Despite our coverage of the demise of the Whole Foods supermarket alongside the toxic Gowanus Canal, Frank Hoier, the Bard of Bushwick, was still fantasizing about shopping at the store, a dream that inspired his new hit song, “Down by the Gowanus Canal,” for this week’s “Rhythm and News” feature.
Down by the Gowanus Canal
Well I’m tired of my Brooklyn Bodega
Associated don’t sell real food
I wanna start eating healthy
I wanna buy local, help the environment, too
I heard Brooklyn got a new grocery store
They got everything and more
So I went down to the Whole Foods
down by the Gowanus Canal
Well, the building sure looks swell it’s true
If you can see clear thru the fumes
And the produce smells just about the same
Though your olfactory glands are in ruins
If you don’t mind just a little benzene
Mixed in your coleslaw
Then come on down to the Whole Foods
Down by the Gowanus Canal
A little crude oil in the soy sauce
You don’t taste it much really
A little mercury in the green tea
PCB’s in the organic coffee
And ya may get a little headache
As you’re loadin’ up the car
But you wouldn’t believe the selection at the Whole Foods
Down by the Gowanus Canal
Well, I don’t know where they get the starfruit
Don’t know where the bananas come from
But I can buy anything that catch my eye
And I smile — at least ’til the check comes
And, yes, the irony escapes me
In the Roosevelt Island size parking garage
’Cause who’s really paying at the Whole Foods
Down by the Gowanus Canal?
