Suresh Subrahmanyan is a Bengaluru-based former advertising professional

The Beatles – Lunch is all you need

Many moons ago, I was glued to my transistor radio listening intently to a BBC World Service programme called My Music, a witty and amusing quiz show in which some very erudite and musically inclined speakers were asked questions on various genres and intricacies of music. In a particular episode, a participant asked a seemingly crackpot question to the the panel, “What would happen if we replaced the word love with the word lunch in many well-known songs? ” I can’t remember any of the songs that were suggested. All I can recall was the sheer hilarity that ensued as each participant went to town giving his or her own version, and often even singing it. Desperate as I was, I decided to draw inspiration from the programme and provide my own list of love songs, or rather lunch songs to see what comes out of it. The results are surprising.

When The Beatles released their immensely popular hit, All You Need Is Love, I tried to imagine what the implication would have been had the song been titled All You Need Is Lunch. It is a valid proposition for discussion. After all, if the stomach is not properly cared for, love can take a nosedive. It is an existential issue. I daresay during their early days of struggle in Liverpool, the Beatles might have been worried about when or where their next egg or ham sandwich would come from. They were not born rich. Around the time, they also composed It’s Only Love which would have been far more appropriately titled, It’s Only Lunch. Thus, striking a philosophical note as if to say, ‘Don’t fret lads, a big hit is just round the corner and we could have all the 5-star lunches and dinners our hearts could desire.’ And so it came to pass.

There have been many recorded versions of the 1950s song Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing. My own favourite rendition is by Nat King Cole. Had the song been called Lunch Is A Many-Splendored Thing, you would not have found too many people disagreeing. Like The Beatles, Nat King Cole also emerged from modest beginnings. When the great crooner achieved worldwide fame with songs like Autumn Leaves, Unforgettable and L.O.V.E., the fanciest restauranteurs in the world would have laid out the red carpet for him to enjoy many a splendored lunch or dinner.

Celebrated hard-rock British band Led Zeppelin hardly qualifies to be spoken of in emotionally-charged tones involving soft feelings like love. However, their earthquake-inducing number Whole Lotta Love was a monster hit. Had I been their manager, I would have advised the band’s songwriters to cool down a bit and come up with Whole Lotta Lunch, with lyrics showing they are not just acid-dropping freaks but can enjoy a decent meal that would have made their grandmothers proud. No such luck. They went on their merry ways and ruled the rock music world, often skipping lunch and dinner.

Another old classic, popularised by Frank Sinatra was I Am In The Mood For Love. We all know Sinatra and his notorious Rat Pack gang loved food and wine. I daresay every time he felt the clarion call from his rumbling stomach, he would warble I Am In The Mood For Lunch and a luncheon spread fit for a king would have been his for the asking. Sinatra singing for his supper? Maybe, but not quite in the way you might think.

During the 50s and 60s there was no greater pop sensation than Elvis Presley. His seductive voice and killer good looks had everyone in a frenzied tizzy. And when he belted out, I Need Your Love Tonight, every teenage girl and her mother imagined they were enjoying wedded bliss with the star who demanded I Need Your Lunch Tonight. And in their dreams, they were only too willing to oblige, even if it meant serving left-over lunch warmed up, for dinner!

While concluding this idiosyncratic piece, it occurred to me why I could not find any songs from women who could fit the bill. Before I get brickbats hurled at me, I had to do some quick thinking. Women look at love and lunch in completely different ways to men, and I was predisposed to put forward the male point of view. But hey, women musicians have given us some beautiful songs extolling the noble virtues of pure love. Carole King’s Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, Joni Mitchell’s Solid Love and Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You, spring to mind among several others. However, I do not wish to satirise or trivialise them by force-fitting the lunch motif into those lyrics. Gastronomy, sometimes bordering on gluttony is still a male preserve. Lunch comes first before their thoughts turn to gentler emotions. Don’t take my word for it. No less than George Bernard Shaw said, ‘There is no sincerer love than the love of food.’