This episode contains mature subject matter.

Who is Bessie Smith addressing when she sings about her jelly roll?

Anyone who she's attracted to male or female.

If she puts it, nobody can bake a sweet jelly roll like mine, so she's using this kind

of domestic, very feminized metaphor of baking a cake, right?

For her sexual desirability and skill, I like a lot.

This is the Sporkfall. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman.

Each week on our show, we obsess about food for the more about people.

Today's show is all about a food that has a long and important history in music.

Jelly.

Why jelly? Well, it is a fun and delicious food, but more importantly, as you look here,

jelly has been referenced in tons of songs across decades and genres, often with special

significance in the black community. When it comes to jelly and music, there's just a lot to talk about.

So let's start with some ground rules. We're talking today about songs that reference jelly,

the food, or that use jelly the food as a metaphor, which means we're not talking about this song.

Because Van Morrison is only referencing the great jazz pianist, Jelly Roll Morton.

And we will not be discussing this song. Life is too short to refrain from eating jam out of the jar.

Or this song.

This of course is Lady Marmalade, but we aren't talking about Marmalade or Marmalade.

Or Jam, we're talking about jelly.

You know, they're all made by cooking fruit with sugar. They're all thickened by the natural pectin in the fruits

and often by adding additional pectin, which is a carbohydrate found in plants.

...