Popeye the Sailor's Ghost


Reprinted from Songworm 1
This parody was sung by Leslie Fish on Tapeworm 3

Parody of “Carmen Miranda's Ghost”, words and music by Leslie Fish

For more information and other parodies, see www.songworm.com
Parody lyrics ©1987-08-05 by Bob Kanefsky. All rights reserved. The copyright of the original lyrics and music remain with the holder(s) of the original copyright.

This song’s only reason for existence is that someone was having a contest for filksongs incorporating the line What will you do when spinach covers the Earth? , and I was intrigued by the challenge. Unfortunately, the rumba tune that Leslie wrote is designed to be reminiscent of Carmen Miranda, and therefore isn’t appropriate to the parody. Anyway, I trust no one will try to make an anthology out of this version!

Am
Pop
eye the E
sai
lor’s Am
ghost 
is haunting C
Space 
E
Stat
ion Am
Four
F
Half 
the C
crew 
has Dm
seen 
him, from the F
cook 
C
to 
the Dm
whore
And E
if 
you think we’re F
pilf
ering the E
whis
key we’ve got F
stored
Just Am
tell 
me how ten thousand cans of E
spin
ach got on Am
board
.

The cook keeps trying recipes from old microfiche. 
We’ve had the stuff in casseroles and baked in a quiche. 
He’ll steam a bunch in water that’s been heated to a boil, 
Or make a great big bed of it and toss in olive oil.

But Popeye comes back every night to double our supply. 
We’re getting sick of spinach soup and spinach-mushroom pie. 
The cargo bay is full of cans; they’re stacked against the hull. 
And even spanakopita is getting mighty dull.

We’ve tried to make the most of it in Space Station Four. 
Still even spacers’ appetites can’t take too much more. 
We throw a few tons out the door when there’s no ship in berth. 
But whatcha gonna do when spinach covers the Earth?