Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)

Subject: Mongo Jerry's
From:
Date: 17 Nov 97 - 10:45 AM

Does anyone have the words to "In the Summertime" by Mongo Jerry. I think it was written in the late 60's or early 70's.

Thanks,

Todd

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's
From: Harald
Date: 17 Nov 97 - 10:48 AM

You should find it under Mungo Jerry or under R.Dorset. It´s from the late sixties, as far as I´m concerned.

Subject: Lyr Add: IN THE SUMMERTIME (Ray Dorset/Mungo Jerry
From:
Date: 17 Nov 97 - 11:02 AM

In the Summertime

In the summertime when the weather is high
you can stretch right up and touch the sky.
When the weather is fine you got women, you got women on your mind.

Have a drink, have a drive, go out and see what you can find.

If her daddy's rich, take her out for a meal.
If her daddy's poor, just do as you feel.
Speed along the lane, do a ton or a ton and twenty-five.
When the sun goes down, you can make it, make it good in a lay-by.

We're not grey people, we're not dirty, we're not mean.
We love ev'rybody, but we do as you please.
When the weather is fine, we go fidhing or go swimming in the sea.
We're always happy. Life's for living, yeah! that's your philosophy.

When the winter is here, yeah- it's party-time.
Bring a bottle, wear your bright clothes, it'll soon be summertime.
And we'll sing again, we'll do driving or maybe we'll settle down.
If she's rich, if she's nice bring your friends and we'll all go into town.

Sing along with us, doo-be-da-da-doo...

That should it be.
Greetings, Harald

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's
From: Earl
Date: 17 Nov 97 - 12:04 PM

I was trying to get the words off the record last summer but I was stumped by these lines:

Speed along the lane, do a ton or a ton and twenty-five.
When the sun goes down, you can make it, make it good in a lay-by.

Are these correct or just a "best guess"? If they are correct what do they mean?

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's
From: Jon W.
Date: 17 Nov 97 - 12:13 PM

I remember this song well but never had the record. It definitely was on the radio in either '70 or '71.

Would a "lay-by" be a cheap motel or a rest stop or something? And where was this song from? Jamaica? Australia?

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's
From: alison
Date: 17 Nov 97 - 04:26 PM

Hi,

A Lay-by is an area where you can pull off the road for a rest, at least that's what it is in Ireland and the UK.

They are often found beside a nice bit of scenery.

slainte

Alison

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's
From: Helen
Date: 17 Nov 97 - 06:07 PM

They were a UK band.

I cringe now when I hear the lines:

If her daddy's rich, take her out for a meal. If her daddy's poor, just do as you feel.

I never liked them when I first heard the song, and I like them even less in the PC-90's (PC = politically correct).

Helen

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's
From:
Date: 17 Nov 97 - 07:19 PM

Tsk, tsk. And he drinks and drives too, and at such speeds!

Yes, the term "lay-by" is not often used over here, but it seems an appropriate choice for this song. (We just call them "rest stops") Wasn't some famous actress involved in an embarrassing situation on an English lay-by?

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 18 Nov 97 - 03:42 AM

Ye Gads... The fishy old things we find at the Mudcat. Helen, like you I had always thought that lyric revolting, but now that we're in the P.C. 90's......I kinda like it.

Remember 'Nuke The Whales'?

Frank.

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 18 Nov 97 - 04:27 AM

I presume "ton" doesn't need explaining - before we went metric it meant 100 miles/hr.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's
From: alison
Date: 18 Nov 97 - 04:27 PM

Hi Tim,

They never made it to the lay-by........it was while driving up the motorway!!!!

Slainte

Alison

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 18 Nov 97 - 10:59 PM

Thanks for the "ton", Alan. I've never heard that expression.

The spelling of the band's name was "Mungo Jerry" (which helps if you're searching for the lyrics). Named after "Mungojerrie", a character in T. S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats".

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 03:52 AM

I was looking for this on the 'net (the BBC has been using the song to advertise their summer programmes), and I found three or four different versions The most common one is by somebody called "Shaggy", and is more or less surreal; I suspect it's about 85% mondegreens! E.g.: "With a fat beat, when her Daddy with a me" for "We're not grey ...". Most of the versions are (I guess) copies of the original mistyped nonsense, and are attributed to "Jerry Mungo"! It's so un-pc that it's quite safe to sing nowadays: I reckon it's a historical document. I'd forgotten the days when ther was no national speed limit (60/70 mph) and you could go as fast as you liked; and when it was acceptable to drive to the pub (and back).

Steve

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: charles atlas
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 04:54 AM

Mungo Jerry's In The Summertime was released in 1970

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 05:09 AM

I like to think of myself as a respectable law-abiding individual, but it's interesting how 99% of the recreational activities of my childhood and youth are illegal or at least banned by some authority or other.

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 05:21 AM

Greg, do you know a Lilly Morris song called It's ilegal, it's immoral or it makes you fat?

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: songs2play
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 06:40 AM

Jerry, doing a "ton" i.e. 100 miles per hour or even "a ton and 25" i.e. 125 miles per hour means something completely different to the phrase - "an elephant has just done a ton on the road". MMMMMMMMMMMM

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: mick jagger
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 06:51 AM

I think Janis Joplin's version was the best!

