Bhuna Chicken

I wrote this song in September, 1988 and it is certainly one of the silliest songs I've ever written. The inspiration came from a conversation where a mate of mine was challenged to include the words 'Bhuna chicken' seemlessly within the flow of a seminar talk he was presenting, at the university where he taught. I wasn't at the talk but my partner told me that he won the bet.

The primary chorus of the song is highly minimalist as far as lyrics go:

Bhuna chicken, Bhuna chicken
Bhuna chicken, Bhuna chicken
Bhuna chicken, Bhuna chicken
Bhuna chicken, Bhuna chicken
Bhuna chicken, Bhuna, Bhuna chicken

You have to pay attention or you could miss the incredibly interesting variation in the final line. For some reason that completely eludes me, this chorus is sung against a quasi reggae guitar accompaniment.

The first verse attempts to ground the song into the world of rational common sense, but audience feedback indicates that it fails abysmally in this regard:

There's nothing Rubber Ducky likes
Better than a plate of curry
With the possible exception of a bowl
Of prunes and custard

The meaning of the song is rendered even more opaque by reference to a character called Jasper Donalds in the second verse. He is the hero in another one of my songs (the theme of which is transvestism). If I can remember, I try to play the Jasper Donalds song before Bhuna Chicken on the gig list since that helps prepare the listener for this verse:

There's nothing Jasper Donalds
Likes better than a plate of curry
With the possible exception of a pair
Of fishnet stockings

Perhaps I should mention that the song has a secondary chorus and it is this that brings it to its final, gasping resolution. I will refrain from citing the full lyric since the words 'Chicky-chicky' are merely repeated some six times.

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