
Mushroom Soup
Words by: Tim & Frances Tompkins | Music by: Tim Tompkins
Lyrics:
Washing wild mushrooms to sauté in the pan,
wearing just a long yellow T-shirt, you have my rapt attention span
on hand to catch the next deft move.
I’m your private cooking show fan.
Let me do the garlic, prepare the carrots too,
cube the red thin-skinned new potatoes, grate a piece of ginger root.
I’ll even dice the big bad onion
if it buys me more minutes near you.
Olive oil and a dash of toasted sesame,
a puff of steam and a wisp of savory smoke surround you,
stirring my desire, wooden spoon and blue flame.
Is your little dance at the stove more wiggly when I’m watching?
Tending to the caldron of bubbling witches brew,
my honey’s on a mission; it puts me in a stew that grew
from adding miso, dill, herbal soup stock
and ingredients known only to you.
Now fire down to simmer, great soup’s not made in haste.
Some leaves of lemon grass, white wine splashed in to taste…
Your face lights up, you blow to cool a spoonful for me
and wink a fair warning. Is it laced?
The lure of your shapely figure, shifting your weight
from side to side as you stir, your shirt rides up and up…
You reach for the cayenne pepper, on tiptoes you go.
How could a mushroom soup be as tempting as my kitchen maestro?
Inception:
Frances is the scant-clad girl who actually made the big savory soup as a kitchen improv, and I attest, it tasted great. Try it from the ingredients in the song! The music began as a guitar picking etude in a style inspired by the late Bart Bishop, lead singer of the early ‘70s West Coast band, Providence, of which I was a member. Way into the songwriting night I heard you, Bart, instinctively adding lift to your rhythms by advancing the root, playing it half a beat before the higher-sounding strings in your chords. This song is dedicated to you and Frances. [Tim]
Performance/Production Credits:
Tim Tompkins: Voice, guitar, cello
Frances Tompkins: Violin
Dale Mills: Clarinets
Nelson Braxton: Double bass
Jason Lewis: Drums
Recorded at Gordon Stevens’ Open Path Studio in San Jose, CA.
Mixed at the GallopAway Music studio in San Juan Bautista, CA.
Mastered by Joe Weed at his Highland Studios in Santa Cruz County, CA.