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Cross-Eyed Mary Lyrics
Who would be a poor man a beggerman, a thief
if he had a rich man in his hand
Who would steal the candy from a laughing baby's mouth
if he could take it from the 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 accounted gruel
and the jack knife barber drops her off at school
Laughing in the playground gets no kicks from little boys
would rather make it with a letching gray
Or maybe her attention is drawn by Aqualung
who watches through the railings as they play
Cross-eyed Mary finds it hard to get along.
She's a poor man's rich girl and she'll do it for a song
She's a rich man's stealer but her favour's good and strong
She's the Robin Hood of Highgate helps the poor man get along
We don't find out that she's underage until halfway through the song. "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. She's already past adolecense because she had to have an abortion. But she's still young enough to go to school and play on a playground. I'll leave it up to you guys who aren't from America to decide what age that is. I doubt a 20-22 year old would "laugh on a playground" tho.
I love the intro flute part. It makes me visualize a forest setting or some sort of peaceful atmosphere, and then it suddenly drops you into the cynicism.
I've been wondering what a "jack knife barber" is...wow. They weren't always well-intentioned real doctors, either; some even deliberately made fatal "mistakes" on many of their patients.
I've been wondering what a "jack knife barber" is...wow. They weren't always well-intentioned real doctors, either; some even deliberately made fatal "mistakes" on many of their patients.
I disagree with the point that she has to be "past adolescence" solely because she had an abortion. Girls become fertile at 8 to 12 years old on average, though the mortality/miscarriage rates aren't pretty... The men boinking Mary would have paid to arrange an abortion because otherwise, the girl becoming visibly pregnant & giving birth would have exposed at least one of them as a pedophile.
I disagree with the point that she has to be "past adolescence" solely because she had an abortion. Girls become fertile at 8 to 12 years old on average, though the mortality/miscarriage rates aren't pretty... The men boinking Mary would have paid to arrange an abortion because otherwise, the girl becoming visibly pregnant & giving birth would have exposed at least one of them as a pedophile.
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Or perhaps she wasn't having an abortion, and the guy's job was just there as a kind of comment about him or society. I had always assumed that she had stopped off to do him before school and he drove her afterwards, or she spent the night, or being driven was just part of their exchange of favors.
"'Cross-Eyed Mary' is a song about another form of low life, but more humorous. It's about a schoolgirl prostitute but not in such coarse terms. She goes with dirty old men because she's doing them a favour, giving people what they want because it makes them happy. It's a fun kind of song."
I agree to the meaning, GAnthony. Agreed that that song writers eat by writing/singing songs. If you think this song is shocking, perhaps it was written for you, to kick you into doing something about a situation that still exists in your home town. Take that silver spoon out of your... mouth and help the Cross-eyed Marry in your neighborhood. To paraphrase an old book, feelings without action are dead. Geez, art isn't just to look at/listen to. It also spurs into action (not a reference to Hunting Girl). By the way, I wasn't shocked into buying the vinyl; I bought the 8-track. ;-)
I agree, 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 mopney and favors from the rich people. the last paragraph is very revealing. "She's is the poor man rich girl" means she is well loved by the poor and she will help them for a song. Remeber singing is an important part of many religiuos ceremonies. Whe the song says "she's the rich men stealer" it means she takes money from the higher classes for favours.
Actually I think by "get along" Anderson is talking more about sex rather than monetary donations.
I think Mary is a reference to Virgin Mary, and thus an allegory for the Church. I think he is comparing the organized Church to a 'child prostitute'. The church dines on expensive gruel (fancy priests with gold and expensive wine), takes from the rich (guilts people into giving money, etc), gives hope to the poor. I think the whole song alludes to this theme.
wow thanks RayMan, I never looked at it like that before. I think you really have something there.
I don't think she's much to do with Aqualung, apart from maybe identifying with him a little bit, as he's another casualty of society broken and unable to function in the manner expected.
I had always figured that the girl is a child prostitute on the literal level, but also a reference to the Virgin Mary & Mary Magdalene of the Bible, who personify the (virgin)madonna/whore view the Church has towards females. Either we're innocent virgins laughing naively (clueless about things like poverty) as we romp on the playground having fun with our male peers, OR we're coldly calculating sexual opportunists that only see the opposite gender in terms of what we can get out of them. There's no middleground in the attitude like in real-life people.
What drove me to come here, though, was when I read Wikipedia's page on the song... To my complete shock, the explanation given there is that Cross-Eyed Mary is a pious thief stealing money from the rich and giving it to poor homeless beggars like Aqualung. After seeing that interpretation, I decided to come see what others thought about it here and find out whether my belief was the bizarre & unusual one, or if the wacky one is whoever posted that theory to Wikipedia!
Haven't read the last page of interpretations here, so I might be repeating somebody. I was thinking about the "Robin Hood of Highgate / Helps the poor man get along" lines and Wikipedia's claim that it's a literal "steal from the rich" situation...
Haven't read the last page of interpretations here, so I might be repeating somebody. I was thinking about the "Robin Hood of Highgate / Helps the poor man get along" lines and Wikipedia's claim that it's a literal "steal from the rich" situation...
I'm certain she's a child prostitute, and like someone else said, doing rich men since they'll pay better; I've also heard it referred to as stealing from or extorting lonely men desperate enough to pay in money & gifts for the intimate contact. (Sometimes because they're spoiled jerks, sometimes because they've let work take...
I'm certain she's a child prostitute, and like someone else said, doing rich men since they'll pay better; I've also heard it referred to as stealing from or extorting lonely men desperate enough to pay in money & gifts for the intimate contact. (Sometimes because they're spoiled jerks, sometimes because they've let work take over any hope of a personal life...) She might also be stealing on a literal level if allowed into their home. But instead of spending the money on all the things she can't get from her poverty-stricken family, she's giving it to her father to help support the household -- very much what a girl who is making a good wage does if her parents are poor.
It's also possible that having the crossed eyes means that Mary can't do well in school because of sight issues, and figures nobody will hire or or want to be with her romantically because of her disfigurement -- basically wiping out both her chance to support herself or find someone else to support her. Left with THAT future, it would make sense that she'd take whatever money & fake affection she can get even if it does mean prostitution; heck, I know normal attractive well-educated/successful women that are like that in rapid serial monogamy because their self-esteem was always so low.
All of the above might also explain why she's not interested in the little boys, now that I think about it from the "she's got a hard life, a hard future, and doing the mature thing to help out" angle... Having to grow up that harshly, and that young, does create a barrier between a person and others that had a nicer time. I had a number of very nasty problems to deal with as a child on an everyday basis and while I still laughed at things, I felt disconnected from classmates that complained of having a horrible day simply because they got the wrong snack or (later on as teens) were just angsty for seemingly no reason.
This song is talking about a little girl who is the play thing of an old lecherous pedophile. Would you like some candy little girl?
Motor27, is the old man Aqualung. Because he is mentioned in the song. This was what I thought, but some of the things about the expense account wouldn't make sense then.