In the early 80's, talk of a Marilyn Monroe death cover up or conspiracy reached a fever pitch. At some point, there was consideration of having the L.A, Coroner's office exhume Marilyn Monroe's body, which had been interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetary since three days after her death in August of 1962. The idea would have been to confirm genetically that it was really her in that crypt as well as to do further testing on the remains to try and help solve some ongoing mysteries.
T-Bone Burnett wrote this song in response to reports of the possible exhumation of Marilyn Monroe's body. The song assumes her remains have been exhumed, and is addressed to the L.A. Coroner examining her body. Marilyn Monroe is never specifically named in the song, but his descriptions confirm that this is the song's subject. It's a clever devise for T-Bone to pose a number of questions about Marilyn to the Coroner--by doing so, he reveals his youthful fascination for Marilyn (T-Bone would have been 14 at the time of her death) and echos society's contined obsession with her. He clevery leaves open the option which some conspiracy theorists offer that Marilyn's death was faked by using terms like "gone" or "disappeared"; that is, until the last line, where he essentially asks the Coroner if she is still dead.
This is high calibre, clever song writing. It's a song that is much harder to figure out, though, if you don't know any of the "backstory" about Marilyn Monroe and the conspiracy theories, as well as the possble further investigation into her death.
In the early 80's, talk of a Marilyn Monroe death cover up or conspiracy reached a fever pitch. At some point, there was consideration of having the L.A, Coroner's office exhume Marilyn Monroe's body, which had been interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetary since three days after her death in August of 1962. The idea would have been to confirm genetically that it was really her in that crypt as well as to do further testing on the remains to try and help solve some ongoing mysteries.
T-Bone Burnett wrote this song in response to reports of the possible exhumation of Marilyn Monroe's body. The song assumes her remains have been exhumed, and is addressed to the L.A. Coroner examining her body. Marilyn Monroe is never specifically named in the song, but his descriptions confirm that this is the song's subject. It's a clever devise for T-Bone to pose a number of questions about Marilyn to the Coroner--by doing so, he reveals his youthful fascination for Marilyn (T-Bone would have been 14 at the time of her death) and echos society's contined obsession with her. He clevery leaves open the option which some conspiracy theorists offer that Marilyn's death was faked by using terms like "gone" or "disappeared"; that is, until the last line, where he essentially asks the Coroner if she is still dead.
This is high calibre, clever song writing. It's a song that is much harder to figure out, though, if you don't know any of the "backstory" about Marilyn Monroe and the conspiracy theories, as well as the possble further investigation into her death.