June 22, 2018 Friday)
Yesterday’s blog celebrated the first day of summer with the song, “Summertime,” sung by Ella Fitzgerald. The lyrics declared summer to be that time when “the livin’ is easy.” So it seems perfectly natural to choose companion song for the day after. I choose “Lazybones,” by Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael.
(from Wikipedia):
According to Hoagy Carmichael, in an interview, Johnny Mercer came into Carmichael’s apartment in New York one day and saw Hoagy “snoozin'” on his couch. Mercer said, “Hoag, I’m gonna write a song called ‘Lazy Bones’.” Carmichael said, “Well, let’s get at it.” They went over to Hoagy’s piano, Johnny said the first line and Hoagy started playing a melody. The song was done in twenty minutes.
Mercer was a southern boy from Savannah, Georgia, and resented the Tin Pan Alley attitude of rejecting southern regional vernacular in favor of artificial southern songs written by people who had never been to the South. Alex Wilder attributes much of the popularity of this song to Mercer’s perfect regional lyric.
He wrote the lyrics to “Lazybones” as a protest against those artificial “Dixies”, announcing the song’s authenticity at the start with “Long as there is chicken gravy on your rice”.”
When I hear this song, I picture a boy about 12 years old, lying in the shade of tree next to a pond, and he has a fishing line tied to his big toe as he snoozes beneath his well worn straw hat.
Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael
1933 (revival in 1971)
Lazy bones, sleepin’ in the sun
How you ‘xpect to get your day’s work done?
Never get your day’s work done
Sleepin’ in the noon day sun
Now, lazy bones, sleepin’ in the shade
How you expect to get your corn meal made?
You’ll never get your corn meal made
Just sleepin’ in the evening shade
When tainers need sprayin’, I bet you keep prayin’
The bugs’ll fall off the vine
And when you go fishin’ I bet you keep wishin’
The fish won’t grab your line
Now, lazy bones, loafin’ through the day
How you ‘xpect to make a dime that way?
You’ll never make a dime that way
Never heard a word I say
Now when tainers need sprayin’, I bet you keep prayin’
That the bugs’ll fall off the vine
And when you go fishin’ I bet you keep wishin’
That the cat fish drops your line
Lazy bones, loafin’ through the day
How you ‘xpect to get a dime that way?
You’ll never make a dime that way
Now look here, never heard a word I say.