I want you to spell something for me Jim, can you do that?

June 4, 2017 10:06 AM

The line "a knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork" shows up in Dillinger's famous track, Cocaine In My Brain, which has been covered, sampled and reinterpreted by loads of people. It turns out the line originally comes from an early 20th century children's rhyme, which also contained the line “A chicken in the car and the car won’t go; that’s the way to spell Chicago"
posted by auntie-matter (13 comments total)

if I can make it there I'll make it anywhere it's up to you Knor Bork, Knor-or Bork!
posted by otherchaz at 10:44 AM on June 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

I remember that line from a song by Information Society (a late-80s US synthpop band that bothered the Billboard charts for a while, went painfully cyberpunk in their second album, and then later discovered their inner Trent Reznor and signed to Cleopatra).
posted by acb at 11:06 AM on June 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

I'd learned it with "car CAN'T go" which I think sounds better.
posted by Obscure Reference at 11:07 AM on June 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

I did also find reference to another line, "A woman and a man, sitting in a pan, that's the way we spell Japan"

I'm sure there must be more.
posted by auntie-matter at 11:11 AM on June 4, 2017

This thread is probably not complete without "The knife, the fork, the spoon" by Kraftverk The Germans From Lund, the official anthem of the Swedish Olympics Team (*).

*) The Culinary Olympics team, that is.
posted by effbot at 11:16 AM on June 4, 2017

Here's a live version of the Information Society track mentioned above.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 11:54 AM on June 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

My favorite version is this very danceable remix.
posted by mai at 12:34 PM on June 4, 2017

Yes. Thanks for this.
posted by humboldt32 at 3:06 PM on June 4, 2017

I had a kid's record with the nursery rhyme style "...that's the way to spell New York" on it. Rediscovered it as a young adult when I actually started visiting NYC from the midwest, and thought it was funny to have what sounded like cosmopolitan slang on a kid's album. Heard it sampled (the kid's one) in a few dance songa over the years, but didn't know how often it was used or the history. It pops into my head from time still.
Cool post, thanks!
posted by ethical_caligula at 7:08 PM on June 4, 2017

Well, honestly, how else would you spell it? I love this song. (Right on!) It's up there with the Velvet Underground's Heroin and the Afghan Whigs' Amphetamines and Coffee in the category of Songs I Really Like That I Can't Post on Facebook Without My Friends Worrying I'm Sending a Secret Message.
posted by scratch at 7:35 PM on June 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Right on
posted by Lorin at 9:19 PM on June 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Please enjoy, if you can (no guarantees here) this parody of Cocaine in My Brain from 1977: Ik Ga Weg, Leen by the Dutch artist (or, as he himself says, antist) Dingetje.
This was his first track and yes, the name 'Dingetje' (meaning 'thingy') is a parody of 'Dillinger'. He kept using it after this parody cover, and went on to do many more, and even recorded a few original songs as well.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:37 AM on June 5, 2017

I remember that line from a song by Information Society

InSoc was my favorite band for a little while. They performed at Grad Nite '89 at Walt Disney World, about which all I remember is that we watched them for three sets, they played a couple of things which also had Star Trek samples like most of their eponymous album, but which never were released as far as I know, and my "date" was adamant that it wasn't a date and she really had just wanted to go to Disney World :P
posted by Foosnark at 7:21 AM on June 5, 2017 [1 favorite]