Mercury Poisoning

Album: Squeezing Out Sparks (reissue) (1979)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this song, Parker expresses his frustrations with his Amercian label, Mercury Records. Despite critical acclaim and success overseas, Parker's first 3 albums failed miserably in the States, and Parker blamed Mercury's inept marketing. Valerie, who was a secretary at Mercury at the time, gave us this account:
    "I was working for Mercury Records in Chicago when Graham was trying to break his contract with the label. There were lots of conversations about Graham being difficult and his belief the company was not promoting him adequately. Then this little song was released from another company and Mercury Records administrators were very upset. He left our label but the song was supposed to be killed - you couldn't get it anywhere! I had a 45 that my boss gave me with a whispered, 'Don't let anyone see this.' Later it was stolen so I didn't think I would ever hear the song again. I was surprised to find you can now buy it on iTunes. The angry lyrics are about the record company and its executives. A fun memory of my short time as a secretary at a record company."

Comments: 1

  • Stymie from Earth Graham is the balls ! Glad he stuck it yo an inept mercury records with this killer tune ! Scathing lyrics !!!
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