"Her mother called her mary, but she changed her name to tommy, she's a one
Oh, she went and joined the army, passed the medical
Don't ask me how it's done"
And
"People say that when the moon is full and all the stars have gone to bed
You can see her ghost but that's a lie because the naughty woman isn't dead"
Amazing rhyming, I love how whimnsical this early stuff is, but it hides a very acute and brilliant sense of things. Obviously this song has to do with a woman who didn't relate to the feminine ideals that were demanded of her in her time, and so she became a boy. And then she realized she didn't want to fight anymore and so, as a girl, it was in her power to desert the others and be a woman again.
It's a brilliant song because it talks about how gender boundaries are insanely ridiculous.
"Her mother called her mary, but she changed her name to tommy, she's a one Oh, she went and joined the army, passed the medical Don't ask me how it's done"
And
"People say that when the moon is full and all the stars have gone to bed You can see her ghost but that's a lie because the naughty woman isn't dead"
Amazing rhyming, I love how whimnsical this early stuff is, but it hides a very acute and brilliant sense of things. Obviously this song has to do with a woman who didn't relate to the feminine ideals that were demanded of her in her time, and so she became a boy. And then she realized she didn't want to fight anymore and so, as a girl, it was in her power to desert the others and be a woman again.
It's a brilliant song because it talks about how gender boundaries are insanely ridiculous.