One of my favorite songs lyric-wise.
My personal interpretation is that it is about a man killing his lover.
''Your funeral, my trial'' obviously means murder, I think.
He's broken and he's been through a lot (''I am a crooked man and I've walked a crooked mile''), but now nighttime comes and all the universe knows it's his time (''the stars all winked at me''), time for him to get his vengeance.
He was cheated, wronged and used like a little lamb (May Had a Little Lamb). I'm not sure if ''a thousand Marys'' means a girl named Mary who had multiple faces/personas, meaning she was a liar and manipulator, or that there were multiple girls with whom he had negative experiences, and he calls them ''Mary'' because all women are the same to him, and all of them want to control and own him, as if he were their little lamb. Anyway, she/them seduced him (''lured me to feathered beds and fields of glover''), but as soon as he went with her, he knew he had been trapped (''bird with crooked wing cast it's wicked shadow over''), he feels that the whole universe is laughing at him for falling for the trap (''a bauble moon did mock and trinket stars did smile'').
But now it's his time, now he's the one luring and hurting (''here I am, little lamb...''). ''Let all the bells in whoredom ring'' means that a whore died, and all the other whores in whoreland are alarmed, all of her faces and lies are now gone (''All the crooked bitches that she was'') and when she was dying she saw the world the way he sees it, as an evil, dangerous place (''mongers of pain, saw the moon become a fang'').
One of my favorite songs lyric-wise. My personal interpretation is that it is about a man killing his lover. ''Your funeral, my trial'' obviously means murder, I think.
He's broken and he's been through a lot (''I am a crooked man and I've walked a crooked mile''), but now nighttime comes and all the universe knows it's his time (''the stars all winked at me''), time for him to get his vengeance.
He was cheated, wronged and used like a little lamb (May Had a Little Lamb). I'm not sure if ''a thousand Marys'' means a girl named Mary who had multiple faces/personas, meaning she was a liar and manipulator, or that there were multiple girls with whom he had negative experiences, and he calls them ''Mary'' because all women are the same to him, and all of them want to control and own him, as if he were their little lamb. Anyway, she/them seduced him (''lured me to feathered beds and fields of glover''), but as soon as he went with her, he knew he had been trapped (''bird with crooked wing cast it's wicked shadow over''), he feels that the whole universe is laughing at him for falling for the trap (''a bauble moon did mock and trinket stars did smile'').
But now it's his time, now he's the one luring and hurting (''here I am, little lamb...''). ''Let all the bells in whoredom ring'' means that a whore died, and all the other whores in whoreland are alarmed, all of her faces and lies are now gone (''All the crooked bitches that she was'') and when she was dying she saw the world the way he sees it, as an evil, dangerous place (''mongers of pain, saw the moon become a fang'').
Just my opninion anyway.