Sturgill Simpson - Mercury in Retrograde

Sometimes a set of lyrics start feeling like they apply to yourself in some humorous ways.

“I got a haircut in Norway,
When all the weight started pulling me down.
Smelling like a waterlogged wet dog,
Ain't no way to travel.”

This is the opening lyrics to Sturgill Simpson song “Mercury in Retrograde.” The second last song on his album “Sound and Fury.” I listen to this song a lot, it has a groove to it that actual makes me want to move, not dance, never dance, but sway to the sound, and only a handful of songs have ever had that sort of affect on me.

As I write this paragraph, I have been in Norway eleven days. I have not gotten a hair cut, I got one of those before I left Canada, so that first line does not apply to my situation but the rest a little more so. In my time, many wonderful things have been seen, experienced, and done. The people are great, the sights are great, and everything is great. In addition to everything being great, I also experienced the storm they named “Hans.” Apparently, they name their storms here when they get bad enough. Hans prevented me from visiting Trondhiem, but it also soaked me bad a couple of times. Now on day eleven, I have not been able to do laundry, because I cannot get registered with the app on my phone because they are not sending me the text message to my Canadian phone to get setup. The lack of clean clothes is a problem that is sure to only escalate if I cannot resolve it soon.

Last night, walking around town looking for a karaoke bar to sing at, as I like to do, “Mercury in Retrograde” played on random on my phone. “Smelling like a waterlogged wet dog, ain’t no way to travel.” I laughed at myself, yeah, I am getting to that point.

I hope you enjoyed this largely unimportant anecdote.

Since “Sound and Fury” was probably my favorite album of 2019, and I talked about it at length before. An album as great as “Sound and Fury” lasts in a playlist. Like an evolving organism, the songs of “Sound and Fury” have shifted in mind and ears, changing which songs I appreciate uppermost. I stand by the subject feeling that “Make Art Not Friends” is my favorite song from the album. That song however was the perfect song for COVID, because we could not go out and live. Now, in 2023, in Europe, I have reembraced my surprising talent for making friends. I am definitely all about making friends. So, the upbeat rhythm and lyrics of enduring the dark sides of musical success, just makes me feel like a million bucks. Also, apparently, I am top tier at making friends. A talent my shy, socially incompetent, dumbass, in theory should not have been able to posses, but evidently, I do. Making friends constantly everywhere I go, also makes me feel like a million bucks.

So in that moment in Oslo, Norway, walking the streets at night, slightly drunk, with “Mercury in Retrograde” in my ears, feeling like a million bucks twice over, maybe even three times over, I am a happy drunk, and feeling like a waterlogged wet dog from surviving “The Hans” and my clothes rapidly becoming too unclean to wear, well it felt like a perfectly good moment to blather about to the Internet, and by extension the entire world.

And here we are.

In truth “Mercury In Retrograde” is not a happy song, at least not in lyrical content, but it is one of those songs, that takes very sad subject matter and makes it happy with fun tempo and sound. A lot of “Sound and Fury” is about Simpson’s disenfranchisement with the corporate side of his music career, and questioning those who are there to leech off of, or manipulate, or ruin what he is trying to do creatively. Remember, “Make Art Not Friends.” But to me, there is something so empowering and uplighting about joyfully singing something like;

“Oh the road to Hell is paved with cruel intention,
If it's not nuclear war,
It's gonna be a divine intervention.”

Somehow, I resisted the urge in Norway to sing that out loud in the streets at night. Good thing too, that is considered crazy in Canada, the reserved Norwegians would be very unimpressed, I am sure. That does not mean, I was not tempted.

Anyway, thanks for listening. It is time for the King of Braves to return to form.

- King of Braves