Musical Gluttony - Not Always What It Seems To Be

Last week, we started our series on the Seven Deadly Sins in music with the #1 sin on the sin charts: Lust. That was an easy one - it's hard to imagine any body of songs in any style that doesn't contain a few songs, at least, about gettin' a little sugar, if you know what I mean. And that's what makes this week's sin, Gluttony, so difficult. It's not that there aren't songs about eating and wanting to eat more. It's just that gluttony is often a thinly veiled reference for something else: when Dee Dee Sharp sings "gimme gimme gimme, gimme gravy tonight," I somehow don't think she's really singing about sauce for her mashed potatoes.

Of course, drinking to excess is a form of gluttony, and there are tons of songs about that. But that's almost too easy. True songs about gluttony require a little sleuthing. Opera is a good source - as it is for all of the Seven Deadly Sins. But there are a number of medieval songs about feasts that betray the medieval European obsession with having enough food to eat. And a fair number of old-time American songs also deal with the deep enjoyment that comes from having enough - and more than enough - to eat. I guess if you have to worry about food, then singing about food becomes a natural thing to do. Nowadays, even with all the wailing about the economy, most Americans have access to enough food to keep them going, so songs about food have become a novelty item, and a rare one at that.

Tell us: do you have any suggestions of songs about gluttony?
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