Mercy, Mercy Me

Written by:  Julian Casablancas
Performed by:
Nancy Hall – guitar, vocals, percussion
Lee Parvin – Piano, Keyboard bass, Hammond B3 organ

The Story  -

I grew up in Pacifica, California, and went from kindergarten through high school graduation with basically the same people. One girl I always remembered was Carolyn Spinoza; she was “unusual” like all of my favorite people. As adults, we lost track of each other until a mutual friend hooked us back up, and it was as if we had lived parallel lives -
both green activists, involved in the arts, both living in funky, arty houses that we built, and on and on…

She was making a film called “Texas Gold” about the gross and unbelievable pollution in the Gulf waters that destroyed the lives of a generations-old shrimping community, not to mention every living thing in the gulf. (www.texasgoldmovie.com)

She asked that The Curios provide music for the film, so we recorded the song Mercy, Mercy Me that Marvin Gaye made famous, as well as a couple of original songs. She ultimately chose the original piece called
Deepjoydance, an instrumental that was a perfect fit and created the right mood. It was just one small piece of music in a film featuring a lot of great sounds, but we were proud to be a part of it. Texas Gold went on to receive many film festival awards.

We forgot about our version of Mercy until we were looking for something in our computer and stumbled across it. We thought
It should see the light of day. Sadly, the words are more pertinent than ever…