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Marlena under Foster Grants
She's undercover from the dawn's 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
So 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 sheets
Watches it all from her tenth 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 their mink oil
It's all a dream she has awake
Checked into Miami Royal
Where they've come for fun and sun
While Muslims stick up Washington
She's undercover from the dawn's 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
So 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 sheets
Watches it all from her tenth 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 their mink oil
It's all a dream she has awake
Checked into Miami Royal
Where they've come for fun and sun
While Muslims stick up Washington
Lyrics submitted by threearmedman
Otis and Marlena Lyrics as written by Joni Mitchell
Lyrics © Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I don't think this open to any range of interpretation. There is a definite theme here, one that often runs through Mitchells work, of societies mediocrity and superficiality. In this piece, I think she is describing a cheap vacation scene. Otis and Marleena, a couple of stereotypical retirees 'enjoying' their opulent Miami holiday. They spend their time playing cards with age freckled hands, taking the view on their 10th floor holiday flat under 'meat red' skies. The whole scene is a cheap pink rose. They spend their soulless self-indulgent time while remaining ignorant of more serious situations, (while Muslims stick up washington) . Basically a song about white trash and the american way.
@@nthony I mostly agree. Only that "Muslims stick up Washington" sounds like it's showing the couple's view of the matter for me which will be quite in line with the over all character of the couple.