Mary's Place

I think the "Mary" in this song, is the Mother of Jesus...he say's he has got, seven pictures of Budda, on his wall; he has searched for God in many places, but in the end, "meet me at Mary's place" where Jesus was born.....

The song, especially in the context of the Rising is about the loss of the narrator'she wife or girlfriend either due to 9/11 or otherwise (It stands alone). In the first verse he speaks of all the efforts he has made to cope or understand through religion. What the song makes clear is that his only eat to find peace and to cope is to lose himself in the abandon of a loud house party. Even there of course he thinks of her. But you know turn it up turn it up and let's get this thing started. It's a beautiful song of horrific loss and beautiful redemption through music. It's one of his finest songs since the 70's.

it's about a wake

I think it's about a bad time, and trying to get over that bad time, sort of a song about the healing power of music. I love the gospel feel.

It's about celebrating the life of a deceased instead of mourning their death.

does anyone have any insight on the lines: "Seven days, seven candles In my window lighting your way "?

I saw Bruce in the Meadowlands a couple years back and he talked at a decent length about this song. It's primarily about throwing a house party on the Jersey shore in the summertime. Bruce talked about how he would sometimes hope for rain because it meant everyone one would be looking for a place to go inside. They'd cary all the furniture out of the house, lay carboard down everywhere, and dance the night away.

I think there's also a deeper metaphor in turning a down situation (such as rain in the summer time) into one of the best nights possible. All it takes is good people around you and a positive attitude.

On another note it's interesting how many religious figures he refers to throughout The Rising album. Watch his "storytellers" from VH1 and he gets pretty deep into the religious exploration he was on when writing The Rising.

also this song is drawn from Sam Cooke's song "Meet me at Mary's Place", also about a house party

To me this is obviously Springsteen‘s interpretation of what eternity in heaven is going to be like. Biblically speaking, ‘seven’ represents completion or perfection in God’s economy (while ‘six’ is the number of man). We see examples of this repeatably (Genesis 1, Exodus 20, 2Kings 5, Psalm 12, Matthew 18, and numerous, numerous other passages. I believe that’s what Bruce is alluding to with his references to ‘seven’