This fine song was the basis for a housing song I co-wrote some years ago dealing with mobile home park issues:
By Charles Ipcar with help from Tim Vogel and Dahlov Ipcar, April, 1982 Tune: Ewan McCall "Legal-Illegal" Key: F (5/C)
Lord of the Mobile Home Manor
C---------------G----------C I used to work hard for a living,, F-----------C----------G7 Up with the sun in the morn, F------------C------------F--------C Down at the office from eight to five, F-C---------------G---C-----G--------F A slave to a boss who would flay me alive, ------C--------F---C-----F-----C--------G--C Then fighting the traffic back home to the wife, ----F-C---F-C—F---C---G7--C Just a cog in the big busi-ness whirl.
Then one day I saw in the paper, An ad for some green pasture land, A vision came to me: by buying that space, I'd get myself out of that office rat race; With a loan from the bank and a deed to the place, I'd be Lord of the Mobile Home Manor.
So I surveyed the land on the weekend, Laid out the drains and the lines, Pads for the trailers, parking for cars, A management office and junkfood snack bar, A tot lot for children would be going too far, I'd be Lord of the Mobile Home Manor.
Now when I was ready for tenants, I thought who I'd want to live there: No children, no pets, no motorcyclists, No unmarried couples or creeping socialists, Would find themselves on my "preferred guest list" For a place at the Mobile Home Manor.
And as for those who would move in, They'd have to abide by some rules: No jogging, no gardens, no repairing cars, No loud stereo music or electric guitars, No patio parties or watching the stars, Or be evicted from Mobile Home Manor.
No longer a slave to ambition, I live off the rents of the land; Sheltered by interest, insurance, and tax, And clever accountants to cover my tracks, I need never fear that IRS ax, I'm the Lord of the Mobile Home Manor.
Most of this song was composed while I and a friend were driving from Michigan to Maine, after he had reviewed his recent experience as a legal aid attorney working with a tenants group in the Mobile Home Manor in the "outback area" of East Lansing.