Rhubarb Pie

Background

"Rhubarb Pie" is the eighth track of Deja Vu All Over Again, the seventh solo album of John Fogerty. The collection of songs was released in September 2004. It reached #23 in the USA and #1 in Sweden. 

A simple front-porch country-folk song "Rhubarb Pie" was something that John Fogerty had been thinking about from the childhood. When John was a kid, there was a hole in the hedge behind the backyard of Fogerty's house. John and other kids used to crawl through it to get to a lot where a cow laid. Right in the bottom of that little tunnel in the hedge rhubarbs were growing and occasionally John's mom made rhubarb pies (Interview with John Fogerty, National Public Radio, USA, November 20th, 2004).

Personnel

Vocals, other guitars: John Fogerty

Bass: Kenny Aronoff

Bass: Viktor Krauss

Slide guitar: Dean Parks

Spoons: Aaron Plunkett

Live versions

The world premiere of the live version of "Rhubarb Pie" was witnessed at KLRU-TV's Studio 6A in Austin, Texas, on August 10th, 2004 when the Austin City Limits TV concert was taped. The show was screened by the PBS network in the USA on October 2nd. Jerry Douglas played the dobro parts on "I Will Walk With You" and "Rhubarb Pie". 

On the tour followed the release of Deja Vu All Over Again, Fogerty only played the song once: at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, on November 8th, 2004. It made a short return to the programming in summer 2009, when Fogerty delivered it in three concerts in Canada and the USA. 

Critical reception

"'Rhubarb Pie' is another country-folk song that showcases his ability to play a good Americana song just as well as he can still rock." -Alex Steininger, In Music We Trust, November-December 2004. 

"You get some very very generic, but funny bluegrass ('Rhubarb Pie'), with Fogerty metaphorically, but smuttily begging for the thing one usually begs for from women in terms of traditional bake items." -George Starostin. 

"Songs --- like "Sugar-Sugar" and "Rhubarb Pie", which is at least ostensibly about the pleasure of eating homemade desserts, are easygoing and soothing country shuffles that frame the songs directly about marriage and further emphasize his contentment." -Thomas M. Kitts, John Fogerty: An American Son, 2015

Fans' views

"My least favorite song on the album. Quite weak lyrically. Either its written as a kids song, or its a sexual metaphor - I haven't quite decided. I'm sure I'll warm to it though. It's got a nice acoustic, country feel to it."

"I think that first you have to know the history to the song to understand what the hell JF is telling about. And I like the sound of a Dobro also very much."

"I LOVE rhubarb pie to eat; John's expressed the feelings of those of us who love that weird vegetable/fruit. But I DON'T like the "shut my mouth" part and his fake "Negro" accent - like a parody of the black-faced actors mimicking black people in the 1920s and 30s in movies and in Vaudeville."

"Light nice relaxed song for when you're driving in your car."

"Like Mississippi John Hurt and that's good too."

"A song about pie? That's my song."

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