Remembering My Forgettable Music Career #3: "Chili Meat"

Chili Meat (April 1994)

Music by Josh Tinley and Liquid Diet
Lyrics by Josh Tinley
First performed by Liquid Diet, July 1994
Released on Drywall's No Mustard, April 1995

Liquid Diet was:

Josh Tinley: Vocals, bass
Brian Fuzzell: Drums
Tim Gober: Guitar

Free download: Chili Meat (MP3)

For six consecutive summers, beginning in 1993, I worked at Wendy's. I maintain that my experience as a fast food employee was one of the most important experiences of my young life and was crucial to making me the person I am today (for better or worse). But enough with the clichés. Regardless of its subsequent benefits, little of my time at Wendy's was at all enjoyable.

While setting the pick-up-window speed record with bandmate and co-worker Tim Gober (22 seconds-per-car) was one of the most rewarding experiences of my adolescence, my average day at Wendy's left me with sore feet, a thin coat of grease covering my entire being, dried cow blood on my shirt, and assorted condiments on my pants. Like most things I did in high school, my work at Wendy's was a source of angst and frustration, as well as the subject of one of my early songs.

Chili Meat's vocal "melody" closely follows the bass line, which is evidence of the difficulty I had playing bass and singing at the same time. The lyrics to the verses crudely recount a typical day on the job: "Face in the greasy food; open a box of spoons; steal a couple fries; been here since ten till noon." The chorus engages all of the senses and demands a reprieve from a hard day's work: "Hear me, smell me, taste me, see me; let me off and then relieve me."

This recording, from Drywall's No Mustard, features the "Chili Meat Rap," which is possibly the highlight of the song. The rap was not originally part of the song but was tacked on as an intro for the song's second performance (August 7, 1994 at the TA Skate Shop in Indianapolis). By the third show (September 23, 1994 at the Emerson Theatre in Indianapolis), the rap finally settled in as a mid-song interlude.