Hazard (song)

Hazard is a popular song by Richard Marx. It would hit #1 on the adult contemporary chart and crack the top 10 in the US and worldwide.

In writing the song (about a small Nebraska town), Marx asked the state Chamber of Commerce for a list of Nebraska towns with two syllables; when he discovered that there was a town named Hazard (located in central Nebraska, population 57), realizing the double meaning of the word (as the song is about danger), he decided to use the name. (He did take poetic license, however: the song talks about the town having a river, whereas in real life it only has a muddy creek.)

The song is sung from the point of view of a man who moved to the town at the age of seven but has been treated as an outcast his entire life. Three years prior to the events, he meets "Mary", the one person who has accepted him as he is. When Mary disappears while walking along the river, the local law enforcement has already decided the narrator is the culprit; though he professes his innocence, he recognizes that he will never convince anyone and realizes that he needs to leave town immediately (the lyrics imply that he plans to drown himself in the river, thus joining Mary in some form).

The song's video is based on the lyrics but portrays Mary as a murder victim. Although interrogated by the police, he continues to profess his innocence. But while in police custody, the local citizens enforce "vigilante justice" by vandalizing and burning down his house. Lacking evidence to hold him in custody, the police return him to his now destroyed home; he eventually leaves town by hitchhiking.