Swampland.com

No "Lazybones"--Happy 100th Birthday Johnny Mercer, RIP

According to The Business Insider, fourteen of the twenty-five laziest cities in America are in the south (ie,, in the Swampland footprint). with Mobile as number twenty-five and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as number one.

Johnny Mercer, who would have been 100 years old on November 18, knew that southerners really understood  how to take it easy. However, when he wrote "Lazybones" with Hoagy Carmichael back in 1933, could he have ever imagined that someday we southerners would adopt it for our theme song? Here are the opening lines: "Lazybones, sleepin' in the sun/How you 'spect to get your day's work done?"

Three of the top twenty-five laziest cities in the U.S. are in Alabama (no surprise to us Alabamians) and, believe it or not, not a single one is in Georgia (home state of Mercer). The talented and prolific lyricist Johnny Mercer was anything but a lazybones. If a song was written before 1960 and you know the words or recognize the title, it was probably written by Johnny Mercer. Who among us has not gone around humming "Moon River." In Mercer's fifty plus years of songwriting (he wrote his first lyrics at age 15), he wrote or co-wrote around 1,100 songs. To top it all off, he also co-founded Capitol Records.

This year, 2009, is the 100th anniversary of Johnny Mercer's birth, and it has been an exciting year for Savannah, GA, where Mercer was born. The city has been celebrating the Mercer centennial since January 1. The celebrations have been many and varied and will culminate on Wednesday, November the 18th, with the dedication of a statue to the memory of Mercer. A talented Savannah artist Susie Chisholm, whose award-winning word is in many public and private collections, was commissioned to create a sculpture of the legendary musician. The life-sized bronze statue will stand in Ellis square.

If you have not yet made your pilgrimage to Mecca, that is to the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, I suggest you put it on your agenda for this year. Bonaventure acquired somewhat unwelcomed fame with the publication of John Berendt's novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  Everyone recognizes the statue on the book cover. But there is much more to be found in Bonaventure than just the statue of the  bird girl, there are the graves of the great poet Conrad Aiken and musician Johnny Mercer --and nearby in the Catholic cemetery, the family plot and grave of the phenomenal southern novelist Flannery O'Connor. Savannah is a magical place. Don't miss the chance to visit during Mercer's centennial year.

As our guest writer this week, we welcome back renowned blues musician and composer, Billy C. Farlow. Farlow takes us on a trip down memory lane as he tells about a "Georgia Peach of a Songwriter," Johnny Mercer.

---Penne J. Laubenthal
 

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