So someone claimed it’s racist because there have been racist lyrics to the tune. I think it’s a major stretch, but apparently Good Humor started encouraging drivers to switch to a new tune they had a rapper write. Has this actually changed anything.
Edit: I’m surprised at the number of people who don’t know Turkey in that Straw, at least not by name.
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I think it’s been a solid 20 years since I’ve been worried about the ice cream song, but the ones near me never played that to begin with.
Mine still do.
Yes my local ice cream trucks still play it.
I never thought about it but yes, it does play Turkey. I’m amazed ice cream trucks are still around at all! I have no idea what the lyrics are, in fact, I didn’t know it HAD lyrics!
[This is the sound of summer to me](https://youtu.be/7y5IP_e4oLY)
After some googling, it looks like there was nothing racist about the original song. That only came decades later when versions of it were specifically rewritten for minstrel shows.
So this is basically the equivalent of canceling pop music because Rucka Rucka Ali makes offensive covers of them.
The fact that they apparently got RZA to write a new song for them and that it sounds like the unholy union of an ice cream truck song and the kind of shit you hear blasting from a high school kid’s shitbox civic with the bass boosted is funny as fuck though.
I’ve never heard the name of the song or that it was based on a folk song until right now. Been a few years since I’ve seen an ice cream truck.
I didn’t even know that was the name of the song. But yes I still hear ice cream trucks playing it.
We never had ice cream trucks, sometimes there’d be a minivan with ice cream at local events, but it’d be parked. I don’t think there’s enough density around here to support an ice cream truck driving up and down the culs de sac.
Wait, since when did turkey in the straw become racist?
Can I get any song canceled if I just make up some racist lyrics to it and put it online?
Seems a bit much.
Real answer to your question is that I haven’t seen hide nor hair of an ice cream truck in years.
Yes they do. You need to listen to the original song then decide for yourself if it’s racist or not. people need to stop relying on social media to do the thinking for them.
Certain trucks do, yes. Mister Softee plays a different tune.
Real talk: I haven’t seen an ice cream truck in my neighborhood for ages. I always loved listening out for Turkey in the Straw too!
My local Ice Cream truck just had a bell. This wasn’t related to any controversy because this was over a decade ago
I’ve never seen an ice cream truck in my life lol. I thought the music thing wasn’t real.
Edit: typo
Yup. Every Sunday my local truck goes up and down the streets blaring the same tunes. Sometimes they change it up during the Christmas season.
Yeah they play it. Never heard the song called that though, I always just called it pop goes the weasel
Mine play a different one, but I don’t know it has a title.
The one I heard growing up just had a school bell on it, so it went “RIIIIIIIING!”
The ice cream trucks where I grew up just had a regular bell.
Never did, it was a tinkly sound, sort of soothing, not frantic like that song’s beat.
I couldn’t name the tune “Turkey in the Straw” if I heard it so I have no idea if ice cream trucks play it. They might play it, I just have never heard the name before and certainly don’t know any lyrics.
You guys still have ice cream trucks? Haven’t seen one in years. The only place I see one now is down at the waterfront in the summer, but they are like an actual ice cream truck serving ice cream from a local ice cream stand and don’t play music.
Ours always played “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” and I’ve seen some more recently that play something that I think is just called “The Ice Cream Truck Song”.
The one I remember hearing most was the ice cream truck that would come by when I was on family beach vacations. That ice cream truck played the entertainer by Scott Joplin.
Only 3 I ever hear are (in most popular order)
1) Turkey in the Straw
2) The Entertainer
3) Pop Goes the Weasel
Some do, there are a number of tunes that ice cream trucks can play. I think I hear Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” more often.
I didn’t realize that “Turkey in the straw” was the same as “ears hang low. The truck I remember from my childhood did play this song. I understood the lyrics to be about a basset hound with long ears lol.
The one in my neighborhood plays “teddy bear picnic”.
I’ve never heard of the song but our local ice cream van plays a song i don’t know the name of has the tune of the animaniacs state song.