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Marlena under Foster Grants
She's undercover from the dawns advance
That girl is travel-drained
And the neon mercury vapor stained
Miami sky
It's red as meat
It's a cheap pink rose
Otis in the driver's seat
Watches the street lights fade away
On louvered blocks in green sea air
In fluorescent fossil yards
Slippers are shuffling into folding chairs
Freckled hands are shuffling cards
They've come for fun and sun
While Muslims stick up Washington
Otis empties out the trunk
On the steps of that celebrated dump
Sleazing by the sea
Bow down to her royal travesty
In her ballrooms heads of state
In her bedrooms rented girls
Always the grand parades of cellulite
Jiggling to her golden pools
Through flock and cupid colonnades
They jiggle into surgery
Hopefully beneath the blade
They dream of golden beauty
They've come for fun and sun
While Muslims stick up Washington
Marlena, white as stretcher sheet
Watches it all from her 10th floor balcony
Like it's her opera box
All those Pagliacci summer frocks
Otis is fiddling with the TV dial
All he gets are cartoons and reruns
She taps her glass with an emery file
Watching three rings in the sun
The golden dive, the fatted flake
And sizzle in the mink oil
It's all a dream
She has awake
Checked into Miami Royal
Where they've come for fun and sun
While Muslims hold up Washington
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
She's undercover from the dawns advance
That girl is travel-drained
And the neon mercury vapor stained
Miami sky
It's red as meat
It's a cheap pink rose
Otis in the driver's seat
Watches the street lights fade away
On louvered blocks in green sea air
In fluorescent fossil yards
Slippers are shuffling into folding chairs
Freckled hands are shuffling cards
They've come for fun and sun
While Muslims stick up Washington
Otis empties out the trunk
On the steps of that celebrated dump
Sleazing by the sea
Bow down to her royal travesty
In her ballrooms heads of state
In her bedrooms rented girls
Always the grand parades of cellulite
Jiggling to her golden pools
Through flock and cupid colonnades
They jiggle into surgery
Hopefully beneath the blade
They dream of golden beauty
They've come for fun and sun
While Muslims stick up Washington
Marlena, white as stretcher sheet
Watches it all from her 10th floor balcony
Like it's her opera box
All those Pagliacci summer frocks
Otis is fiddling with the TV dial
All he gets are cartoons and reruns
She taps her glass with an emery file
Watching three rings in the sun
The golden dive, the fatted flake
And sizzle in the mink oil
It's all a dream
She has awake
Checked into Miami Royal
Where they've come for fun and sun
While Muslims hold up Washington
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Lyrics submitted by threearmedman
Track duration: 03:53
"Otis and Marlena" as written by Joni Mitchell
Lyrics © Joni Mitchell/Crazy Crow Music/Siquomb Music, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think Otis & Marlena are husband and wife, on a vacation at a hotel (the Miami Royal?).
In her ballrooms heads of state--
In her bedrooms rented girls--
"her" refers to the hotel. Even though the song is called Otis & Marlena, I think it's really about the hotel.
The only thing I really don't get is that "while Muslims stick up Washington" line. I'm sure it's significant, and I feel like it must be sarcastic, unless Joni hated Muslims???
I'd always presumed the song was probably written during/ after the Opec Oil Crisis (1973) and referred to muslim states holding the US government to ransom over oil exports.
The rich, elderly subjects of the song seem blissfully ignorant of any political crisis, while they spend their abundant funds on beauty treatments etc.
I think it's more about Florida and it's American tourist trade generally (ref "Some Like It Hot"!), rather than the hotel specifically.