She fell to the mattress with the grace of an actress
You're falling like a thief from a roof.
She's asking for proof , "Are you staying?"
Outside you hear mission bells.
Welcome to Maria's beautiful mess,
In a cluttered apartment on the West Side.
She pulls the blinds while,
You watch how her dress falls round her .
[chorus]
And the world slows, a clock shows
A wrinkle in the flow of time
And she steps close, her eyes glow,
Lips pop open like a bottle of wine
And she loves like it's thirst
Like she's never been hurt,
She dances just like nobody's watching.
Is this love? Is this cursed?
It feels like the first time falling
Nobody's watching, Nobody's watching,
Nobody's watching, watching
Now she puts on some music,
She asks you to choose it
You sang her back a Gershwin line.
Now Ella is singing holy, soulfully
Bringing up better times
And beneath the tunes,
She's smiling on an unmade bed
She says, "What's in the middle that scares you,
Does it dare you
To take a moment and just slow down?"
[repeat chorus]
Pull the curtains all down
On the prince or a clown,
She's smiling like the Mona Lisa.
You could conquer this town.
If your feet touched the ground,
But you're falling boy
I know, I see you
I see you, I see, I see,
I see you
Copyright Ellis Paul Publishing SESAC
Hi folks,
today it’s my turn to kick off the discussion about the song of the week. And it’s MBM or I’d rather say “Marias beautiful Mess” – the all time favourite of so many of you, isn’t it? At least it seems to be Karen’s all time favourite EP song.
And for sure it’s my all time favourite or at least one of my hand full of EP-all-time-favourites… But reason why is what I’m gonna tell you today.
To me MBM certainly is one of Ellis’ most intensive, most emotional and personal songs and I loved this reluctant love song it from the first time I listened to it on his “Live Album”. And it gives me gooseflesh every time I hear the song – even years after listening to it for the first time and I listend to it over and over.
I’m sorry, but I don’t feel able to tell you all of my detailed thoughts or feelings about the music, the words or the presentation of the song, because talking about all these things in a foreign language is a bit difficult for me. 
You may talk about it much better than me and I will learn from you annotations.
But there are a few different experiences I connect therewith this song. And what I want to do today is to share with you two of these stories I hope you will enjoy.
Three years ago in April 2003 my parents and me went to Philadelphia and after 5 years of only listening to Ellis’ music it was the first time I got the chance to see Ellis in a live show at the Tin Angel – oh, what an exciting event it was for me! I felt like a teenager meeting his girlfriend for the first time…
Just a few minutes before the show I met Ellis for the first time in my life and we had a short small talk. I told him that we’re from Germany and just came to see his show.
And what did Ellis do? It was not only that he was opening the show with the MBM song – my all time EP-favourite, but he involved us in his stories between the songs. He gave me the time to translate the jokes for my parents. He gathered us around him when he was performing his unplugged songs in the centre of the club between the tables. It was like he was singing just for us. I really can’t describe what I felt. But I never could imagine things like this would happen. It truly was very, very impressed and almost speechless.
After the show I met Ellis once again and we talked to each other for about half an hour. I told him about my experiences with his music and I asked him to come to Germany. Because it was not only that I wanted to see him in Philadelphia, but what I had in my mind was to get him to Germany performing a show for me and my friends so that I could share my feelings with them and show them what a brilliant singer/songwriter and what a wonderful human being Ellis is. While autographing my CD booklets Ellis wrote down on it: “Bring me to Germany”, “Spread these songs in Germany” and last but not least: “Thomas, see you in Germany”.
Well, that’s what I did. Now, 3 years later, as you all know, my dream came true…
Ellis came to Germany and he performed his first show for me and my friends in my home town Wasserburg. Ellis performed his unique show in front of about 130 excited curious people and almost all of them (except for my parents, Katrin and my friend Henning who gave me my first EP CD "Carnival of voices" in 1998) were wondering who this American guy is, that somebody from Germany several times travels to the States, spends a lot of his own money just to get him for show. But to share the songs with my friends by listening to the CDs was quite not enough for me. I wanted to share with them the feelings I had while listening and watching Ellis performing his unique show.
And for sure Ellis opened the Wasserburg concert with MBM… And even thoug he was very tired after traveling France and Great Britain Ellis was brilliant and giving his best. He was performing almost 3 hours and naturely he sang most of his "Essentials".
Believe it or not, this was one of the most emotional and touching moments in my life - realizing my dream came true.
Thanks everybody.
I had to check my dates because I was thinking that those shows at the Tin Angel may have been the same shows that I went to with our German friend Katrin! But when I checked my dates, the time that Katrin and I hooked up for two shows at the Tin Angel was in Sept. 2002....just a few months earlier. Wouldn't that have been weird if we discovered we had been at the same shows?!
