Genius: Johnny Mercer 1909-76

"Lazy Bones"

"Too Marvelous for Words"

"I Thought About You"

"Blues In The Night"

"That Old Black Magic"

"One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)"

"Laura"

"Come Rain Or Come Shine"

"Autumn Leaves"

"Moon River"

"Days of Wine and Roses"

And so, on and on and on, a seemingly endless torrent of unforgettable songs, lyrics and poetry produced by a genius who summed up an entire era in America and expressed the thoughts, hopes, loves and woes of English-speaking peoples everywhere.  I have been prodded into this post by last night's programme on BBC4 which, over the course of this week, is celebrating The Great American Song Book. 

Whilst I have been a long-time admirer of many of his songs I knew very little about Mercer the man.  He was born into Georgia gentry with a distinguished family line going back to the War of Independence.  His father was a victim of the 1929 crash and young Johnny was forced to get out and earn a crust.  He went to New York besotted with the 'new age' music of his time and very quickly earned a reputation as a singer/song writer.  Whilst there he married a young dancer but only told his family after the event, not least, one supposes, because she was Jewish and the family might not have approved. With judicious good luck he left New York for Hollywood just in time to catch the coming wave of film musicals and from that point on it was success all the way.  He made a fortune by setting up Capital Records but used much of the money he made to pay off the debts his father had incurred earlier.  He met and fell deeply in love with the young Judy Garland.  You can hardly blame him when you see pictures of her as a young woman with those wide, child-like eyes and those vulnerable, trembling lips.  Friends intervened and put an end to the affair to save his marriage but he remained in love with her for the rest of his life.  Alas, later in life he tended to hit the bottle and became well-known for the huge apologetic bouquets of flowers which would arrive the morning after!

On the whole, from what one could gather from this film summary of his life, a good man but above all, a genius.  Here is, perhaps, his most famous lyric:

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end--
waiting 'round the bend,
my huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.

ADDITIONAL: I cannot listen to "One for my Baby (and One More for the Road)" without instantly thinking of Hopper's famous painting:

Its quarter to three,
There's no one in the place cept you and me
So set em up joe
I got a little story I think you oughtta know

Were drinking my friend
To the end of a brief episode
So make it one for my baby
And one more for the road

I know the routine
Put another nickel in that there machine
Im feeling so bad
Wont you make the music easy and sad

I could tell you a lot
But you gotta to be true to your code
So make it one for my baby
And one more for the road

Youd never know it
But buddy Im a kind of poet
And Ive got a lot of things I wanna say
And if Im gloomy, please listen to me
Till it's all, all talked away

Well, that's how it goes
And joe I know you're gettin anxious to close
So thanks for the cheer
I hope you didn't mind
My bending your ear

But this torch that I found
Its gotta be drowned
Or it soon might explode
So make it one for my baby
And one more for the road

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[ortega]

I was watching the program too. A good one. I also learned quite a lot.
I didn't know the lyrics of the song 'I remember you' were about Garland. It is a great song. It ends like that:

When my life is through,
And the angels ask me to recall
The thrill of them all,
Then I shall tell them
I remember you.

Tonight another program about Nat Cole. I won't miss it.

[Dom]

What I like about "Moon River" is that it seems so meaningful, but you're never certain what the meaning is. "Huckleberry Friend" ... is it supposed to conjure up Huck Finn and his own trip down the river, or the huckleberry growing by the banks of a river? You want to say, "Perfect, spot-on choice of words", but you never really know what it means.

[David Duff]

Ortega, what a song! What a woman!

Dom, I suppose like the great poet that he was he had that genius to pick a phrase that resonates on different levels. Incidentally, I have added a thought up above on the sonng "One for my Baby" which instantly makes me think of Hopper's great painting of lonely metropolitan life.

[dearieme]

Moonriver is terrible tripe, David.
"One for my Baby (and One More for the Road)" is better, I'll grant you.

But compared to Gershwin, Cole Porter, Berlin, Rogers and Hart, he ain't close to being Premier League.

As for Nat King Cole - very attracive jazz pianist, but what an sugary popular singer he was. Still, that's where the money was.

[Dom]

Do you think the lyrics or the melody is trite? The melody is by Mancini, who preferred simple pop songs that were ear-catching as soon as you heard them, like Pink Panther.

Personally, I like both lyrics and melody, and I like the way it pops up in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Mercer holds his own with (Ira) Gershwin, but Cole Porter is in a class all his own. "Flying too high with some guy in the sky is my idea of nothing to do". Can't beat all the "i" sounds in that line.

[David Duff]

Your "tripe" is my caviar, 'DM'! Without detracting from that long list of superb composers, any song writer who can make up a lyric like this:

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

Deserves an accolade. Similarly, a lyric with this tricky title:

On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.

I'd put him up there with the very best wordsmiths of his era.
Actually, watching that programme reminded me of what a superb lounge-singer Nat King Cole was. True he is rather 'samey' but I could listen to him for a long time. No-one, of coure, gets close to the later Sinatra.

Anyway, thank God for the 'Great American Song Book' in all its guises.

[Blognor Regis]

I enjoyed the programme greatly too. A good season all around.

I was amazed how many lyrics we all know so well came from the pen of just the one man.

Julie London's is my favourite "One more for the road." Not I am familiar with them all.

[David Duff]

I don't know them all, either, but I think I would vote for Sinatra's - but then I'd probably vote for Sinatra's everything!