Hazard (song)

"Hazard"
Single by Richard Marx
from the album Rush Street
B-side	"Big Boy Now"
Released	January 28, 1992 (1992-01-28)
Genre	Soft rock[1]
Length	5:17 (album version) 4:48 (edit)
Label	Capitol
Songwriter(s)	Richard Marx
Producer(s)	Richard Marx
Richard Marx singles chronology
"Keep Coming Back" (1991) "Hazard" (1992) "Take This Heart" (1992)

"Hazard" is a song written, produced, and performed by American singer-songwriter Richard Marx. The song is about a woman named Mary who mysteriously disappears and a social pariah who is accused of orchestrating Mary's disappearance, despite claiming to be innocent. The song's music video follows this plot. "Hazard" was released as the first single from Marx's third studio album, Rush Street (1991), on January 28, 1992, in the United States.

In April 1992, "Hazard" peaked at No. 9 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and shortly thereafter topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, becoming Marx's third number-one single on that chart.^[2] Internationally, "Hazard" reached No. 1 in Australia, the top three in Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, and the top 10 in New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden.

Song overview[]

"Hazard" tells the story of a relationship of some kind between the narrator and a woman named Mary. Mary disappears in suspicious circumstances, and the narrator, shunned by many in the small village where he has lived since the age of seven ("That boy's not right"), is immediately considered the main suspect. The narrator, however, maintains his innocence throughout the song, and the question of such is left open to the listener's interpretation.

Liking the lyric "this old Nebraska town", Richard Marx wrote to the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, asking for a list of Nebraska towns with two syllables, finding Hazard ideal for its double meaning. (The lyrics refer to a river, which the real Hazard does not possess; however there is a muddy creek.) Locals invited Marx to be Grand Marshal at Sherman County's Fourth of July parade in 1993, which he accepted.

Marx considered it a "stupid song that no one would pay attention to" and only recorded it to prove his wife wrong who on the other hand told him it was going to be a huge hit song.^[3]

Music video[]

Overview[]

The music video for "Hazard," directed by Michael Haussman,^[4] reveals additional video cues and other details that led viewers to speculate about the question of the protagonist's innocence while still following the song's lyrics and ultimately leaving the outcome open to interpretation. The narrator also refers to the state of Nebraska, United States, and specifically a village in that state called Hazard. "Mary" is played by actress Renee Parent.^[5] The Sheriff is played by actor Robert Conrad.^[6]

Details[]

The music video opens with the protagonist cutting his hair by the side of a creek. Suddenly the ghost of a woman is seen hovering over the creek, accompanying the haunting synths and melodies of the music. Several older men are then seen teasing the protagonist as a child with his mother in the background; the description of his character as "not right" may imply slight mental illness or simply being different. The video then shows Mary, who is depicted as having features very similar to those of the protagonist's mother. Various scenes in this sequence can cause the viewer to become unsure 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 the protagonist goes to see Mary but catches her making love to an unidentified person as the police car arrives on the scene. Again, the video flashes back to his childhood, where he sees his mother committing adultery. In present time, the sheriff arrives and sees the protagonist, who then flees, leaving his scarf behind on the branch of a bush. He 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 is lying in water. The next morning (as the song states), several people assist in arresting the male character in connection with her disappearance.

While in the interrogation room, the protagonist is shown a white cloth, which the sheriff identifies as the item used to strangle Mary. He 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 the protagonist's childhood: that after his mother's affair, his father leaves her for another woman. He is then shown as a child running out of a burning house, although it is unclear whose it is or if he actually set the fire alight.

Locals are shown vandalizing the male character's home, breaking its windows and setting fire to it. It is implied that he cannot be proved 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 he is an outcast or implicated in her disappearance. The video ends with the protagonist leaving the town once and for all by hitchhiking.

The final scene shows the male character remembering the girl saying to him: "You know, everyone says that I should be afraid of you. But I am not."

Charts and certifications[]

Release history[]

References[]