Songs of Renown: I Eat Dinner (When the Hunger's Gone) by the McGarrigle Sisters

"I eat dinner at the kitchen table/
With my daughter who is thirteen/
We eat leftovers with mashed potatoes/
No more candlelight/
No more romance/
No more smalltalk/
When the hunger’s gone/"

Kate McGarrigle

On the 2013 tribute album to Kate McGarrigle titled Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle her son Rufus Wainwright  and Emmylou Harris perform a magnificent version of Kate McGarrigle's song I Eat Dinner (When the Hunger's Gone). 

The version is not available on You Tube but there are other versions of Rufus Wainwright singing his mother's stunning song about the heartbreak of love faded and replaced by the everyday responsibilities of parenting and domestic realities.

Kate McGarrigle's song is a magnificently intimate yet unfaltering glimpse of  family life in the face of  the decline and decay of a relationship.   

 The song originally appeared on the McGarrigles 1990 album Heartbeats Accelerating. 

 You can watch a clip of the song performed by Kate McGarrigle.

 I Eat Dinner (When The Hunger’s Gone)

(words and music: Kate McGarrigle/Garden court Music ASCAP

I eat dinner at the kitchen table
With my daughter who is thirteen
We eat leftovers with mashed potatoes
No more candlelight
No more romance
No more smalltalk
When the hunger’s gone

I eat dinner at the kitchen table
And I wash it down with pop
I eat leftovers with mashed potatoes
No more candlelight
No more romance
No more smalltalk
When the hunger stops
When the hunger stops

Never thought that I’d end up this way
I who loved the sparks
Never thought my hair’d be turning to grey
It used to be so dark
So dark

No more candlelight
No more romance
No more smalltalk
When the hunger’s gone
No more candlelight
No more romance
No more smalltalk
When the hunger’s gone
When the hunger’s gone

Never thought that I’d end up like this
I who loved the night
Never thought I’d be without a kiss
No one to turn off the light
Turn off the light

I eat dinner at the kitchen table
With my daughter who is thirteen
We eat leftovers with mashed potatoes
No more candlelight
No more romance
No more smalltalk
When the hunger’s gone

© 2010 Kate & Anna McGarrigle, All rights reserved.