Mercy, Mercy Me
How much more abuse from man can the Earth stand?
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Mercy, Mercy Me”, by Marvin Gaye. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.
Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics which are written in italics. Comments and questions are welcome. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.
✳️ Note: The level of this article is for students with a TOEIC of 550+, Eiken Pre-1, CEFR B2. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.
(659 words)
Today’s song is from 1971, over 50 years ago. Keep this in mind as you read about the lyrics.
Woah-oh, oh mercy, mercy me
Mercy means forgiveness. “Mercy me!” is a very old expression that originally meant “God have mercy on me”. Later, it had the same usage as “Oh, my!”, something you say when you are surprised at some bad news, for example.
The lyrics in this song show surprise and sadness at what has happened to the environment.
Oh, things ain't what they used to be, no, no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows from the North and South and East
When the singer was growing up, the skies were blue and free from poisons. By 1971, there was so much air pollution (smog) that cities like Los Angeles had to tell children not to play outside on a particularly bad day.
Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas
In January of 1971, there was a serious oil spill in San Francisco Bay when two large oil tankers (ships) ran into each other. About half a million gallons (about 1,900,000 liters) was spilled.
Along the beaches young school kids joined Standard Oil workers and adult volunteers from all walks of life. One newscaster noted that “hippies and longhairs” were some of the most involved helpers cleaning beaches with straw to soak up the oil. (Yubanet)
“Hippies and longhairs” were some people, especially men, who wore their hair long, which was considered strange during the 1960s and 1970s).
The accident led to the beginning of an environmental group, International Bird Rescue. Thousands of oil spills have occurred since then.
Fish full of mercury
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, people in Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan were showing strange symptoms. Some of these were strange feelings like tingling or numbness in the hands and feet, having trouble keeping your balance, and seeing things as if you're looking through a small circle. Researchers found that the cause was eating fish that had mercury from a chemical plant. Minamata disease has also occurred in Niigata Prefecture, Slovenia, Tanzania, Cambodia, Indonesia, China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nicaragua and Brazil. Mercury leaking from gold mining, industrial waste, and wastewater from manufacturing plants is the usual cause.
Radiation underground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying
Humans have been faced with the problem of radiation for decades. With the development of atomic weapons, nations have conducted nuclear testing above ground and then, after that was banned in 1963, underground. When a nuclear weapon explodes, it gives off radioactive particles that get into the soil and water(*). We take in these particles if they are present in the food we eat or products such as milk. In the 1950s:
with nuclear testing, the American public became concerned about the fallout from nuclear tests. Strontium 90, a radioactive isotope, was found in children’s teeth as a result of their drinking contaminated milk. Some babies were born with defects. The government started a propaganda program to tell the public there was no problem. Nuclear power could be the energy source of the future! People would work fewer hours a day, and they would power their cars with a tiny piece of nuclear fuel. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) did not release the results of studies on fallout.
What about this overcrowded land?
More people on the planet means the need for more resources. We need to:
• seriously invest in alternative sources of energy
• spread the use of renewable materials instead of plastics
• stop the destruction of our natural environment to save plant and animal life
If we don’t:
How much more abuse from man can she stand?
*Nuclear radiation is also present in and around nuclear power plants. Accidents such as the one in Chernobyl in 1986 and the disaster in 2011 in Fukushima released massive doses of radiation to nearby forests and hillsides.
Question:
This song was written over 50 years ago. It questioned how humans had changed our environment. What progress do you think we have made since then in addressing these issues?
Vocabulary
poison 毒
mercury 水銀
symptom 症状
tingling チクチク感
numbness しびれ
keeping your balance バランスを保つ
radiation 放射線
conducted nuclear testing 核実験を行う
explode 爆発
particle 爆発
fallout 放射性降下物
radioactive isotope 放射性同位体
contaminated 汚染された
propaganda 宣伝攻勢
overcrowded 混雑
Sources
Haynes, L. (2023, April 8). Nuclear issues. Social Issues in Song. https://louisehaynes.substack.com/p/songs-about-nuclear-weapons Accessed 7 August, 2024.
International Bird Rescue. (2021, February 1). Massive 1971 San Francisco Bay Oil Spill led to founding of International Bird Rescue in Berkeley. YubaNet. https://yubanet.com/california/massive-1971-san-francisco-bay-oil-spill-led-to-founding-of-international-bird-rescue-in-berkeley/ Accessed 6 August, 2024.
The New York Times. (1971, January 19). Tanker collision dumps a huge oil spill in San Francisco Bay. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/19/archives/tanker-collision-dumps-a-huge-oil-spill-in-san-francisco-bay.html Accessed 6 August, 2024.
Winkler, Allan M. Life Under a Cloud: American anxiety about the atom. 1993. University of Illinois Press.
There are many articles about Mercy, Mercy Me and its background on Internet. I also encourage you to read more about Marvin Gaye, his life, and his music.
I love this visionary song. It's more appropriate than ever. Thanks for posting, Louise.
posts (don’t ask me why my reply went ahead of my finger…).