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lyrics

Sweet Mary (1999)

It was the year of our father,
Nineteen-hundred and seventy-six in JA,
When I first met my Mary,
Quite contrary to what my mother did say,
She was a mountain girl come to Spanish Town,
I was only there for a while,
But when I think back on all the love we shared,
I just can’t but help to smile,
We spent one whole long year together,
But at the end, I had to go,
By my Mary’s side, I wept and cried,
I’d never been laid so low,
She said, “Boy when you first met me,
You were as green as a mango tree,
But now you are a man, go back to your land,
But first listen carefully,

Chorus
You can smoke two pounds of Cali herb by yourself then,
Try to stand on your head,
No matter how high you get,
You’ll never forget,
The wonders of Mary’s bed

Now my Mary’s sweet smell was in my nose,
And her vision, it robbed me blind,
And as I crossed the sea, it occurred to me,
That I left myself behind,
She was my natural mystic,
Sweet sugarplum I still ask, why did I go,
They say your first love is your hardest love,
And I’d have to say that’s so,
Now it’s a day and another day,
And a way and another way,
Had a family once but they’re gone,
Now it don’t strike me as weird,
There’s gray in my beard,
And her words still linger on

Chorus

And now there’s nothing for me left here,
‘Cept some broken dreams, disappointments I’ve had a few,
But there’s this place I know,
Where the mangroves grow and there’s just one thing left to do,
I’ll go back to my Mary’s bed,
Plant a kiss on her head and pretend that,
Time just stood still,
Then I can live out my life like it should have been,
And the rest will be what it will,
So I went back to the bar where we first met,
Asked the bartender, where could she be,
And as he poured me a beer,
He said, last year,
She left this world peacefully,
Then every man in the bar looked at me,
They said, old man don’t you see,
We were all touched by Mary just like you,
Now she lives on in our memories,

Chorus
And we all can smoke,
Two pounds of Cali herb by ourselves then,
Try to stand on our heads,
No matter how high we get we’ll never forget,
The wonders of Mary’s bed
And we can run,
Two hundred miles through a ganja field until
All we see is red,
And we can shout it out, were still thinking about,
The wonders of Mary’s bed
And so we sing,
Jump around sweet Mary,
You know we all have to move along,
You never know what you’ve got,
In this cruel world,
Until you realize it’s gone.

credits

from It's Not What You Think, released November 25, 2003

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Chris Velan Montréal, Québec

Montreal singer-songwriter and producer, Chris Velan, has always been crossing borders with his brand of world music- influenced, singer-songwriter pop. Drawing comparisons to the smart, genre-mixing writing of Neil Finn, Nick Lowe and Paul Simon, Velan's
latest album, “Amateur Hour”, will be released September 14th with touring to follow. ... more

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