I wrote this back in about 1965 when I was in the Peace Corps in the Philippines--it was kind of in reaction to hearing from a Filipino acquaintance of mine, a national security agent, that when his mother got gravely sick, the family promised the Virgin Mary that they'd build a church dedicated to her if she'd intercede to save the mother's life. The mother lived, the family built the church, leaving me to muse upon the verse in "All My Trials," "If religion was a thing that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die."

I was just going to put in a link at this point but decided it was better to put in the words, since I'm describing the melody below.


Mary on Black Velvet
I don't worry about dysentery,
Long as I got the Virgin Mary
Sittin' up above my kitchen sink.
Shisto* doesn't frighten me,
Nor do typhus or TB:
The Holy Mother keeps me in the Pink.

Blessed Virgin, Blessed Virgin,
Promise you will keep me microbe free.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
You've made my home a sanitary place,
Divine love keeps disease away from me.


*shistosomiasis, a disease of the liver caused by an organism which lives in slow moving fresh water in south Asia, parts of Africa, and the South Pacific. Rice farmers are often victims.

First and second lines are to the tune of "Oklahoma Hills Where I Was Born," bridge to the bridge of "Darling Nelly Gray" spiced up a bit, then back to "Oklahoma Hills" for the last three lines.