While likely most recognized for his starring role alongside Burt Reynolds in the 1977 action-comedy classic Smokey and the Bandit, Jerry Reed did his best work in the studio.
Getting his start as a teen rockabilly idol in the late 1950s, Reed made a name for himself with his down-home wit and master guitar skills. Throughout his five-decade career, he picked up two Country Music Association awards and three Grammy Awards.
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On this day (August 9) in 1973, Jerry Reed found himself atop the U.S. country singles chart for the second time in his career. This time he got there with “Lord Mr. Ford”, a hilariously scathing indictment of the automobile industry.
About Jerry Reed’s “Semi-Political” Hit
The car has been a country-song staple practically since the advent of the automobile industry
Sometimes, those vehicles can symbolize freedom, youth, and longing on tracks like “Fast Cars and Freedom” by Rascal Flatts. Other times, they’re a stand-in for love gone wrong, such as on Keith Urban’s “Somewhere in My Car”.
With “Lord, Mr. Ford”, however, Jerry Reed flipped this stereotype on its head. Written by country singer-songwriter Deena Kaye Rose, the song instead takes the late Henry Ford to task for the unforeseen implications of his great invention.
Lord Mr. Ford I just wish that you could see / What your simple horseless carriage has become, Reed sings. Well it seems your contribution to man / To Say the least got a little out of hand / Well Lord Mr. Ford what have you done.
As far as Reed is concerned, “the end result of the dream of Henry Ford” is nothing more than “a ready-made pile of manufactured grief.“
And if I ain’t out of gas in the pouring rain / I’m a-changing a flat in a hurricane, he sings.
It Was His Second Number-One Hit
Released in May 1973 as the lead single from Jerry Reed’s album of the same name, “Lord, Mr. Ford” spent one week atop the Billboard Hot Country singles chart.
Also reaching number two in Canada, it gave Reed his second number-one hit after 1971’s Grammy-winning “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot”.
He would reach the top one more time with “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)” in 1982.
The songwriter, Deena Kay Rose, had previously penned hits for Tex Williams (“The Night Miss Nancy Ann’s Hotel for Single Girls Burned Down”) and Johnny Cash (“Any Old Wind That Blows”).
Producers asked Rose to write a song for country music entertainer Jimmy Dean, which became “Lord, Mr. Ford. When Dean did not record it, Rose brought the song to Reed’s publishing company, Vector Music.
The singer recorded two other Rose compositions—”The Lady is a Woman” and “One Sweet Reason”.
Later, Reed would enlist the Missouri-born musician to write songs for the Smokey and the Bandit soundtrack.
That included “East Bound and Down”, which Reed took to number two on the country chart in 1977.
Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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UNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1970: Photo of Mel Tillis Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images -
American musician and bassist, Marshall Grant smiling while recording songs for Johnny Cash's The Last Gunfighter Ballad album at Sound Spectrum Recording, Inc., also known as the House of Cash Studios in Nashville, Tennessee 1976. Photo is part of the Nashville Music Collection. (Photo by Al Clayton/Getty Images). -
Johnny Cash and Vivian Liberto -
Merle Haggard, left, and George Jones. (Photo courtesy of Facebook) -
LAS VEGAS – MARCH 1995 – Raul Malo of the alternative country band The Mavericks performs at the MGM Grand Hotel in March 1995 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sherry Rayn Barnett/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) -
Willie Nelson at the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois, April 18, 1982. (Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images)
