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


Lyrics submitted by threearmedman

Otis and Marlena Lyrics as written by Joni Mitchell

Lyrics © Reservoir Media Management, Inc.

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Otis & Marlena song meanings
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5 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment

    Does anyone know what this song means? I really like it, musically, and I think I like the lyrics too.

    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???

    inthisholeon March 17, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The line 'While Muslims stick up Washington' refers to the 1977 Hanafi Siege:

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Hanafi_Siege

    beingmrkennyon July 01, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    It`s a beautiful poem,find your own meaning

    dragon4625on June 03, 2014   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation

    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.

    @nthonyon June 26, 2015   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The Wikipedia page “1977 Washington, D.C., attack and hostage taking” says this:

    “The 1977 Hanafi Siege was a terrorist attack, hostage-taking, and standoff in Washington, D.C., lasting from March 9 to March 11, 1977. Three buildings (the District Building, B’nai B’rith headquarters, and Islamic Center of Washington) were seized by twelve Hanafi Movement gunmen, who took 149 hostages. During the initial attack and takeover of the buildings, a journalist and a police officer were killed, and three others, including a city councilor, were injured. After a 39-hour standoff, the gunmen surrendered and all remaining hostages were released.

    “The gunmen were led by Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, who wanted to bring attention to the murder of his family in 1973. They had several demands, including that the government hand over the killers of Khaalis’ family and Malcom X to them, as well as that the premiere of ‘Mohammad, Messenger of God’ be canceled, and the film destroyed, because they considered it sacrilegious. … “The siege is mentioned in Joni Mitchell’s song ‘Otis and Marlena’ from her 1977 album ‘Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter.’ In the song, the title characters travel ‘for sun and fun / While Muslims stick up Washington’.”

    Sewmaeyeon September 06, 2023   Link

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