Songfacts®:

• This song was written by Victoria Williams, but its first studio release was by Pearl Jam on 1993's Sweet Relief - A Benefit for Victoria Williams, an album put together to help Williams pay the medical bills related to her recently diagnosed multiple sclerosis. Williams herself released it one year later on her 1994 album Loose.
• The song tells the story of a wild-eyed woman who lives in a tar paper shack. She is often seen walking around, until one day when a car drives into her shack and kills her.
  
  In her Songfacts interview, Williams explained that Crazy Mary is "a fantasy I suppose I made up out of some facts... a very old black lady, she used to walk into Shreveport but would never get inside a moving automobile. One day, she met her demise when a car went out of control and slammed into her shack. That which you fear most can meet you half way."
• Williams sang backup vocals on Pearl Jam's version of the song.