Posts
It's clear that, given the name of this blog, I'm not above a lame, semi-erotic ice cream pun. However, the last decade's catalog of ice cream music is disturbingly pornographic, and always manages to bring race into the mix as well. Here are some lyrics from one example, "Ice Cream Man" by Nicki Minaj:
Can i lick your, can i lick your icecreamcone
Do it like E.T. i make a ni–a phone home
I really like vanilla, but my favorite color chocolate
chocolate, chocolate, gargle it and gargle it
and then later:
Just put a lot of nuts, imma lick it off the tip
Am I the only one blushing?
= 
?I remember when my best friend Sofia and I first heard Wu-Tang Clan's "Ice Cream," she was extremely keen on it because she got a shout-out as a "butta pecan 'Rican" (she was half Puerto Rican). I was bummed because there was no lychee flavor shout-out or green tea or whatever I thought a half Chinese person deserved (although a "colored Asian" features in the video and lyrics). It is also an excellent song, although the use of ice cream flavors as a racially exclusionary rhetorical device is at best questionable. Of course, at the time, we were all of twelve so these questions weren't weighing too heavily. But in retrospect, I find the overt sexualization of an innocent treat to be pretty questionable; as I reported in last week's roundup of ice cream news, it's not beyond the realm of the possible for the ice cream man to have his eye (or his hands) on little kids.
Apparently this tradition dates back several decades. In 1975, "Hokey Pokey (the Ice Cream Song)" was released by Richard Thompson. Its lyrics include the following:
Girl on the corner with the tight dress on
You know she don’t know nothing so fine
Feels so good when you put it in your mouth
Sends a shiver all down your spine
Sends a shiver all down your spine
In retrospect, these are pretty tame. But still!
5 comments:
Ice Cream Music is not all debauchery! My favorite Ice Cream song is definitely "Ice Cream" by Muscles. I mean, what a chorus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_eyfvYdAiU
Close second is Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lover's "Ice Cream Man": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9BkmMjgrwM
Honorable mention: Nice & Smooth's "No Bones in Ice Cream": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ZEiV2i44M. According to a Yahoo Answers, the no bones thing is based off of the Federal Food Safety Act of 1921: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090114021231AACaH0h.
ANYWAYS, great blog and great use of foreign correspondants. More Ice Cream music!
Nadim, didn't we get ice cream together in Beirut?? Thanks so much for your post; I stand corrected. I'm guessing I'll see you for an ice cream recap in Beirut come December, sah?
Yes we did! I am in Brussels now and I am moving to Cairo before Beirut so I will make sure to keep note of the best ice creams adventures I have along the way. I can tell you right now that Speculoos Ice Cream (a Belgium original) has changed my life. Also, if you have any recommendations for ice cream spots in France I would love a professional consultation.
Nadim, you are lucky - this just came in from a friend in Paris who is married to a restaurateur:
Martine Lambert ice cream in Deauville - Anna it is UN-BU-LEE-V-ABLE. They opened up a small shop on rue de Grenelle in Paris.
Also, for ice cream in Cairo: Mandarin Koueider in Zamalek. I'd like to do a little blog post about it so when you move there, can you take a picture for me please? And there are a few other cute places but nothing super high quality.
Post a Comment