Jethro Tull - Cross-Eyed Mary Lyrics
Who would be a poor man, a beggarman, a thief
If he had a rich man in his hand
And who would steal the candy
From a laughing baby's mouth
If he could take it from the money man
She signs no contract
But she always plays the game
She dines in Hampstead village
On expense accounted gruel
And the jack-knife barber drops her off at school
Laughing in the playground, gets no kicks from little boys:
Would rather make it with a letching grey
Or maybe her attention is drawn by Aqualung
Who watches through the railings as they play
Cross-eyed Mary finds it hard to get along
She's a poor man's rich girl
And she'll do it for a song
She's a rich man stealer
But her favour's good and strong:
She's the Robin Hood of Highgate
Helps the poor man get along
Laughing in the playground, gets no kicks from little boys:
Would rather make it with a letching grey
Or maybe her attention is drawn by Aqualung
Who watches through the railings as they play
Cross-eyed Mary goes jumping in again
She signs no contract
But she always plays the game
She dines in Hampstead village
On expense accounted gruel
And the jack-knife barber drops her off at school
Cross-eyed Mary
Mary
Cross-eyed Mary
Other Lyrics by Artist
- Jethro Tull - Left Right
- Jethro Tull - This Is Not Love
- Jethro Tull - Strange Avenues
- Jethro Tull - Big Riff And Mando
- Jethro Tull - The Whaler's Dues
- Jethro Tull - Another Christmas Song
- Jethro Tull - Heavy Water
- Jethro Tull - Rock Island
- Jethro Tull - Undressed To Kill
- Jethro Tull - Ears Of Tin
- Jethro Tull - The Rattlesnake Trail
- Jethro Tull - Kissing Willie
- Jethro Tull - Part Of The Machine
- Jethro Tull - Raising Steam
- Jethro Tull - The Waking Edge
- Jethro Tull - Mountain Men
- Jethro Tull - Occasional Demons
- Jethro Tull - Roll Yer Own
Rand Lyrics
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Jethro Tull Cross-Eyed Mary Comments
Still great today, i remember i saw them in 1977 in NYC. Great music Great times
Spend Christmas Skiing with mixed pairs.
Way ahead of the time ..what was this 1971?
He is indeed a musical genius.
A lot easier to appreciate now.
One of the best albums ever....Thanks fate for giving me the chance of seeing them in the late 80's....Forever grateful.....
scott he cleans up good
a movie complete some would
only douglas could
kristen takes a ride
matthew traina on the side
hells angels abide
FACT - Ron Burgundy taught Jethro Tull everything he knows about Fluting and more!
jody superstar
naval ships traveling far
verns cape cod sand bar
This band is a Ledgend!
Always loved the groove on this tune.
Goddamn this is good. Album should be up there with Zep 2 and Sabbath Sold our souls...Till gets no respect
I've been searching for this song for 25 yrs. Glad I found it again. Love the opening. Like a dream.
It was sleazy for ‘71 but it rocks your butt off !
Mary, you just stay rught where u r. Love NOT NAZI FLAGS OVER THE GARDENS YOUR SON KILLED!
Peace molly. Hope youre feeling better! 😇👣👣👣👣👣
Cock eyed..
Can anyone recommend some more music with that hardcore flute vibe?
Gil Scott Heron - The Revolution will not be televised. Kicks ass on eight different levels, flute being only one.
Goop master, that's who.
Sooo unusual at the time...loved them
Absolutely one of the best rock intros of all time, great back to back with Aqualung!
Yes, that’s right.
Paul Primiano And I just cannot get it loud enough; even though my ears are ringing, I need it Louder!
I have this t-shirt. 45 years old, 3 sizes too small and it is my favorite out of 40+ shirts.
Mary!!!
Wonder who are the 152 thumbs down votes are ? Only their hairdresser knows for sure !!
Merry Christmas
They'll attack you for saying that.
Merry Christmas to you too !
THE best band ever. Been listening to Tull for 45 years and never tire of doing so
Fuck yeah good music lasts forever!
#LoDeck ft #BloodyMonks & #Boxguts brought me here
Anyone listening to this song “Cross-Eyed Mary” in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2023??
Of course.
Long live the sounds of tull
Absolutely
Always!
Hi Craig, I'm 28, my dad loved Jethro Tull, I listen to cross eyed Mary, locomotive breath, and aqualung weekly.
Listening to this It's almost possible to believe that the jury that gave Tull the first Heavy Metal Grammy over Metallica weren't a bunch of out of touch old industry fools. Almost. Tull was never Metal...or any other genre. They are Tull. They can go hard when it suits the piece, but never as a ends in itself. Metallica got it later...and thanked Tull for not being in the running, lmao.
They dont make 'em like they used to!
The definition of awesome music. I was thinking of the intro, and recalled the name as a classic, and it certainly is !
Love it! The first time I heard this song many years ago I was blown away by Ian and his flute. Cross Eyed Mary is put together so well. The 70's produced some great music.
Still amazing after all these years...talent unmatched!
