| Tom Petty – Mary Jane's Last Dance Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| Spot on, see my comment for some other weed references. | |
| Tom Petty – Mary Jane's Last Dance Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| I knew I'd forget something. Only female marijuana plants produce the buds that are smoked. The fact that this song is about a female is very relevant. | |
| Tom Petty – Mary Jane's Last Dance Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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OK been thinking about this a lot the last few days and not satisfied with the either/or explanation. I finally came up with interpretations for both, and it actually fits together pretty well. Read on, this will probably be kinda long... The first interpretation, it's about a girl, is mostly OK. The part I completely reject is that she kills herself at the end. Guys you are pulling meaning out of one-half of one word. Let's review that line: "The nightfall will be coming soon" I can't really think of a better word than "nightfall" here. It's more ominous than "nighttime", which is neutral and much weaker. Only a goth would say "The darkness will be coming soon", and "The evening will be coming soon" sounds like a dandy excited about a formal dinner-dance. From there it just gets worse or requires the line to be entirely rewritten. There's also no support in the rest of the lyrics for the interpretation she dies at the end. In fact, everything else she says is consistent with the reading that she is simply gone at the end, having left - just like she says throughout the entire song. Now you could argue that she was trying to start a new life when she "moved down", but just two lines later the meaning of the word is clarified - "I got to keep movin' on". She moved on down to that town and now she's movin' on again. She didn't live in a house, apartment, or even a rented room, but a hotel room. It's clear her stay here is transitory. Keep in mind this song came out in the early 90s. At that point cell phones were as expensive, clunky, and rare as satellite phones are now. Also the internet only existed at universities and a few companies. When someone left they were GONE - it was very easy to lose track of someone forever, especially someone moving from town to town. How could you get a hold of them? Thus just her leaving is extremely devastating, in a way it isn't nowadays with smartphones and social media. Alrite so much for the popular interpretation. Now let's do a decent analysis of the theory that this song is about weed. I hope you find my argument compelling. Here we go! She grew up in a Indiana town Had a good lookin' mama who never was around But she grew up tall and she grew up right With them Indiana boys on an Indiana night Interpretation: She was grown by farmers in an Indiana town, between rows of corn. I'm pretty sure this was a thing, you can search yourself if you don't believe me. The good lookin' mama who never was around means she came from some great weed, but you could hardly ever get it. The Indiana boys are the farmers who grew it and smoked it (partying on the Indiana nights). Well, she moved down here at the age of 18 She blew the boys away, was more than they'd seen Interpretation: When she was 18, in other words an adult plant ready to harvest, a dealer brought her to the small town where our protagonist lives. She blew their minds because it was great weed. From here the two interpretations are similar - it's party time but it's also clear this will not last. But now we get to: "I hit my last number" I find it hard to believe this could be anything but a drug reference, smoking his last joint or bowl. In fact I suspect this particular phrase was picked precisely because it really has no double meaning which most drug references do. He wakes up in the morning after days/weeks of partying/binging on the good weed and now it's gone and he knows he has to go back to his boring life. Now the grand finale. The drug dealer is, in fact, Mary Jane. Both of these stories are playing out simultaneously. He is falling in love (emotional addiction) to this girl at the same time he is smoking the great weed she has with her. When she runs out (or the cops start figuring it out - see below) she's gone, and so is the weed. That's the main theory anyway. Let me know what you think. A few more points, they are too weak for the main writeup. There's pigeons down on Market Square A "stool pigeon" is an older term for snitch. Mary is looking down over the market square at people she's sold to and knows she has to bail, too many people know about the weed and someone soon will or already has squealed to the cops. "Put on that party dress" may refer to rolling a joint, you are putting a "dress" of a rolling paper around your weed. However I've never heard anyone say this, but then again I've also found drug culture to be highly localized even now, and again this song was written well before normal people used the internet. |
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