Polk Salad Annie

"Polk Salad Annie” is a 1968 song written and performed by Tony Joe White.[1] It was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. 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 sallet, a cooked greens dish made from pokeweed.[2] Its 1969 single release peaked at Number 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.

"Polk Salad Annie"
Single by Tony Joe White
from the album Black and White
B-side"Aspen Colorado"
ReleasedJune 1969
RecordedMay 16, 1968, RCA Studio B, Nashville, Tennessee
GenreSwamp rock, rhythm and blues
Length3:37
LabelMonument Records
Songwriter(s)Tony Joe White
Producer(s)Billy Swan
Tony Joe White singles chronology
"Soul Francisco"
(1969)		 "Polk Salad Annie"
(1969)		 "Roosevelt and Ira Lee"
(1969)

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, that rare 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]

"Sallet" is an old English word that means "cooked greens",[4] not to be mistaken for "salad"; in fact, cases of pokeweed poisoning can result from this linguistic mistake. (See Phytolacca_americana#Uses.) While it may be that record companies labeled the song "salad", the dish in question was a "sallet" made of pokeweed.

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".

I heard "Ode to Billie Joe" on the radio and I thought, man, how real, because I am Billie Joe, I know that life. I've been in the cotton fields. So I thought if I ever tried to write, I'm going to write about something I know about.[5] At that time I was doing a lot of Elvis and John Lee Hooker onstage with my drummer. No original songs and I hadn't really thought about it. But after I heard Bobbie Gentry I sat down and thought … well I know about polk because I had ate a bunch of it and I knew about rainy nights because I spent a lot of rainy nights in Marietta, Georgia. So I was real lucky with my first tries to write something that was not only real and hit pretty close to the bone, but lasted that long. So it was kind of a guide for me then on through life to always try to write what I know about.

Background

The single, released in 1969 by Monument Records,[6] 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."[7]

Personnel

Chart history

Elvis Presley cover

Elvis Presley picked up the song, and it became a staple of his live performances of the early 1970s.[15] He recorded it, and it became the only version of "Polk Salad Annie" to chart in the UK and Ireland.

Chart history
Chart (1973) Peak
position
Ireland (IRMA)[16] 16
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[17] 23

Elvis' rendition was issued on several albums, including:[15]

    • On Stage (1970)[18]
    • Elvis: That's the Way it Is (documentary film, 1970).
    • Elvis: As Recorded At Madison Square Garden (1972),
    • Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters (RCA Records),[15]
    • Elvis 75 (RCA Records),[15]
    • Best Of Artist Of The Century (RCA Records),[15]
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]

Cover versions
  • Richard "Groove" Holmes released a live version on his 1970 album Recorded Live at the Lighthouse[19]
  • Clarence Reid released a version on his 1969 album Dancin' With Nobody But You Babe[20]
  • Tom Jones released a version[1] on his 1970 album Tom, recorded in February 1970[21][22]
  • White performed a version in duet with Johnny Cash on the April 8, 1970 edition of The Johnny Cash Show. This performance has been released on DVD on The Best of the Johnny Cash Show.
  • Los Lonely Boys perform this song on their 2009 tribute EP entitled 1969.
  • Conan O'Brien sang a version of the song on his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour. He mentions that Presley sang the song on his tour as well.
  • Rockabilly artist Sleepy LaBeef has also covered this song on his album Rockabilly 1977,[23] and also included it on his 2000 album Tomorrow Never Comes.[24]
  • Johnny Hallyday did also a live duet performance with White during his 1984 tour in Nashville.[1]
  • American-born French singer Joe Dassin had also a version on his album, Blue Country, released in 1979.[25]
  • Harald Schmidt performed it on 9/13/2011 in his Late-Night-Show on German TV
  • Dutch Mason did a version on his album Wish Me Luck (1979)[26]
  • Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows covered the song on their 1983 album, Playing For Keeps.[27]
  • Peabody instructor Gil Trythall covered this song on his electronic music album Nashville Gold (Switched on Moog).[28]
  • Tony Joe White and Foo Fighters performed this song on the Late Show With David Letterman (Season 22, Episode 35), originally airing on October 15, 2014.
  • Jimmie Van Zant sang a version of the song on his 2008 album My Name Is Jimmie.
  • The BossHoss performed and included a version of this song in their album Stallion Battalion released in 2007
  • A James Burton cover is featured in the 2019 movie Ford v Ferrari.[29]
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See also

Notes and references
  1. Archived May 3, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Adams, Alison. "A Mess Of Poke". Southernspaces.org. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  3. "Tony Joe White, Leocort, Ayrton Senna, Boudewijn de Groot, Citroën, Modelspoor h0 NS". Leocort.nl. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  4. Selby, Anna (2008). Food Through The Ages: From Stuffed Dormice To Pineapple Hedgehogs. Casemate Publishers. p. 173. ISBN 1844680274. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  5. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/obituaries/tony-joe-white-dead.html
  6. "Tony Joe White - Polk Salad Annie / Aspen Colorado (Vinyl) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  7. "Tony Joe White - his life 2/3". Martin-doppelbauer.de. 1968-08-01. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  8. The Monument Story (Media notes). Various. New York, New York: Sony Music Entertainment. A2K66106.CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. "Go-Set Australian charts - 8 November 1969". Poparchives.com.au. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  10. "Tony Joe White - Polk Salad Annie". 45cat.com. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  11. "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  12. "Tony Joe White Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  13. "Cash Box Top 100 8/23/69". Tropicalglen.com. Archived from the original on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  14. "Top 100 Hits of 1969/Top 100 Songs of 1969". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  15. "Elvis Presley – Polk Salad Annie – Listen and discover music at". Last.fm. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  16. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Polk Salad Annie". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
  17. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  18. Bruce Eder. "On Stage - Elvis Presley | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  19. "Live at the Lighthouse - Richard "Groove" Holmes | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  20. Andrew Hamilton. "Dancin' With Nobody But You Babe - Clarence Reid | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  21. Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Tom - Tom Jones | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  22. Archived December 31, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  23. "1977 Rockabilly - Sleepy LaBeef | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  24. Hal Horowitz. "Tomorrow Never Comes - Sleepy LaBeef | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  25. "Blue Country - Joe Dassin | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  26. "Wish Me Luck - Dutch Mason | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. 2007-01-01. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  27. "Alligator Records - Genuine Houserockin' Music Since 1971". Alligator.com. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  28. "Nashville Gold (Switched On Moog) - Gil Trythall | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  29. "'Ford v Ferrari' Soundtrack Revealed". Variety. November 13, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
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