The piano is fantastic in this song. It's funny how a JT song starts out and ends up completely different. Like 2 different songs. 😄
Locomotive Breath best for that. Starts nice bluesy piano then boom
I'm probably the only 30 year old women in this neighborhood listening to this masterpiece ! They ain't about this life
Lyrics notwithstanding, the pure instrumental part of cross eyed mary is fantastic.BADASS.
Actually, I wanted the Crazy Train, But Wow, all this Stuff inside the Mirror was pretty nice. What if I took another mirror? Right here?
Breaking the waves
this reminds me of Jethro Tull
not funny
❤️👍
very insightful comment thank you
This song is for the kids like me that never seem to fit into the school yard
actually its for child prostitutes but ok
@zzingping respect the message. Kid like 16 who wrote it.
Have you ever heard "Cross-Eyed Brian by Elton John?
@christopher yasus no
That was her opinion. You got yours2. Lata...
if you also like Jethro Tull, let me know what you think
https://youtu.be/1VcIZXJECxA
Cross-Eyed Mary wasn't a bad sort. She did provide a valuable service to jackknife barber's and letching grey's.
yes sex
This intro of the flute reminds me of reading the book Peter and the Wolf when I was a kid before a children's booksaver came and ripped it out of my hands when I was reading it because my grandmother donated it to children 🤷🤦
Anyway when I read it, I would get pictures of a snow covered old growth pine forest barren of any human intrusion
And that flute intro would be a bird you could hear whistling a warning song to all the animals of the forest
you could almost feel the bird fluttering from branch to branch trying to warn everything in the forest
As a hungry wolf trotting it's way through the snow covered pines of the forest, while a rabbit hunkered under a snow laden pine branch, hoping it was concealed from the wolf
The snow was deep and it would make it hard for the rabbit to escape
You could feel the wolf on a deadline track straight at the rabbit but far enough away not to smell it or see it
Meanwhile a duck flapped and quacked on a frozen pond to distract the wolf...what a brave duck trying to save the rabbit I always thought
And the duck thought, if the wolf walked out on the ice of the pond it would fall through and die in the frozen emptiness freeing all the little animals to live their life without fear of the wolf
But it was a long winter and the pond was hard and frozen thick unbeknownst to the ducks non-realization
While you could feel a hunter just starting to enter the forest, hunting ducks
I used to love that book
And it made me hate the children's book club for ripping it out of my hands as I was reading it. 😵🤬
It was like an animal's nightmare in the middle of nowhere
Nothing saving innocence
And evil was on its path
Those pictures were so vivid in my mind that I had to read the book again to read the story
And I don't ever remember the story, I just remember those pictures of the wolf and the hunter and the duck and the rabbit and the intensity of everything with the forest air electrified with all the energy
Sometimes in my mind the wolf would head toward the duck quacking and then it would reach the pond where the duck was thinking it didn't have to go anywhere because the wolf would fall through and the wolf could read the thoughts of the duck while it slowly creeped across tje frozen pond toward the duck, getting closer and closer and closer
And the duck not being fearful because it knew the water would crack under the wolf's weight
Other times the wolf will be staying on the track towards the rabbit until its nose hit the branch where the rabbit was hoding and all there would be was a flurry of snow
And other times the hunter walking into the forest would come close enough to where the duck would hear a crack of twigs under his boot and it would fly into a clearing where the hunter was walking with his shot filled blunderbust
And other times the rabbit would narrowly escape the wolf and hit the same clearing where the hunter was standing
While the wolf hunkered under a branch of snow laden pine hiding from the hunter
I loved that story with fear and anticipation of the rabbit and duck being safe in their habitat well the wolf would eat pine cones and strawberries
And the hunter would become vegan
🤷
Wow... must be some good LSD going around.
jodys tending cow
injun joe huckles pow wow
lisa screams house now
Flute and Mellotron sounds perfectly.
so glad I grew up with Jethro Tull!
Fabulous Album wait to you meet her sister " black eyed Susan " 😋
Jethro tull should be in the rock n roll hall of fame
Don't give the R&R HF power or importance cause they are masonic controlled group all about spells , politics and controlling culture . Ignore em !
Besides ,Tull's greatness is SELF EVIDENT and needs NO approval ,like any great band !
1971 - The barracks at Katterbach, Germany. Alpha Company, 1/37 Armor, 1st Armored Division. Reel to Reel tape.
This is metal. Change my mind.
Google the genre of this.
@Emmanuel Macron M E T A L
Sick as all FUCK!!!?.
Saw them in concert,cant really remember what year it was but then I saw most of the iconic bands in the seventies,best times of my life.
When this song kicks in...Soo bad ass!
The only album I have in 8 track, cassette , LP and digital remaster.
I've seen tull countless times and not one time did I see anything but perfection. Ian Anderson is the ultimate entertainer unbelievable flexibility defies gravity
Orzechon ty go zjesz ty go zjesz
Aqualung will effing exhaust you, and then they come right back and crush you with this beauty. This is amazing, STILL. I still can't believe that I had the good fortune to buy this and 13 other vinyl LPs back in '74 or so for $1.99 to Columbia House R&T Club. Good job of deconstructing this Episcopalian boy-o, by the time I log through side 2 of Aqualung. Still an AMAZING oeuvre for one platter.
