Who did kill Mary?* And other unsolved song mysteries

[IntelligentInputDarling]

*Hazard - Richard Marx.

Anyone know what happened to poor Mary?
Do we think she's still somewhere down by the river, in that old Nebraska town?

I disagree with those whom think Billie Joe threw an illegitimate baby off the bridge. For a start, if it was the narrator’s baby, surely even the narrator’s emotionally illiterate parents would have noticed their young daughter was pregnant. Bobbie Gentry herself has never given any indication of what it is that the boy threw off the bridge and I’m happy for it to remain a mystery.

By her own admission: they had a quarrel.

How long has this been going on?

Why didn't we do it in the road??

Was you was or was you weren't my baby??

What happened after the meeting of the Harper Valley PTA when Mrs Johnson told everyone all the shortcomings and moral failures of themselves and their husbands?

That song simply has to have been written on drugs!

Really showing my age now, but what happened to the rest of the teenage opera? (The one where Grocer Jack died...) 🤔

I wanna know what love is. I also want to know what love’s got to do with it.

Yes, it was called "Excerpt from A Teenage Opera " wasn't it? I seem to remember the writer hoped to produce a real Teenage Opera but it didn't get a proper contract or something like that.

If you know full well that the blackbird in question is up yon Wurzel tree, why ask where he’s to in the first place?

Yes, me too.
Also, just how deep is your love?

Isn't where he's to, where he is going/on the way to?

Did she sail through the changing oceans tide? Did she manage the seasons of her life?

I think she did, and she did it very well

No, he’s a blackbird from the south west so he’s asking “where’s he to?” i.e where is he. We talks proper down yer 😉

Ah, that makes sense...

Damn, was about to say the same then realised I'd been pipped to the post! 😄

What difference does it make?

(This is answered - it makes none.)

One of the best songs ever! I knew what it from the title, before opening the thread.

I think he did it (the narrator). And I have spent waaaaay too much time pondering this over decades! I don't think Richard Marx has ever said? Off to Google...

That song is so good, it's like a mini murder-mystery.

You have me thinking about it all over again now.

That is the first time I've ever encountered anyone else who knows that song! Think it's the B-side of 'I've Got A Brand New Combine Harvester' which cringes in embarrassment I owned as a child. 😄

Come back with your findings @LadyLucyWells
This thread has been waiting for you 😄

Should I stay or should I go? Although from the lyrics I should definitely go, as although there will be trouble, if I stay it will be double....!

For those remembering "Ode to Billie Joe" 😂

In Band of Gold, why is she alone, and where has he gone on the wedding night?
Did he still love her tomorrow?
What's going on?
What becomes of the brokenhearted?

It was a toy puppet that got thrown off the bridge ,, I know these things