Song Lyrics Larry Groce - Junk Food Junkie    [Lyrics & Song Text Archive] lyrics archive>> L>> Larry Groce Singer Lyrics>> Junk Food Junkie Song Lyrics Author/Artist/Singer: Larry Groce Music Title/Track: Junk Food Junkie Theme ID: 2467 Album: N/A Junk Food Junkie Larry Groce Written by Larry Groce Released by Warner Bros. Records in 1976; playing time, 3:03 Was Groce's only hit, making it as high as #9 on the _Billboard_ Hot 100 You know I love that organic cooking I always ask for more And they call me Mr. Natural On down to the health food store I only eat good sea salt White sugar don't touch my lips And my friends is always Begging me to take them On macrobiotic trips Yes, they are Oh, but at night I stake out my strongbox That I keep under lock and key And I take it off to my closet Where nobody else can see I open that door so slowly Take a peek up north and south Then I pull out a Hostess Twinkie And I pop it in my mouth Yeah, in the daytime I'm Mr. Natural Just as healthy as I can be But at night I'm a junk food junkie Good lord have pity on me Well, at lunchtime You can always find me At the Whole Earth Vitamin Bar Just sucking on my plain white yogurt From my hand thrown pottery jar And sippin' a little hand pressed cider With a carrot stick for dessert And wiping my face In a natural way On the sleeve of my peasant shirt Oh yeah Ah, but when that clock strikes midnight And I'm all by myself I work that combination On my secret hideaway shelf And I pull out some Fritos corn chips Dr. Pepper and an Ole Moon Pie Then I sit back in glorious expectation Of a genuine junk food high Oh yeah, in the daytime I'm Mr. Natural Just as healthy as I can be But at night I'm a junk food junkie Good lord have pity on me My friends down at the commune They think I'm pretty neat Oh, I don't know nothing about arts and crafts But I give 'em all something to eat I'm a friend to old Euell Gibbons And I only eat homegrown spice I got a John Keats autographed Grecian urn Filled up with my brown rice Yes, I do Oh, but folks lately I have been spotted With a Big Mac on my breath Stumbling into a Colonel Sanders With a face as white as death I'm afraid someday they'll find me Just stretched out on my bed With a handful of Pringles Potato Chips And a Ding Dong by my head In the daytime I'm Mr. Natural Just as healthy as I can be But at night I'm a junk food junkie Good lord have pity on me ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From _The Wacky Top 40_ by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo (Holbrook, Mass. : Bob Adams Publishers, 1993) This silly song about addiction to such goodies as corn chips, moon pies, and Twinkies was written and performed by a self-confessed junk food junkie. "That's the way I always ate when I was a kid," admitted Larry Groce. "No matter how hard my mother tried, I ended up eating a peanut butter sandwich and Fritos and drinking Dr. Pepper. That was pretty much the staple." Groce, who sang folk songs at coffeehouses, was eating junk food on the road when he conjured up the song in the mid 1970s. "I wrote it in my Volkswagen bus as I drove from West Virginia to Boston to do a job," he recalled. "I knew I wanted to write a song about junk food. So I got the idea to use the character of a junk food junkie who was kind of a Jekyll and Hyde. The words came fairly quickly. I actually stopped on the side of the road, took out the guitar, and made a tune for it so that by the time I got to Boston, it was pretty well written." Groce sang the song in his act on the coffeehouse circuit and received a strong positive reaction. "I thought of 'Junk Food Junkie' more as a satire than a novelty song. I performed it to poke fun at both the junk food culture and the health food culture. Everybody identified with it." His best reception came from the audience at a New York coffeehouse called The Focus, where he played regularly. "It turned into a health food restaurant. I saw the irony of going from the junk food culture of my childhood to the hip New York health consciousness where brown rice was the staple." His manager, Randy Nauert, tried to secure a record deal. But when there were no takers, Nauert decided to put it out himself on his own label, Peaceable Records. He sent several hundred copies to radio stations around the country. "The song sold itself," said Groce. "Disc jockeys had so much fun with it that it took on a life of its own." Dr. Demento featured it on his syndicated radio show, and in a weekly phone-in contest on Denver's