Follow-up file: Pop-Ramen, Noonan and the Rah-Men

Last week’s edition brought you advice on what to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers (here’s our advice on what to do with those leftovers this week: COMPOST THEM), and it included the chorus to a song about Ramen Noodles that we once heard on an alternative radio station in another state:

Ramen Noodles
Must be made in heaven
For nary a dollar
I can buy me seven

Well, it turns out that both the writer of those lyrics and the musician who recorded them both lived here in the Lowcountry.

Here's the extended story...

Columnist, philosopher and stand-up comedian Tom “Noonan” Werner (Noonan was his stage name) of the Isle of Palms first published An Ode to Ramen Noodles 10 or 12 years ago in his “Rude, Crude, Guy Food” column in Charleston’s Free Time newspaper. He describes the column as something that would be equally at home in both the bathroom and the kitchen.

A local musician named Allen “Alpo” Porche approached Werner about setting the lyrics to a reggae beat. One thing led to another and the track (which also featured Teddy Prause, these days the guitarist for Steve Carroll and the Bograts, and Noonan/Werner giving a "spoken-word" commentary) headlined the self-produced Pop Ramen EP by “Noonan and the Rah-Men.”

Anyway, Prause noticed the chorus in last week’s paper, and — ta da! — mystery solved. We wound up on the phone with Noonan/Werner, trying unravel/remember the history of the Ode to Ramen Noodles lyric, the recording, the musicians, and whatever happened to all that time.

Also mysterious: I remember hearing part of the song on a public radio station in another state, which seemed like news to Tom. The record never had a label and didn't get airplay. He was certainly surprised that I'd heard it in North Carolina -- so surprised, in fact, that ever since then I've been trying to figure out if my memory is playing tricks on me. Thing is, I can't imagine where else I might have heard it.

Back in those days, Tom was working on an idea called "Broke and Brilliant," and you can still find some of it online (another chunk was lost in a computer crash), and the Ramen song fits into that theme nicely.

Today he goes by Tom Werner professionally in his work with a flooring company called Charleston One Source (the Environmentally Friendly Wood Specialists) and even has real business cards that he hands out.  So it looks like he's moving up in the world.

But I feel for the guy. As he put it when he dropped by the audio file for this post:

TOM: "You know that thing about how if your work touches just one person, it was worth it?"

DAN: "Yeah?"

TOM: "I'm not feeling that so much right now."

Because I'd hate that too. I'm not exactly the prize in anyone's box of Cracker Jacks.

Anyway, here's your Ramen Noodles song. Enjoy. And if you like it, tell Tom. He could probably use a few more fans.