Subject: RE: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 05:25 PM

This was the first song I performed in public. Ray Dorset said the line 'just do as you please' had no intended or implied 'meaning' and was there primarily to get the rhyme ... Honi soit qui mal y pense

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: GUEST,Memphis Chick
Date: 22 Aug 03 - 05:47 PM

Is Janis Joplin's version of "In The Summertime" on any of her albums?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: michaelr
Date: 22 Aug 03 - 07:17 PM

Gosh, this brings up memories of the first outdoor rock show I attended. It must have been in 1970, and my aunt was along as chaperone. Mungo Jerry played (that song was the big summer hit of the year), along with a very cool band called Steamhammer (anyone remember them?) and the headliner was Savoy Brown.

Footnote: Now I finally know the meaning of "the ton" which has puzzled me in the song "The Widow's Promise": "with a bit more application we can make it to the ton."

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: Peg
Date: 23 Aug 03 - 04:28 PM

um, I   think our   friend Mick Jagger meant Joplin's version   of "Summertime", as in the Gershwin song from Porgy and Bess, and not   this   one...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: alanabit
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 03:58 AM

I know Steamhammer alright Michael. One of my favourite blues songs ever is "Junior's Wailing", which has four lines of banal lyric over a simple A minor riff. Somehow they make it mean something. Of that band, Martin Quintetton, the rhythm guitarist went on to write "Maggie May" and "You Wear It Well" with Rod Stewart. I don't know anything else about the rest of them except that the guitarist Martin Pugh went to live and work in California.
   The Savoy Brown Blues Band was one of the finest UK blues bands I ever saw. I'll bet Roger the Skiffler could tell you a bit more about them.
   I always liked Mungo Jerry too. You can't stay miserable for too long when you listen to some cheerful nutter singing "Somebody Stole My Wife."
   And Peg, I'll bet you are right about the Joplin recording!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: michaelr
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 02:34 PM

That's great, Alan! I specifically remember a Steamhammer song called "Riding on the L&N" (I think). Brit blues at its best! Thanks for the info on the two Martins. I wish I could find one or two of their old records... fat chance here in the US.

There were a couple of contemporary UK bands that I liked at the time: May Blitz and Bakerloo. Do you know of them?

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
From: alanabit
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 03:15 PM

You are welcome Micahael. If I see any Steamhammer in the budget racks in Saturn I'll PM you. It could happen. I can't tape my twelve incher at the moment because my son Jonah (4) savaged both the cassette recorder and three styluses for the record player. I guess that's why I love the little blighter!
I don't know the other two bands at all. Maybe I'm too young. (It's always good to sneak that one in!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 10:32 PM

Mungo Jerry (in case anyone is as uninformed as I was) was the name of the group, not an individual. Ray Dorset was the lead singer, and sang "In the Summertime." (Jethro Tull used to confuse me, too!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 09:17 AM

This is only one of several acutely un-PC songs that I happen to have heard recently.

Try "Hey, little girl.....Wives should always be lovers" (no idea which bit is the actual title) for a stop-you-in-your-tracks flashback to the ethos of the Doris Day era.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From: GUEST,New bloke
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 11:41 AM

Pete Sear of Steamhammer later joined Jefferson Starship Red Octopus etc.

... and just for the record:
Janis Joplin wrote "In The Summertime" while on holiday in England in 1970 - She was staying in a caravan in Dorset with her boyfriend Jerry Mungo - CBS records would not allow her to issue it as a single, as it did not fit her image. Jerry's hero was Ray Davies,He changed his name to Ray Dorset and the rest is history. Rumour has it that the song was actually penned by Scott Joplin!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From: alanabit
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 01:11 PM

Well "New Bloke", I looked up Pete Sear, and sure enough, he did play some keyboard for Steamhammer, although he wasn't a band member.
   As for the background information you gave about the title in question here, I conclude that you are quite mad enough to join Mudcat and make a contribution to khandu's "Tall Tales" thread of about a year ago!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From: alanabit
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 01:17 PM

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=52400&messages=11
There is the address of khandu's thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From: GUEST,Beata
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 10:54 PM

I was 9 when I heard Mungo Jerry' Summertime. I lived in Budapest and couldn't understand a word of the song, but it sounded cool, and it was shockingly different (from all I was allowed to listen to) and that was my first experience with rock in the 70's. I liked it even after I could understand English, with it's cheerful sounds & goofy lyrics. "Summertime" still makes me smile after so many years, as it brings back cool breeze from the 70's.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From: Forsh
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 01:39 PM

Harald has just about got it spot on, although there is a bit more, tacked onto the startof the last verse: "Sing along with us, Dee dee dee dee dee,Da da da da da, Yeah, we're happy happy, da da da da dah"If you want songs of this sort, try lets sing it dot com, I'll put a blue clicky in, oh, and it was first performed at the isle of White Pop Festival in the summer of 1969, (I think it was 69) The theme to th fer was Julie Covington (?) doing a rendition of 'Amazing Grace' Fantastic times!Pop/Blues Lyrics There is also a Link to it from my site! :MY SITE Hope that's a help!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From:
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 07:41 PM

didn't really care about the lyrics when i first heard this song.. it was on a t.v. show late late at night called now explosion.. i was baby sitting,. and would dance like the go go dancers on top of a table.. don't care about being"PC" if's a fun song, and did, and even now, stll makes me happy.. LOVE IT!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 04:13 AM

