Mary Black - Bright Blue Rose

Lyrics

I skimmed across black water, without once submerging

Onto the banks of an urban morning

That hungers the first light, much much more

Than mountains ever do.

And she like a ghost beside me, goes down with the ease of a dolphin

And emerges unlearned, unshamed, unharmed

For she is the perfect creature, natural in every feature

And I am the geek with the alchemists' stone

Chorus

For all of you who must discover,

For all who seek to understand,

For having left the path of others

You find a very special hand

And it is a holy thing, and it is a precious time

And it is the only way

Forget-me-nots among the snow, it's always been and so it goes

To ponder his death and his life eternally

Chorus

For all of you who must discover

For all who seek to understand,

For having left the path of others

You find a very special hand

And it is a holy thing

And it is the only way

Forget-me-nots among the snow, it's always been and so it goes

To ponder his death and his life eternally

One bright blue rose outlives all those

Two thousand years and still it goes

To ponder his death and his life eternally

Comments

The song, written by Jimmy McCarthy, is about the presence of Mary (the reference to Bright Blue Rose is a highly Catholic representation of Mary). The last part says "Two thousand years, and still it goes, to ponder his death and his life eternally”. "And I am the geek with the alchemist's stone." Magical.

An Interpretation

Who was "the first light Eden saw play" (to pick a half-line from another song), and for whom the modern urban wilderness might be hungering much more than do the mountains? Who (according to the written tradition) is the Only Way to God, a man whose life and death are still pondered 2,000 years later? Who (traditionally) provides a helping hand to those who follow his path? Who is it whose mother is "the perfect creature", dressed always in blue, for whom the forget-me-not is named "Eyes of Mary", and whose Healing Heart is called "the Blue Rose"?

The answers to these questions help define two of the three personalities engaged in this Catholic Mystery song: Jesus and his ever-virgin Mother. The third is the singer himself, Jimmy McCarthy, "the geek with the alchemist's stone", and here I have to speculate. I suggest that he skims over the surface of the Mysteries (symbolised by the Blackwater River), but is unable to immerse himself in them -- unlike She who is showing him the way and has, herself, already emerged "unscathed, unharmed".

A geek is a simpleton (look it up); having the alchemist's stone, the "Philosopher's Stone", the key to immortality, he either doesn't know how to use it, or lacks the courage "to leave the paths of others". It requires a healing change of one's inner heart (the traditional Catholic meaning of the bright blue rose) that he has not been able to achieve. But he knows that this "holy thing", this "precious time", is "the only Way", and, I suppose, longs to enter on it.

All mysteries resolved? Heaven forbid ...

More Interpretation

The Blackwater is the river that runs through Cork, Jimmy McCarthy's home town. A "geek" (not Greek), is a term used to denote a freak, misfit, etc., and of course alchemy is the pseduscientific study of converting base metals into gold.

It is said that unless you totally give up preconceptions and mental addictions, stop fighting them in other words, and walk away from your "old life" and your emotional baggage, you will never be able to experience freedom. But once you do, they say, you will feel the hand of the creator.

One also has to look at the selective repetition of the last refrain, and compare Jimmy's comparisons and connections in regards to the theme. Every time I sing it, the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

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