Know something about this song or lyrics?
Add it to our wiki.
She will kiss you til your lips bleed
But she will not take her dress off
Americana, Tropicana
All the sailor boys have demons
They sing oh Kentucky why did you forsake me
It I was meant to sail the sea
Why did you make me
It should have been another state
Oh stay
Cause Mary Anne's a bitch
Mary Anne's a bitch
Does it matter that our anchor
Couldn't even reach the bottom of a bathtub
And the sails reflect the moon
It's such a strange job
Playing blackjack on the deck
Still
Atop this giant puddle
Dressed in white we quietly huddle with our missiles
And we miss the girls back home
Oh home sweet home
Cause Mary Anne's a bitch
Mary Anne's a bitch
She will kiss you til your lips bleed
But she will not take her dress off
Americana, Tropicana
But she will not take her dress off
Americana, Tropicana
All the sailor boys have demons
They sing oh Kentucky why did you forsake me
It I was meant to sail the sea
Why did you make me
It should have been another state
Oh stay
Cause Mary Anne's a bitch
Mary Anne's a bitch
Does it matter that our anchor
Couldn't even reach the bottom of a bathtub
And the sails reflect the moon
It's such a strange job
Playing blackjack on the deck
Still
Atop this giant puddle
Dressed in white we quietly huddle with our missiles
And we miss the girls back home
Oh home sweet home
Cause Mary Anne's a bitch
Mary Anne's a bitch
She will kiss you til your lips bleed
But she will not take her dress off
Americana, Tropicana
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
Let's say we have A) cold war as the macrocosm/backdrop,
B)The experience of horny sea men cruising the Caribbean as the, you know, human sized cosm,
C) And the condition and of sperm in waiting
... All of this pins together with the line, "Still, atop these giant puddles/dressed in white we quietly huddle with our missiles." The apprehensive mentality of the cold war is compared to the condition of being horny as fuck. What do the cold war and the condition of being a horny homesick sailor have in common? They are both basically about waiting to anxiously to blow your load.
The last minute where she's singing "Americana, Tropicana," the tone changes almost drastically from upbeat/flirty to something more haunting and foreboding... echoing the ambiguity of our cliffhanger ending: a bunch of horny men with various unconscious Freudian phallic issues hold the fait our world in their hands.
and the two are states are one and the same in song of these sailors
"kisses you till your lips bleed" - reference to the wind?
And she's a bitch because all those sailor's want to go back to their woman; but she wont let them.
"She won't take her dress off." She's just a tease; she promises that this is worth it but doesn't quite make it okay that they can't see their girlfriends.
Marrying's a bitch.
The first verse, to me... perhaps the whole song even... seems to be about gay marriage or something to that effect. Regina is definitely a gay rights advocate from what I've read up on. I didn't think about this interpretation until I was singing the song to myself yesterday and I got to the "Should've been another state" line.
This song is about the USS Kentucky -- a ship that was built but never completed in the WW2 era.
"does it matter that our anchors
couldnt even reach the bottom
of a bath tub"
means she was never completed
"it's such a strange job, playing black jack on the deck"
I think this is about the skeleton crew than manned the Kentucky before she was dismantled in 1958. They sat atop their puddle, dressed in white...they missed the girls back home...
"If I was meant to sail the seas...why did you make me?"
obviously a jab at the military for giving them such a terrible duty station.
And Marianne...of course, is the Sea.
I believe the Tropicana is either a hot spot in Philly, where she was moored until she was scrapped, or a heartfelt wish from the crew...When they signed up to be in the NAVY, they were told they would sail everywhere, even to Tropicana...but instead they were stuck...AMERICANA!
I love this song.
"mary anne's a bitch"; the sailors are displeased about the lives they lead, they hate the world, which to them is the ship, since they can't get out.
now we're the sailors. i think regina's trying to say we all think the world's a bitch sometimes. it might "kiss us till our lips bleed" and lather us with pleasure, yet at the same time "it will not take its dress off" we will never get that exact perfection, that ultimate goal.
everyone else can plug it in how they want but that's how i see it.
"Oh kentucky why did you forsake me?..." --> the sailors are speaking about their home land, where they're from... the actual land, they ask it: Why did you trick me? Why did you put me on the seas? Their hometown is a "demon" since it made them go to sea.
"Should've been with the state..." --> they reckon they should've stayed on land not gone on the ship
---
"mary-anne's a bitch" --> the world's a fucking bitch. (sailors perspective)
---
"does it matter that our anchors couldn't even reach..." --> if your anchors can't reach anywhere generally you're screwed and you can't stop. you will just keep going, and going, and going...unless you hit something but don't go there.
"the sails reflect the moon" --> the sails are deceitful; the moon steals its light from the sun, and the sails are just like that -- they're not all they're cracked up to be.
"cuddle with our miss----iles, and we miss the girls back home" --> as in miss--(es)--iles, meaning they're stuck into the job they have to do.
now relay all this as if you were a sailor, and the ship is your life with all the appropriate relations being made to each different thing...
regina's so creative.
"Oh kentucky why did you forsake me?..." --> the sailors are speaking about their home land, where they're from... the actual land, they ask it: Why did you trick me? Why did you put me on the seas? Their hometown is a "demon" since it made them go to sea.
"Should've been with the state..." --> they reckon they should've stayed on land not gone on the ship
---
"mary-anne's a bitch" --> the world's a fucking bitch. (sailors perspective)
---
"does it matter that our anchors couldn't even reach..." --> if your anchors can't reach anywhere generally you're screwed and you can't stop. you will just keep going, and going, and going...unless you hit something but don't go there.
"the sails reflect the moon" --> the sails are deceitful; the moon steals its light from the sun, and the sails are just like that -- they're not all they're cracked up to be.
"cuddle with our miss----iles, and we miss the girls back home" --> as in miss--(es)--iles, meaning they're stuck into the job they have to do.
now relay all this as if you were a sailor, and the ship is your life with all the appropriate relations being made to each different thing...
regina's so creative.
As for Mary Anne, I sort of thought she could be both - a person, as well as the name of the sail. Maybe they named it after her ? ( / shurg ) i don't know. ^^ ;;
If this were the case, the phrase " we miss the girls back home, oh home sweet home, cause Mary Anne's a bitch, " could be like saying ' I wish I was back with Mary Anne ( the girl ) ; life on the Mary Anne ( the boat ) is too hard ! D: "
Another thing I thought about this song was that the sailor felt unhappy. Whenever he was on dry land, he would yearn for the sea. Likewise, when he was at sea, he would long for the girls on dry land.
...
Well, yeah, I sort of got it that way. ;;