You get no bread with one meatball!

By John P. Flannery

There have been those who sought out and preserved music that told a story, told us about our past, our culture, and we have players making that music now, and one venue is Brunswick’s Beans in the Belfry.

The source of some of Bob Dylan’s songs and others in the 60s was drawn from collections of songs from earlier times.

In 1933, John and Alan Lomax compiled all the American Ballads and Folk Songs they could find.

John Lomax said, “When I went to college in Texas, I carried in my trunk, along with my pistol and other implements of personal warfare, a little manuscript full of cowboy songs.”

He continued to collect songs and published several editions, the first in 1910.

He lamented how “records of this music had been made on wax cylinders which, alas! Have crumbled with age.”

For example, he reported how “the music for that song [home on the range] was obtained 23 years ago from the [Black] proprietor of a low drinking and gambling dive in the slum district of San Antonio.”

This was one source of stories in song.

In 1927, Carl Sandburg took a stab at a collection, titled, “The American Songbag,” and he apologized, saying it was “a ragbag of strips, stripes and streaks of color from nearly all ends of the earth. The melodies and verses …are from diverse regions, from varied human characters and communities, and each is sung differently in different places.”

Sandburg included excerpts of the sheet music as well.

The Beans has various musical groups, one is the Jimi Cupino Project, been playing together for years.

They play a collection of blues folk country and rock.

The other night they played a tune, titled, “you get no bread with one meatball.”

The Jimi Cupino Project

It’s an American story, told in the depression, when times were hard, and you could only afford one meatball. The cost of the meatball changes depending on who sings the song.

It’s a catchy tune, and will cause you to hum, tap your foot, and reach out to sing the words.

“Little man walked up and down,
To find an eatin’ place in town.
He looked the menu thru and thru,
To see what a dollar bill might do.
One meat ball,
One meat ball,
One meat ball,
All he could get was one meat ball.”

It was a crowd favorite with Jimi Cupino on guitar and lead vocals backed by Paul Shultzaberger on percussion, Gary Faulkner on bass with Bill Sinclair on harmonica, saxophone and lap steel.

Some wanted them to play it again, Sam, to catch the story, like we do with a song that catches our attention.

“Little man walked up and down,
To find an eatin’ place in town.
He looked the menu thru and thru,
To see what a dollar bill might do.
One meat ball,
One meat ball,
One meat ball,
All he could get was one meat ball.”

Jimi has been playing guitar since he was 15.

The song finishes up with the bad news about getting some bread.

“He told that waiter near at hand,
The simple dinner he had planned.
The guests were startled one and all,
To hear that waiter loudly call.

One meat ball,
One meat ball,
One meat ball,
All he could get was one meat ball.

Little man felt so ill at ease,
He said: “Some bread Sir, if you please.”
The waiter hollered down the hall:
You get no bread with your one meat ball.

Little man felt so very bad,
One meat ball is all he had.
And in his dreams he can still hear that call
You get no bread with your one meat ball.”

Such a song is a glimpse at who we were and what we’re like.

And this is only one song from one fine musical combine in one town, Brunswick, Maryland.

JPF