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Studio version
Marie, she comes to me in the twilight
When the wind blows down 'cross the river, so cold the fishermen cry
She rapes me in a rage of rainbow violence
'Till my bare nerves, they sing like the strings of a violin
And the room seeps into a savage silence
Soaked in colors, red as blood, blue as night
And Marie she skins me alive, carves her initials in my side
Lures me with her purr, then cuts me with her knife
And the horses pound like thunder, they bolt like lightning on her range
She feels she's going under and she zeroes in the rein, she's so strange
Well, Marie, you know, she's the queen of all the stallions
And I'm her prince of mules and one of her principal fools
Marie, she's got the claws of a falcon
And she's perched upon my shoulder, and slowly digging in
But she, oh, she can be so strange sometimes
Oh, like at night when the coyotes whine or when the neighbors come to dine
Marie, she skins me alive, burns her initials in my hide
And then leaves me all alone branded to the bone
And my heart pounds like her horses, oh, stampeding on the range
Marie knows all the sources and she shoots me with her pain
And for her, I take it, Lord, down in my veins
And I watch her dance like some berserk fairy all across the concrete prairies of
Bleeker Street
Marie, she can be so strange
But she's the only lonely cowgirl on my range
Ooh ooh, ooh ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh ooh ooh
MARIE is a song written by Bruce Springsteen who recorded it in studio in spring 1972 (see the "London Publishing Demos" section below). The song has not yet been officially released. The above lyrics are for the only known studio version of MARIE.
There is no indication to when MARIE was written. One studio version of the song is in circulation among collectors. It's a studio take likely recorded around May-Jun 1972 at Pocketful Of Tunes Studios in New York City, NY. It features Springsteen solo on vocals and acoustic guitar. The May-Jun 1972 sessions at Pocketful Of Tunes Studios were produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, and Cretecos took the role of recording engineer. The above lyrics transcribed from that circulating studio version of MARIE.
MARIE appears on a Springsteen handwritten song list that was put up for auction in July 2012 on GottaHaveRockAndRoll.com. Although the auction site claims it to be a setlist, this is most probably a list of songs that Springsteen was considering taking into the studio at the very early stages of the Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. recording sessions (July 1972).
1972 was a massive songwriting period for Bruce Springsteen. He wrote many songs in 1972, prior to the January 1973 release of his debut album. According to Brucebase, the vast majority of the known recordings of these songs were made during a 3-4 month period, between May and August 1972, though a few were recorded shortly beforehand and several weren't recorded until early 1973. Virtually all of these feature Springsteen completely solo, on either acoustic guitar or keyboards. Springsteen's manager Mike Appel and his partner Jim Cretecos selected some of this large pool of recordings in 1973 and 1974 and distributed them in Europe most notably to the UK-based music publishing agency Intersong Music Ltd. Some recordings were distributed on tape, others on acetates. Most of these acetates were manufactured at Media Sound in New York City, NY, and Angel Sound in Bedford, MA. Springsteen did not record at either of these locations. Intersong also pressed its own acetates for distribution within the industry. This audio gradually filtered into collector circles in the late seventies, often under the misnomer the "London Publishing Demos". According to Clinton Heylin 2012 book E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, the track-listing of the so-called "London demo-tape" is as follows: STREET QUEEN, SOUTHERN SUN, HENRY BOY, IF I WAS THE PRIEST, VIBES MAN, SONG FOR ORPHANS, SHE'S LEAVING, THE SONG, ARABIAN NIGHTS, and COWBOYS OF THE SEA. Heylin adds that four other songs were also lodged with Intersong, including NO NEED. The remaining three are probably TOKYO, MARIE, and VISITATION AT FORT HORN.
The studio version of MARIE was released on the briefly-legal albums The Early Years (Early Records), Unearthed (Masquerade Music, both issues), and Before The Fame (Pony Express Records, all three issues). See PRODIGAL SON for more details.
Before its release on the above albums, the studio version of MARIE has been circulating on some bootlegs, including The Early Years Volume One (Bagel Boys Records).
As far as it's known, Bruce Springsteen has never performed MARIE live.
At least one artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's MARIE.
Some of the above info about the studio recording is taken from Brucebase. Info and scan for the Fred Gorhau cover album is taken from the Nebraska website.
List of available versions of MARIE on this website:
MARIE [Studio version]
