Song title: Mary queen of Arkansas
Mary queen of Arkansas
Mary queen of Arkansas, it’s not too early for dreamin’
The sky is grown with cloud seed sown and a bastard’s love can be redeeming
Mary, my queen, your soft hulk is reviving
No, you’re not too late to desecrate, the servants are just rising
Well I’m just a lonely acrobat, the live wire is my trade
I’ve been a shine boy for your acid brat and a wharf rat of your state
Mary, my queen, your blows for freedom are missing
You’re not man enough for me to hate or woman enough for kissing
The big top is for dreamers, we can take the circus all the way to the border
And the gallows wait for martyrs whose papers are in order
But I was not born to live to die and you were not born for queenin’
It’s not too late to infiltrate, the servants are just leavin’
Mary queen of Arkansas, your white skin is deceivin’
You wake and wait to lie in bait and you almost got me believin’
But on your bed Mary I can see the shadow of a noose
I don’t understand how you can hold ma so tight and love me so damn loose
But I know a place where we can go, Mary
Where I can get a good job and start all over again clean
I got contacts deep in Mexico where the servants have been seen Notes:
Placed on "Greetings", played last time 11-Mar-1974 Liberty Hall, Houston, TX and vanished until 14-Mar-2000 in the Reunion tour.
Published on the following official releases:
- GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J. (Album,1973)
- THE BEST OF BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (LP,1986)
- TRACKS (Album,1999)
First known live performance: 29/10/1972 National Guard Armory, Long Branch,NJ ,USA
Last known live performance: 22/05/2014 Soldiers and Sailors Hall, Pittsburgh,PA ,USA
Song 'history':
Played live 9 time(s) during the so-called 'Greetings Tour'
and 1 time(s) during the gigs preceeding the official Born To Run Tour.
Keep in mind that only a small amount of the setlists of these years has surfaced, so it may have been played a lot more.
Apart from the above live performances, the song was recorded for the historical 'Hammond demos' in May 1972 and also during the Greetings / Wild sessions in 1972-73 (and released on GREETINGS....)
The TRACKS studio out-take collection included an alternate version of the song.
It only saw the light 3 times in the whole Reunion tour
Played once in the whole Rising tour (27/09/2002 Bradley Center, Milwaukee,WI ,USA)
One only rendering for this song in the Working on a Dream tour (22/11/2009 HSBC Arena, Buffalo,NY ,USA)
The song was also played in informal happenings or off-tour appearances
Data from the www.brucespringsteen.it database