Johnny Mercer Birthday Celebration - Day Two

We're celebrating the birthday of Savannah's Johnny Mercer this week. This is the second of seven installments.

That chorus girl was Ginger Meehan. They married in 1931 after Johnny secured a staff job writing lyrics. The following year, his persistent work paid off when he partnered with Hoagy Carmichael, already well-known for his sensational song, Stardust. After several months, the collaboration produced Lazybones, Mercer's first hit song. It was full of black dialect and all the stereotypical perceptions of the day. Here's Carmichael, a folksy singer in his own right, putting his special style to work in an equally stereotypical vignette:




Lazybones

words and music by Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael

Lazybones, Sleepin' in the sun,
How you "spec" to get your day's work done?
Never get your day's work done,
Sleepin; in the noonday sun.

Lazybones, sleepin' in the shade,
How you "spec" to get your corn meal made?
Never get your corn meal made
Sleepin' in the evenin' shade.

When 'taters need sprayin',
I bet you keep prayin'
The bugs fall off of the vine
And when you go fishin'
I bet you keep wishin'
The fish won't grab at your line.

Lazybones, loafin' through the day,
How you 'spec' to make a dime that way?
Never make a dime that way
(Well looky hear,)
He never heared a word I say!

The New York music industry was in transition - thanks, in part, to the film industry - and Mercer's prospects there cooled. He made a trip to Hollywood and met his old friend, Bing Crosby, who had already made the transition to the West. By 1935, Mercer was in Hollywood struggling a bit until Crosby sang a Mercer song in one of his films. That song was I'm An Old Cowhand. Here's the Crooner with the song:




I'm An Old Cowhand

words and music by Johnny Mercer

I'm and old cowhand
From the Rio Grande,
But my legs ain't bowed
And my cheeks ain't tanned.
I'm a cowboy who never saw a cow,
Never roped a steer 'cause I don't know how,
And I sure ain't fixin' to start in now.
Yippy I O Ki Ay,
Yippy I O Ki Ay.

. . .

And I learned to ride
'Fore I learned to stand,
I'm a ridin' fool who is up to date,
I know ev'ry trail in the Lone Star State,
'Cause I ride the range in a Ford V-Eight

. . .

And I come to town
Just to hear the band,
I know all the songs that the cowboys know,
'Bout the big corral where the doagies go,
'Cause I learned them all on the radio.

. . .

Where the West is wild
'Round the borderland,
Where the buffalo roam around the Zoo,
And the Indians make you a rug or two,
And the old Bar X is a Bar B Q.
Yippy I O Ki Ay,
Yippy I O Ki Ay.


I think Mercer came into perfect form with this one. It made him famous - with a little help from his pal - and in great demand. More tomorrow.