I first thought of putting together this compilation when I was listening to The Band’s second album, and more specifically the song ‘Up On Cripple Creek’. In the lyrics, the narrator talks of places he ends to travel passed to visit Big Mama. One of these is the Gulf of Mexico. It got me thinking about which other songs referred to that location and the history of its name, mostly due to the actions of a certain president of the United States of America. Let me explain.
The Gulf of Mexico is a an area of 810 nautical miles, bordering North and Central America. The native peoples of the region referred to the expanse of water was ‘Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl’, or the House of Chalchiuhtlicue, the Aztec God of the Sea.
The European explorers of the 1400s, which included Amerigo Vespucci, were the first from the Old World to navigate the region. Early maps showed the area to be either unnamed, Sea of the North, Gulf of Cortes, Gulf of Florida, Yucatan Sea and the Gulf of Spain amongst other things.
The name, Gulf of Mexico was first used on European maps in the 1550s and is derived from the term, Mexica. That word comes form the Nahuatl language which was spoken by ethnic groups of the region. However, in January 2025 the President of the United States of American decided to change the name to the Gulf of America through an Executive Order.
Now this wasn’t the first time a body from the USA looked at changing the name. In 2006, the United States Geographical Survey received a proposal to rename the Gulf, but the Board on Geographical Names didn’t approve it. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill lead to comedian/late night show host Stephen Colbert proposed the creation of a ‘Gulf of America Fund’ as he said, “I don’t think we can call it the Gulf of Mexico anymore. We broke it, we bought it”.
In 2012, Democratic state representative Steve Holland joked that the opposition Republican Party were so intent on pushing anything Mexican out of the state of Mississippi that the name of the Gulf should also be changed. In 2025, a poll was carried out on U.S. Registered voters as to whether they liked the name change and 72% were opposed to it.
So what of the songs that refer to the Gulf of Mexico? Well, you can’t just change the lyrics. Mexico is three beat, where as America is four. Therefore, we are stuck with the original words as they name will no doubt be changed back once this President is out of office.
So here is a selection of songs with Gulf of Mexico in the lyrics in celebration of the area of water which we have seen, has had a number of names down the years.
Side 1
- New Gold Coast Blues – Bessie Smith
- Rock Island Blues – Furry Lewis
- Project Highway – Sonny Boy Williamson I
- The Battle of New Orleans – Jimmy Driftwood
- Girl From Spanish Town – Marty Robbins
- Louise – Howlin’ Wolf
- Other Side To This Life – Fred Neil
Side 2
- Guitar Man – Jerry Reed
- Up On Cripple Creek – The Band
- She Told Me So – George Jones
- Call Of The Wild – Johnny Cash
- Balinese – ZZ Top
- Refuge Of The Roads – Joni Mitchell
Side 3
- Big Bayou – Gib Guilbeau
- Pink Houses – John Cougar Mellencamp
- Gulf Coast Highway – Nanci Griffiths
- Standing On The Moon – Grateful Dead
- Galveston Bay – Bruce Springsteen
Side 4
- The Gulf Of Mexico – Clint Black
- Red River – Guy Clark
- Southern Thunder – Hank Williams Jr.
- Missing You – Trace Adkins
- Nobody’s Listening – Willie Nelson
As I have done with previous compilations I have made that were made as a double LP, I thought that it should have been released on the K-Tel label. They were well known in my youth to be a masters of the compilation LP.
This is what the sleeve could look like as a Gatefold.
