Another Horsedreamer's Blues
From "Recovering The Satellites"

Margery is dreamin'
Of the middle of the day
Tiyuri to win, Perfect dozen to place
Money is the matter that's been on her mind
Time ticks by her one race at a time

CHORUS:
She's tryin' to be a good girl
And give 'em what they want
But Margery's dreamin' of horses

Lookin' at a green sky
Sun like a red eye
Bright blue horses are the
Fortunes she lives by

She's tired and lonely
Scared and depressed
Her visions of one day
Go racing the next

CHORUS

Margery doesn't say anything
All the way home
So afraid she'll wake
To find she's all alone

Margery's wingspan's
All feathers and Coke cans
And TV dinners
And letters she won't send

And every race night
Is shot through with sunlight
Tryin' to hit the big one
One last time tonight for
Drunken fathers and
Stupid mothers and
Boys who can't tell
One girl from another

So she takes her pills
Careful and round
One fo these days
She's gonna throw the whole bottle down

But she's tryin' to be a good girl
And give 'em what they want
But Margery's dreamin' of...
Tryin' to be ag ood girl
And give 'em what they want
But Margery's dreamin' of horses.
    This is a song that confused me for a while and it's probably because I didn't really throw myself into it like I have other songs.  There's not a lot of information about from AD like a lot of the other songs so I'll try to tackle this one on my own.
     To me, this song is about behavior.  How past behaviors influence our present behaviors and can lead us into walking around in circles.  Margery seems to be someone who you or I probably wouldn't give the time of day to on the street.  When I close my eyes and try to envision her, I think of a woman in a taxi cab in her mid- 40's, puffing away on a cigarette as she stares blankly out the window.  She doesn't see whatever or whoever is passing her by because all she's contemplating now is the little factors that could have gone right that could have made her rich- different jockey, if she hadn't listened to that guy near the ticket window and changed her bet at the last minute, etc.
     And in that way, the race becomes a microcosm of everyone's life: the little things that lead us where we're going.  Margery's at the track, (probably addicted to gambling) trying to forget where she's been, who she's been with, and what she's done.  The only way to do that is by getting rich and solving all her financial troubles.  Whoever said money can't buy happiness never met Margery.
     I identify with this song in that I have used my behavior to try to escape what's going on around me.  Bills piling up, lonliness, etc.  It's a desperate way to live, but there's always the dream that one day it'll work itself out and everything will be OK.
     But until that day, there's just this cycle of behavior that the weeks absorb.  And hopefully I won't end up in my 40's looking out a cab window.
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