Or ... killing time in the off season.
You know that Mercury commercial on TV of late, the one with the gal with
the baby-lisp singing about "Gonna buy me a Mercuwy, and cwuise it up and
down da woad."
Well, I kinda like the ditty, had a nice jazzy lilt to it, and it's one of
those things that just echoes in your head all day, but I'd thought it
probably from the pen of some Ford ad agency's jingle writer.
About a year ago I acquired my dad's sizeable record collection and I am in
the midst of cataloguing it. Some 250 records into the set, I'm up to the
D's and just came across a singleton album by one K.C. Douglas -- "A
Dead-Beat Guitar and the Mississippi Blues" (subtitle: "street corner blues
'bout women and automobiles"). Now this is a recording on the Cook
Laboratories label -- one of those outfits that goes out and tapes ethnic
music and sounds, mostly of a scholarly research vein rather than mainstream
entertainment. (Another Cook album I have is train sounds -- ever wondered
what a Lackawanna diesel sounds like crossing a trestle on a rainy night? --
that type of stuff)
And there -- first song on side 2 -- was Mercury Blues. Yep, that same
ditty. This thing dates from the late '40s or early '50s (there's a line
that talks about a "Mercury 49"). Most of Douglas's songs are by other
people -- Mississippi John Hurt, Tommy Johnson, Son House -- but Mercury
Blues is by Douglas himself (with Robert Geddins)
Some internet research even shows Alan Jackson doing a version of it. But
kinda fun to hear this car song done "in the original."
--Rocky Entriken
If I had money, Tell you what I'd do
I'd go downtown and buy a Mercury or two
'Cause I'm crazy 'bout a Mercury
Yes, I'm crazy 'bout a Mercury-Fo'd
I'm gonna buy a Mercury
And cruise up and down the road
Well hey now mama, you look so fine
ridin' round in your Mercury 49
Cause I'm crazy 'bout a Mercury
Yes, I'm crazy 'bout a Mercury-Fo'd
I'm gonna buy a Mercury
And cruise up and down the road
Well the girl I love, I stole her from a friend
The fool got lucky, stole her back again
'Cause she heard he had a Mercury
Yeah, she's crazy 'bout a Mercury-Fo'd
I'm gonna buy a Mercury
And cruise up and down the road
Well my baby went out, She didn't stay long
Bought herself a Mercury, come a-cruisin' home
'Cause she's crazy 'bout a Mercury
Yeah she's crazy 'bout a Mercury-Fo'd
I'm gonna buy a Mercury
And cruise up and down the road
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