RARA-AVIS: noir lyrics part 2

Robert A. Vietrogoski (rav7@columbia.edu)
Fri, 21 May 1999 19:12:36 -0400 (EDT) Oh hell, I'm claiming that this is for criticism, comment, scholarship,
and research for non-profit educational purposes with no negative effect
upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. Here's
Dave Alvin:

Mary Brown

Well my name is Charlie Thomas and I'm as good a man as you,
and for the love of Mary Brown there's nothing that I won't do.
Her husband was a banker yet she told me he was cruel,
so I left his body lying in the yard where the roses grew.

Well, she and I grew up neighbors where the houses looked the same
and I swear that I loved Mary Brown before I knew her name
and after she married and he moved her away,
she'd still come back and lay with me like nothing ever changed.

I know what's wrong and right
What goes around comes around
There ain't nothing that I won't do
for the love of Mary Brown.

Well people like him always looked down on me,
because I've done a little time for armed robbery.
Yeah, but Mary Brown knows I'm from a good family,
she didn't say nothing when she slipped me the backdoor key.

chorus

At my trial she testified she'd kissed me once or twice
but she swore that was long before she became his wife,
and every time I looked at her she avoided my eyes
and the jury sentenced me to twenty-five years to life.

Now I haven't seen Mary Brown since the trial's end
and she never answers the letters I send
and I hear that she married her husband's best friend...
but for the love of Mary Brown I'd do it all again.

copyright 1998 Dave Alvin

Bob Vietrogoski, rebel librarian

#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.