[Verse 1] 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'
[Outro] But I know a place where we can go, Mary Where I can get a good job and start out all over again clean I got contacts deep in Mexico where the servants have been seen
“‘Mary Queen of Arkansas’ describes the first-person male narrator’s uncertain romantic relationship with a transvestite. Perhaps following in the footsteps of the 1970 hit ‘Lola’, Springsteen takes on a level of complexity and commitment not present in the Kinks’ carefree storyline of a drunken barroom frolic. Circus imagery pervades the song, implying that both the narrator and Mary have multi-layered identities.” – Beyond Blood Brothers by Rosalie Zdzienicka Fanshel
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