Hi, fellas...
Today's song is Cross-Eyed Mary by Jethro Tull.
Jethro Tull.. what can I say.. A very underrated band, but nonetheless, one of my all time favourites, gotta love Ian Anderson's originality and flute work!
This song, musically, is one of their best, not just on the album, but ever, it expresses their greatness and amazing compositions in an indescribible way. I adore the intro flute part. It makes me visualize a forest setting or some sort of peaceful atmosphere, and then suddenly "boom" society's cynicism at is best.. Am I being clear? I guess not.
As for the lyrics: This song is simply about a young lady borne of crossed-eyes of lowest income and self esteem. "Mary is a a child prostitute" - to quote Anderson - basicaly, she is an underage girl, (which fact is quite explicite in the lyrics, like: 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) who is presented to us as the predator rather
than the prey, I think that she may be young but she's not innocent.
And the jack knife barber drops her off at school - Jackknife barbers were common during the American era of Anti-abortion (when abortion was illegal). People would go to abortion barbers to do it illegally. Hense the name. What does this mean? Well, perhaps the men that Mary was "seeing" would have paid to arrange an abortion because otherwise, the girl becoming visibly pregnant and giving birth would have exposed at least one of them as a pedophile. Or she wasn't having an abortion, and this man's job was just there as a kind of comment about him or society.
The fact that Anderson named her "Mary" was always made me wonder, and I think, not without meaning. It may have a powerful connotation, as a reference to the Virgin Mary, and thus an allegory for the Catolic Church. So how do Christians treat "Mary" today? They buy her, sell her, use and abuse her! She's "cross-eyed" because the church has lost its focus. Whether we're talking about TV evangelists or Catholic churches... they often don't spend as much time practicing Christianity as they do making money from selling "Mary".
Therefore, this song is definitly more than just the story of a little child. It is about how the modern religions end up being "prostitutes" taking mon2ey and favors from his followers.
To sum up, this is another of Ian's attemptes to cricticyse the society.
This song, musically, is one of their best, not just on the album, but ever, it expresses their greatness and amazing compositions in an indescribible way. I adore the intro flute part. It makes me visualize a forest setting or some sort of peaceful atmosphere, and then suddenly "boom" society's cynicism at is best.. Am I being clear? I guess not.
As for the lyrics: This song is simply about a young lady borne of crossed-eyes of lowest income and self esteem. "Mary is a a child prostitute" - to quote Anderson - basicaly, she is an underage girl, (which fact is quite explicite in the lyrics, like: 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) who is presented to us as the predator rather
than the prey, I think that she may be young but she's not innocent.
And the jack knife barber drops her off at school - Jackknife barbers were common during the American era of Anti-abortion (when abortion was illegal). People would go to abortion barbers to do it illegally. Hense the name. What does this mean? Well, perhaps the men that Mary was "seeing" would have paid to arrange an abortion because otherwise, the girl becoming visibly pregnant and giving birth would have exposed at least one of them as a pedophile. Or she wasn't having an abortion, and this man's job was just there as a kind of comment about him or society.
The fact that Anderson named her "Mary" was always made me wonder, and I think, not without meaning. It may have a powerful connotation, as a reference to the Virgin Mary, and thus an allegory for the Catolic Church. So how do Christians treat "Mary" today? They buy her, sell her, use and abuse her! She's "cross-eyed" because the church has lost its focus. Whether we're talking about TV evangelists or Catholic churches... they often don't spend as much time practicing Christianity as they do making money from selling "Mary".
Therefore, this song is definitly more than just the story of a little child. It is about how the modern religions end up being "prostitutes" taking mon2ey and favors from his followers.
To sum up, this is another of Ian's attemptes to cricticyse the society.
Cross-Eyed Mary - Jethro Tull
Who would be a poor man, a beggarman, a thief -
If he had a rich man in his hand.And who would steal the candy from a laughing baby's mouth
If he could take it from thw money man.
Cross-eyed Mary goes jumping in again.
She signs no contract but she always plays the game.
She dines in Hampstead village on expense acconted gruel,
and the jack-knife barberdrops her off at school.
Laughing in the playground-gets no kicks from little boys:
would rather it wich a letching grey.
Or maybe her attencion is draw by Aqualung
who watches through the railing as they play.
Cross-eyed Mary finds hard to get along.
She's a poor man's rich girl and she'll do it for a a song.
She's the rich man stealer but her favour's good and strong:
She's the Robin Hood of Highgate-helps the poor man get along.
xoxo, Lucy