Mudhoney – Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (1991)
[Album 397/1001]
If the album title sounds familiar, chances are you’ve played a treble clef instrument.
The 5 lines on the staff represent the notes E-G-B-D-F, the mnemonic Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge makes it easier to remember.
I realized this week that the band name, Mudhoney, provides another rudimentary music lesson.
How do you make effective “grunge” music? Mud + Honey.
Combine dirt and delicious hooks in the right ratio, you’ve got a winning record.
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Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge by Mudhoney might be the most aptly named record on the list thus far. For at least 2 reasons:
1. Much like music theory begins with learning E-G-B-D-F, Mudhoney set the bar for Seattle bands to follow. Those who learn the theoretical basics often move on to bigger & better things, the same is true for the bands Mudhoney inspired.
2. Perhaps in part it was early in the era, at this stage, Mudhoney hadn’t quite perfected the mud + honey formula. The distortion appears in suitable proportions but at this stage, the sweet hooks aren’t yet fully developed.
One could argue that if the recipe’s too sweet, you lose the audience. But without the sweetness, was the audience hooked in the first place?
1001albumsin10years 
You know, this is one of the bands from the book I have never heard a single song by. Seems like I didn’t miss much?
I think it likely falls under the more ‘contextually important’ than ‘stand-alone enjoyable’ category – not bad, but nothing radically different from the other sounds of early 90s Seattle
I’m actually quite surprised by this one’s inclusion in the 1001. Perhaps a timing thing, though – the ‘grunge explosion’ and all. I think they’d mastered the mud + honey formula for My Brother the Cow.
Nice to hear they eventually achieved the winning formula in their name!
Before the project, I hadn’t realized a couple of these guys had been in a group named green river with a couple guys from Pearl Jam.
Interestingly, Mudhoney has 2 on the list (this and superfuzz) but their pals in Pearl Jam only have 1 (ten).
And as we discussed recently on your site J, a couple more of those 90s Pearl Jam records would certainly be considered essential listening before dying!
Yeah – Green River had one album, though I haven’t heard it. One that has been on my list to check out for a very long time (the longest).
It’s rather strange that Ten is the only Pearl Jam album on there. Would definitely seem to be based on the timing of the ‘grunge explosion’ thing if those two Mudhoney albums feature.
I’m very keen to pick up one of these books, but I’ve been enjoying the ‘reveal’ here – might need to wait till you’ve wrapped up the 1001. Ha!
Haha, as long as you don’t mind waiting 6 years or so for the full list reveal here, thanks J!
Ach, 6 years is nothing – I waited 15 for Chinese Democracy! 😉
I was going to quote all we need is just a little patience but you beat me to an Axl reference, well played!
In a deft demonstration of reinforcing gender stereotypes, the mnemonic was Every Good Boy Deserves Football.
Oh, the 80s.
Mudhoney are kind of on the outer edge of the grunge music I like. I don’t remember this album at all, but I remember some of their later stuff being quite excellent.
Check out the song “Right Turn” by Alice Mudgarden.
That sounds just like they compound band name! Hadn’t heard that tune before – appropriate name too, given the expression “left turn” would indicate someone veering off in an unusual direction, a “right turn” should indicate going the more familiar path.
Seattle tunes tended to work nicely as acoustic numbers
Never heard a song by Mudhoney. I knew they existed from a t-shirt someone wore in the movie Singles. lol
I love band tees in movies – I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve been told Dan Akroyd wears a hip shirt in Sneakers, that alone made me put it on my ‘to-see’ list!
I’m not super familiar with this band either and it’s definitely not an album on my shelf. I do know EGBDF and always wondered where that dated from because Fudge? Really?
I’ve heard Fun & football used for the “F” as well in early theory lessons
Ah Mudhoney, that takes me back… not to when they were popular (I was a jazz kid then) but to when I finally dicscovered grunge (and then metal and punk) waaaay too late to be a cool kid. Anyway, I’m with J. on this one – it oughta probably have been My Brother The Cow. Ah well. Still, it’s true I don’t know this one as well, and if I ever see a copy I’ll snag it, see what the fuss is about!
I’d say if it’s in the bargain bin, worth a look. I wouldn’t pay retail for it though!