Mercury Poisoning
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| "Mercury Poisoning" | ||||
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![](#/media/File:"Mercury_Poisoning"_-_Graham_Parker_and_the_Rumour.jpg) | ||||
| Single by Graham Parker and the Rumour | ||||
| Released | February 1979 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:09 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) | Graham Parker | |||
| Graham Parker and the Rumour singles chronology | ||||
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"Mercury Poisoning" is a song written by rock musician Graham Parker and performed by Graham Parker and the Rumour. Inspired by Parker's frustration with his record company, Mercury Records, the song was released as a promotional single by Parker's new label, Arista Records, in February 1979. Because of the song's controversial nature, it was pulled from its planned release as the B-side to Parker's 1979 single, "Protection."
"Mercury Poisoning" has since become one of Parker's most famous songs. It has since seen praise from critics for its angry and sarcastic lyrics and appeared on multiple compilation and live albums.
"Mercury Poisoning" was written as a critique of Parker's record label at the time, Mercury Records. Parker had felt the label was not promoting him sufficiently and, after releasing the live album The Parkerilla on Mercury, signed with Arista Records.[1] At the time, he joked, "It wouldn't matter if I was singing Saturday Night Fever with Mercury, it would still be a flop."[2] Parker later claimed that the song idea originated from manager Dave Robinson, who had joked that Parker should write an album of "hate songs" directed at Mercury.[3] Robinson similarly criticized Mercury, claiming that Parker could have been as big as Bruce Springsteen with better label support.[4]
When asked about the reaction to the song in 1979, Parker stated, "It was a great reaction, actually. The public liked it anyway and Arista liked it a lot. They thought it was great fun."[5] Parker dedicated the song to Arista head Clive Davis during live performances of the period.[6] Discussing his relationship with Arista, Parker recalled, "[Davis] gave us a deal with way too much money in it than was healthy. To expect huge promotional money after getting a deal like that was perhaps a bit naive, and before long my manager was just as pissed with Arista as he was with Mercury! ... I can't say that this deal was much healthier than the Mercury one in that respect, but I got large advances, all of which got spent on absurdly expensive records with expensive producers in expensive studios and good sized tour support."[7]