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Description
This is what the country folk and those from ‘ye old sod’ would call a murder ballad. A love relationship where the boy has his heart repeatedly but subtly vacated and forlorn by the girl. He plays in his mind a psychological revenge in a dark twisted cruel fantasy of actually witnessing the girl come to terms with how she has desolated his love and she, finally feeling the lonely desolation herself from losing his heart, takes a dagger to her own neck on the Town Square at the foot of the old oak tree.
This tune was influenced by certain dark thoughts of my own but also my interest in the English and Scandanavian tradition of these tunes and crafty Elvis Costello’s own murder ballads. Enjoy the unraveling of Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown - names have been changed to protect the ‘innocent’.
Ed Enright joins me to provide counter melody on backing vocals. Eddy and I grew up trading Beatles harmonies playing in pubs since our teens so it has come full circle with Eddy by my side on the mic.
John LaMantia: music, lyrics, vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitars, bass guitar, percussion
Ed Enright: backing vocals
Music and Lyrics (c) John LaMantia for Boss Hook Music Publishing, 2011
This tune was influenced by certain dark thoughts of my own but also my interest in the English and Scandanavian tradition of these tunes and crafty Elvis Costello’s own murder ballads. Enjoy the unraveling of Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown - names have been changed to protect the ‘innocent’.
Ed Enright joins me to provide counter melody on backing vocals. Eddy and I grew up trading Beatles harmonies playing in pubs since our teens so it has come full circle with Eddy by my side on the mic.
John LaMantia: music, lyrics, vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitars, bass guitar, percussion
Ed Enright: backing vocals
Music and Lyrics (c) John LaMantia for Boss Hook Music Publishing, 2011
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Lyrics
The Unraveling of Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown
(c) John LaMantia for Boss Hook Music
In a two page letter she says more than Hemingway
Now I understand all the things she could never say
Her anguish came across like a two dollar bill
Weird to see it real but enough to matter still
She punishes her emotions like an Ali combination
And loses all her dignity in the face of consternation
She’s coming apart at the seems
I only thought I’d see this in my dreams
Gather around, hurry me down
I want to witness the unraveling of Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown
And with a dagger pointed perfectly at the nape of her neck
She’s dressed up very beautifully for being such a wreck
Her life begins to flash across her downcast eyes
While the town crowd hushes at this site of such surprise
She beats back all the tears of her unrequited patience
She loses all her dignity in the face of consternation
She’s coming apart at the seems
I only thought I’d see this in my dreams
Gather around, hurry me down
I want to witness the unraveling of Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown
Sentiments of charity befall the day’s proceedings
Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown is really bleeding
I see her from a distance slumped against a tree
Mumbling for forgiveness for what she did to me
Gather around, hurry me down
I want to witness the unraveling of Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown
(c) John LaMantia for Boss Hook Music
In a two page letter she says more than Hemingway
Now I understand all the things she could never say
Her anguish came across like a two dollar bill
Weird to see it real but enough to matter still
She punishes her emotions like an Ali combination
And loses all her dignity in the face of consternation
She’s coming apart at the seems
I only thought I’d see this in my dreams
Gather around, hurry me down
I want to witness the unraveling of Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown
And with a dagger pointed perfectly at the nape of her neck
She’s dressed up very beautifully for being such a wreck
Her life begins to flash across her downcast eyes
While the town crowd hushes at this site of such surprise
She beats back all the tears of her unrequited patience
She loses all her dignity in the face of consternation
She’s coming apart at the seems
I only thought I’d see this in my dreams
Gather around, hurry me down
I want to witness the unraveling of Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown
Sentiments of charity befall the day’s proceedings
Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown is really bleeding
I see her from a distance slumped against a tree
Mumbling for forgiveness for what she did to me
Gather around, hurry me down
I want to witness the unraveling of Mary Alice Frances Parker Brown
johnwhitehead
Can definitely hear Costello influence in the diction, word play and imagery. Very cool. I dig the chord changes, harmonies and stripped down arrangement. A really sophisticated piece of writing1