Song of the Day 8/22: Crabmeat Thompson, “Small Wonder”
Readers of the News Journal might not know this, but Delaware folksinger and raconteur Jerry “Crabmeat” Thompson died in June. I first heard this from friends who saw it on social media, but the only obituary I could find ran a month later in the Middletown Transcript.
Back in the days when I worked the obit desk we kept a file of “glory” obits — people notable enough to deserve a headline story on their passing — that were prepared before a person’s death. Given how much ink Crabmeat got from columnist Al Cartwright alone, there must be a clip file on the guy who, after all, wrote the unofficial state song. This is not the official version — the stuff about the DuPonts wouldn’t fly with the state tourism folks who came up with the slogan — but it does give you an idea of both his stream-of-consciousness wit and his political leanings.
Crabmeat Thompson was a very bright person who loved singing songs for people. He was literate, irreverent and very funny. Crabmeat’s song subjects included poodles from hell, big foot and partying vegetables. He had a great singing voice and decent guitar chops. He was fluent in Spanish. He ran for the U.S. presidency once. He was treasure and Delaware is poorer for his demise.
I backed him up on the upright many times and always had fun. I will miss that.
Thanks a million for the tune and the obit, which told me a lot more about Crabmeat than I knew, and I thought I knew him pretty well. Last saw him performing a couple of times with the Crabmeat Thompson Band at the St. Georges Country Store pre-pandemic. He served up several of his own creations, along with some kick-ass blues with the help of the late, excellent Dale Dallabrida. (Along with a couple of other fine musicians whose names I can’t recall.)