So back in July/August I wrote the following about Mary... but i think I may have distorted my own memory:

Mary -- I first heard this song at the Rivoli in Toronto, and it brought more than a few people in the audience to tears. I can't say that this recording of it does the same... It's still a beautiful song but the upbeat tempo to it loses the quiet sadness that it seemed to convey when I first heard it.


I wrote this after seeing Sarah in LA at Genghis Cohen, when she did a very beautiful slow, piano-only, bring-me-to-tears version of the song. It did bring some people in the audience to tears. I just recently heard the version she did at Rivoli again and it's in fact much closer to the album version... and I think I made up the thing about bringing people to tears... I also remember liking it a LOT back then and I actually find I like it even more now that I've corrected my own memory... It CAN have a beautiful sound but it really doesn't NEED to. That makes no sense I know... I guess I'm just all conflicted now, because originally this was the one song that I really was not a fan of on the album vs. live, and it was all based on a false memory! lol. Regardless, my point now is that I totally withdraw that opinion because rather than the album version being a desperately upbeat version of the live, it turned out the LA-live version was simply an even more beautiful version of the happy album/rivoli-live version... And I've now ranted myself in circles and will stop typing and get back to my Aristotle paper lol.

she played mary? getting more and more excited for my concert! i LOVE that song!

Mary always brings tears to my eyes at the beginning of the second verse at "Oh I've got all the courage, I'll ever need"....without fail, always a tear.

I like the line:

"take my last name, stay up airplane"

~ng

when i first heard it live (rivoli) i thought it was an upbeat toon and liked it right of the bat.

the album version i love. i might be even brave enough to say it's my fave sarah song. the instumentation i think complements it as a slower toon but it stil has uplifting qualities to it. i can't hear it without cracking a smile.

i'm rather currious to hear the LA version but i would say the album version is perfect.

Cameron Bay.

I like the line "I wax poetic on my enemies."
If that is the propper quote. Normally I would know, but I don't now because of lack of sleep to the extreme.

[quote:5ef43e5cca="ProdigyBoy"]

i'm rather currious to hear the LA version but i would say the album version is perfect.

[/quote:5ef43e5cca]

I can't remember where they are, but if you're lucky enough to encounter anywhere online a version that she's done recently (even on her european tour, I've heard a version from the London show), they're all very LA-style. Much slower, simpler piano.. where the rivoli/album version are much more upbeat. In retrospect they're both pretty good, but very very different sounds.

I agree with you completely, Sweet Ones. I was there as well for Sarah's show at Genghis Cohen and the live version is simply amazing. I didn't quite fall in love with that track until she performed it live. It's just a lot more emotional stripped down and slowed a little.

Yup Julie, that is the line. Has to be my favorite too.

[quote:dde8094f03]
I can't remember where they are, but if you're lucky enough to encounter anywhere online a version that she's done recently (even on her european tour, I've heard a version from the London show), they're all very LA-style. Much slower, simpler piano...[/quote:dde8094f03]

I have a copy of a European live "Mary" and it's much slower than Day One's version. It's still very great, just different tempo.

^ ^ ^
Exactly

I love that song. I think the line "Take my last name, stay up airplane" hits me the hardest, though I am unsure why.

Apparently the song is about her Grandmother, or so she said in her explination before playing it. Something about the bracelet se always wears (the silver one) Anyhoo.

she told us (in vancouver) that yes, the bracelet was her granmothers and that the song was about how her grandmother got "knocked up" during ww2 and her man had to go off to war and was a bomber pilot. (hence stay up airplane).

~ng

aww finally that line makes sense to me.

[quote:d2ad85a0fc="nikolita"]she told us (in vancouver) that yes, the bracelet was her granmothers and that the song was about how her grandmother got "knocked up" during ww2 and her man had to go off to war and was a bomber pilot. (hence stay up airplane).

~ng[/quote:d2ad85a0fc]

ahhh, of course. Every time I've listened to "Mary", I wondered how the "stay up airplane" line fit in and although I listened with rapt attention to Sarah's brief talk about the origins of the song, I never connected the two.

...jim