“Only two things that money can’t buy—that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes”
Guy Clark wrote the song “Homegrown Tomatoes” for the album Better Days (1983). The chorus of the song became well-known:
Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can’t buy
That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes.
Wikipedia: Guy Clark
Guy Charles Clark (born November 6, 1941) is a Grammy Award winning American Texas country and folk singer, musician, songwriter, recording artist, and performer. He has released more than twenty albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists including Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, and Rodney Crowell. Guy Clark won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album: My Favorite Picture Of You.
Clark was born in Monahans, Texas and eventually settled in Nashville, where he helped create the progressive country and outlaw country genres. His songs “L.A. Freeway” and “Desperados Waiting for a Train” that helped launch his career were covered by numerous performers.
Wikipedia: Better Days (Guy Clark album)
Better Days is an album by Texas singer-songwriter Guy Clark, released in 1983.
Track listing
All songs written by Guy Clark except as noted.
1. “Blowin’ Like a Bandit” – 2:40
2. “Better Days” – 3:05
3. “Homegrown Tomatoes” – 2:59
1 August 1983, Morning Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), “Nothing like a home-grown tomato” by Lewis Grizzard, pg. 7-B, col. 5:
Somebody recently wrote a song titled “Home-Grown Tomatoes,” and it currently is climbing music charts all over the country. The best line of the song goes, “Ain’t but two things in this whole world money can’t buy, and that’s true love and home-grown tomatoes.”
Google Books
Honeysuckle, Creosote, and Trainsmoke
By William O. Cook
San Francisco, CA: Mercury House
1990
Pg. 53:
There was a well-known saying around Dixie Roads that went like this: “There are two things money can’t buy One is true love, and the other homegrown tomatoes.”
Google Books
Life by the Numbers:
Quotations You Can Count On
By David Jouris
Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Pub.
2001
Pg. 92:
There’s only two things that money can’t buy — that’s true love and home-grown tomatoes. — GUY CLARK
YouTube
Guy Clark - Homegrown Tomatoes
yipstube
Uploaded on Dec 20, 2008
I wish I had this in better quality, but the performance is worth sharing.
Lyrics (‘cause I know you’ll want to sing along!) ...
(...)
Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can’t buy
That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes
Food Republic
Apr 3, 2014 11:30 am
On A “Super-Deep” Old Saying With Regards To Tomatoes
Only 80 or so days til tomato season. Patience.
BY JESS KAPADIA
Last night, a friend told me something his grandfather used to say, a borrowed lyric from a song by country music singer Guy Clark. “There are only two things that money can’t buy/And that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.”