{"id":11367,"date":"2022-10-06T09:35:45","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T13:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/millheiser.com\/hokeyblog\/?p=11367"},"modified":"2022-10-27T16:32:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T20:32:57","slug":"buttkickin-halloween-songs-cross-eyed-mary-jethro-tull-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/millheiser.com\/hokeyblog\/2022\/10\/06\/buttkickin-halloween-songs-cross-eyed-mary-jethro-tull-1971\/","title":{"rendered":"Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “Cross-Eyed Mary” — Jethro Tull (1971)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Laughing in the playground
\nGets no kicks from little boys
\nWould rather make it with a letching gray
\nOr maybe her attention is drawn by Aqualung
\nWho watches through the railings as they play<\/em><\/p>\n

Cross-Eyed Mary finds it hard to get along<\/em>
\nShe’s a poor man’s rich girl and she’ll do it for a song<\/em>
\nShe’s a rich man stealer but her favour’s good and strong<\/em>
\nShe’s the Robin Hood of Highgate<\/em>
\nHelps the poor man get along…<\/em><\/p>\n

Well it’s not everyday we feature a song about a schoolgirl prostitute, and for good reason. So if you’re the type who needs Trigger Warnings, there you have it.<\/p>\n

Anyway, at any given moment there are about a dozen Jethro Tull songs I want to add to our list of Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs, if I knew what the hell Ian Anderson was talking about half the time, and I say that as a big Tull fan. And yet with Cross-Eyed Mary<\/strong>, arguably the second-most-recognizable track from their landmark 1971 album Aqualung<\/em>, there can no mistaking the subject matter therein. It’s dicey material, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n

Still, Anderson has always been more interesting to me as a songwriting painter than as a songwriting storyteller (although he utterly excels at both). With Cross-Eyed Mary<\/em>, he stages his canvas in highly descriptive relief. Mary has no interest in boys her age; she attracts and seduces older men (“letching grays”, indeed). She targets rich men for the money, and poor men for whatever favors they can offer. Even a ride to school that morning.<\/p>\n

But with rich men in her hand, Mary can get along just fine. Even the creepy piss-smelling bum known as Aqualung makes a cameo appearance, and she seems to have an eye on him<\/em> as well.<\/p>\n

Yeah, it’s super creepy and cringe and all that but it’s one hell of a musical tableau. What makes it even more effective is (1) how much this song absolutely cooks<\/em>, and (2) Anderson’s vocal delivery, how he uses his voice to surround the scene with a haze of remote village abandonment, where vice and depravity runs unchallenged yet acknowledged. Accepted even, maybe.<\/p>\n

Even that musical intro is perfect spooky Halloween material: a quick howl transitions to that trilling minor key flute riff, immediately establishing tone and scene. Drum, piano, and bass syncopation raises the tension higher until the band explodes into a powerful opening verse. The stage is set and the scene begins to unfurl.<\/p>\n

Cross-Eyed Mary<\/strong> is one of those amazing classic rock songs that never seems trite, tired, or overplayed. If you find it problematic by today’s standards, you’re missing the point. It’s problematic by any<\/em> standards, which why it makes for such compelling (and disturbing) art.<\/p>\n

Cross-eyed Mary goes jumping in again<\/em>
\nShe signs no contract<\/em>
\nBut she always plays the game<\/em>
\nShe dines in Hampstead Village<\/em>
\nOn expense accounted gruel<\/em>
\nAnd the jack-knife barber drops her off at school…<\/em><\/p>\n