Lyrics for Crazy Mary as interpreted by ShiverForMe

Crazy Mary Lyrics
she lived on a curve in the road, in an old, tar-paper shack
on the south side of the town, on the wrong side of the tracks
sometimes on the way into town we'd say:
'mama, can we stop and give her a ride?'
sometimes we did, but her hands flew from her side
wild eyed, crazy mary
down a long dirt road, past the parson's place
that old blue car we used to race
little country store with a sign tacked to the side
said 'no l-o-i-t-e-r-i-n-g allowed'
underneath that sign always congregated quite a crowd
take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around
take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around
take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around
one night thunder cracked, mercy backed outside her windowsill
dreamed i was flying high above the trees, over the hills
looked down into the house of mary
terrible thoughts, newspaper-covered walls, and mary rising up above it all
next morning on the way into town
saw some skid marks and followed them around
over the curve, through the fields, into the house of mary
that what you fear the most, could meet you halfway
that what you fear the most, could meet you halfway
take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around
take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around
take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around

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Matzy94
01-10-2002

Rated 0 
Crazy Mary is an old poor woman who lives in a run down shack. She spends her day loitering next to a convienent store drinking with her friends. The narrator of the song is facinated by her and even dreams that Mary is killed one night during a storm. The next morning the narrator confirms his fears when he investigates Mary's house and finds an our of control car has crashed through her house in the storm and killed Mary.

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SurferJap
06-09-2002

Rated 0 
nice story. *reminds me of 8th grade(when this song came out)*

sweet relief album, right

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seaked1
06-11-2002

Rated 0 
Mary was a drugged out drunken lady who was passing through life, wild and crazy and worthless, but the fear of becoming her gave meaning to this person.

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pete4winds
07-02-2004

Rated +3 
In my humble opinion, I agree with Matzy to a degree. Here's where my interpretation differs:

The narrator isn't dreaming of Mary dying in the storm only to find that she died when a car ran into her house. In fact, his "dream" is actually fractured memories of his drunken stupor, and he's the one driving the car that killed Mary because he was driving drunk. Possibly driving that same "old blue car we used to race?"

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BarbedWireSocko
10-26-2004

Rated 0 
This song reminds me of Bruce Sprinsteen songs. It uses a character named Mary, takes about car racing, and makes daily events look like folk-lore. It seems to be writen in the same style as alot of Springsteen songs aswell.

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Bellyfull of Swans
01-07-2005

Rated 0 
Yep this is off of Sweet Relief...a Victoria Williams song.

Mary would never accept a ride in a car, and it was a car that killed her, even though she tried to keep them away from her.

"That which you fear the most can meet you half way"

It is kind of like not being able to escape your fate in a way. It is captured through the narrative of an onlooker who sets the stage for the car issue, by telling us about the drinking and racing.

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tapandslap
02-08-2005

Rated 0 
I'm with Bellyfull on this one completely. I think the narrator was the driver. It shows irony. I rather this song on the Live at the Garden DVD, mainly because it doesn't have those horrible backing vocals. Also, Boom's solo is great.

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illiniwek05
02-10-2005

Rated 0 
who sings the back up vocals?

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mrsdarthvader
07-12-2005

Rated 0 
Crazy Mary is my crazy ass neighbor named Mary. I blast it for her all the time and piss her off.

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i love JF
12-11-2005

Rated 0 
if you close your eyes when listenig to this song you can see the story of mary and the narrator.
when you open them you feel something inside you too

it hink its natasha shneider from queens of the stone age sining the backing voclas. soumd s a bit like her

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GinaMarz
02-05-2006

Rated 0 
I think the correct lyric for the "Terrible thoughts" line is "Bare bulb on (newspaper covered walls)".

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N0 C0DE 79
02-16-2006

Rated 0 
This song is so amazing,.... it's like PJ's little secret, it's so low key but so High powered at the same time... it's incredible...

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j.enslow
03-19-2006

Rated 0 
this song is definitely about the rememberances of a drunk driver

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j.enslow
03-19-2006

Rated 0 
and thats victoria williams (who wrote the song...) singing back up vocals you fucking assholes... lets hear you do better... yeah.. not hearing it.

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T-Crash
05-14-2006

Rated 0 
This is even better than Victoria Williams' version, probably because of the long (but awesome) guitar solo. One of their famous concert songs, and it's not even theirs.

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QuebecGuy777
01-18-2007

Rated 0 
This is the craziest song I've heard live from PJ.
I saw them in Montreal, 2006/09/15 and it was amazing. Boom's solo was superb and the crowd went crazy. Beautiful song...

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ronaldo6
03-30-2007

Rated 0 
eddie thinks he is bruce springsteen simple as with these lyrics,good song though

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jaredwbowman
11-30-2007

Rated 0 
i like the live in seattle bootleg where they play "Stairway to Heaven" in the bridge.

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iago5150
07-05-2008

Rated 0 
I don't know if there is a connection or not, but: David Allen Coe wrote a song a long time ago called Crazy Mary which is similar in tone if not in direct meaning. Espescially the deal with cars and possible prostitution or something like that. Jethro Tull also did "Crosseyed Mary" which is definitely about a prostitute. Are the songs linked? Is inspiration borrowed here? IDK.

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frogpond
01-19-2009

Rated 0 
The song that David Allen Coe sings was actual written by Chicago song writer Michael Smith. The late Steve Goodman also performed this song on a live album. The possibility of a connection is interesting. Maybe.

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Backspacer
08-02-2009

Rated +1 
i see what everyone's saying, but here are some differences i see:

"that what you fear the most, could meet you halfway"
-this i believe is talking about death, and if mary was middle aged, then death met her half way, through life.

after that, the narrator continues the chorus, saying "take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around", as if a last toast to mary.

just a few opinions.

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Taylor410
11-04-2009

Rated +1 
My two cents – I think this tale/song is told from the perspective of a man reflecting back on a traumatic event from younger years in his life. In the first verse he is telling of his adolescent years when he was about 10 or 11 years old. He and his family were poor and they lived outside a small town on an old dirt road. To drive into town they had to pass an old, rundown shack that a poor, old, crazy woman named Mary lived in. (They all lived on the wrong side of the tracks) As a young boy, the narrator was fascinated with Mary because she was such a character….with her wild eyes, flailing arm gestures.

In the second verse I think the narrator is an older teenager, about 17 or 18. There is nothing to do in this small, boring town, so everyone just hangs out outside the corner store and drinks beer. To get to the corner store from his home he has to drive his old blue car past Mary’s shack and past the Parson’s place. The Parson’s are another family that live off that same old, rural dirt road. One night the narrator is particularly drunk. He is driving home on a big, beer high. Even though there is a rainstorm and he can’t see well, he is speeding along and he feels like he is “flying high above the trees and over the hills”.

The next day on the way into town as he approaches old Mary’s house he sees skid marks in the road and suddenly his world comes crashing in around him. He realizes that the dream he had of Mary’s newspaper covered walls wasn’t a dream at all…it was his fuzzy, disjointed, hung-over recollection of the events of the night before. He had crashed through Mary’s shack driving home.

When he says, “that which you fear the most can meet you halfway” he is talking about death. Death met him halfway…he didn’t die, but he took another life with his drunk driving from the night before. As a grown man, he will never get over this…and we realize the tragedy of the song/story.


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