Hazard

guys remember that there are two videos about this song. And obviously one complements the other. Video 1: we learn that Richard's mother "came to Hazard" when he was seven years old. As Dave in Wales pointed out this can be ambiguous. . . . or is it? [this will come up again] We see the sheriff standing atop a bridge spying on Richard and Mary and taking pictures; these photos come up again later when the sheriff drives by Mary while she's walking [does the sheriff have something for Mary?]. Cut to night and Richard is walking--perhaps by the river, though it's not shown--and discovers Mary making out with another man (this triggers the flashbacks to his mother cheating). The sheriff arrives and turns a searchlight on Richard who runs and leaves his scarf behind, caught on a shrub [why was the sheriff there anyway? Was he checking up on "his" Mary?]. Cut to Richard alone in his trailer watching TV, then to an approach on Mary from behind (still by the river), then back to Richard in obvious anguish [why anguish? Is he upset that Mary was with another man, or because he did something bad?], then back to Mary again as she turns around--she's been crying and seems surprised to see someone [her killer, but who is it?]. We see a close-up of Richard's scarf in the water, then him at home being arrested. Scenes of police investigating led to a pull-back on the scarf--it's underwater and around Mary's neck [did Richard do it? His scarf, but the sheriff saw him leave it behind as he ran. . . . ]. As Richard "thinks about his life gone by and how it's done me wrong" we see his father leaving with another woman due to Richard's mother's affaire. Young Richard saw his mother cheating and burns down the house [presumably with his mother and her lover still inside. So, is this how his mother "came to hazard"?] (this also indicates that Richard has issues with people cheating [his reaction to Mary with another man seems to indicate he had feelings for her and considered her to be cheating]). He runs away as the house burns and we cut to the police interrogation--"I didn't date her" he tells them. "Didn't date her? She made you jealous didn't she?" replies the sheriff, who gets cut off by another official: "all righty sheriff, what's the point?" "This is the point!" the sheriff pulls out the scarf in an evidence bag. Cut to the townspeople burning down Richard's trailer, and a quick scene of Mary [the same scene from earlier where the sheriff was following her, only this time she's running from him]. The sheriff drops Richard off at his burnt-out trailer [apparently there wasn't enough evidence to hold him], a mother walking with her son quickly pulls him in close and covers his eyes [it's obvious they still think he's "not right" and that he killed Mary]. We're left with Richard leaving town and a voice-over from Mary: "y'know, everyone thinks I should be afraid of you.... [at this point we cut to the sheriff, another cut from the "stalking Mary" scene] But I'm not." The lines "No one understood what I felt for Mary/No one cared until the night she went out walking alone/And never came home" & "I swear I left her by the river/I swear I left her safe and sound" are the subject of much debate: if she was walking alone, how did Richard leave her by the river? My take is that he's referring to when he saw her in the car, or possibly "the last time I saw her was by the river". In the end, my thoughts on this video are that the sheriff is stalking her and doesn't like that she's friendly with Richard. It seems that maybe the sheriff did kill her and used Richard--with his prior history--as the patsy. that´s one theory of course

she killed herself. Ashamed of what she had done and that she lost her only true friend. She cheated on him. Second theory -Just my thoughts.

When I recently heard that song again, I noticed that in the lyrics he first sings "no one cared until the night she went out walking alone", which - to me - means, that he wasn´t with her at all. In the following refrain then he sings "I swear, I left her by the river". So he actually HAS been with her, right? Personally I think, that he´s lying and did murder the girl.

don´t forget the phrase "come to hazard" The song opens with an interesting lyric - "My mother came to Hazard when I was just seven, even then the folks in town said with prejudiced eyes, that boy's not right". Hazard is the name of a town in Nebraska, but the term "to come to hazard" also means to meet with danger. Could this perhaps have been a deliberate play on words on Richard Marx's part? You don't hear anything else about the narrator's mother in the song, and there's no mention of the residents taking a dislike toi her, only her son. Could that line mean that she migrated to the town of Hazard when the boy was seven? Or perhaps that when the boy was seven something happened to his mother, and the other residents of the town suspected that the boy was in some way involved?