Marissa Nadler is an American dream folk musician and singer-songwriter. Sh… Read Full Bio ↴Marissa Nadler is an American dream folk musician and singer-songwriter. She plays six string guitar, 12 string guitar, piano, ukelele, banjo, and voice.
Nadler studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she began her performing career after writing songs for many years.

The foundation of her sound is her haunting mezzo-soprano, and a delicate 6-string acoustic guitar, often accompanied by a variety of instruments, including electric guitar, theremin, and piano. Nadler writes strange, yet classic, melancholy songs. Her voice is often bathed in a wash of reverb and space echo and creates a ghostly, atmospheric feeling to the music.

She has American Gothic leanings; her songs often take place in an imagined, idealistic time with a cast of characters of her own creation.

Official Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marissa-Nadler/300932499775
Bandcamp: http://marissanadler.bandcamp.com/

Mistress
Marissa Nadler Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Sometimes you bring me flowers
A misery to me
And I don't want to like a day
Without my memory

goodbye Missouri
Letters on the line

come here now
You know I won't desert you
It's been four years of
Waiting for the day
That you would leave your
Girl and take me somewhere away

summertime was lost
And I knew it on the spot
I would marry you some sunny day
But baby I know its strange
To end up this way
A mistress on a sunny day

1000 bottles of why
And the days of rum
Turn to years of swine

I'm leaving you for good this time
Dreams and scars and letters on the line

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Marissa Nadler's song "Mistress" seem to be about the complex emotions of being in a forbidden love situation. The girl is with someone else yet the singer is in love with her and is tired of being the mistress. The flowers the girl brings the singer are bittersweet, as they are a reminder of the love and heartache at the same time. The line "goodbye Missouri, letters on the line" could either mean a literal goodbye to a place or a farewell letter that was left unread. The singer wants to leave this situation and move on, but cannot forget about the memories and the pain that comes with it.

The next few lines talk about how the singer's waiting finally paid off, but not in the way it was hoped. Instead of their love being fulfilled, they were left in this situation for four years, waiting for something better, for the girl to leave her partner and take them away. It seems like time was lost, and the singer realizes that their love will never be fully realized. The last line "a mistress on a sunny day" is a beautiful yet tragic way of saying that their love will always be a secret, hidden away from the world.

Line by Line Meaning

Sometimes you bring me flowers
Occasionally, you gift me flowers

A misery to me
However, it causes me distress or suffering

And I don't want to like a day
Furthermore, I have no desire to enjoy a single day

Without my memory
Without my past experiences or recollections

goodbye Missouri
A farewell to Missouri

Letters on the line
Letters written, possibly waiting to be sent

come here now
Please, come here now

You know I won't desert you
Be aware that I'll never abandon you

It's been four years of
For four years now

Waiting for the day
Anticipating the day

That you would leave your
When you'd abandon your