"Lord, Mr. Ford" is the title of a song written by Dick Feller

Dick Feller

Richard Dean "Dick" Feller is an American country musician and songwriter.-Biography:Feller was born on January 2, 1943 in Bronaugh, Missouri. On his twelfth birthday, Feller got his first guitar from his grandfather that was bought at a garage sale. Although it only had one string, young Feller...

 and recorded by Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...

. It was released in May 1973 as the only single from the album of the same name, Lord, Mr. Ford. The single was Jerry Reed's second of three No. 1's on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Singles

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart. "Lord, Mr. Ford" spent one week at the top and a total of 13 weeks inside the chart's top 40.

Song background

"Lord, Mr. Ford" is a satire on the social, cultural and economic influence the automobile has had on the American public. The lyrics bemoan the fact that a seemingly simple invention to assist mankind has instead brought nothing but grief, become increasingly more complex and added to the increasing fast-paced demands of society. The refrain asks the question aloud to the late Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...

: "Lord, Mr. Ford, I just wish that you could see/ What your simple horseless carriage has become."

In an Allmusic review for the album bearing "Lord, Mr. Ford," Pemberton Roach terms the song "a semi-political song," with Reed's version an "appropriately crotchety considering the song's 'simple working man' theme.

Referring to a substitution in the lyrics concerning the average American owning 1½ cars, ("Now the average American father and mother/Own one whole car and half another/And I bet that half a car is a trick to buy, don't you"), Roach alludes to the original lyrics using the word "bitch," instead of the word "trick" as in the final recorded version. Noted Roach: "(I)t's amusing to hear notorious bad boy Reed forced to substitute the word "trick" for the original version's 'bitch'."."

Chart performance

Chart (1973)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	2
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks	25
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	68
Australian Kent Music Report	97