Second Hand White Baby Grand

Second Hand White Baby Grand

Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman

For lyrics to the song go to: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/smashcast/secondhandwhitebabygrand.html

          "Second Hand White Baby Grand" is a lyric written by the composer/lyricist team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.  This song is about Marilyn Monroe and her relationship with her mother. The baby grand in the lyric is a piano that Marilyn's mother purchased before she was sent to an asylum for the mentally ill.  Marilyn is the speaker in the poem and in it she reveals parts of her unhappy childhood.
          This poem is an extended metaphor comparing the piano itself and Marilyn's childhood before and after her mother left her.  The first verse refers to the origins of the piano, which was purchased by Marilyn's mother "second hand from a silent movie star."   It was not it prime condition, and neither were Marilyn nor her mother. Marilyn's mother was a single mom who suffered from depression, and Marilyn was frequently in and out of foster care.  Yet, together they learned to play the piano and, when they played it, all their "pain would simply fly away."  To Marilyn, it was a symbol of better times.
          The song's chorus continues and repeats this metaphor.  It states that "something secondhand and broken, still can make a pretty sound/ Even if it doesn't have a place to live". Theses line refer to both the piano, that is auctioned off when Marilyn's mother is re-institutionalized, and to Marilyn's return to foster care.  Nevertheless, Marilyn continues to believe that both the piano and herself "still have something beautiful to give."  This line suggests the piano's music, Marilyn's own talents, and her hope that she and her mother might one day be reunited.
          The second verse discusses how the piano is "sent away" when it is auctioned, and also how Marilyn is left "without a place to live."  Marilyn sings of herself as "a child all alone" and "prays" somebody will recognize the gifts of the piano's music and Marilyn's ability to love.  This is a universal theme, as no child wishes to feel abandoned, and Marilyn deeply identifies with the loss of the piano to an auction house.  Being sent to several sets of foster parents must have made Marilyn feel as though she, too, were up for auction.
          The beginning of the bridge refers to how the piano roams between auctions as Marilyn moves between different foster homes.  Marilyn sings "For many years the music had to roam/ Until we found a way to find a home."  Marilyn eventually finds and purchases the second hand white baby grand and moves it into her own home.  When she sees it, she thinks of her mother standing beside it, "Just waiting for a partner to compose."  While Marilyn isn't able to reunite with her mother, she is able to reclaim the piano and all it represents to her.
          In the final verse, Marilyn declares that everyone "deserves a family room to live."  She doesn't just mean the physical place, but the people and the joy that should inhabit it as the piano and her mother inhabited her early childhood.  Marilyn concludes the song with the phrase "I still have something beautiful to give" as if she is still uncertain of her place in the world or her worthiness to be loved.