Mungo Jerry

ILM of 2026 will have a haughty laugh over these naive posts prior to the days of the great Mungo Jerry critical reappraisal.

jug music will be genre of the year

if her daddy's rich, she may buy you a meal
assuming that she is also rich,
which is, we grant, an assumption
if her daddy's poor, she may also buy you a meal,
you really can't tell much about a person
by how rich their father is or isn't
dah dah-dah
dee-dah-do dee-dah-do dah-do-dah
dah-do-dah-dah-dah
dah-dah-dah do-dah-dah
in the summertime

http://static.fjcdn.com/gifs/Lisa_fc5288_601874.gif

If her daddie's rich
Take her out for a meal
If her daddie's poor
Just do as you feel

Fuck off, this song.

― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Monday, March 28, 2016 8:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yup, it's basically a crusin for rape anthem. I think we may have discussed in another thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYnBNbcU9i4

dude has probably paid his dues though. i feel like there isn't a waking, quiet moment of his life when the song isn't stuck in his head.

http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DoYnBNbcU9i4&start1=&video2=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dy7EpSirtf_E&start2=&authorName=Ayarkhaan+Enemy

mute the mungo jerry video for the full effect. or don't... just do as you feel

You guys should stay clear of Hasil Adkins.

I think they're trying to make words rhyme--my guess is they didn't put a great deal of thought into any deeper meaning, they didn't set out to write a song about rape, and they didn't know about the internet and message boards and 2016.

"just do as you feel" does not mean "rape her as you wish," guys

yup, it's basically a crusin for rape anthem.

what the hell is wrong with you?

If her daddy's rich, she may have been brought up to expect demonstrations of wealth as part of the courting process
If her daddy's poor, she will be suitably impressed with your wit, wooly visage, and fishnet t-shirt

^ probably violates the laws of HAHAHA RAP LYRICS BUT LIKE ALL STODGY AND PROPER ENGLISH AND SHIT

This song definitely suggests drink driving is a good idea.

How ye doing? I'm surviving
I was drinking earlier, now I'm driving

Half past 5 I'm in the pub
Six o'clock it's home for grub
Eight o'clock I'm back to the bar
Sod the walk I'll take the car

Everyone loves a good road beer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr3CfhveC2U

seeing this song as a rape anthem really requires some "sleep, that's where I'm a viking" leaps in logic

He says "you got women on your mind/ have a drink have a drive and go out and see what you can find." In that context "you can do what you feel" at best means "she'll be easy/a slut" and the way it's phrased makes it at least a little "rapey."

If her daddy's rich, she may have been brought up to expect demonstrations of wealth as part of the courting process
If her daddy's poor, she will be suitably impressed with your wit, wooly visage, and fishnet t-shirt

― how's life, Tuesday, 29 March 2016 11:50 (2 hours ago) Permalink

This seems like a naïve reading of a line in a song about getting drunk and crusin for tail ("courting"), but I guess it's possible.

"go out and see what you can find" means go out and have fun

it's possible for a man to go out and have fun — even with women! — without "cruisin for tail"

"go out and see what you can find" means go out and have fun

― ejemplo (crüt), Tuesday, March 29, 2016 9:07 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no

When the weather's fine
You got women, you got women on your mind
Have a drink, have a drive
Go out and see what you can find

I wouldn't worry too much, he's singing about the Britishes Summertime, so more likely to be sat inside staring at the four walls than out cruisin' for women or fun or anything much.

Cruisin for tail doesn't necessarily mean rape either though, although the "do as you feel" line is suspicious

p sure how's life just described why that line is fine

what sense would it even make

if daddy's rich, take her out for a good time
if daddy's poor, rape her

like what kind of equation is that even

this song is a manual on how to make a snuff film

It encompasses pretty commonplace sentiments about women from the time -- e.g. that buying a woman dinner entitles you to sex, and that "slutty" women were there for the taking. I guess I should be glad that young people are unaware of this today?

See, e.g., this: http://jezebel.com/5024340/if-her-daddys-rich-take-her-out-for-a-meal-if-her-daddys-poor-shell-probably-cut-your-nuts-out -- woman who was eight when the time understood the implications as an eight year old, and so did her mom.

They're just being dense/coy.

At the very least the song is saying that women from less affluent families deserve less respect.

This was the point I was trying to illustrate in my original post yesterday. Whether rape is the logical leap from this sanctioned classism is debatable, but the classist sentiment alone makes the song loathsome, imo.

I wouldn't really call it "classist" exactly, it's not like he's a Harvard MBA cruising in his BMW convertible on the way to a round of golf.

Nah, son of a guy who installed floors is clearly an total elite monster.

I hear it more as locker-room/streetcorner talk "These high class bitches, you have to buy them dinner before you fuck. But the poor ones you can just do what you want."

But then again maybe "you got women on your mind" just means "you are thinking about how you'd enjoy a picnic and some good conversation with a woman, maybe throw a Frisbee around."

kind of a weird binary to draw

lol okay man

man alive, you've got some angry feelings about meeting women. He's not complaining about having to spend money on a date with a wealthy girl. I think he enjoys both dinner with women and rambling around the countryside with them.

He's just taking note of the different protocols.

