Na twee albums met duistere, vervormde blues opende ‘Your Funeral, My Trial’ met deze bloedmooie, melancholieke ballade. Later zouden er nog veel meer ballades volgen, maar dit blijft één van de mooiste in het oeuvre van Cave.
De opening Down the road I look and there runs Mary/Hair of gold and lips like cherries verwijst naar het klassieke ‘Green, Green Grass of Home’, een song over een ter dood veroordeelde man aan de vooravond van zijn executie.
Down the road I look and there runs Mary
Hair of gold and lips like cherries
We go down to the river where the willows weep
Take a naked root for a lovers seat
That rose out of the bitten soil
But sound to the ground by creeping ivy coils
O Mary you have seduced my soul
And I don’t know right from wrong
Forever a hostage of your child’s world
[Verse 2]
And then I ran my tin-cup heart along
The prison of her ribs
And with a toss of her curls
That little girl goes wading in
Rollin her dress up past her knee
Turning these waters into wine
Then she platted all the willow vines
[Verse 3]
Mary in the shallows laughing
Over where the carp dart
Spooked by the new shadows that she cast
Across these sad waters and across my heart
