Saturday, July 21, 2012

Last Train to Mercerville

This one has generated a bit of interest here and there, especially the big band version recorded by Laura Ainsworth on her CD Necessary Evil. Note: after the introductory verse the lyric is made up almost entirely of Johnny Mercer song titles (in bold below).


(click on the title to listen)
 
Sometimes in quiet contemplation
when all the world seems tired dull and stale,
bored to tears with my computer’s cursor,
I yearn for an amusifying verser
whose clever lyrics always cure my alienation.

So if you share my fond preoccupation
with good old tunes that tend to tell a tale,
and words just terse enough not any terser,
as written by a certain Johnny Mercer,
perhaps you’d care to meet me at the railroad station…

...where Mister Bob White is Trav'lin’ Light
and dustin’ his shoes to The Blues in the Night.
Down on Skylark Lane, past Early Autumn Hill,
he’s boardin’ the last train to Mercerville.

Where Laura rides too on that train passin’ through.
On each train I caught, John, I Thought About You.
You were just Too Marvelous for Words at least until
your words charmed all the birds in Mercerville.

                  On the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe,
                  they know Something’s Gotta Give.
                  But the Mercer Line runs great 
                  and tonight I’ve got a date
                  to Accentuate the Positive.

And isn’t it fine, Come Rain or Come Shine,
to ride that old friend to the end of the line.
Ah, The Summer Wind, The Autumn Leaves that spill
across the track that takes you back to Mercerville.

(whistling interlude)

Watch her glide alongside the Moon River,
and Dream when you’re feelin’ blue,
where Fools Rush In
lovin’ the spin that they’re in
And the Angels Sing a Tin-Pan Alley hymn for you.

Well, that’s how it goes, and, John, these phrases I chose
fit Hoagy and Henry and Harold and those
the Old Music Masters who gave us a thrill
with jazzy strains aboard those trains to Mercerville.
I was born old fashioned, I’m Old Fashioned,
I love the moonlight, still. 
I’m just insane about that train,
a-hoo-wee-de-hoo-wee, to Mercerville.

                 Hop on board. Take a trip on a train, hop on board.
                 Day In, Day Out, 
                 That Old Mercer Magic has me in its spell
                 and Anyplace I Hang My Hat Is Home, Goody Goody,
                 The Days of Wine and Roses, Tangerine,
                 Jeepers Creepers, Time to Hit the Road to Dreamland,
                 and in The Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening,    
                 I Remember You.


Music & Lyric © by Lee Charles Kelley
West Sixty Ninth Street Music (ASCAP) 

Piano: Janice Friedman, Vocal & Whistling: Lee Charles Kelley