Love the heavy bass!
mate the jazz flute
Enhän mä tiiä?
“Karma comes after everyone eventually. You can't get away with screwing people over your whole life, I don't care who you are. What goes around comes around. That's how it works. Sooner or later the universe will serve you the revenge that you deserve.” 🤔
Jessica Brody, The Karma Club
.
.
.
.
Will
Letching grey's know what they're in for... how is he getting screwed over? He likes school girls..I mean really he would be the one that should "know" better.. being an older man.. only an aqualung would think she deserves bad karma🙃
love this song :)
sounds like something from david bowie, intro especially
Ian is great, easily one of the best front men ever. Wanna hear some sick flute work..."Strange Way" outro by Firefall, incredible.
This is not on album but on CD and its not the same when the 2 are compared with side by side.
*Brasil®*
2019
Still not in the Hall of Fame. Criminal.
They shot everything to get Grammy. But HOF is a joke.
John Pelletier The flute isn’t rock n roll.
IA would take induction in RRHF as an insult to his talent and genius.
WHAT?!?! but yeah most of the greats get in when its too late. Im just glad that every member of Cream still was alive when THE fathers of progressive rock finally got in. Rest in peace Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker 🤘👹❤
Yes, but Jethro Tull’s flute is on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Rock History.
The girl in high school just asked me out.. .
. ..but then I told her "I'd rather make‑it with a letching grey."
115 tone- death. F o o l s put this classic song down I would hate to listen to what they listen to
good musique and artist yep
In Remembers
¿NINGUN LATINOAMERICANO POR ESTOS LADOS?¡¡¡¡ME VUELVO LOCO¡¡¡¡
The flute kicks it medieval minstrel style. Only the British can rock such an instrument so diminutive so larger than life. Beats cowbell. Now we need bagpipes in rock. Besides one acdc song
Good tune still blastin this in 2019..
Great tune
Lifetime.
My identical twin brother and I used to "Blast this" out when it first came out and sing to it, then head out for a dance. This music, locomotive breath, etc. got us in the spirit to go to a dance looking for adventure.
FOSSIL FUELS BUMPER CARS OVER POLLUTION POPULATION OF MUTHA EART THIS IS REALLY HELL!
I DO THI 4 MINORITIES WOMEN UND KINDER INFANTS ALL FEMALES KIDS ALL GODS R DEAD CORRUPT THEY JUST WANT MONEY TO ESCAPE TO OUTER SPACE COP KILLERS RULE!
Cross-eyed Mary finds it hard to get along
She's a poor man's rich girl and she'll do it for a song
And who would steal the candy
From a laughing baby's mouth
If he could take it from the money man
The ones prior to Irma run the ships sorta
Poundfoolish rooked ya
Pennywise FunHouse Carnivals played this and Aqualung.... When jackasses were oon my fav. Ride they threatened me on said i would be frightened the whole time ie. Car driving math class I'm in
What a bunch of incredibly sick bastards, making song of sexual perversion.
The R&R HOF will be a joke until Tull and ELP are inducted.
I respect ELP, burned a lot of trees in college to them, but I am still absolutely in awe of Ian and the band. Flawlessly interweaving a flute into rock arrangements? really?! Baby I'm amazed.
I have a feeling Ian views *NOT* being inducted as an honor. He's an iconoclast of the highest order... a musical maverick, who made his own rules, and danced to his own tune. I'm sure he could care less what a bunch of schmucks at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame thinks about his music..
The flute intro is the most wonderful thing I have ever heard.
@Travis I love the bass and drums together on this song.
Would you lika to h'ear Ian play some JAZZ FLUTE?!?
Lol nice
Gives me goose bumps. Sometimes I picture Ron Burgundy playing the intro.
@Harold D Burke he learned that Instrument like three months before first recording with it 😱😱😱🤘❤
ECCELLENTISSIMO Giampietro Boldrin OK JETHRO TULL MAA DOVE SIMO QUI..... 👍🤩✌️🇮🇪.
lauries hanes her way
douglas please something to say
chinas wet bing shway
kristen at the lake
sister lisas toll house bake
mister looneys rake
reminds me of boiled onions? I have no idea why? hahhahaaha
Reminds me of the old days selling flowers 🌸 and friends playing guitars and dancing and singing together
When I speak of the lights staying up what I am refering to are the house lights. In the early days the house lights were turned completly off. When they started leaving them on I was not happy.
That 2nd Alice Cooper thing,(1974), which cost me $12.00 & sucked was the final straw. I was done. I never went to another show. Till ZZ Top in 92 which sort of sucked. It was really sad to witness the downfall of rock & roll.
My first show was in '72. just saying. Saw a few through the yrs.
There was no ticket master. you just walked up to the window like a movie & copped a ticket. When the lights stayed up & the prices went up I was done. F them greedy bastiges. I saw ZZ Top in 92 for thr 6th time & that was it. I haven't been to a show since. F-em.
6 dollars got you on the floor.
I saw Tull before greed kicked in. 4 bucks got me in. 4 dollars.
We appreciate you younger folks who dig this shit.