More importantly than any of this, did anyone post this over in the 'Horrible 70s album titles' thread yet? I can't face trawling through it to find out.

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/450/MI0001450475.jpg

Don't make this about man alive, how's life. The song is clearly sexist and classist. Working class men who disrespect women in their own communities don't get off the hook bc their dad installed floors.

I am usually the one arguing against having such a high bar of acceptability for old songs. But this song is gross.

discussion isn't about whether it's sexist, it's about whether it's rapey. which is obviously a component of sexism, but not all sexism is rapey

There is a kind of entitlement to his whole attitude. Do you thinj he would respect the boundaries of a girl whose "daddy's poor"? Perhaps, but I wouldn't bet on it.

To reiterate, since I started this whole thing, I was arguing that the song was definitely classist/sexist/entitled, and only possibly rapey.

what's gross about "just do what you feel" isn't that it's "rapey," it's that the total sentiment is "treat your date nicely if you think her father may have money. if not just do whatever, there's no need to treat a person to something unless you think there's some advantage in it for you later"

guys can we not have THIS VERY SERIOUS DISCUSSION ABOUT THE MUNGO JERRY SONG imo, it'd be possible to make our points while still being mindful that this thread is not really a meaningful front in any battle great or small

I just need to make sure that the people who are wrong know that they are wrong

^ new board description

^^^ board descrip lol xp!!!

also aerosmith otm

When the weather's fine, we go fishing or go swimming in the sea

I think this is my least favorite song in the history of the world

It's not good

I mean aside from the lyrical content of the song (which is awful) I hate the sound of the singer and the stupid groove of it

but his sideburns

A couple weeks ago I learned Shaggy recorded a cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW_MJRscgHE

I will never not love this song. (Not Shaggy.)

todd in the shadows did an episode on this tune for his "one hit wonderland" series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlguJc9veZo

like any good music commentary, it's a great watch whether you like the subject or not.

and, to be absolutely unclear: i still don't know what to think of this song. it's classic in the sense that everybody knows it. it's very divisive.

i like the gimmicky jug band feel. the polyrhythms are cool. it's really unique for a pop song!

but the... uhh, huh... uhm...

...right, the vocals.

not the best melody, either. memorable through repetition.

maybe this is the wrong way to appreciate music, however i have to say that maybe i ultimately might like this song because it's really good source material. in relentlessly making it the butt of so many jokes for so many years, i had to pay closer attention. and yeah: it's a neat little package of weird whimsical feeling.

all that to say, i still remember the first time i heard it and my initial reaction. i was eight, it was 1989. it was during summer vacation. i was riding in a car with a friend's family and it came on the radio when friend's mom said to friend's dad, "haha, this is a weird song. do you like it?" to which he responded literal LOLNO. very much "that was a good rhetorical question, you rascal!" energy.

and i definitely agreed with him.

The vocals are cool in this song?

Don't listen to Mungo Jerry while driving, kids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ma_Xv7rGM

Yeah, that was Ray Dorset "making amends" there.

Long thread!

Not much regarding "Baby Jump", the other No1 hit...

They had a 'hit' with a new song, 'Happy To Be', on Mike Read's Heritage Chart Show (if you know, you know) recently. The video is something to behold - Ray rictus grinning over green screen effects, mixed with the most stock of stock footage. The song itself sounds like something off pre-school kids' tv and the whole package gives outsider art vibes.

A friend of mine got animated to me, fifteen years ago, telling me how this was the worst song. It always seemed too innocuous to hate

i love this song unapologetically

This is the other song I saved when I downloaded their first album many years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkpDto1SN8c

If you hate "In the Summertime," you will hate that twice as much.

Everybody knows that John's a good looker,
He can get the girls, any one he wants, yeah!

"Looker" just sounds like "liquor"--no need to get agitated. The last line--"Clap your hands, jump and shout, lets have some fun, alright"--is the beginning, middle, and end of their wisdom.

Meant to say, it (and "Summertime") are very much "Cover of the Rolling Stone"/"Dead Skunk" period nonsense.

horrible song, it also evokes that godawful acapella part in “black water” by the doobiee bros. Nightmarish.

"Black Water," of course, the one Doobie Brothers song I like (the one Doobie Brothers song I don't hate, even).

ehh I've always had a strong liking for In the Summertime. I enjoy Terry Dactyl's Sea Side Shuffle more. I enjoy the Mixtures' Pushbike Song less. And there's yer trilogy of early 70s skiffle hits with stop-start endings.

I still hope to bump into the Mungo Jerry s/t with the 3D glasses while doing the charity shop/boot sale rounds. Mungo Jerry are an interesting bunch, ostensibly a bunch of smelly post-blues boom jazz clubbers who kept trying on different n strange bubblegum idioms for size in the pre-glam wilderness.

I knew this song from 4 seconds in a mid-70s K-tel advertisement that played over and over on afternoon UHF, more than hearing it on the radio. Those 4 seconds sounded really cool to me, and prepped me for great delight whenever I did hear the full song out in the wild.

honestly the reason i like this song is because i once had a roommate who would sing it but would replace the word “women” with “chicken” and so i still hear it that way and it makes me laugh my ass off