Crazy Mary

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?"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I agree with the post that said the narrator is the one who killed Mary in his “dream”.

I just want to add a couple thoughts on “That which you fear the most will meet you halfway”:

The very first line of the song is “She lived on a curve in the road”, and the line “That which you fear the most…” is, partially, a callback to this first line & also the way Mary’s “hands flew from her side” when offered a ride in the car - Mary is either simply terrified of cars - possibly because she’s Crazy, or, maybe she had a “vision” or a sense or something other foresight regarding her own death by Automobile. What Mary “fears the most” is her death by car, and it “met her halfway” because A) Mary already lived on the curve in the road, and she was likely terrified just waiting for some drunken kids to plow into the house of Mary. Hell, she may have even had a Vision of the narrator - her foreseen killer - and that’s the reason Mary’s “hands flew from her side” when offered a ride by him. Another minor reference to what actually kills Mary as well as what seems to be the fear of the adults of the town that maybe they have a juvenile delinquency problem or just some rowdy kids who like to party and pull dangerous stunts; or just the fear of the owner of the country store of being robbed or having customers keep driving past because rowdy kids are hangin out lol)is the “No L-O-I-T-E-R-I-N-G allowed; Take a bottle, drink it down….pass it around”; there’s much dread lying around in ‘Crazy Mary’. You need to make a couple leaps or assumptions, but it can be pieced together.

I think the main point is that crazy Mary wasn't crazy at all when it came to cars. She knew one would harm her, even kill her. There is a strong sense of irony all through the song. Eg The kids want to help her by giving her a ride but don't understand why she is so terrified. More irony in the 'no loitering allowed' sign which does nothing to stop the kids congregating under it, drinking, racing cars. All of which culminates in Mary being killed.

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

sweet relief album, right

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.