How strange to hear the guitar and voice of Bo Carter (1892–1964) in a commercial for Hardee’s Bacon Bacon Biscuit (link’s gone). Carter, a member of Mississippi’s ultra-musical Chatmon family, was an exceptionally fleet guitarist, a capable singer, and a composer of what might be called single-entendre blues: “Ants in My Pants,” “Banana In Your Fruit Basket,” “Pin In Your Cushion,” “Please Warm My Weiner,” “Your Biscuits Are Big Enough for Me,” and many, many more. A few fragments of Carter’s 1931 recording “Pig Meat Is What I Crave” serve as the soundtrack for the Hardee’s commercial. But this song is not about bacon. Stephen Calt explains (and in the process, corrects the Oxford English Dictionary):
[Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009).]
Does Hardee’s understand what Carter was singing about? Given the company’s history of hyper-sexualized advertising, perhaps they do.
Hardee’s customer-response line: 1-877-799-7827.
[Bacon Bacon Biscuit: yes, we love our freedom.]
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Hardee’s pigmeat commercial
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comments: 4
I've been wondering the same thing about an ad for the GMC Acadia, which features the great (and sad) George Jones/Loretta Lynn duet, "Two Story House." Does GMC realize that the song is about a loveless and possibly unfaithful marriage in which each partner has his or her own story? Judging by the Habitat-for-Humanity-like imagery, I'd guess not.
Brother is that sad. Here’s the song, for anyone who doesn’t know it.
Oops! I can't believe I mixed up Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn. George and Tammy; Conway and Loretta! I KNOW that.
Yipes! Right after I listened, I thought, Did he say Loretta Lynn? And I decided that I must have been confused. :)
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