Tuesday, March 17, 2009

"WE ARE THE CLAMS"

YouTube - we are the world Back in 1985 Pop Stars Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie composed a song entitled "WE ARE THE WORLD" orchestrated by producer Quincy Jones with an all-star cast of singers including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Kenny Rodgers, Willie Nelson, Tina Turner and many more. (Click on the youtube link for this famous song). This song was for USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa).

At that time, I was working for the Manning family in Dennis Port, Mass on Cape Cod. I was associated with their clambake restaurant known as The Captain's Clambake Emporium. The Captain's Clambake Emporium featured the traditional New England Clambake. We had many group tours as the primary source of business and each group was offered a choice of lobster or steak for the main entree. If you chose steak, you were given a small ticket so that people couldn't change their minds at the last minute from lobster to steak. No ticket no steak.

I decided to compose a potential radio advertisement for the "Clambake Emporium" and wrote a short song called "We Are The Clams". This little ditty inspired by "We Are The World", went something like this:

WE ARE THE CLAMS

There comes a time when we all must eat some clams. And the Clambake sure is fun. There is food a cookin' and its time to sing some songs and enjoy the greatest clambake of all.

(Chorus) We are the clams. We are the lobsters. We are the ones who make a better steak so lets start cookin'. There's a choice your making between lobster and a steak. You know you need a ticket if you want a steak.

I sang this song to Chris Manning, one of the owners, one day back then. He just smiled, chuckled and said "Oh, Rick".

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the reminder and link to We are the World! It was fantastic to see it again. Showed it to my son, who is a huge Bob Dylan fan. I was surprised that God was referenced twice. A lot has changed in 23 years!

    Regarding clams, I discovered I was allergic to clams at an Annapolis clam festival when I was a kid. It was a messy trip home! I tried them again on a Cape Cod vacation about 20 years later, and unfortunately had not outgrown it. Sad, because I know people just love those clams!

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  2. My brother Scott gets "vertigo" if he eats a raw clam. Glad you liked the link.

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