fat babies have no pride
Fat babies have no pride
And that’s okay
Who needs pride

I like you
‘Cause you like me
And you don’t like much
I like you
‘Cause you like me
And you don’t like much
And that’s okay

Cause fat babies have no pride
Fat babies have no pride
Fat babies have no pride
And that’s okay
Who needs pride

Fat babies make me sick
Fat babies make me ill
All that fat baby drooling
And that fat baby smell
I said I don’t like hippies
And I don’t like cornbread
And I don’t like much

But I like you
‘Cause you like me
And you don’t like much
And that’s okay
‘Cause fat babies have no pride
Fat babies have no pride
Fat babies have no pride
And that’s okay
Who needs pride anyway

I could never quite figure out what this song meant the first time I heard it. It’s from Lyle Lovett’s I Love Everybody CD, which is a collection of songs he wrote early in his career, but didn’t record until much later. To date the song accurately, you can hear Julia Roberts singing in the background.

He explained it in a concert I saw in Rochester, back in ummmm, 93 or so.

He and his friend Robert Earl were driving down the highway in Texas in their tiny little unsubstantial car, and they got shoved to the side of the road by a giant, speeding truck.

Unhurt, but terribly shaken and not wanting to get back on the road right away, the two reflected on things they mutually hated. They both agreed on getting shoved to the side of the road by a speeding truck as their first match, but their next one took some time.

They both had a mutual hatred for sing-along-songs, so they decided to write a sing-along-song with such an absurd chorus that people would feel really weird singing along with it, but would do it anyway.

He explained this halfway through the song, after just encouraging us to sing along.

No wonder this guy was in so many Robert Altman movies.

Filed under: General Observations on January 23rd, 2009