Way up there in August '03 (some of these threads are like archaeological digs in reverse), Steve Parkes mentioned "somebody called 'Shaggy'" who covered "In the Summertime." Shaggy apparently made a habit of taking old songs and converting them into his style of rap, or hip-hop, or whatever it's called. (Lord, I'm starting to sound like my father...) The one I know best is a version of "Angel of the Morning," but if he's also done "In the Summertime" there must be others.

Aloha,
Mark

PS, As I recall from a previous thread I'm too lazy to search for, Shaggy paid Chip Taylor, the author of "Angel of the Morning," a relatively paltry sum for the right to twist the song out of shape and make millions from it. More trivia: Chip Taylor is Angelina Jolie's uncle and Jon Voight's brother. And I think the original Merrilee Rush version of "Angel" is the best.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mongo Jerry's 'In the Summertime'
From: Wesley S
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 11:10 AM

Chip Taylor also wrote "Wild Thing" by the Troggs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 08:48 PM

I know this song was done in French but I can't seem to find out who sung it or where I can get a recording in french does any one know?

Thank, Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 03:28 PM

I found a Spanish-language version sung by a Mexican group called Pautazul on their eponymous album. They call the song EN EL VERANO. To hear a sample, go to this page and click the icon in front of the song title. Sorry, I can't transcribe it.

EN EL VERANO was also recorded by Banda Super Charro on their album "Con la Fuerza."

Buckwheat Zydeco recorded IN THE SUMMERTIME on their (his?) album "100% Fortified Zydeco", but I don't know whether they (he?) sang any lyrics. The sound samples I found contained only instrumental music.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: GUEST, Grimmy
Date: 19 Feb 07 - 09:06 AM

This was THE song of the summer of 1970 - it spent 7 weeks at No 1 in the UK charts. I didn't realise it was so non-PC cos I could never make out the words.

I remember watching them (MJ) performing it at the Weeley Festival in 1971.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 19 Feb 07 - 09:14 AM

Was "In the Summertime" the last time a jug band was in the UK top 10?
RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: Alec
Date: 19 Feb 07 - 02:24 PM

Mungo Jerry were probably the last jugband to reach the top 10 RtS.
The last of their singles to do so was "Alright,Alright,Alright." in July 1973.
Though Ray Dorset later wrote "Feels Like I'm In Love."
This was written for Elvis Presley who rejected it & it was susequently a hit for the genuinely dreadful Kelly Marie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 19 Feb 07 - 02:33 PM

Then there's the other one-- Roger Miller's :

In the summertime, when all the trees and the leaves are green
And redbirds sing
I'll be blue
Cause you don't want my love

Some other guy is taking up all your time, and you don't have
Time for me
Cause you don't want my love.

You don't seem to care a thing about me
'Drather live without me
Than to have my arms about you
When the nights are cold and you're so all alone

In the summertime, when all the trees and the leaves are green
And redbirds sing
I'll be blue
Cause you don't want my love,

A masterpiece of mangled scansion.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: GUEST,tina
Date: 27 Apr 07 - 09:46 PM

i love this song so much

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: Rasener
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 03:33 AM

This song always has the abilty to make me feel good and happy.

Bought a brnad ne w MG Midget in the Spring of 70. This song always reminds me of the happy times in that car. Smashing bird puller.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: Mark H.
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 03:39 AM

Never mind the lyrics, it's the jug playing that really disappoints.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 02:57 PM

who was ray davies

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: Cluin
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 03:06 PM

Lead man of The Kinks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: Rasener
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 04:15 PM

In the summertime - Mungo Jerry

Ray Davies and The Kinks - Lola

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: In the Summertime (from Mungo Jerry)
From: Manders
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 10:36 AM

I gotta say... When my husband and I were first going out in 1989, he would sing parts of this song AT me while we were driving down the road.. in a really goofy voice, I might add. Anyhow, if truth be told, it's one of the things that hooked me. Just thought I'd mention that 'cause you don't hear too much about this song.
Amanda

Subject: Lyr Add: IN THE SUMMERTIME (Roger Miller)
From: Genie
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 01:57 PM

Dick G., thanks for posting these lyrics to Roger Miller's "In The Summertime."


IN THE SUMMERTIME
Roger Miller

In the summertime, when all the trees and leaves are green
And redbirds sing,
I'll be blue
'Cause you don't want my love.

Some other guy is taking up all your time and you don't have
Time for me,
'Cause you don't want my love.

You don't seem to care a thing about me,
'Drather live without me
Than to have my arms about you
When the nights are cold and you're so all alone.

In the summertime, when all the trees and leaves are green
And redbirds sing,
I'll be blue
'Cause you don't want my love.


(I just reposted them, along with the edited post title, so someone searching for Roger Miller's song would be directed to them.)

Genie