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Watch out, Weird Al, there's a new kid on the block.
Carl Winter, director of the UC Davis FoodSafe program,
is once again borrowing tunes of popular songs and incorporating
his own food safe lyrics.
Unlike his Yankovic counterpart, whose primary goal is to entertain,
there is a message beneath Winter's words.
"It's not just a gimmick. It's an educational tool," he said.
An expert in food safety, Winter's CD is now used in some middle school
classrooms and some food service and food processing companies as an
entertaining way to educate students and employees in the art of food safety.
His latest works are compiled in a CD titled "Sanitized for Your
Consumption."
If people remember the general message better through his work,
Winter is a happy man.
"Everybody's looking for something different that will reinforce
the general message they're trying to get through," he said.
Winter has played songs for students in the classes he teaches, and
they seemed to enjoy the alternative form of education. This shows
Winter how useful non-traditional methods of education can be.
In addition to research, Winter teaches UC Extension courses at UCD
and informs various constituents about both the risks and benefits of different foods.
Borrowing the tune "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
from Marvin Gaye, Winter's song "I Sprayed It On the Grapevine,"
explains the need for insecticides.
Here's the chorus:
"I sprayed it on the grapevine/Pretty soon those bugs will be dyin'/Oh I
sprayed it on the grapevine/'Cause if I didn't there'd be no grapes for wine."
Proving his spoofing breadth, Winter managed to form lyrics from Queen's
"We Will Rock You."
"Buddy, you're a young man, dumb man, careless/And you're gonna
make someone quite sick someday/You got spores on your plate/They'll incubate/There's
trouble if you cross contaminate/Microbes, they might kill you."
These are the tunes and lyrics thousands of people have seen on his Web page,
foodsafe.ucdavis.edu. After seeing his Web page and sampling some of Winter's
food safety songs, educators and food processing companies have obtained copies
to play for their students and employees. To learn how to obtain a copy of his CD,
check out the Web site.
All this began a few years ago when Winter bought a synthesizer and began
dabbling in lyrical changes.
"It's a nice merger of an old hobby and my professional activities,"
he said.
In 1998, he compiled his first CD titled "A Hearty Helping of Food Follies and
Science Serenades."
Ellen Hopmans, a professor of food chemistry who has worked closely with Winter,
was first exposed to his musical talents when his first CD came out. While Hopmans
appreciates Winter's creative verse, she is less than enthusiastic over his voice.
"His singing could use a little touch-up here and there, but his lyrics are
the strong point," she said.
Also intended to raise awareness on food safety issues, Winter said his first
effort included a lot of inside jokes only food safety people could understand.
His most recent CD is more accessible to a general audience, he said.
But Winter's future is even more unusual than the songs he creates. This year,
he will tour various food safety institutions around the United States, performing
his music and speaking to local experts. His tour schedule includes St. Louis,
Atlanta and New York.
"I'm flabbergasted at how it's taken off," Winter said.
Already the 41-year-old family man has been featured on a Chicago morning show,
the Los Angeles Times, and a Swedish newspaper.
Alas, all good things come to an end. Winter said there probably won't be another
food safety CD in the near future.
"I'm out of ideas," he admitted. "It has been a nice run,
though."
Winter plans on pursuing an educational direction in music, writing songs for
children in his spare time.
On the professional front, he wants to give songs a rest. Sometimes people
take him less seriously as a scientist because all they want to do is talk about his music.
"Something's wrong with this picture" when that happens, Winter said.
To hear a brand new version of "Living La Vida Loca"
visit foodsafe.ucdavis.edu and download Winter's "Beware La Vaca Loca,"
a spoof on mad cow disease.
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