Dorset and Colin Earl had previously been members of The Good Earth. Soon after recruiting Paul King and Mike Cole, they made their national debut at the Hollywood Festival at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire in May 1970, the week their first single, "In the Summertime" was released. They stole the show and the record topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks, made number one in almost every other country around the world, and to date has sold around 23 million copies. After John Godfrey replaced Cole, their second single "Baby Jump" also topped the UK chart in March 1971. A third hit, "Lady Rose" (also in 1971), gave the group the image as a band for producing summertime based hits.
In time Dorset found the group's good-time blues and jug band repertoire a little restricting, and in 1972 he released a solo album Cold Blue Excursion, with his songs backed by strings and brass and, in one instance, a jazz band. His intention to broaden the group's appeal by recruiting a drummer led to King and Earl trying to sack him, but the management, regarding Dorset as inseparable in the public eye from Mungo Jerry, fired them both instead. Dorset and Godfrey, the bassist, recruited new members and presented a new sound, heard on the fourth album Boot Power. King and Earl went on to form the King Earl Boogie Band.
Mungo Jerry's hits continued through to 1976 with "Open Up" (Top Twenty in Europe and number one in Brazil); "Alright Alright Alright" (a rewrite of an old French hit for Jacques Dutronc, and again a major hit worldwide reaching the Top 3 in the UK); "Wild Love"; "Long Legged Woman Dressed In Black"; "Hello Nadine" (European hit and Top Five in Canada); and "It's a Secret" (European hit).
In 1975 Earl, who had played piano with Foghat in between, returned to play keyboards, and percussion player Joe Rush, part-time member of the band in earlier days, also came back for a while.
The group's line-up has changed constantly over the years. Among those who have played with them are bassist Bob Daisley, drummers Dave Bidwell, Paul Hancox and Boris Williams, guitarist Dick Middleton and keyboard/accordion player Steve Jones. They have remained particularly popular throughout Europe. Mungo Jerry was the first western band who had live TV gigs, in all countries behind the Iron Curtain. Their famous "Golden Orpheus" gig in Bulgaria, also gave them a lot of new fans.
In 1980 another Dorset song, "Feels Like I'm in Love", originally written for Elvis Presley, and recorded by the band as a B side of a single, became a British number one hit for Kelly Marie. They remained successful with overseas hits like "On A Night Like This", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and "Sunshine Reggae" (British version by Mungo Jerry & Horizon). But Dorset had to wait until 1995 for a real comeback, when "In the Summertime" was recorded by reggae vocalist Shaggy, who topped the charts worldwide. The last UK chart entry for Mungo Jerry was "Toon Army", a song for Newcastle United F.C. in 1999.
In 1983 "Mungo Jerry" Ray Dorset was part of the blues supergroup Katmandu, which recorded A Case For The Blues, with guitarist Peter Green, formerly of Fleetwood Mac, and keyboard player Vincent Crane, formerly of Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
In 2003, with German musicians, Dorset recorded Adults Only album under the name Mungo Jerry Blues Band, widely acclaimed as one of the best of his career. 2005 saw him performing with three Mungo Jerry line-ups: The British Mungo Jerry Band (pop/rock), the German Mungo Jerry Blues Band (blues/rock) and Mungo Jerry & the Goodtime Gamblers (jug/blues/skiffle).
Also in June 2005, Ray Dorset had a gig again as a duo with Mike Cole - the original double bass player from the early Mungo days - as a highlight of the "35 Years Of Mungo Jerry" event in both Newcastle and Stoke.
In March 2006 Mungo Jerry released their new single "Mr Midnight" from Phantom of the Opera on Ice (http://www.plazarecords.co.uk); produced by Roberto Danova - who had mixed in the past the old continental Mungo Jerry hits "Lana" and "It's a Secret" - and is well-known for his work with rock and pop music, in combination with big orchestras.
One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer
Mungo Jerry Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
Hey mister bartender come here
I want another drink and I want it now
My baby she gone, she been gone two night
I ain′t seen my baby since night before last
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
(Spoken)
And then I sit there, gettin' high, mellow
Knocked out, feeling good and by the time
I looked on the wall at the old clock on the wall
By that time, it was ten thirty daddy
I looked down the bar, at the bartender
He said, "Now what do you want Johnny?"
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
Well my baby she gone, she been gone two night
I ain′t seen my baby since night before last
I wanna get drunk till I'm off of my mind
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
(Spoken)
And I sat there, gettin' high, stoned
Knocked out, and by the time
I looked on the wall, at the old clock again
And by that time, it was a quarter to two
Last call for alcohol, I said,
Hey mister bartender, what do you want?"
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
Mungo Jerry's "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer," is a classic blues rock song that explores the theme of drowning one's sorrows in alcohol. The lyrics of the song tell the story of a man who hasn't seen his partner for a couple of days and decides to go to a bar to drink; he orders one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer and wants to get drunk to forget his worries. The singer is feeling low, and he tries to drown his sorrows in alcohol to numb his pain. The song illustrates how alcohol can have the power to help people forget their problems, even if only for a little while.
The repetition of the lyrics reinforces the singer's desire to continue drinking and suppress his emotions. The spoken word interlude, where the singer describes how he is getting high and “feeling good," describes the power of alcohol to make people forget their troubles temporarily. However, the singer needs more alcohol to keep the buzz going even as the night draws to a close, and he orders more before the bartender calls last orders. Overall, the song is a somber reflection on how people can use alcohol to cope with their emotions but end up drinking more than they intended.
Line by Line Meaning
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
I need one shot of bourbon, one shot of scotch, and one beer to feel good and cope with my problems
Hey mister bartender come here
Bartender, please come over and give me another round of drinks
I want another drink and I want it now
I need another drink immediately to make me feel better and escape reality
My baby she gone, she been gone two night
My girlfriend left me and has been gone for two nights and I'm feeling lonely and sad
I ain't seen my baby since night before last
I haven't seen my girlfriend since the previous night before she left
And then I sit there, gettin' high, mellow
I sit at the bar and take drugs or drink alcohol to get relaxed and feel good
Knocked out, feeling good and by the time
I get drunk or high so much that I feel sleepy or unconscious
I looked on the wall at the old clock on the wall
I looked up and saw the clock on the wall to check the time
By that time, it was ten thirty daddy
I realized it was already ten thirty at night
He said, 'Now what do you want Johnny?'
The bartender asked me what kind of drink I want next
I wanna get drunk till I'm off of my mind
I want to drink so much that I completely forget about my problems and feel numb
And I sat there, gettin' high, stoned
I continued to sit at the bar and use drugs or alcohol to numb myself
And by that time, it was a quarter to two
I checked the clock again and realized it was almost two in the morning
Last call for alcohol, I said
I heard the announcement that it's the last chance to order drinks for the night
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
I asked the bartender for one more round of my favorite drinks
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
I repeated my order for one more round of drinks
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
I asked for one last and final round of my favorite drinks before leaving the bar
Writer(s): John Lee Hooker
Contributed by Victoria B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
bertil kress
Riktigt Bra!!!!