Beans Taste Fine
Beans Taste Fine - meaning Summary
Taste for Simpler Pleasures
This playful, conversational poem observes how people’s tastes and priorities shift over time. Two formerly successful friends adopt simpler habits and companionships despite wealth or glamorous marriages. The speaker records their ironic explanations that after prolonged luxury one comes to prefer humbler pleasures. The poem compresses urban scenes and social irony into a repeated refrain that emphasizes human change and the settling of desires.
Read Complete AnalysesNow a friend of mine, way back in Chicago You know, he finally made his pile. Well he got himself a mansion on Butler and Sheff An' he was livin' in the latest style; But I run into him, he was eatin' in a greasy spoon While parkled in front was his big limousine. I said, 'Buddy, you've got so much money How come youre in here, eatin' beans?' An' he said 'After you've been havin' steak for a long time, Beans, beans taste fine. An' after you've been drinkin' champagne and brandy You gonna settle for wine.' He said 'The world is funny, and people are strange, And man is a creature of constant change, and After you've been havin' steak for a long time Beans, beans taste fine.' Now, you know I ran into another friend of mine In a rowdy old Clark Street Bar. I said, 'Friend, is it true what I heard about you? I heard you married a beautiful 18-year-old shapely movie star, Yet here you sit, tryin' to make out with some barfly Who's too old and ugly to be true.' He said, 'Shelley, you're still a very young man So sit down. I'll explain it all to you. He said 'After you've been havin' steak for a long time Beans, beans taste fine. An' after you've been drinkin' champagne and Chivas Regal You gonna settle for Thunderbird wine.' He said 'The world is funny, and people are strange, And man is a creature of constant change, and After you've been havin' steak for a long time Beans, beans taste fine.'
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