There may be any number of pop songs that mention food, but far fewer are the tracks that are actually about it. 'Strawberry Fields Forever' does not concern itself with fruits, 'Life on Mars' is not about confectionery or Glasgow chip shops, you wouldn't want to taste Frank Zappa's 'Burnt Weeny Sandwich', and when Robert Plant asks you to 'squeeze my lemon', he's not in need of help preparing a dressing for his cous-cous.

My contention, or sweeping generalisation, is that great food songs are made by people who know a bit about hunger or, in the case of New Orleans, people who come from a background where food and music have equal cultural importance. So this selection has a heavy bias towards the US South - to soul food, funk and gumbo from the mid-Sixties to mid-Seventies. With a few exceptions, of course, because it's my list so I get to make the rules. They're not in any order of quality, just the order in which you might eat them over dinner with a few friends. And the first one is a reminder that 'dinner with a few friends' is just a disguise for 'getting rat-arsed'.

1 Wine With Dinner Loudon Wainwright
(T-Shirt, Arista 1976)

Not the great wry storyteller's only song about booze, but one of his finest: 'Drinks before dinner and wine with dinner and after dinner drinks...' catches the suburban habit of getting quietly legless while pretending you're just being sociable.

2 Roast Fish and Cornbread Lee Perry
(Arkology, Island 3CD compilation 1997)

Perry - reggae's finest, weirdest producer - worked as a labourer and, as biographer David Katz wrote, became fascinated with the sound of breaking boulders, which is picked up in the eerie rhythm of this tune. As www.upsetter.com notes, this isn't the only skill he acquired in the field. 'When I left school there was nothing to do except field work. Hard, hard labour. I didn't fancy that. So I started playing dominoes. Through dominoes I learnt to read the minds of others. This has proved eternally useful to me.' Perry now lives in Switzerland, where he is emphatically not working on a version of 'Rosti and cornbread'.

3 Pass the Peas The JBs
(Food for Thought, People 1972)

James Brown's band are the kings of food titles, and this track, driven by Maceo Parker's sax, is a prime cut. Try 'Rice'n'Ribs' and 'Breakin' Bread' too. Other great vegetable tunes include Booker T's 'Green Onions', of course, and 'Brand New Potatoes' by Calypso King & the Soul Investigators (Soul Strike! Soul Fire 1972), a Hammond organ-heavy slice of funk with deliciously nasty guitar work.

4 She Cooks Me Cabbage Champion Jack Dupree
(King 45, 1961)

Raised in the same orphanage as Louis Armstrong, Champion Jack learnt barrelhouse piano in New Orleans in the Twenties, left to become a boxer (a good one apparently) was a POW in Asia and lived in Europe until returning to the Crescent City for the last few years of his life. This track, written by his wife, is not his only homage to cabbage (there was one in the Thirties too) but it's his best.

5 Rock Lobster The B-52s
(Rock Lobster, Island 1979)

Sparky and bizarre mix of Beefheart and James Brown. No one knows any of the words except 'Rock Lobster - wooh-ooh' but it seems that it may not be about the joy of crustacean munching. Singer Fred Schneider, urging fans to boycott the Maine lobster festival two years ago wrote: 'I've always sung the praises of lobsters, and it really burns my butt when people drop 'em in a pot of boiling water.' Fred is more of a pasta man, apparently.

6 Fish, Chips and Sweat Funkadelic
(Westbound 45, 1970)

Psychedelic funk of the first order on an early single from the band that expanded the boundaries of the genre throughout the 1970s. George Clinton, who lives on the same extended planet as Lee Perry, once said: 'What is soul? I don't know! Soul is a hamhock in your cornflakes... Soul is a joint rolled in toilet paper...' There is no truth in the rumour that he's re-recording his long-lost 'The girl's got pizazz' as 'The girl's got pizzas'.

7 Eli's Pork Chop Little Sonny
(New King of the Blues Harmonica, Factory 1986)

Detroit bluesman by the name of Aaron Willis who took his new name after hearing Sonny Boy Williamson. Hear this hard driving slice of blues/funk (or 'Hot Potato' on the same LP) and you'll be glad he gave up his career as a photographer. The label is the American Factory - so don't expect New Order to be guesting on it.

8 Chitlin con Carne Junior Wells
(Vanguard, 1966)

Another major harmonica workout with top guitar supplied by 'Friendly Chap'. During America's segregationist years, the chitlin circuit - cheap juke joints and diners - was the only place many black musicians could get work. Chitlins - pig intestines actually - were a staple of the slave diet, but with inventive recipes galore they are now something of a soul food delicacy. You can even order 10lb jars online in the US and have them delivered to your door the next day. Simmer them for hours, spice and season heavily and they're lovely. Allegedly. Other great chitlin tracks include '18lbs of Unclean Chitlins'(Mel Brown, Impulse 45, 1969), a slow and very heavy instrumental and, on a similar theme 'Bucket O'Grease' by Les McCann Limited (Limelight LP 1970), an album whose sleevenotes surprisingly quote De Tocqueville.

9 Forget About Dre Dr Dre
(The Chronic 2001, Aftermath 1999)

Actually, this one's a swindle. Hip hoppers and gangsta rappers are way too busy singing about gold, guns and run-ins with those polite gentlemen from the LAPD to bother with eating. The line 'You're mad at me cause I can finally afford to provide my family wit groceries' is as close as Dre and Eminem ever get to the dinner table. Make lunch, not war, you guys...

10 Ice Cream for Crow Captain Beefheart
(Ice Cream for Crow LP, Virgin 1982)

Pudding time at last, with a swampy, growling beast of a song from the man who said: 'There are 40 people in this world and five of them are hamburgers.' Beefheart's sparring partner Frank Zappa nearly squeaks in with 'Peaches en Regalia', whose main riff is also the basis for 'Shaky Pudding', a soul and calypso groove by the otherwise easy to forget Jesse Morrison. And why not round off the night with 'Turkish Coffee' (Tony Osborne and his piano, HMV 45, 1962) and Pink Floyd's 'Candy and A Currant Bun' (B-side of 'Arnold Layne', 1967), unaccountably left off their recent 'best of...' album.

Some of the tunes here are deleted or very hard to get hold of, but are likely to feature in an upcoming compilation album 'Giving Up Funk for Food' - we'll let you know when it comes out.

Thanks to John and Ian, DJs at The Whole Nine Yards (the Bell, Bristol, every Tuesday) for playing these tracks and a whole lot more in one sitting.