KTLK, "Junk Food Junkie" soundly trounced all comers. The song finally caught the attention of Warner Brothers, who cut a deal with Groce and re-released it on their label. Only then did it become a national hit. NOTEWORTHY NOTES o The song was recorded live at McCabe's--a Los Angeles guitar shop that still stages acoustic concerts right in the store. o Groce didn't even realize that his song was being recorded for a single. "I wasn't aware they were recording it because at the time I hadn't planned on releasing it as a single," he said. o The audience's applause was sweetened for the record, "but not too much," Groce said. o Groce's was the first song in history with lyrics that mentioned both 19th century poet John Keats and Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Sanders. o Michael Jackson once sand "Junk Food Junkie" on the Jackson Five's network TV show. PLATTER PATTER Warner Borhters Records feared there would be costly backlash from the junk food companies who were mentioned by name in the song. "There was a fear," said Groce. "I was in the publicity department at Warner Brothers and they were worried because they heard that local outlets of McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken had put some heat on the local stations to drop the song from their playlists., "Although there were a few local franchises who were upset with the song and thought it was an insult, the home offices understood that every time their name was mentioned good things happen." After the song became a hit, Groce was a guest on a radio show along with the creator of Twinkies, who believed any kind of publicity was good publicity. "He said that every time Archie Bunker mentioned Twinkies on 'All In The Family'--whether he was making fun of them or not--sales went up," said Groce. "We made a call to the P.R. office of Dr. Pepper and the guy there said they were in the company of some other good brand names [mentioned in the song] and they were happy about it." Actually Groce was a little disappointed that more companies weren't angry. "I was hoping someone would give us grief because that would have created a David and Goliath scenario that could have helped the sales of the record. But I think most of the companies were smart enough to realize that poking fun at their product was in good fun. "The Anti-Junk Food Council thought it was great because the song pointed out the dangers of junk food. I know a lot of people think junk food isn't nutritious--but I don't know anyone who doesn't agree that it tastes good." FOLLOW UPS AND DOWNS None of Groce's follow-up songs made it on the charts. Among them were: "The Bumper Sticker Song," "We Been Malled," and "Turn on the TV." ROCK ON Larry Groce, who lives in a 120-yeard-old farmhouse in West Virginia, has recorded seven albums of his own folk songs and ballads as well as hymns. He's also made nine albums of children's songs for Walt Disney Records, five of which have gone gold and three platinum. In 1986 he began hosting "Mountain Stage," a national radio show which features top recording artists from all styles of music. In 1991 Groce starred in a low-budget made-for-video feature called _Paradise Park_. "It's a humorous story of a trailer park in West Virginia," said Groce. "I play a teacher who lives there and everyone is an oddball but me Related Lyrics Random lyrics: Im Weichen Moos, Santa Barbara, Zigeunerbraut, Aldrig En Syster, Alkohol, Dagen Efter Igar, Helt Jaevla Ensam, Pank, Strippan, 1, 10 Plagues Of Egypt, Anti-Social, Army Of Zombies, Bastards, Blind Ambition, Campbell CA, Dead American, Fight, For You, Gods Of War, Leavin Here, Little Rude Girl, Maggots, Mainlining Murder, Marie Marie, My Life To Live, Six Foot Five, Skins, Punx And Drunx, Skunx, Streetwise Professor, Subterranean, Switchblade, The Kids Are Quiet On Sharmon Palms, The Viking, To Have And To Have Not, Vietnam, Wine And Roses, 1, 10 Plagues Of Egypt, Anti-Social, Army Of Zombies, Bastards, Blind Ambition, Cambell CA, Dead American, Fight, Gods Of War, Leavin Here, Little Rude Girl, Maggots, Other Larry Groce song Lyrics Not found Other Artists Larry Hall Lyrics Larry Moore Lyrics Larry Verne Lyrics Larry Weaver Lyrics Larry Williams Lyrics Lars Berghagen Lyrics Lars Demian Lyrics Lars Frederiksen And The Bastards Lyrics Lars Frederiksen The Bastards Lyrics Lars Kage Lyrics All lyrics are property and copyright of their owners and are strictly for educational purposes only. lyricstrue.net Copyright © 2005-2007 All Rights Reserved., , Privacy policy