Dave Alvin

(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI, Administered by Bug Music)





Well my name is Charlie Thomas and I’m as good a man as you

And for the love of Mary Brown there’s nothin’ that I won’t do

Well her husband was a banker, yet she told me he was cruel

So I left his body lyin’ in the yard where their roses grew.



Well she and I grew up neighbors where the houses looked the same

And I swear that I loved Mary Brown before I knew her name

And after she married and he moved her away

You know she’d still come back and lay with me like nothin’ had ever changed.



I know what’s what’s wrong and right

What goes around, comes around

But there ain’t nothin’ that I won’t do

For the love of Mary Brown.



Well people like him always look down on me

Because I’ve done a little time for armed robbery

Yeah, but Mary Brown knows I’m from a good family

And she didn’t say nothing’ when she slipped me the back door key.



I know what’s wrong and right

What goes around comes around

But there ain’t nothin’ that I won’t do

For the love of Mary Brown.



Well at my trial she testified she kissed me once or twice

But she swore that was long before she became his wife

And every time I looked at her she avoided my eyes

And the jury sentenced me to twenty-five years to life.



Now I haven’t seen Mary Brown since the trial’s end

And she never answers the letters that I send

And I heard that she married her husband’s best friend

Yeah but for the love of Mary Brown, man I’d do it all again. 



I know what’s wrong and right

What goes around, comes around

But there ain’t nothin’ that I won’t do

For the love of Mary Brown.