“Black Mariah” is English criminal slang for the paddywagon. “Black Mariah” was a woman living in England who ran a boarding house. She snitched on criminals for a bribe from the police. Naturally, as criminals are wont to do, they associated getting nicked with death, and “Black Mariah” also became slang for that long, black Cadillac we all get to ride in one day.
Some more slang to help you out:
“blind tiger” is a speak-easy
“old blind jim” is an old, poor drunk who can’t afford even cheap booze
“Lindabrides” is a reference to a heroine in The Mirror of Knighthood, whose name at one time was a synonym for a kept mistress
The rest, you figure out for yourself…
Big Black Mariah
Well cutting through the cane break, rattling the sill
Thunder that the rain makes when the shadow tops the hill
Big light on the back street, hill to ever more
Packing down the ladder with the hammer to the floor
Here come the Big Black Mariah, here come the Big Black Mariah
Here come the Big Black Mariah, I seen the big black Ford
Well he’s all boxed up on a red belle dame
Hunted Black Johnny with a blind man’s cane
A yellow bullet with a rag out in the wind
An old blind tiger, got an old bell Jim
Here come the Big Black Mariah, here come the Big Black Mariah
Here come the Big Black Mariah, here come the big black Ford
Sent to the skies on a Benny Jag Blue
Off to bed without his supper like a Linda brides do
He got to do the story with the old widow Jones
Got a wooden coat, this boy is never coming home
Here come the Big Black Mariah, here come the Big Black Mariah
Here come the Big Black Mariah, I seen that big black Ford
Cut through the canebrake, oh yeah
Well he’s all boxed up on a red belle dame
Flat Blue Johnny with a blind man’s cane
A hundred yellow bullets shook a rag out in the wind
An old blind tiger, on a bell you win
Here come the Big Black Mariah, here come the Big Black Mariah
Here come the Big Black Mariah, here come the big black Ford
(T. Waits)
