Mary by Big Thief Lyrics Meaning – Navigating the Ethereal Landscape of Memory and Longing
Lyrics
The floods around the plains
The planets in a rose
Who knows what they contain?
And my brain is like an orchestra
Playing on, insane
Will you love me like you loved me in the January rain?
Mom and Dad and violins
Somber country silence
The needle stopped the kicking
The clothespins on the floor
And my heart is playing hide and seek
Wait and count to four
Will you love me like you loved me and I’ll never ask for more
What did you tell me Mary
When you were there so sweet and very
Full of field and stars
You carried all of time
Oh and, heavens, when you looked at me
Your eyes were like machinery
Your hands were making artifacts in the corner of my mind
Monastery monochrome
Boom balloon machine and oh
Diamond rings and gutter bones
Marching up the mountain
With our aching planning
High and smiling
Cheap drink
Dark and violent
Full of butterflies
The violent tenderness
The sweetest silence
The clay you find is fortified
We felt unfocused fade the line
The sugar rush
The constant hush
The pushing of the water gush
The marching band
When April ran
May June bugs fly in
Push your gin Jacob
With the tired wiry brandy look
Here we go around Mary in your famous story book
We overcome the sirens
We look both left and right
And I can feel the numbness accompany my plight
And I know that someday soon I’ll see you
But now you’re out of sight
And you’ll kiss me like you used to in the January night
What did you tell me Mary
When you were there so sweet and very
Full of field and stars
You carried all of time
Oh and, heavens, when you looked at me
Your eyes were like machinery
Your hands were making artifacts in the corner of my mind
Monastery monochrome
Boom balloon machine and oh
Diamond rings and gutter bones
Marching up some mountain
With our aching planning
High and smiling
Cheap drink
Dark and violent
Full of butterflies
The violent tenderness
The sweetest silence
The clay you find is fortified
We felt some focus fade the line
The sugar rush
The constant hush
The pushing of the water gush
The marching band
When April ran
May June bugs fly in
Push your gin Jacob
With the tired wiry brandy look
Here you go around Mary in your famous story book
Big Thief, an indie band known for their poignant storytelling and emotional depth, has created an elegiac masterpiece in their song ‘Mary’. The track, woven with intricate lyricism and haunting melodies, dives into a reflective pool of memory, love lost, and the profound interaction between human experience and the senses.
The song ‘Mary’ stands as a multifaceted jewel in Big Thief’s discography, reflecting differing interpretations with each listen. As listeners, we are invited into a vivid tapestry of images and sounds that blend to tell a story greater than the sum of its parts—a story of enduring connection through time and change.
A Symphony of the Senses – Unpacking the Orchestral Mind
The opening lines of ‘Mary’ immediately establish a sensory world that is as expansive as the cosmos yet as intimate as a thought. ‘Burn up with the water / The floods around the plains’ brings forth a fusion of the elements, suggesting the idea of transformation and renewal. Likening the brain to an ‘orchestra playing on, insane’ portrays a mind buzzing with activity and emotion, resonating with the chaos of an inner life.
‘Will you love me like you loved me in the January rain?’ serves as a refrain throughout the song, hammering on the recurring theme of longing. It’s a call for constancy in feelings when everything else, from planets to seasons, is in flux.
Haunted by the Past – Monuments of Memory in ‘Mary’
Through visceral images like ‘Mom and Dad and violins’ and ‘clothespins on the floor,’ we are painted a picture of a family tableau that is fraught with melancholy and remembrance. The ‘somber country silence’ could mirror the internal quiet of someone grappling with loss or the silent passage of time that continues unabated.
Big Thief infuses the song with an exploration of temporality—how memories fade or sharpen over time, and how the heart ‘playing hide and seek’ signifies the elusiveness of reconciling the present with the past.
The Secret Chamber of ‘Mary’ – An Intimate Revelation
At the song’s core lies a cryptic entity, Mary. The chorus poses the baffling, repeating question, ‘What did you tell me, Mary, when you were there so sweet and very / Full of field and stars?’ The character of Mary acts as an anchor for the narrator’s inquiry into the past, a vessel carrying the weight of a moment that was timeless yet ephemeral.
Her gaze, ‘like machinery’, suggests an almost alien quality, intensifying the familiar perception of someone who carries within them the profound and the otherworldly. The narrator’s raw fascination with Mary is evident, revealing a hidden meaning of sacred encounters that leave indelible marks on the soul.
The Tapestries of Imagery and Sound – Mary’s Audiovisual Saga
One cannot ignore the ornate and elaborate cascades of imagery that form the realm ‘Mary’ resides in. From ‘Monastery monochrome’ to ‘Diamond rings and gutter bones,’ Big Thief crafts a landscape that is both stark and rich, dualistic in its beauty and desolation.
Enigmatic and richly metaphorical, the lines traverse topics from spirituality to the brevity of life, each lyric a puzzle piece constructing an ever-expansive picture. The song exudes a poetic stream of consciousness that invites interpretation and introspection.
Echoes of Endearment – The Most Stirring Lines in ‘Mary’
Certain lines in the song command attention with their raw, evocative power, such as ‘The violent tenderness / The sweetest silence.’ These paradoxical phrases encapsulate the deep yet conflicting emotions that course through the melodies of ‘Mary’.
The raw emotional scape of ‘Mary’ reaches its zenith in the lines that speak of shared silence and tender chaos—a tender chaos that brims with love and the complexity of human relationships. They serve as reminders of the delicate balance between joy and sorrow, peace and turmoil that defines our lives.
