Mungo Jerry

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

Have we arrested Mungo Jerry yet?

UK has no Statute of Limitations so arrest is still possible.

New board description, new me description

Yeah, I changed the board description, but I'm retitling this the "thread of not making it good in a lay-by".

hero

*turn on computer*
*mungo jerry - 60 new answers*
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t52/Brakeweight/blam.gif

Haven't you heard? He just dropped the album of the year.

From SongFacts:

This buoyant tune was written by Ray Dorset, who was the group's lead singer and guitarist. He penned the song in 1968 when he was working for Timex in the UK - his band was just getting started and music was more of a hobby at the time. Dorset says that the famous melody just popped into his head one day, and the next day he wrote the lyrics very quickly.

"It's got no chorus; all it's got is a melody that goes over and over again with a set of lyrics that conjure up a celebration of life," he said. "Especially if you're a young person: it's a great day, you've managed to get a car - preferably with the top off - you're cruising around, and if you're a guy you're picking up girls."

The American appeal of this song can be attributed to the lyrical inspiration: American beach movies that lead singer Ray Dorset grew up watching. "That was the teenage dream," he said. "What more can you want?"

oh when this was all we argued about

Read recently that the band name came from the book that Cats was taken from.
Haven't seen the film so not sure if the cat of that name appears.

Ugly bunch of fuckers

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/mOR3Pv3bi4B4bLl3-Ijps8LRVWTctJbXI_K16Abjud4oIXoxN8K4H4bLihIRm3IqesBebmGFVVmNRCKffdRcJ7J4_QrazF1Gg_a-9GvRa-TDKbbnX8o30f7ZBNAXwWUMiXrVyP1JbfmXoGADx_z6irl7uSyHZrjaIczd

70s ugly though.

In 2016, Dorset said that he had suffered from irritable bowel syndrome for over 45 years, partly blaming the "rock ’n’ roll lifestyle" that he enjoyed after the success of "In the Summertime".

karma

Drink mint tea, fool

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Dorset#Later_disputes

In 2012, Dorset sued his former management company Associated Music International (AMI), run by his former friend and business manager Eliot Cohen, claiming over £2 million in royalties from the song that he believed had been withheld from him. During the course of the proceedings Dorset denied harassing his ex-manager by singing in an "antisemitic" video entitled "Nail that Snail."

https://www.frontlinepress.org/2023/08/in-the-summertime-hitmaker-mungo-jerry-rescued-at-sea-by-rnli/

afaik Ray Dorset was never known as Mungo Jerry, that was the name of the band. Maybe he's given in and let everyone think that's his name now? I expect Ian Anderson to officially change his name to Jethro Tull now too.

When I was selling off a collection a few years back there were approximately 50 MJ & related releases in there, I was stunned that many existed.

Plus points I guess for not being racist about asylum seekers though

Amazing. He had a drink, he had a drive, he went out to see what he could find. Nothing--he got lost.

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.