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The worlds of offal and popular music rarely intersect.  There’s Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple from the Apple,” Kenny Burrells’s “Chitlins con Carne” (popularized by Stevie Ray Vaughan) and the Rolling Stones album Goats Head Soup.  And who knows what was in Zappa’s Lumpy Gravy. Yet, among this relative paucity of organ meat music, it’s perhaps a little surprising that two songs about tripe rise above the level of the truly obscure.  The reggae trio The Heptones recorded the vengeful “Tripe Girl” in the 1965 (“Girls of your type / Should be selling tripe”), and seven years later, Little Feat would record the decidedly more upbeat “Tripe Face Boogie” on their 1972 album Sailin’ Shoes. 

Watch Tripe Face Boogie on YouTube Little Feat, ”Tripe Face Boogie” – Paris, France, 1975

Written by keyboardist Billy Payne and drummer Richie Hayward, the studio version of “Tripe Face” is considerably slower (almost a shuffle, really) than the live version on Waiting for Columbus.  The live version is also several minutes longer featuring an extended keyboard breakdown that dissolves into near silence before being resurrected with the help of Lowell George’s fiery slide guitar. Lyrically there doesn’t seem to be much of a message to “Tripe Face,” other than a general invitation to boogie the night away. Rather, like many early Tom Marshall offerings, the words seem chosen more for their sounds than any deeper meaning.

When Phish – with some help from percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo – covered “Tripe Face Boogie” as part of their Halloween set at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall on 10/31/10, they remained true to the live version, as they did for most of the songs on Waiting for Columbus that differ from their studio counterparts (right down to the segue out of “Dixie Chicken”). Because of its infectious groove and open-ended nature that allows both Page and Trey plenty of room to show off their chops, it’s easy to envision additional helpings of tripe at future Phish shows.

Watch Tripe Face Boogie on YouTube Phish, ”Tripe Face Boogie” – 10/31/10, Atlantic City, NJ

(B. Payne, R. Hayward)
© Streetlights Music (ASCAP)

Well I was buffaloed in Buffalo
And I was entertained in Houston
New York, yew nork, you got to choose one
Cause it's a tripe face boogie
Going to boogie my sneakers away

Well I don't want your money
And I don't want your time
Please don't tripe me honey and I'll give you
Give you back your dime

It's a hype face boogie
going to boogie my sneakers away

Now I don't dig potato chips
And I can't dig torts
Well tripe my guacamole baby (it's a guaca)
Tripe my shorts
It's a tripe face boogie gonna boogie my sneakers away

It's a hype boogie, tripe boogie, hype boogie
All night long

You bring your guitar, I'll bring the wine
We'll tripe my guacamole baby just a one more time
It's a hype boogie
I said give tripe face his way
I said lookout!
I said give tripe face away
I said lookout!
I said give tripe face away