| Jethro Tull – Cross-Eyed Mary Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Haven't read the last page of interpretations here, so I might be repeating somebody. I was thinking about the "Robin Hood of Highgate / Helps the poor man get along" lines and Wikipedia's claim that it's a literal "steal from the rich" situation... I'm certain she's a child prostitute, and like someone else said, doing rich men since they'll pay better; I've also heard it referred to as stealing from or extorting lonely men desperate enough to pay in money & gifts for the intimate contact. (Sometimes because they're spoiled jerks, sometimes because they've let work take over any hope of a personal life...) She might also be stealing on a literal level if allowed into their home. But instead of spending the money on all the things she can't get from her poverty-stricken family, she's giving it to her father to help support the household -- very much what a girl who is making a good wage does if her parents are poor. It's also possible that having the crossed eyes means that Mary can't do well in school because of sight issues, and figures nobody will hire or or want to be with her romantically because of her disfigurement -- basically wiping out both her chance to support herself or find someone else to support her. Left with THAT future, it would make sense that she'd take whatever money & fake affection she can get even if it does mean prostitution; heck, I know normal attractive well-educated/successful women that are like that in rapid serial monogamy because their self-esteem was always so low. All of the above might also explain why she's not interested in the little boys, now that I think about it from the "she's got a hard life, a hard future, and doing the mature thing to help out" angle... Having to grow up that harshly, and that young, does create a barrier between a person and others that had a nicer time. I had a number of very nasty problems to deal with as a child on an everyday basis and while I still laughed at things, I felt disconnected from classmates that complained of having a horrible day simply because they got the wrong snack or (later on as teens) were just angsty for seemingly no reason. |
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| Jethro Tull – Cross-Eyed Mary Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I had always figured that the girl is a child prostitute on the literal level, but also a reference to the Virgin Mary & Mary Magdalene of the Bible, who personify the (virgin)madonna/whore view the Church has towards females. Either we're innocent virgins laughing naively (clueless about things like poverty) as we romp on the playground having fun with our male peers, OR we're coldly calculating sexual opportunists that only see the opposite gender in terms of what we can get out of them. There's no middleground in the attitude like in real-life people. What drove me to come here, though, was when I read Wikipedia's page on the song... To my complete shock, the explanation given there is that Cross-Eyed Mary is a pious thief stealing money from the rich and giving it to poor homeless beggars like Aqualung. After seeing that interpretation, I decided to come see what others thought about it here and find out whether my belief was the bizarre & unusual one, or if the wacky one is whoever posted that theory to Wikipedia! |
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| Jethro Tull – Cross-Eyed Mary Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I've been wondering what a "jack knife barber" is...wow. They weren't always well-intentioned real doctors, either; some even deliberately made fatal "mistakes" on many of their patients. I disagree with the point that she has to be "past adolescence" solely because she had an abortion. Girls become fertile at 8 to 12 years old on average, though the mortality/miscarriage rates aren't pretty... The men boinking Mary would have paid to arrange an abortion because otherwise, the girl becoming visibly pregnant & giving birth would have exposed at least one of them as a pedophile. Or perhaps she wasn't having an abortion, and the guy's job was just there as a kind of comment about him or society. I had always assumed that she had stopped off to do him before school and he drove her afterwards, or she spent the night, or being driven was just part of their exchange of favors. |
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| Jethro Tull – Cross-Eyed Mary Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I don't get the feeling she's merely "technically underage" from a few things said in the lyrics: Mary is with her peers "in the playground", she isn't interested in "little boys", and the children are being watched by Aqualung "as they play". Those don't describe kids over 14, as far as I know -- and hopefully you don't see fourteen as only "technically" too young for sex! :o) | |
| Pink Floyd – Signs of Life Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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After owning the album for 14 years, today was the first time I listened to the opening track with headphones on, and was very surprised to hear the voices in the background! Anyway, something I've noticed (while letting my CD loop) that's interesting -- "Signs of Life" at the very beginning of the album acts as a continuation of "Sorrow" at the very end. "Sorrow" features a man sitting alongside a river, talking to it about his despair, and the water offering him an invitation as it rushes into an oily sea; the lyrics seem to suggest he commits suicide. But if you let the album loop, what you hear next is the sound of water quietly lapping against something, quiet voices like dreams/memories during semi-consciousness, and then the music suggesting some kind of momentous mystical discovery. I like to interpret the continuation as suggesting that he survived the depression -- "Signs Of Life" could refer to the early moments where it becomes clear that he's still alive after leaping into the river (if he did) and being washed out to sea, or to him seeing the first little signs that his depression has cleared enough that his positive emotions are coming back to life. |
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| Pink Floyd – Yet Another Movie Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I just saw the conversation at the end of the song at LyricsFreak, thought I'd share a cleaned-up copy for others that (like me) haven't been able to make out the words: M: You're going on that plane to take you where you belong. W: But no, I have -- M: You have got to listen to me. Do you have any idea what you have to look forward to if you stay here? Nine chances out of ten, we both end up in a concentration camp and that -- W: You're only saying these things to make me go. M: I'm saying it 'cause it's true. Inside us, we both know we belong in different...maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life. W: But what about us? What about us? What about us? The conversation, especially since I've never been able to fully make it out, has always seemed a bit like we're somewhere haunted and hearing snatches of ghosts re-enacting their last parting. Knowing the words puts a different spin on the song for me. It had always seemed more like it was generally about the life-sapping depression that can come after a really bad breakup. The conversation makes it sound more like it's about the European families/couples that were torn apart by WWII, when children & some women were put onto trains to escape the invading forces. The imagery does very sadly match footage I've seen from the time -- kids pressing their faces to the train windows, homes abandoned by fleeing families, the long lines of prisoners walking towards concentration camps, people collapsing when they couldn't go further, mourning that went on indefinitely for siblings/boyfriends/etc. that died in the camps or were never seen again... It's a much sadder song than it sounds! |
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