Song Lyric Sunday – The Ecology

Posted byChristine BoltonPosted inBlog, Song Lyric SundayTags:, , , , , , , , ,

We are saving the planet with this week’s Song Lyric Sunday selections. Our job was to choose a song associated with climate change or the environment. My immediate thought took me back to the 70s and Marvin Gaye’s classic, ‘Mercy, Mercy Me’. In my opinion this song was way ahead of it’s time and he brought environmental issues to the forefront by releasing this song. He was clearly cognizant of what was happening to the planet and not everyone was happy with his choice to use his music as a vehicle for the cause.

The Song

Many years before global warming became a hot topic, Marvin Gaye wrote this song about the environment and how we have an obligation to care for the Earth. For his What’s Going On album (1971), Gaye got away from love ballads and explored deeper social themes, which at first didn’t sit well with Motown boss Berry Gordy, who thought these songs wouldn’t be marketable. The success of the title track proved otherwise, and “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” became a R&B hit and soared to on the Hot 100.

The song features a laid-back groove, Gaye’s smooth vocals, and a saxophone solo, all of which were typical of R&B at the time and thus conventionally associated with light, enjoyable lyrics. But Gaye’s lyrics provide a vivid description of environmental crisis, creating an uneasy juxtaposition of typically cheery sounds with a pessimistic message, a disturbingly effective technique that leads to the dissonant breakdown of the music at the end of the song.

Gaye elaborated on this song and his spiritual quest in a 1976 interview with Sounds, where he said: “I am a student of Don Juan and Carlos Castaneda. I’ve read many books by many authors. My idea of living is, I would love to become an impeccable warrior, one who has no need for earthly things such as the wine, the women, the clothes and the diamonds, and the fine things to wear. I’d love to develop a distaste for those things and become only interested in knowledge and power that this earth will give us, if we’re only willing to put in the time and effort.

I would love to quit show-business and go after that knowledge and that power that the truly gifted sorcerer has. The power’s here, it’s in the rocks, it’s in the air, it’s in the animals. There are men of knowledge who could take these forces and elements and cause mysterious things to happen to the body, transform themselves and do many, many marvelous things. I would like to become a man of power, and I would like to use it in a good fashion.

The knowledge that we have is enough to catapult ourselves over the hurdle into super-knowledge, where we become super-beings. But at that point we always destroy ourselves. That will always happen because super-knowledge is only for the chosen few. But the few can be of a greater number, that’s why I talk about it. If only we would adhere to certain laws that Mother Nature… THAT’S THE KEY!

We appear to have reached the bottom line. And, just like Bunny says (here he’s referring to the Jamaican musician Bunny Wailer), it’s in obeying the laws of nature that this wisdom and freedom lies. Those songs aren’t written for nothing. A lot of the time, they don’t even know it as writers, but they’re just forced to put Mother Nature into the picture, like in ‘You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.'”

According to Earl Van Dyke of Motown’s house band the Funk Brothers, Berry Gordy did not know what the word “ecology” meant when he heard this song. It had to be explained to him.

“Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” won a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2002, an honor also given to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” – one of his several duets with Tammi Terrell – in 1984, and “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” in 1998. The entire What’s Going On album was also recognized in 1998 with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

The Lyrics

Whoa, ah, mercy, mercy me
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 (Father)

Whoa mercy, mercy me (oh, mercy)
Oh, things ain't what they used to be, no, no (mercy Father)
Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas, fish full of mercury

Ah, oh mercy, mercy me
Ah, things ain't what they used to be, no, no (help us, Father)
Radiation underground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying (help us, help us, Father)

Oh mercy, mercy me (mercy Father, please help us)
Oh, things ain't what they used to be (mercy Father)
Oh, what about this overcrowded land (oh, have mercy Father)
How much more abuse from man can she stand? Ooh

Oh, no, no, no, nah, nah, nah (ooh-ooh my sweet Lord)
My sweet Lord, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah (my, my sweet Lord)
My, my Lord, my sweet Lord, ooh-ooh (help us Father, please help us)

Writer/s: Marvin Gaye
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind and

Backstory Songfacts and Voices Across Time

Published by Christine Bolton

I have been writing poetry since I was a child and it has helped in the good times and bad times. I am always looking within to find the answers to life's problems and to write thought-provoking poetry and prose. Thanks for checking it out. Christine

23 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday – The Ecology”

  3. I never really listened to the lyrics of this song before- as I really didn’t put it together with the environment. Brilliant choice. I will listen to it through different ears now.

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  5. Great choice going with this Marvin Gaye classic, Christine. I enjoyed the interview that you included in your post about Narvin saying that humans are capable of doing great things and it is sad that he died so young.

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  7. as many times as I’ve heard this song I would’ve never connected it to the environment. Absolutely ahead of his time. I can’t help listening to Marvin without a little toe tapping going on. Such a contrast to the message within. His voice like a warm blanket. thank you for sharing Christine

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  8. Christine, I really appreciate you including Marvin’s quote about Carlos Castenada and other shamans. This part sticks with me:

    The knowledge that we have is enough to catapult ourselves over the hurdle into super-knowledge, where we become super-beings. But at that point we always destroy ourselves. 

    Food for thought.

    I always thought this song was about social ills, so I’m glad you posted the lyrics. I’m looking at Gaye with new eyes.

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  9. Excellent choice, Christine. As you indicated, this is an early environmental protest song, long before the songs of the late 70s through today and only 9 years after “What Have They Done To The Rain” by Malvina Reynolds (later by Joan Baez). Marvin Gaye was a visionary; his loss was/is greatly felt.

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    1. That’s for the reminder Nancy. Yes!!! I found 4 more of your comments in SPAM. I approved them all just like last week. If it continues I will reach out to WP. It’s getting to be annoyimng isn’t it? Why would you be SPAM my friend? 🥰❤️

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      1. I just realized where your email is! I have it now and have added it where I was told to by WP. Now I will be alerted when you comment and it won’t just sit in spam anymore. Thanks Nancy. We shall see ☺️🙏🤞👍❤️

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    2. Hi Nancy, back to figuring out why you end up in my spam. Evidently as you post multiple times a day and each post is linking to other sites, WP is seeing you as a spammer! Lovely! I can fix that at my end by showing that I do not regard you as such but I need to add your email to a section of my site. I could not find it or a contact form of your site so perhaps you’d be so kind as to send it to me via the contact form on mine. That way your email is private and only I see it. Otherwise I will just keep fishing you out of spam from time to time! 😳. Thanks Nancy.

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