'Mama, I Lied' by Megan Moroney – Lyrics & Meaning

The lies we tell ourselves to remain in the comfort of delusion rather than accepting the reality we live in are often much more powerful than those we tell others.

On 'Mama I Lied', the ninth track of her new album, Am I Okay?, Megan Moroney demonstrates just how strong our human need is to cling to these untruths, even using them against ourselves and our loved ones to remain rooted in the fantasy we crave.

We’re seasoned in Moroney’s tunes about romances gone awry, but 'Mama I Lied' takes a deeper look at the impact it has on our relationships with others when we hide the truth.

It's something of an open letter, a confession to Moroney's mama as she admits that the typical teenage lies she once told have turned into darker ones in adulthood. Now, she uses them to obscure the reality of a toxic romance whilst assuring everyone that she’s fine, lying both to them and herself in the process.

It’s not the first of Moroney's songs that uses a conversation with her mother as a framing device. Her most famous hit, 'Tennessee Orange,' famously opens with “Mama I’m callin, I’ve got some news”, before going on to describe a fairytale romance with a rival football fan at odds with Moroney's family allegiance.

Whomever the real-life suitor who inspired 'Tennessee Orange' is, we know that she is no longer in a relationship with him. Could it be that 'Mama I Lied' is a follow up to the song, as Moroney admits that her unlikely romance has gone sour? If so, does that mean that 'Tennessee Orange' always had a darker dynamic at play than just football rivalry? When she was pleading to her mother, willing her to believe that her beau really was a good guy, was she always trying to convince herself instead?

The song opens with a soft, sad beat. Its rainy day blues and minor key revelry making way for a morose swell of atmospheric strings as it cuts deeper into its runtime and, with it, the carefully constructed reality that Moroney has been presenting of her romance to her loved ones.

Vocally, she leans less into her signature rasp than usual, complimenting the framing device of a mother-daughter conversation by making her sound younger, and her delivery as earnest and truthful as one can only be with their mother.

"Mama I lied
When I was sixteen
I said “The bottle ain’t mine
And I’ll never smoke weed”
Now I’ve grown up
You’d think things have changed
Hurts me just as much
To say they're the same"

No one gets through their teenage years without at least a few white lies to their parents, often turning into funny stories as we age and come to know our parents as people. Moroney's sins sound like fairly typical teenage fare, experimenting with alcohol and weed.

Whilst many of us can see that, even in adulthood, the odd well-placed fib to a parent can still have its place, she hints that her own lies have become harmful, causing her as much pain as they once caused her mother, though she doesn’t tell us yet exactly what she’s been lying about.

"Mama I lied
He ain’t a good guy
He makes my cry sometimes out of the blue
I’m not sure why
It took all this time
I was afraid of what you’d say to do
Guess I wasn’t ready yet to hear the hard truth
So mama I lied"

The honest opinions of our friends and families often remain the deadliest weapon against the lies we tell ourselves, whilst our glossing over the truth remains the final defence against it.

Moroney has seemingly reached breaking point, no longer able to hide the truth from her mother as she finally admits to both herself and her that this lover isn't a good one, even though she knows her mama will give her the hard truth that she needs to kick this man to the curb.

Her signature colour blue makes an appearance, and if this song is a response to 'Tennessee Orange' then her insistence in that song that “he don’t make me cry” begins to ring hollow as she admits that the opposite is true.

"I’d wipe the tears
As quick as they’d fall
Say everything’s fine every time
that you’d call
And I’d swear he’s perfect
Hoping you couldn’t tell
He was stealing my spark
Walking me straight through hell"

Moroney tells the story of how she constructed the lie of a happy relationship, insisting everything is fine as often as it’s made clear to her that they’re not.

She’s evocative, impressing upon the listener that this wasn’t just a romance that fizzled out or ended over a few minor incidents – the man in question has put her through hell, referencing the seeming wells full of tears he’s leeched from her.

The gifted singer-songwriter lets the hellish description and its imagery speak for itself rather than describing specific offences, leaving the listener wondering how bad things could have been behind the closed door Moroney had built.

