Them Poems by Mason Williams Written during the 1960s, Williams’s Them Poems were so widely diffused into folk culture that they are often presumed to be another product of that prolific author “anonymous.” Here they are for the first time collected and selected by their creator, Mason Williams. Them Poems is a bold, brassy collection that captures the free and easy antics of the 1960s. Smart, rhythmic stanzas have readers snickering through each knee-slapping stanza. Mason Williams is perhaps most widely known as a composer and musician. He has recorded more than a dozen albums, including the single Classical Gas which won three Grammys in 1968. Twenty years later a single, Country Idyll, from his album Classical Gas was nominated for a Grammy. The album went gold by selling over 500 thousand copies. In addition to his pop concerts, his Of Time & the River Flowing, Symphonic Bluegrass and Christmas concerts have been performed by more than forty symphony orchestras. Mr. Williams has written over a dozen books of prose, poetry, and music including The Mason Williams Reading Matter and Flavors (Doubleday), The Mason Williams FCC Rapport (Liverite), and a music book Classical Gas. The Kingston Trio, Richard and Jim, and Three on a String have all sung Them Poems “Lunch Toters”
How about Them Lunch Toters,
Ain’t they a bunch?
Goin’ off to work,
A-totin’ they lunch.
Totin’ them vittles,
Totin’ that chow,
Eatin’ it later,
But a-totin’ it now.
Look at Them Lunch Toters,
Ain’t they funny?
Some use a paper sack,
Some use a gunny.
Them food-frugal Lunch Toters,
Ain’t they wise?
Totin’ they lunch,
Made by they wives.
How to be a Lunch Toter?
Iffa may emote it,
Gitchy wife to fix it,
Go to work and tote it!