Hazard is a 1991 song performed by pop music artist Richard Marx. A collection of various CD singles In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. ... Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963 in Winnetka, Illinois) is an adult contemporary singer, songwriter and record producer. ... Rush Street is an album by Richard Marx, released in 1991. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For popular forms of music in general, see Popular music. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Capitol Records is a major United States-based record label, owned by EMI. // The Capitol Records company was founded by the songwriter Johnny Mercer in 1942, with the financial help of movie producer Buddy DeSylva and the business acumen of Glenn Wallichs, (1910-1971) (owner of Music City, at the... A record chart, also known as a music chart, is a method of ranking music according to popularity during a given period of time. ... The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. ... The Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart (formerly known as Adult Contemporary Singles and only Adult Contemporary) lists the most popular songs weekly calculated by airplay and occasionally sales. ... The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. ... The UK Singles Chart is currently compiled by The Official UK Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the British record industry. ... Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963 in Winnetka, Illinois) is an adult contemporary singer, songwriter and record producer. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ... For popular forms of music in general, see Popular music. ... Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963 in Winnetka, Illinois) is an adult contemporary singer, songwriter and record producer. ...

Song Overview

Hazard tells the story of an implied friendship or relationship between Marx's character (usually considered the protagonist) and a woman named Mary. Mary is presumably murdered and Marx, shunned by many in the small town since his childhood, is immediately considered the main suspect. Marx, however, maintains his innocence throughout the song, and the question of such is left open to the listener's interpretation. A protagonist is the main figure of a piece of literature or drama and has the main part or role. ...

Music Video

Overview

The music video for Hazard reveals additional details that can lead to speculation about the question of Marx's innocence while still following the song's lyrics and ultimately leaving the outcome open to interpretation. A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. ...

Details

The music video opens with several older men teasing Marx's character as a child with his mother in the background. The video then shows Mary, who is depicted as having features very similar to Marx's mother. Various scenes in this sequence can cause the viewer to become unclear about the nature of their relationship. As the story continues, the town's sheriff is shown taking photographs of the couple and following one or both of them in his vehicle.

It is implied that Marx goes to see Mary but catches her making love to an unidentified person. Again, the video flashes back to his childhood, where Marx sees his mother committing adultery. In present time, the sheriff arrives and sees Marx, who then flees, leaving his scarf behind on the branch of a bush. Marx returns home and weeps about Mary.

Mary is then shown alone near the river spoken of in the song. She turns to face the camera with a look of surprise on her face, and it is then made to look as if she lay in water. The next morning (as the song states), several people assist in arresting Marx for Mary's murder.

While in the interrogation room, Marx is shown a white cloth, which the sheriff identifies as the item used to strangle Mary. Marx then denies that he and Mary were romantically involved, and the sheriff asks if Marx was jealous. At this point, the video reveals a larger picture of Marx's childhood: that after his mother's affair, his father leaves her for another woman. Marx is then shown as a child setting a house on fire, although it is unclear whose it is.

Locals are shown vandalizing Marx's home, breaking windows and setting fire to it. It is implied that Marx cannot be proven guilty when the sheriff drops him off at his ruined home. As the video ends, a woman walking by covers her young son's eyes, again implying Marx is an outcast or considered guilty of Mary's murder. Vandalism is the conspicuous defacement or destruction of a structure, a symbol or anything else that goes against the will of the owner/governing body. ...

Who Killed Mary?

This question was likely purposely left unanswered, however, arguments can be made for several points of view.

Marx's Character

By listening strictly to the lyrics, one might infer that Marx's character murdered Mary. He gives statements that could be interpreted as conflicting, such as "No one understood what I felt for Mary / No one cared until the night she went out walking alone / And never came home..." followed in the refrain by "I swear I left her by the river / I swear I left her safe and sound..." This may cause some to wonder how he left her by the river if she was walking alone. Others may simply take it to mean the river is the last place he saw her.

In the video, Marx's character has clearly suffered a troubled childhood and it is depicted that it affects his adult life deeply. When he sees Mary with another man, it is possible that he flies into a jealous rage, follows her to the river, and kills her, later returning home to mourn his loss.

The Sheriff

The video seems to heavily imply that the Sheriff is guilty. He is seen following one or both of them, taking their pictures, and even keeping pictures of Mary in his squad car. Mary is also shown running away from the squad car on one occasion.

The sheriff identifies a white cloth as the murder weapon while interrogating Marx. It appears to be the same white scarf Marx lost on the branch of the bush the night Mary was killed, and the sheriff was the only other person visible at the scene.

Motives could include the sheriff's possible jealousy of Marx and Mary, and the desire to exile Marx permanently from the town by framing him.

Mary's Lover

It is also possible that Mary's unidentified lover could be the killer, perhaps because he may have seen Marx lingering outside Mary's house. However, the viewer is given little else to help them come to this conclusion.

Naming the song

This song about a fictional event was named after Hazard, Nebraska, a real town. Reportedly, Marx became caught on the phrase "...and leave this old Nebraska town." He needed a two-syllable town name to fit the first line of the song, so he obtained a list of the names of all two-syllable towns and cities in Nebraska, from which he chose Hazard. Hazard is a village located in Sherman County in the US state of Nebraska. ...

Additionally, the song begins with the lines My mother came to Hazard when I was just seven, even then the folks in town said with prejudiced eyes, that boy's not right. It is unknown whether this was a deliberate play on words on Richard Marx's part, but as the phrase "to come to hazard" also means to meet with danger, there is an ambiguity in the lyrics, which alludes to two possible scenarios:

1.) When the narrator was seven, he migrated to the town of Hazard with his mother, and the natives took an instant dislike to him for reasons unknown and unexplained, but most likely the fact that he was an outsider who did not fit in with them;

2.) When the narrator was seven, something happened to his mother, and the natives suspected that the narrator was in some way involved. Notably, the listener learns no further information about the narrator's mother in the song, and there is also no mention of the residents of Hazard taking dislike to the narrator's mother - only the narrator himself.

See links below for more information.

External links

• RichardMarx.com (Official Site)
• RichardMarxOnline.com (Official Interactive Fan Site)
• "Hazard" Video on YouTube
• Hazard's Richard Marx Page