"You said when somebody shows you who they really are
You better believe ’em
So I painted him the only way I thought you and I
Would wanna see him"

As we move to the bridge, Moroney reckons with the advice her mother gave her, which clearly had not left her, but that she had been ignoring as she tried to convince herself of an alternate reality.

In a dark twist, Moroney ends up using the advice against her mother, knowing that she’ll be paying attention to how she describes her lover, leading her to paint a false picture of him. The use of “painted” once again draws the listener to the significance of colours in Moroney's discography, and is a potential hint at the palate of 'Tennessee Orange' she’s used to create narratives in the past.

"Mama I lied
He ain’t a good guy
He makes my cry sometimes out of the blue
I’m not sure why
It took all this time
I was afraid of what you’d say to do
Guess I wasn’t ready yet to hear the hard truth
And I can’t hide it anymore I really need you
Mama I lied
Mama I lied"

She adds a final line to the last chorus – “And I can’t hide it anymore, I really need you” – her defences broken as she admits that she can no longer hide the truth from her mama because of how much she needs her to get her through this heartbreak and move on from the man who’s put her through hell.

Like a child in admonishment, she stops making excuses for the man and herself, repeating twice “mama I lied”. You can almost see her, head hung and voice small.

Moroney doesn’t elaborate on whether she actually leaves the relationship in question, but it’s clear that both she and her mama know that it’s time for her to do so.

Moroney is yet to address 'Mama, I Lied' or its meaning publicly, but the song's lyric video shows her pulling tissues from a sparkly blue box as she picks up the phone, giving true meaning to the idea of a well-dressed lie.

While no specific details have yet to emerge about the heartbreaking tune, the award-winning entertainer has briefly touched on the making of and inspiration behind her sophomore effort, Am I Okay?, noting: “After putting Lucky out and getting to a point where my fans and I know each other so much better, I felt like I could open up and discuss things I’ve never talked about in my music before,” she explained in a statement.

“Sometimes it almost feels like oversharing, but I feel like I have a responsibility to all the people who send me DMs or talk to me at shows and tell me how my songs helped them through a breakup or a bad time in their lives. If I can write about my heartbreak and make someone else feel like there’s a way out, then of course I’m going to keep doing that."

She adds: “Going into making this record, I was getting a lot of outside opinions on what my second album should be. After a while I realized I just needed to stay true to how I started writing songs when I was 19, and then focus on making music that sonically supports the stories I’m telling. I did my best to block out all that outside noise, and just lead with honesty the whole way through."

In the end, she offers, “I wanted to capture what life feels like in your 20s, where one minute you’re sad about an ex and the next you’re just having fun with your friends and couldn’t care less. My emotions can be all over the place, and I want my songs to make people feel like they have permission to be messy too.”

Mama I lied
When I was sixteen
I said “The bottle ain’t mine
And I’ll never smoke weed”
Now I’ve grown up
You’d think things have changed
Hurts me just as much
To say they're the same

Mama I lied
He ain’t a good guy
He makes my cry sometimes out of the blue
I’m not sure why
It took all this time
I was afraid of what you’d say to do
Guess I wasn’t ready yet to hear the hard truth
So mama I lied

I’d wipe the tears
As quick as they’d fall
Say everything’s fine every time
that you’d call
And I’d swear he’s perfect
Hoping you couldn’t tell
He was stealing my spark
Walking me straight through hell

Mama I lied
He ain’t a good guy
He makes my cry sometimes out of the blue
I’m not sure why
It took all this time
I was afraid of what you’d say to do
Guess I wasn’t ready yet to hear the hard truth
So mama I lied

You said when somebody shows you who they really are
You better believe ’em
So I painted him the only way I thought you and I
Would wanna see him

Mama I lied
He ain’t a good guy
He makes my cry sometimes out of the blue
I’m not sure why
It took all this time
I was afraid of what you’d say to do
Guess I wasn’t ready yet to hear the hard truth
And I can’t hide it anymore I really need you
Mama I lied
Mama I lied

--

For more on Megan Moroney, see below: