Tales From The Underground 2, 1996 (Unofficial, not authorized by Tom Waits)

Down There By The Train

(Johnny Cash version, 1994)

There's a place I know, where the train goes slow

Where the sinner can be washed in the blood of the lamb

There's a river by the trestle down by Sinner's Grove

Down where the Willow and the Dogwood grow

You can hear the whistle, you can hear the bell

From the halls of heaven to the gates of hell

And there's room for the foresaken if you're there on time

You'll be washed of all your sins and all of your crimes

If you're down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

There's a golden moon that shines up through the mist

And I know that your name can be on that list

There's no eye for an eye, there's no tooth for a tooth

I saw Judas Iscariot carrying John Wilkes Booth⁽¹⁾

He was down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

He was down there where the train

goes slow

If you've lost all your hope, if you've lost all your faith

I know you can be cared for and I know you can be safe

And all the shameful and all of the whores

And even the soldier who pierced the heart of the lord

Was down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

Well, I've never asked forgiveness and I've never said a prayer

Never given of myself, never truly cared

I've left the ones who loved me and I'm still raising Cain

I'm taking the low road and if you've done the same

Meet me down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

Meet me down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

Written by: Tom Waits (performed by Johnny Cash)⁽²⁾

Published by: [?], � 1994

Official release: "American Recordings", Johnny Cash, 1994

Down There By The Train

(Orphans studio version, 2006)

There's a place I know, where the train goes slow

Where the sinners can be washed in the blood of the lamb

There's a river by the trestle down by Sinner's Grove

Down where the Willow and the Dogwood grows

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

You can hear the whistle, you can hear the bell

From the halls of heaven to the gates of hell

And there's room for the foresaken if you're there on time

You'll be washed of all your sins and all of your crimes

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

There's a golden moon that shines up through the mist

And I know that your name will be on that list

There's no eye for an eye, there's no tooth for a tooth

I saw Judas Iscariot carrying John Wilkes Booth⁽¹⁾

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

So, if you live in darkness, if you live in shame

All of the passengers will be treated the same

And, old Humpty Jackson and Gyp the Blood will sing

And Charlie Witman is on the Dillinger's wings⁽³⁾

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

If you've lost all your hope, if you've lost all your faith

I know you will be cared for and I know you will be safe

And all the shameful and all of the whores

And even the soldier who pierced the heart of the lord

Is down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

Well, I've never asked forgiveness and I've never said a prayer

I've never given of myself, and I''ve never truly cared

And I've hurt the ones who loved me and I'm still raising Cain

And I've taken the low road and if you've done the same

Meet me down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there by the train

Down there where the train

goes slow

Down there where the train

goes slow

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan⁽²⁾

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1994/ 2006

Official release: Orphans (Bawlers), (P) & � 2006 Anti Inc.

Known covers:

American Recordings, Johnny Cash, 1994

Train Stories. Richie Arndt. June 5, 2009. Baukau (Rough Trade)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ I saw Judas Iscariot carrying John Wilkes Booth:

- Judas Iscariot: Judas Iscariot (died April AD 29-33) was, according to the Christian New Testament, one of the twelve original apostles of Jesus, and the one who betrayed him. According to the account given in the gospels, he carried the disciples' money box and betrayed Jesus for a bribe of "thirty pieces of silver" by identifying him with a kiss (the "kiss of Judas") to arresting soldiers of the High Priest Caiphas, who then turned Jesus over to Pontius Pilate's soldiers. Judas has been a figure of great interest to esoteric groups, such as many Gnostic sects, because of the apparent contradiction in the idea of "the betrayal of God". Judas is also the subject of many philosophical writings, discussing various problematic ideological contradictions: If Jesus foresees Judas' betrayal, then it may be argued that Judas has no free will, and cannot avoid betraying Jesus. If Judas cannot control his betrayal of Jesus, then he is not morally responsible for his actions. If Judas is sent to Hell for his betrayal, and his betrayal was a necessary step in the humanity-saving death of Jesus Christ, then Judas is being punished for saving humanity. If Jesus only suffered while dying on the cross, and then ascended into Heaven, while Judas must suffer for eternity in Hell, then Judas has suffered much more for the sins of humanity than Jesus. Does Jesus' plea, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do," (Luke 23:34) not apply to Judas? Most modern Christians, whether laity, clergy, or theologians, still consider Judas a traitor. Indeed the term Judas has entered many languages as a synonym for betrayer.

- John Wilkes Booth: Assassin of US president Abraham Lincoln (Ford's Theatre, Washington D.C. April 14, 1865). After the assassination Booth escaped from Washington, D.C. and was on the run for 12 days. He and David E. Herold, a coconspirator, were sleeping in a tobacco barn on the morning of Wednesday, April 26, 1865, when Union cavalry finally caught up with them. The soldiers surrounded the barn which was located about 60 miles south of Ford's Theatre near Port Royal, Virginia. Herold gave up but Booth refused. The barn was set on fire, and Booth was shot by one Boston Corbett.

⁽²⁾ Down There By The Train: (Bone Machine outtake)

- Jim Jarmusch (1993): Man, you have so many songs. There are other songs you played for me that aren't on 'Bone Machine', like "Filipino Box Spring Hog". TW: Yeah, and "Tell It to Me", and "Mexican Song", "In the Reeperbahn", one called "Shall We Die Tonight", a suicide pact ballad, and then a couple for John Hammond at the same time, one called "Down There By the Train". JJ: Did he record it? TW: No, nobody did. And we couldn't find a way to do it either that felt good, so we just left it, and it's just sitting there. (Source: "Straight No Chaser" Straight No Chaser magazine (UK), by Jim Jarmusch. Date: October, 1992 (published early 1993)

- Terry Gross (2002): ... Johnny Cash... recorded your song "Down There By The Train". TW: Yeah right that killed me! That was, that was, that was wild. I was like "That's it, I'm all done now. Johnny Cash did a song... all done, thanks very much." That was really flattering you know. Lovely he did it too. TG: Oh yeah. Do you know how he knew the song or why he decided to record it? TW: Well a lot of people sent in tunes when he was doing this record with Rick Rubin. And eh different people that eh... you know, different songwriters sending in tunes and then he just picked them. I didn't know if he was doing it or not. I figured, well I hadn't done it. I don't know why I hadn't done it, I don't remember. And so eh... I didn't really know until the record came out. I said: "Wow that's great!" When someone is doing a tune, especially someone that you have been listening to since you were a kid, it's a bit of a validation... TG: Oh yeah... TW: ... and it's meaningful. TG: Johnny Cash is pretty validating when it comes to that. (laughs) TW: Yeah alright!... TG: So did you meet Johnny Cash? TW: No, I have not met Johnny Cash. I look forward to that day down the road. I would love to meet him. (Source: "Fresh Air interview with Tom Waits", Fresh Air with Terry Gross, produced in Philadelphia by WHYY. Radio show as archived on Fresh Air website. May 21, 2002)

- Tom Waits (2006): "On Orphans there is a mambo about a convict who breaks out of jail with a fishbone, a gospel train song about Charlie Whitman and John Wilkes Boothe, a delta blues about a disturbing neighbor, a spoken word piece about a woman who was struck by lightening, an 18th century Scottish madrigal about murderous sibling rivalry, an American backwoods a cappella about a hanging. Even a song by Jack Kerouac and a spiritual with my own personal petition to the Lord with prayer... There's even a show tune about an old altar boy and a rockabilly song about a young man who's begging to be lied to." (Source: Anti Records Orphans promo pack. August 2006)

- Tom Waits (2006); "I had a song covered by Johnny Cash, that was like a huge uh... thrill for me, you know? He would change some of it and I thought: "Oh, boy! Well I guess he must have thought it needed some changing!" "I should have talked to him before I finished! Probably could have helped me!" (Source: "Tom Waits: Rock Classics, With A Gravelly Rasp", NPR's World Caf� from WXPN (USA) by David Dye. December 15, 2006)

- Tom Waits (2007): "I had a friend who was playing guitar with him (Johnny Cash) at the time, [guitarist] Smokey Hormel. Smokey said, "Yeah, Johnny's going to be doing other people's tunes. Send us down something." But the version on [Orphans] isn't the original demo I sent. I did my version with Larry Taylor at Prairie Sun or Sputnik Sound, or one of those places." (Source: "A Conversation With Tom Waits", by Bob Mehr. Memphis Commercial Appeal. January 21, 2007)

⁽³⁾ And Charlie Witman is on the Dillinger's wings:

- Charles Whitman: Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 - August 1, 1966) is known for ascending The University of Texas at Austin's 27-story tower on August 1, 1966, and shooting passersby in the city and on the campus below, after having killed his mother and his wife the night before. In all Whitman killed 15 people and wounded 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin police. At autopsy Whitman was found to have suffered from a brain tumor affecting the limbic system. Whitman left a suicide note, a portion of which read: "I don't quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter. Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. I don't really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I can't recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts." The note explained that he had decided to murder both his mother and wife, but made no mention of the coming attacks at the University. He also requested that an autopsy be done after his death, to determine if there were anything to explain his actions and increasing headaches. He willed any money from his estate to be donated to mental health research, saying he hoped it would prevent others from following his route.

- MB (2006): Down There By The Train pursues that theme of redemption. What's the history of that song? TW: How many years ago, I don't know, Johnny Cash did a version of it, when he was doing the first of those American Recordings with Rick Rubin. I don't know who asked me; somebody said, "You got any songs for Johnny Cash?" I just about fell off my chair. I had a song and I hadn't recorded it. So I said, "Hey - it's got all the stuff that Johnny likes - trains and death, John Wilkes Booth, the cross... OK!" MB: It's such a wonderful song, the idea that even the worst sinners will be saved. "Charlie Whitman is holding on to Dillinger's wings, they're both down there by the train..." TW: Yeah, yeah, available to all. Charles Whitman -- he's the one that went up a tower in Texas and shot all those people. He was probably bipolar." (Source: "My Wild Years And The Woman That Saved My Life", Word magazine (UK), November 9, 2006. By Mick Brown)

- John Dillinger: John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 - July 22, 1934) was an American bank robber, considered by some to be a dangerous criminal, while others idealized him as a latter-day Robin Hood. He gained this reputation (and the nickname "Jackrabbit") for his graceful movements during bank heists, e.g. leaping over the counter (a movement he supposedly copied from watching it in a movie), and narrow getaways from police.

I'll Never Let Go Of Your Hand

Never Let Go

Well, ring the bell backwards and bury the axe

Fall down on your knees in the dirt

I'm tied to the mast between water and wind

Believe me, you'll never get hurt

Now the ring's in the pawnshop, the rain's in the hole

Down at the Five Points⁽¹⁾ I stand

I'll loose everything

But I won't let go of your hand

Now, Peter denied and Judas betrayed

I'll pay with the roll of the drum⁽²⁾

And the wind will tell the turn from the wheel

And the watchman's making his rounds

Well, you leave me hanging by the skin of my teeth⁽³⁾

I've only got one leg to stand

You can send me to hell

But I'll never let go of your hand

Swing from a rope on a cross-legged tree

Signed with the one-eyed Jack's blood

From Temple and Union, to Weyley and Grand

Walking back home in the mud

Now, I must make my best of the only way home

Marley deals only in stones

I'm lost on the midway, I'm reckless in your eyes

Just give me a couple more throws

I'll dare you to dine with the cross-legged knights⁽⁴⁾

Dare me to jump and I will

I'll fall from your grace

But I'll never let go of your hand

I'll never let go of your hand

I'll never let go of your hand

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music Inc. [?], � 1992

Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording studios. Cotati, CA/ USA, 1992

First release: American Heart (movie), 1993 (played during the end credits)⁽⁵⁾

Re-released on: Orphans (Bawlers), (P) & � 2006 Anti Inc.

Known covers:

Bangin' On The Table With An Old Tin Cup. Pascal Fricke. April 12, 2007. Self-released (Germany)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Five points

- An intersection of three streets, leaving five street corners. Kinda like Times Square in NYC on a smaller scale (Submitted by Russell Fischer. Raindogs Listserv discussionlist. September, 2000)

- In the town that I grew up in there was an intersection where 5 different streets came together and it was referred to as the 5 Points - there was a store there called the 5 Points Variety Store - so I think this is probably something similar (Submitted by Gary Tausch. Raindogs Listserv discussionlist. September, 2000)

- There is a famous Five Points on the Lower East Side of Manhattan at the edge of present day Chinatown, which used to be a center for all kinds of illegal activities (Submitted by Mikael Borg. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist. September, 2000)

⁽²⁾ I'll pay with the roll of the drum: Pay with the Roll of the Drum (To). Not to pay at all. No soldier can be arrested for debt when on the march. "How happy the soldier who lives on his pay, And spends half-a-crown out of sixpence a day; He cares not for justices, beadles, or bum, But pays all his debts with the roll of the drum.- O'Keefe." (Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894)

⁽³⁾ Hanging by the skin of my teeth: "The expression by (or with) the skin of one's teeth, which means 'by an extremely narrow margin; just barely; scarcely' is an example of a literal translation of a phrase in another language. It's also another example of a Biblical expression gaining currency in mainstream usage. The Biblical source of this phrase is the following passage, where Job is complaining about how illness has ravaged his body: "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth" (Job xix.20, in the King James Version). The point here is that Job is so sick that there's nothing left to his body. The passage is rendered differently in other translations; the Douay Bible, for example, which is an English translation of the Vulgate (St. Jerome's fourth-century Latin translation), gives: "My bone hath cleaved to my skin, and nothing but lips are left about my teeth." The phrase, which first appears in English in a mid-sixteenth-century translation of the Bible, does not appear to become common until the nineteenth century." (Source: "The Mavens' Word of the Day" April, 1997. �1995-2005 Random House, Inc.)

⁽⁴⁾ Cross-legged knights: Cross-legged Knights indicate that the person so represented died in the Christian faith. As crusaders were supposed so to do, they were generally represented on their tombs with crossed legs. "Sometimes the figure on the tomb of a knight has his legs crossed at the ankles, this meant that the knight went one crusade. If the legs are crossed at the knees, he went twice; if at the thighs he went three times." - Ditchfield: Our Villages, 1889. (Source: E. Cobham Brewer 1810-1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898)

⁽⁵⁾ Jim Jarmusch (1993): You did a cover of a Fats Waller song for another film. TW: 'American Heart'. JJ: Directed by the guy who did 'Streetwise', Martin Bell. What's the Fats Waller song? TW: "Crazy About My Baby". Then we wrote a closing song for the film, also, called "I'll Never Let Go of Your Hand". (Source: Straight No Chaser [Spring 1993]. Interview by Jim Jarmusch)

I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby

I'm walking on air

Oh, I've left all my blue days behind me

Oh baby, I've learned how to care

And there's real love on my mind

I'm the world's most happy creature

Tell me, what can worry me?

I'm crazy 'bout my baby and my baby's crazy 'bout me, yeah

Oh, Mister Cupid was my teacher

Oh, the reason we agree

I'm crazy 'bout my baby and my baby's crazy 'bout me, yeah

Oh, Parson, get that book out, get that book out

Hold it steady, steady in your hand

Understand, an A-one combination, the perfect he and she

I'm crazy 'bout my baby and my baby's so crazy 'bout me

Oh, Parson, get that book out

Hold it steady in your hand

Look out, you can understand

It's an A-one combination, the perfect he and she

Oh, I'm crazy 'bout my baby and my baby's crazy 'bout me, yeah

Written by: Thomas "Fats" Waller and Alex Hill⁽¹⁾

Original recording by Fats Waller with Ted Lewis and his Band 1931 (Edwin H. Morris & Co.)

Official release: the film American Heart, 1992. No soundtrack album available

Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording studios. Cotati, CA/ USA, 1992

Also released on: "Lie To Me/ Crazy About My Baby", 2006 (P) & � 2006 Anti Inc. �2006. 45 rpm advance promo for Orphans (2-track)

Known covers:

N/A

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Listen to audio excerpt of I'm Crazy 'bout My Baby.

From the movie "American Heart" (1992).

Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording studios. Cotati, CA/ USA, 1992.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ I'm Crazy 'Bout My baby

- Jim Jarmusch (1993): You did a cover of a Fats Waller song for another film. TW: 'American Heart'. JJ: Directed by the guy who did 'Streetwise', Martin Bell. What's the Fats Waller song? TW: "Crazy About My Baby". Then we wrote a closing song for the film, also, called "I'll Never Let Go of Your Hand". (Source: Straight No Chaser [Spring 1993]. Interview by Jim Jarmusch)

- Original version: I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby. Thomas Waller/ Alex Hill. Original recording by Fats Waller with Ted Lewis and his Band, 1931. Transcribed from Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, recorded March 9, 1931: "I'm the world's most happy creature, Tell me, what can worry me? I'm crazy 'bout my baby, And my baby's crazy 'bout me! Mr. Cupid was our teacher, That's the reason we agree, I'm crazy 'bout my baby, And my baby's crazy 'bout me! Parson, get your book out, Get it ready in your hand, Keep a steady look-out; 'Cause I know you understand. We're an A-one combination, The perfect he and she, I'm crazy 'bout my baby, And my baby's crazy 'bout me!"

Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet

Never failed me yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet

There's one thing I know

For he loves me so

Jesus' blood never failed me

Never failed me yet

Never failed me yet

One thing I know

For he loves me so

Jesus' blood never failed me yet

Never failed me yet

Never failed me yet

There's one thing I know

Loves me so

Jesus' blood never failed me

Never failed me yet

Never failed me yet

One thing I know

For he loves me so

Original version published by: Gavin Bryars, � 1971/ 1975

This version published by: Mnemonic/ (MCPS/ PRS), � 1993

Official release (version with Waits): Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet - Gavin Bryars, POINT Music, 1993

Tom Waits: Vocals. London tramp: Vocals

Tom Waits vocals recorded at Prairie Sun Recording studios. Cotati, CA/ USA, 1993

Known covers:

N/A

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet:

- Gavin Bryars (1993): "In 1971 I came across a tape of an old tramp singing a fragment of a religious song. I made a long orchestral piece out of it and this was recorded in 1975. --- Some years ago Tom contacted me because he had lost his recording of the original version, which he said was his "favourite recording". Accordingly, when I developed the new piece, I decided to ask Tom if he would like to join in." (Source: Liner notes from "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet", Gavin Bryars, POINT Music, 1993)

- Gavin Bryars (1993): "I came across the original tape that I used for this piece when a friend [Alan Power] was making a film about tramps and people living rough near railway stations in London and he gave me the tapes to help him make the film and one of these was this old man singing a religious song, Jesus Blood Never Failed Me. He wasn't drunk, he simply just burst into song."

- Tom Waits (1999): "Well this was the eh... Gavin Bryars and eh this was a song that was discovered through eh ehm.. they did a documentary on songs that people remembered from their childhood. And they interviewed a lot of homeless people in England. And they went under to the bridges and out to the beach and downtown and ehm& and they found people that ehm& asked them what are the songs they carry with them, what are the songs that mean something to them. And there's a lot of people (who) have lost everything and maybe all they've got is you know these memories and these songs and this was one that they found and ehm... So Gavin Bryars orchestrated it and it was called "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" and eh he made a record with that title..." (Source: "KBCO Interview With Tom Waits" KBCO-C studios Los Angeles (USA), by Bret Saunders. October 13, 1999)

- Tom Waits (1999) on Gavin Bryars' "The Sinking Of The Titanic": "This is difficult to find, have you heard this? It's a musical impression of the sinking of the Titanic. You hear a small chamber orchestra playing in the background, and then slowly it starts to go under water, while they play. It also has "Jesus Blood" on it. I did a version of that with him. I heard this on my wife's birthday, at about 2:00 in the morning in the kitchen, and I taped it. For a long time I just had a little crummy cassette of this song, didn't know where it came from, it was on one of those Pacifica radio stations where you can play anything you want. This is really an interesting evening's music." (Source: "Tom Waits, Artist Choice" Hear Music Artist's Choice. Date: October, 1999)

- Gavin Bryars (2006): "I understand those who don't like Tom Waits' voice in the context and there are many people who prefer the original recording from 1975 - the 'purists' - and it was for that reason that I made the first track listing follow exactly the structure of the old version so that it would be possible to drop out at that point. In fact because of the investment of Frankfurt Ballet in the recording process (they wanted to have the rights for the first ballet use) we did also make a mix without Tom, though it probably goes without saying that I prefer Tom in there - after all it was my idea to include him. His specific inclusion was to have something other than an accompaniment to the old man's voice, and also to have something which evolves rather than repeats." (Source: "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me yet". E-mail from Gavin Bryars to Brian Alegant as published on Prof. Alegant's Blog. November 7, 2006)

- Gavin Bryars (2006): "The original Obscure Records release from 1975 was re-released by Virgin in 1998, initially in UK only to capitalise on the first night of my second opera Doctor Ox's Experiment at English National Opera. Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet was originally the 'B' side of the LP, with The Sinking of the Titanic as the 'A' side. It was also released in Japan, but I'm not sure about the rest of the world." (Source: "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me yet". E-mail from Gavin Bryars to Brian Alegant as published on Prof. Alegant's Blog. November 5, 2006)

- Further reading: "BBC Radio: Johnnie Walker Interview"

Tom Waits, Jesus and Me

Beautiful intonation, impeccable timing and diction as clear as Frank Sinatra's. It's all in a day's work when you record with a legend.

By Gavin Bryars.

I spent one afternoon over 10 years ago working with Tom Waits in a studio in northern California. It was probably one of the most sublime musical experiences of my life. We were recording my piece, Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, an orchestral arrangement based on a 1971 field recording of a tramp singing in London. Tom and I were first in touch at the time of his last tour of the UK - in the 1980s. He had lost his copy of the original vinyl LP released on Brian Eno's Obscure Records in 1975, an album that had quietly disappeared. This, he said, was his "favourite record", which seemed to me to be the highest praise. As it happened, there were a couple of pristine copies in my manager's office so I had one sent to him. I was given a couple of tickets for his London concert but in the event was unable to go. I still feel guilty at the thought of those two empty seats.

We didn't meet at that time, but I subsequently got in touch with Tom when he was working with stage director Robert Wilson on the opera The Black Rider, which I went to see in Paris. Tom and I had a good deal in common as I too had worked with Bob (in the early 1980s, on my first opera Medea and on Bob's monumental project The CIVIL WarS). Although I saw Tom in Paris, we did not speak. But we did begin to correspond regularly and discussed his possible involvement in my second opera, Doctor Ox's Experiment - in fact the idea of Tom taking the central part of Ox - which interested him a lot.

During this period, Philip Glass asked me if I would be interested in doing a CD recording of Jesus' Blood. He assumed I would do something similar to the old version and was somewhat fazed when I wanted to use the entire 74 minutes then available. The CD falls into three parts: the first 25 minutes are as the old version (to satisfy purists who, if they wanted, need listen no further). Then the music goes on another journey, with a series of darker orchestrations in the second part;and for the third I decided to add Tom.

It was in the middle of a telephone conversation with the record company in New York that I found myself saying, almost involuntarily, that I would introduce the voice of Tom Waits late in the piece. I reasoned that, throughout the piece, everything serves to accompany and support the loop of the old man's voice. But in the context of a much larger structure, something else might emerge alongside, like two fragile old friends singing a duet. And Tom agreed to do it.

I recorded all the orchestral and choral tracks in New York in late 1992 (working towards a May 1993 release) and, as Tom had been working with Bob Wilson again in Europe (on Alice In Wonderland), we left it that we would be in touch after he had spent the Christmas holidays with his family.

However, when I tried to contact him in January he couldn't be found. Nobody knew where he was and all messages went unanswered. Eventually it came to a point where I had to go to New York to make the final mix and I called Tom again to say that if he really was not able to do it I would understand, but that I had 24 hours to make the arrangements and if I didn't hear I would have to proceed without him.

I left this message on his machine and tried again the next morning before going to the university to teach. To my surprise, although there had been no reply, his outgoing message had been changed, which I took as a clue to encourage me to try again. When I came back in the afternoon there was a lengthy message from him apologising, and eventually we spoke.

The upshot was that he wanted to do it, but under certain conditions. These were that he would not come to New York but that his part in the recording should be done in his studio in northern California with me, his engineer and nobody else. I picked up a multi-track of the piece, with a preliminary mix and three vacant tracks, and flew to San Francisco.

After staying overnight at a hotel in the airport, I rented a car and drove north. I followed the studio's directions and found my way by lunchtime, to what is basically a converted chicken farm, with various rooms built inside unlikely exteriors. One of these rooms was a guesthouse where I was to stay the next night, and so I installed myself and Tom arrived mid-afternoon. He came with his wife Kathleen and two children (his wife was expecting their third child, Sullivan, born later that year) in an old American car. They had all been to a comic-book convention on the coast. His family left and we set about recording.

As the studio machines could not handle the large reels I had brought with me, we cut the tape on to three separate reels. For the first take Tom was in a booth next to the control room and simply sang along to the tape in a variety of ways. After we listened to this take, Tom suggested that he sing in a different space, in the "Waiting Room", where he recorded his own albums and where he has all his own instruments.

Here he sang to headphone playback, head close to the microphone, with just me in the room. It was like being in the company of a great blues singer from the past. He sang, eyes closed, constructing sequences of the phrase, maybe five or six repetitions, until he moved immediately to a new idea. Some were subtle and tender, some very powerful and even angry. Occasionally he sang through a battery-operated voice gun. Later we tried a few takes on which he sang through this megaphone and I accompanied him on his harmonium, which had only one working pedal.

Throughout the recording I could witness at close quarters his musical strengths: impeccable timing, beautifully focused intonation, an instinctive musical intelligence and diction as clear as Frank Sinatra's (which would have been fantastic to hear in opera).

When we finished we spent the early evening chatting about music and many other things, and his range of musical knowledge was extraordinary. He also talked eloquently about my piece and about his first hearing the music by chance over the radio at the end of a birthday party for Kathleen. He spoke about the place being littered with empty bottles, balloons and confetti while they just sat quietly holding hands, listening to the whole piece. The music, he said, "settled like a dust on the evening". To save Kathleen having to pick him up later that evening, I drove him back in my rented car.

When I got back to New York I sorted the individual repetitions into groups and constructed a sequence to follow the contours of the orchestration. In fact, in all the repetitions he never once sang the phrase "correctly" - ie exactly as the old man (!) - and I had to classify his versions. One I called Ruby's Arms as he often made the second phrase of the tramp's song into the same as one in his own song, "[I will say goodbye] to Ruby's arms [though my heart is breaking]".

I still have somewhere all the takes - the album contains about a third of them - and when we parted we agreed two things. One was that we would never do the piece "live" together. And the other was to do with its exploitation. He said: "If ever some bastard comes up with a wine called Jesus' Blood, don't let them use the piece for a commercial".

Nobody has. But I wouldn't.

(Source: Sunday Herald Online. October 3, 2004. � newsquest (Sunday Herald) limited. all rights reserved)

Notes on the recording of Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet - written for John Potter

By Gavin Bryars.

When Philip Glass asked me if I would be interested in doing a new recording of Jesus' Blood he assumed that I would do something similar to the first version and wanted to know what other pieces would be on the same CD. He was somewhat fazed when I said that I would do a version lasting the whole 74 minutes available.

I pointed out to him that I had no intention of simply multiplying by three the number of times each of the old repetitions would be done (an approach that would, perhaps of been his solution!). The original version had lasted for one side of a vinyl album - about 25 minutes - as I merely wanted to avoid a side-break. I decided rather to make the first 25 minutes exactly the same in terms of structure as the old version (to satisfy purists who, if they wanted, could listen no further) but then to take the music on another journey.

Effectively this makes the CD fall into three parts. The first is as the old version (which was subsequently re-released on CD by Virgin, and I knew of their intention). The second part moves into a series of darker orchestrations, some without strings at all. And for the third I decided to add Tom.

This decision came in the middle of a telephone conversation with the record company in New York when I was explaining how the orchestration might involve. I found myself saying, almost involuntarily, that I would introduce the voice of Tom Waits at some point later in the piece.

My thinking in this was as follows: in all the versions I had made everything that is played serves to accompany and support the old man's voice. I felt that perhaps at this point, in the context of a much larger structure, another element might join, and even provide a form of duet with the old man.

I had begun discussions with Tom by this time of his being involved in my second opera Doctor Ox's Experiment - in fact I had spoken with him about taking the part of Ox himself. I knew of his feelings about Jesus' Blood as he had contacted me in the 1980's when he was on tour in England. He had lost his copy of the LP which he said was his "favourite record". As it happened there were a couple of copies in my manager's office and I had a copy sent to him. I later got in touch with him when he was working with Bob Wilson on The Black Rider, which I went to see in Paris. WE had a good deal in common as I had worked with Bob in the early 1980's (Medea, CIVIL WarS, The Golden Windows).

Although I saw him in Paris, we did not speak. So we had not met, nor spoken directly, but we did correspond regularly for a time.

I faxed him to ask if he would do the Jesus' Blood recording and explained my thinking on the whole shape of the piece (I worked out a 'road-map' of the whole duration so that I could see exactly what was happening in each repetition). He agreed to do it.

The plan was that I would record all the orchestral and choral tracks in New York during November and December 1992 as we were working towards a May 1993 release. Tom had been working with Bob Wilson again in Europe (on Alice in Wonderland) and we left it that we would be in touch after he had spent the Christmas and New Year holidays with his family.

However, when I tried to contact him in January he couldn't be found. His manager didn't know where he was and all messages were unanswered no matter who sent them. Eventually it came to a point where I had to go to New York to make the final mix and I called Tom again to say that if he really was not able to do it I would understand but that I had 24 hours to make the arrangements and if I didn't hear I would have to proceed without him. (In fact there is a mix without him, as Frankfurt Ballet co-produced the recording and wanted to have the option of having a version without Tom. Frankfurt's artistic director, William Forsythe visited me at the studio in New York as I was finishing the mix)).

I remember leaving the message on his machine and trying again before leaving my house to go to the university to teach in the morning. To my surprise, although there had been no reply, his outgoing message had been changed and I took this as a clue to encourage me and that I might try again. When I came back from teaching in the afternoon there was a lengthy message from him (which I still have on tape!) apologising and eventually we spoke.

The upshot was that he wanted to do it but under certain conditions. These were that he would not come to New York but that his part in the recording should be done in his studio in Northern California with just me and his engineer and emphatically no-one from New York. Consequently when I arrived in New York I picked up a multi-track of the piece with a preliminary mix and with 3 vacant tracks and flew to San Francisco. I stayed overnight at a hotel in the airport, rented a car and then drove north (I remember crossing the Golden Gate Bridge in the early morning with the Beach Boys on the radio....). I followed the studio's directions and found my way there by lunchtime - it is basically a converted chicken farm, with all the various rooms built inside an unlikely exterior. One of these rooms was a guest house where I was to stay the next night and so I installed myself and Tom arrived mid-afternoon. He came with his wife and two children (his wife was expecting their third child, born later that year and called "Sullivan") in an old American car - a Chevrolet or Cadillac - and they had been to a comic book convention on the coast. His family left and we set about recording.

As the studio machine's could not handle the large reels which I had brought we had to cut the tape onto three separate reels which gave us, effectively, 15 minutes per tape. For the first take Tom was in a booth next to the control room and simply sang along to the tape in a variety of ways. We listened to this take and then Tom suggested that he sing in a different building, in a room called the "Waiting Room", where he records his own albums. All the rooms are linked to the central control room and there is one for listening called the "Listening Room"....

In this space he has all his own instruments and he sang to headphone playback with just me in the room. It was like being in the company of a great blues singer from the past as he sang, eyes closed, constructing sequences of the phrase until he moved on to a new idea. Each sequence would last maybe 5 or 6 repetitions and then he would immediately be into a new idea. Some were quite tender, some were emotionally very powerful and even angry, occasionally he did some through a battery operated voice gun. At the end we tried a few where he sang through this megaphone and I accompanied him on his harmonium, which only had one working pedal. (Some of these repetitions were used on the "B" version of the single which was issued later).

By the end of a couple of hours we had recorded on all the available tracks which I was to take back to New York.

We spent the early evening chatting and, to avoid his wife having to pick him up later in the evening, I drove him to an address in Santa Rosa in my rented car.

I would say that spending the afternoon in that studio with Tom was as beautiful a musical experience as I can remember. I have a video with Tom and myself talking about the piece (a film crew arrived, in spite of my clear instructions to the contrary, from the record company later that evening - I look quite uncomfortable) and he is very eloquent about the piece and about his first hearing the music over the radio at the end of a birthday party for his wife. He talks about the place being littered with balloons and confetti and they were just sitting quietly. He describes the music as settling like a dust on the evening and they just listened to the whole piece, holding hands....

When I got back to New York I sorted the individual repetitions into groups (the groups of repetitions which he had sung) and constructed a sequence which would follow the contours of the orchestration. I wanted the peak to be round about the hour mark which coincided with the centre of the only accompanying phrase which lasts two whole repetitions, that for the piccolo trumpet.

In fact, in all the repetitions that he sang he never once sang the phrase 'correctly' (!) i.e. exactly as the old man, and I devised a series of mnemonics for classifying his versions. One of these was "Ruby's Arms" as he often made the second phrase of the tramp's song into the phrase which occurs when he sings, in his own song, "(I will say goodbye) to Ruby's arms (though my heart is breaking)".

I still have somewhere all the takes that we did - the album contains about a third. I did later re-use some of the material that isn't on the CD when I did a B version for the single release. This starts with Tom and myself, and then the old man is gradually added, rather than the obverse which is what we do on the A version, and which is the way all other versions were made. Apparently this single got to number 8 in the Dutch pop charts in 1993.....

(Source: Gavin Bryars official site. Copyright � Gavin Bryars. All rights reserved)

Martin Goes And Does Where It's At

MM: Hey buddy, excuse me!

TW: Yeah yeah...

MM: Can I get you over here for a second? I have...

TW: Hold your horses, man. I'm busier than a set of jumper cables at a Puerto Rican wedding, man.

WAITRESS: I need a Mai Tai, a Brandy Alexander and a draught, light.

TW: Yeah yeah yeah...

MM: I could use another one though. I don't usually do this. It's just that... I'm in the music business. You ever get anybody in here from...

TW: Yeah well. Things are tough all over, man. What else is new?

MM: Yeah... Today my company made me do a disco record. I mean, it's just... As I said, I don't usually do this. I'd really like another one, if that's all right. You don't mind pennies, do you?

TW: Oh, we can always use pennies.

MM: Oh, fantastic. Wait... (the sound of a shitload of pennies being thrown on the counter)

MM: I think I eh... I think I got enough there for a double.

TW: I think you got enough there for a funeral.

Written by: Martin Mull and Tom Waits � 1977

Published by: [?], � 1977

Official release: "I'm Everyone I Ever Loved" (ABC/MCA AB-997) - Martin Mull, 1977

Spoken word: Tom Waits, Martin Mull

Known covers:

N/A

Sleep Tonight

You better get some sleep tonight

You better get some sleep tonight

Honey, just warn your friends

You better get some sleep tonight

They say you watch the sun go down

The same old shadows crawl over town

Those thoughts of you, it shivers me

The moon grows cold in memory

Baby, yeah, you better get some sleep tonight

All you gotta do is close your eyes

You better get some sleep tonight

I wish you, baby, all the best

If you turn out like all the rest

This darkness, baby, it's chilling me

The stars stare down in sympathy

Baby, yeah, you better get some sleep tonight

All you gotta do is close your eyes

Baby

You better get some sleep tonight

Oh baby, you better get some sleep tonight

Warn all your friends

You better get 'em out of sight

You better get some sleep tonight

They robbed you of your dignity

They even steal your heart from me

It ain't revenge, you understand

Babe, I just wanna know who dealt this hand

Baby, that's alright

Baby, git it up, git it up

All you gotta do is close your eyes

You better get some sleep tonight

You better

You better get 'em out of sight

Maybe in your dreams...

Better get some sleep tonight

Honey, warn all your friends

Oh, you better...

Words and music by: "Mick Jagger" and Keith Richards, �1986

Published by: (?) � 1986

Official release: "Dirty Work", The Rolling Stones, 1986

Keith Richards: vocals. Tom Waits: backing vocals and piano(?)

Known covers:

N/A

Sweet And Shiny Eyes

Your sweet and shiny eyes are like the stars above Laredo

Like meat and potatoes to me

In my sweet dreams we are in a bar, and it's my birthday

Drinking salted Margaritas with Fernando

Young and wild, we drove five hundred miles of Texas highway

To the Mexican border as the day was coming on

We crossed the Rio Grande river and we swore we'd have things our way

When we happened to walk into Nuevo Leon

Your sweet and shiny eyes are like the stars above Laredo

Like meat and potatoes to me

In my sweet dreams we are in a bar, and it's my birthday

And we're having our picture taken with Fernando

In my sweet dreams we are in a bar, and it's my birthday

And we're having our picture taken with Fernando

Words and music by: Nan O'Byrne

Published by: Dry Clam Music - BMI, � 1975

Official release: "Home Plate", Bonnie Raitt, 1975

Tom Waits: backing vocals

Known covers:

N/A

Take Care Of All Of My Children

Oh, take care of all my children

Don't let 'em wander and roam

Oh, take care of all of my children

For I don't know when I'm comin' back home

You can put all of my possessions here in Jesus' name

nail a sign on the door

Bright and early Sunday morning with my walking cane

I'm going up to see my lord

Oh, keep them together at the sundown

Safe from the devil's hand

You gotta make them a pillow on the hard ground

I'll be goin' up to Beaula Land⁽¹⁾

You can put all of my possessions here in Jesus' name

and nail a sign on the door

Bright and early Sunday morning with my walking cane

I'm going up to see my lord

Oh, remember you never trust the devil

Stay clear of Lucifer's hand

Oh, and don't let 'em wander in the meadow

Or you'll wind up in the fryin' pan

You can put all of my possessions here in Jesus' name

and nail a sign on the door

Bright and early Sunday morning with my walking cane

I'm going up to see my lord

Put all of my possessions here in Jesus' name

and nail a sign on the door

Bright and early Sunday morning with my walking cane

I'm going up to see my lord

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: [?], � 1984

Official release: the film Streetwise, 1984 (no soundtrack album available)

Re-released on: Orphans (Bawlers), (P) & � 2006 Anti Inc.

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Beula(h) (land)

- Bible (Isa. lxii. 4). The land of Israel in the Old Testament

- The land of peace described in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin - Third Edition)

- In Pilgrim's Progress it is that land of heavenly joy where the pilgrims tarry till they are summoned to enter the celestial City; the Paradise before the resurrection. (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. � 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd).

- Also mentioned in "Telephone Call From Istanbul" (Follow me to Beulah's on Dry Creek Road), "Take It With Me" (We fell asleep on Beaula's porch)

- Ralph Carney (2004): "Tom was doing a couple songs for a documentary called 'Streetwise' and he wanted to have a kind of Salvation Army sounding band," Carney says. "I had a street band at the time and we just hit it off, I guess. Sometimes he would ask me to play two horns at once, and he liked me to play the bass clarinet a lot. But he doesn't like flutes," Carney says, laughing. "It's hard not to become attached to working with him, but he seems to like to change players a lot, so I guess I was lucky to have worked with him more than most." (Source: "Carney's Little Carnival" by Joe Jarrell. San Francisco Chronicle. May 30, 2004)

The Fall Of Troy

It's the same with men as with horses and dogs

Nothing wants to die

Evelyn James they killed in a game

With guns too big for their hands

Just off St. Charles in no man's land

And you'll have to find your own way home, boys

You'll have to find your own way home

The oldest was Troy, an eighteen year old boy

Shot dead in March in a robbery

His brother started out to hell and to ruin

Troy's killer was never caught, they say

Young Nick, he just went bad that day

Now he'll have to find his own way home, boys

He'll have to find his own way home

Why cook dinner, why make my bed

Why come home at all?

Out the door and through the woods

There's a world where nothing grows

It's hard to say grace and to sit in the place

Of someone missing at the table

Mom's hair sprayed tight and her face in her hands

Watching TV for answers to me

After all she's only human

And she's trying to find her own way home, boys

She's trying to find her own way home

My legs ache

my heart is sore

The well is full of pennies

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan⁽¹⁾

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1995

Official release: Dead Man Walking, Columbia (Sony Music Entertainment Inc.), 1995

Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording studios. Cotati, CA/ USA, 1995

Re-released on: Orphans (Bawlers), (P) & � 2006 Anti Inc.

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Known covers:

The Executioner's Last Songs: Volumes 2 & 3. Pine Valley Cosmonauts. 2003. Bloodshot Records (vocals by Kurt Wagner)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Tom Waits (1998): "This was a news article about 2 kids that were involved in a shooting and they were very young kids and it was in New Orleans." (Source: "KCRW-FM: Morning Becomes Eclectic (interviewed by Chris Douridas)" Date: March 31, 1998)

The Pontiac

Well, let's see... we had the eh Fairlane. Then the u-joints went out on that,

and the bushings. And then your mother wanted to trade it in on the Tornado,

so we got the Tornado. God, I hated the color of that sonufa bitch! And

the dog destroyed the upholstery on the Ford. Boy, that was long before you

were born. We called it the Yellowbird, two-door, three on the tree. Tight

little mother. Threw a rod, sold it to Jacobs for a hundred dollar

Now the special eh... four-holer, you've never seen body panels line up

like that. Overhead cam, dual exhaust. You know I had... let's see I had...

four Buicks, loved 'em all

Now your Uncle Emmet, well he drives a Thunderbird, it used to belong to your

Aunt Evelyn⁽¹⁾. Well, she ruined it, drove it to Indiana with no gear oil. That

was the end of that! Sold that Cadillac to your mom. Your mom loved that

Caddy. Independent rear suspension, Landau top, good tires. Gas hog. I swear

it had the power to repair itself

I loved the Olds... Dan Steele used to give 'em to me at a discount. Showroom

models and that. And then there was the Pontiac and...

God, I loved that Pontiac.

Well, it was kind of an oxblood god

but It handled so beautifully.

Yeah, I miss that car.

Well, that was a long time ago

a long time ago

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan⁽²⁾

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1987/ 2006

Official release: "Smack My Crack", 1987 (spoken word)

Re-released on: Orphans (Bastards), (P) & � 2006 Anti Inc.

Known covers:

N/A

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Aunt Evelyn

- Also mentioned in Pony, 1999: "I wish I was home, in Evelyn's kitchen."

- Austin Chronicle (1999): The song "Pony" has a lot of characters. These names, "Burn-Face Jake," "Blind Darby." I think you're in "Evelyn's Kitchen." Are these real people that live in these songs? Tom Waits: "Evelyn's Kitchen," that's my Aunt Evelyn, who passed away during the making of the record. Her and my uncle had 10 kids and lived in a place called Gridley. I guess I've been far away from home, and have thought about her kitchen a lot and that a lot of people feel the same way when they've been far away from home. I dreamed about getting back home to her kitchen. That's why we put her in there -- a tribute to Evelyn. The other people are just different people I've come across over the years -- known, heard about, read about." (Source: Mule Conversations. Austin Chronicle: Jody Denberg. April, 1999)

- Tom Waits (1999): "My Aunt Evelyn died while we were making the record [Mule Variations]. She was my favorite aunt. She and my Uncle Chalmer had ten kids, and raised prunes and peaches. They lived in Gridley, and there have been a lot of times when I've been far away from home, and I've thought about Evelyn's kitchen. And I know there are a lot of people that loved them, that thought about that same kitchen. So that's why we put that in there. They had an old dog named Gyp. If you make up songs, sometimes you just get up in the morning and start singing something on the way to work. You don't know why, and maybe it's worth remembering, or maybe it's not." (Source: "A Q&A about Mule Variations ". MSO: Rip Rense. January, 1999)

⁽²⁾ The Pontiac:

- The Plain Dealer (2006): "How autobiographical is "The Pontiac"? Tom Waits: "That's my father-in-law, a ride down to the corner store with my father-in-law, talking about endless catalog of cars he's owned and the detail with which he remembers each one lovingly." (Source: "Songwriter's Wandering Orphans' Will Always Find A Musical Home", The Plain Dealer (Cleveland/ USA). November 19, 2006.Telephone interview by John Soeder)

Thousand Bing Bangs

TW: She drove a big ol' Lincoln with suicide doors⁽¹⁾ and a sewing machine

  in the back

KN: Thousand bing bangs near the end. Nothing's ever what it was

TW: And a light bulb that looked like an alligator egg was mounted up

  front on the hood

KN: Had myself a kind of brainstorm. Took a table spoon of buzz

TW: And she had a tattoo gun that she'd made herself from a cassette

  motor and a guitar string⁽²⁾

KN: X-ray eyes can see right through me. Naked thought, put on your

  clothes

TW: And she always had leaves in her hair

KN: You hear that funny laughing? Just the caw of ancient crows

TW: And she cut two holes in the back of her dress, cause she had these

  scapular wings

KN: Somewhere near the raveled edges, by the pool of Think-a-Bit

TW: And they were covered with feathers and electrical tape, and when

  she got good and drunk she would sing

KN: Once again the notion hits me: Half is quite a bit of wit

TW: About Elkhart, Indiana, where the wind is tall and folks mind their

  own business

KN: Power up that upper story. Ten percent is all you use

TW: And she had a hundred old baseballs that she'd taken from kids, and

  she collected bones of all kinds

KN: Take a flight of simple fancy. You're the one who has to choose

TW: And she lived in a trailer under the bridge, and she made her own

  whiskey and gave cigarettes to kids

KN: Okay. All right for you. Look into the tiger's eye

TW: And she'd been struck by lightning seven or eight times, and she

  hated the mention of rain

KN: See if you can see the desert. Pour a drink, my throat is dry

TW: And she made up her own language and she wore rubber boots. She

  could fix anything with string

KN: Poetry ain't gonna catch me. Climb up this high plateau

TW: And her lips were like cherries, and she was stronger than any man,

  and she smelled like nutmeg and piss

KN: Finish up what you were thinking, just a day or so ago

TW: And she put mud on a bee sting I got at the crick, and she gave me

  my very first kiss

KN: Illustrate for visionaries: Go buy a doodle pad. Basically

Written by: Ken Nordine

Published by: LYRICS Rubber frog Publishing (ASCAP)/ MUSIC Ice Nine Publishing (ASCAP), � 1991

Official release: Devout Catalyst - Ken Nordine, Grateful Dead Productions Inc., 1992

Recorded in February and mixed in April 1991 at Club Front in San Rafael

Spoken word: Nordine & Waits

Known covers:

N/A

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Suicide doors

- Door configuration rear-opening [front doors are hinged at the "B" pillars and the rear ones at the "C" pillars]. B-pillars: In sedan styles, the second set of roof supports (between the windshield and rear portion of the roof). C-pillars: In sedan styles, the third set of roof supports located between the rear window and �- window in the roof �-panel.

- Also mentioned in Putting On The Dog (Liberty heights soundtrack, 1999/ Orphans-Brawlers, 2006): "Well, we could go into a zuki jump It's rainin', it pours Big old Lincoln with suicide doors." (Source: The (new) Cadillac Database�, Glossary of Cadillac Terms and Definitions. � 1996, Yann Saunders and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.)

⁽²⁾ A tattoo gun that she'd made herself from a cassette motor and a guitar string:

- Robert Sabbag (1987): "Speaking about the need to impose limitations, about constructing a framework within which to write, he draws an analogy. TW: "Like the guy in prison who made a tattoo machine out of a Bic pen, a guitar string and a cassette loader. Some red ink. He wrapped the handle in such a way, with a T-shirt, it felt just like a bird in your hand." (Source: "Tom Waits Makes Good" Los Angeles Times: Robert Sabbag. February 22, 1987)

- Tom Waits (1988): "I'll tell you, the best thing I ever saw was a kid who had a tattoo gun made out of a cassette motor and a guitar string. The whole thing was wrapped in torn pieces of T-shirt, and it fit in your hands just like a bird. It was one of the most thrilling things I'd ever seen, that kind of primitive innovation. I mean, that's how words develop, through mutant usage of them. People give new meaning, stronger meaning, or they cut the meaning of the word by overusing if, or they use it for something else... I just love that stuff." (Source: "Tom's Wild Years". Interview Magazine (USA), by Francis Thumm. October, 1988)

- Tom Waits (2004): "I know a guy who applied for a job teaching guitar to prison inmates, some kind of rehab therapy. This was at San Quentin, one of the toughest prisons we've got. The first day he gave them all a guitar and the next day everybody needed strings. Not just one string. They aII needed six more strings. So the guards all thought, "That's it. End of the programme. They're using the guitar strings for weapons." But they were aII being used to make needles for tattoo guns And they would wrap the device in cut up pieces of T-shirt and make the most beautiful handle for it." (Source: "Coffee With Tom Waits" Zembla magazine - Issue 7, by Richard Grant. December, 2004)

- From Circus (Real Gone, 2004): "And me and Molley Hoey drank Pruno and Koolaid and she had a tattoo gun made out of a cassette motor."

Nordine's poem without Waits':

Thousand bing bangs near the end. Nothing's ever what it was

Had myself a kind of brainstorm. Took a table spoon of buzz

X-ray eyes can see right through me. Naked thought, put on your clothes

You hear that funny laughing? Just the caw of ancient crows

Somewhere near the raveled edges, by the pool of Think-a-Bit

Once again the notion hits me: half is quite a bit of wit

Power up that upper story. Ten percent is all you use

Take a flight of simple fancy. You're the one who has to choose

Okay. All right for you. Look into the tiger's eye

See if you can see the desert. Pour a drink, my throat is dry

Poetry ain't gonna catch me. Climb up this high plateau

Finish up what you were thinking, just a day or so ago

Illustrate for visionaries: Go buy a doodle pad

Basically

Waits' poem without Nordine's:

(In 2006 released as "First Kiss" on Orphans)

She drove a big ol' Lincoln with suicide doors

and a sewing machine in the back

And a light bulb that looked like an alligator egg

was mounted up front on the hood

And she had a tattoo gun that she made herself

from a cassette motor and a guitar string

And she always had leaves in her hair

And she cut two holes in the back of her dress

cause she had these scapular wings

And they were covered in feathers and electrical tape

And when she got good and drunk

she would sing about Elkhart, Indiana

Where the wind is tall and folks mind their own business

And she had a hundred old baseballs that she'd taken from kids

And she collected bones of all kinds

And she lived in a trailer under the bridge

And she made her own whiskey and gave cigarettes to kids

And she'd been struck by lightning seven or eight times

And she hated the mention of rain

And she made up her own language and she wore rubber boots

She could fix anything with string

And her lips were like cherries

And she was stronger than any man

And she smelled like nutmeg and piss

And she put mud on a bee sting I got at the creek

And she gave me my very first kiss

Waiting For Waits

Waiting for Waits

I think his music's great

His stories are true

And pure as pure can be, I tell ya

Always in style

He'll melt you with his smile

I'm waitin' for Waits

Waitin' for Waits

Waitin' for Waits

The piano has been drinking

I heard Tom Waits singing

Yes, (?) the piano's drunk, not me

He's a killer

Sure loves to swing

The truth flows when he swings

So don't hesitate

Never be late

Listen to Waits

Godfather, tell us how you feel

[scat sings]

Hey, Tom Waits

Won't you come in and sing your song for me

We'll find you

Straight to the top of the piano, wait and see

Oh, Tom Waits

You're just the thing, a boppin' cat like me

The piano has been drinking

I heard Tom Waits singing

Yeah, (?) the piano's drunk, not me

He's a thriller

Sure loves to swing

The truth flows when he'll sing

So don't hesitate

Listen to Waits

Mister Tom Waits

So listen to Waits

Listen to Tom

Mister Tom Waits

You better come soon

Eddie Jefferson's waited too long

Where's Tom Waits, man?

TW: "Oh, Eddie baby, I'm sorry, man, I'm deeply apologetic, man. I tried

to make the gig, man, but I ended up on the corner of Heartattack

and Vine, man, with this little bitch named Lola, see. We was

drinkin' some green Chartreuse in a (?) little joint called

Dupree's Paradise. Had a couple of Highballs, see man. Ended up at

a little rib joint for some barbecue, man. I'm sorry, I lost track

of time. I mean, I'm sorry I missed the gig, man... "

Written by: Richie Cole and Eddie Jefferson, � 1979

Official release: "Hollywood Madness", Richie Cole, 1979

Recorded at Home Grown Fidelity Studio, Studio City, CA, April 25, 1979

Tom Waits vocals on last verse

(Transcribed by Ulf Berggren. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist, 2000)

Known covers:

N/A

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Richie Cole's liner notes to 'Hollywood Madness': "While driving in the van through the Pacific Northwest, Eddie and I wrote the next song, 'Waitin for Waits', for one of our favorite people, Tom Waits, who explains personally at the end (very logically) why he kept us waiting."

Walk Away

Dot King⁽¹⁾ was whittled⁽²⁾ from the bone of Cain⁽³⁾

With a little drop of poison in a red, red blood

She need a way to turn around the bend⁽⁴⁾

She said, I wanna walk away and start all over again

There are things I've done I can't erase

I wanna look in the mirror and see another face

I said "never", but I'm doin' it again

I wanna walk away and start over again

No more rain, no more roses

On my way

Shake my thirst in a cool, cool pond

There's a widower in every place

There's a heart that's beatin' in every page

The beginning of it starts at the end

Well, it's time to walk away and start over again

Weather's murder at a hundred and three

William Ray shot Cora Belle Lee

A yellow dog⁽⁶⁾ knows when he has sinned

You wanna walk away and start over again

No more rain, no more roses

On my way

Shake my thirst in a cool, cool pond

Cooper told Molly the whole block's gone

They're dyin' for jewelry, money, and clothes

I always get out of the trouble I'm in

I wanna walk away and start over again

I left my bible by the side of the road

Carved my initials in an old dead tree

I'm goin' away but I'm gonna be back when

It's time to walk away and start all over again

Oh, oh yeah

Yeah

It's time to walk away

You gotta walk away

Gotta walk away

Just wanna walk away, yeah

I wanna walk away and start over again

I wanna walk away

Wanna walk away

Wanna walk away

Wanna walk away

Wanna walk away

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1995

Official release: Dead Man Walking, Columbia (Sony Music Entertainment Inc.), 1995

Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording studios. Cotati, CA/ USA, 1995

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Re-released on: Orphans (Brawlers), (P) & � 2006 Anti Inc.

Known covers:

Cross The River. Traveler. January, 2004. Self-released

God Is A Tom Waits Fan. The Box Spring Hogs. May 2004. Self-released demo

Modern Twang. Smokestack Lightnin'. March 9, 2007. EMI Music Marketing (Germany)

Grapefruit Moon: Songs of Tom Waits. Southside Johnny & La Bamba's Bigband. September 19, 2008. Evangeline (Soulfood Music). Duet with Tom Waits

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Dot King

- "One of the songs inspired by the movie 'Dead Man Walking' (it's not actually heard in the film). You get a feeling that you know what it's about, but if you take a good look at each line, it's not that straightforward. How reliable is the 'Beautiful Maladies' songbook, you think? According to that book, this song starts with "That king was whittled from the bones of Cain". What king? And it sure sounds like he's singing "Dot King", doesn't it? So who was Dot King? Well, I'll tell ya. She was a chorus girl in the Ziegfeld Follies, found dead in her bed in 1923, with a bottle of chloroform beside her. At first it was believed to be suicide, but further investigation showed signs of a struggle, so they changed it to murder one. They never found the killer though, despite an abundance of suspects (=former lovers). The story inspired one of S. S. Van Dine's thrillers starring detective Philo Vance, 'The Canary Murder Case', later filmed with Louise Brooks doing the part of "Margaret O'Dell". (But apparently it has precious little to do with the actual case.) Dot was never called the Canary though, she was called "the Butterfly", something to do with the lightness with which she moved from one bed to another (if i understand it correctly). What this has got to do with being whittled from the bones of Cain, I don't know. Maybe it's not about her at all. As a matter of fact, when this song was being written and recorded (1995-1996), there was (in the States) a woman called Dorothy King on trial for murdering two of her young sons (her eldest son tipped the cops of.) Don't know if it's her either. She did a plea bargain and will probably be out any day now. Why don't you ask her? The rest of the people in this song are nowhere to be found. By the way, Gerrit Tijink points out that you can *slake* your thirst in a pond. I think that explains a lot, but it doesn't alter the fact that Tom sings "shake my thirst", and that's what it says in the song book too." (Submitted by Ulf Berggren. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist, 2000).

⁽²⁾ Whittle: To reduce or eliminate gradually, as if by whittling with a knife (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin - Third Edition)

⁽³⁾ Cain:

- Genesis 4: 1-16. 'Abel and Cain' The Mahometan tradition of the death of Abel is this: Cain was born with a twin sister who was named Aclima, and Abel with a twin sister named Jumella. Adam wished Cain to marry Abel's twin sister, and Abel to marry Cain's. Cain would not consent to this arrangement, and Adam proposed to refer the question to God by means of a sacrifice. God rejected Cain's sacrifice to signify his disapproval of his marriage with Aclima, his twin sister, and Cain slew his brother in a fit of jealousy. (Source: The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer).

- Also mentioned in Dirt In The Ground: "Now Cain slew Abel, he killed him with a stone."

⁽⁴⁾ Bend: 1. n. [late 19C+] a drunken spree [abbr. bender] 2. [1960s] an experience created by a hallucinogenic drug [bent out of shape] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9) 3. Around the bend: phr. [20C] mad, insane (around the twist, harpic), [old naut. jargon round the bend, mad; the image is one who is 'not straight'] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

⁽⁵⁾ Yellow dog: An inferior or worthless person or thing (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

Tales From The Underground 3, 1997 (Unofficial, not authorized by Tom Waits)

A Nickel's Worth Of Dreams

Well, the shoeshine boy's got lines around the block

The bloodhound's⁽¹⁾ let the convicts get away

And after you're asleep, all the cheerleaders weep

And the ham-and-eggers⁽²⁾ win the Irish Sweepstakes⁽³⁾ every day

The paper boys make headlines and the janitors⁽⁴⁾ are winking

As they're filling up their dustpans full of hundred dollar bills

The never-do-wells and stingy-pins⁽⁵⁾ all ride around in taxis

In the style that they have grown accustomed to

And the parking lot attendants leave the money in the drawer

And take that Corvette Stingray⁽⁶⁾ with a four-on-the-floor⁽⁷⁾

And pull into the filling station and instead of gasoline

Say, 'Hey buddy, can you fill it with a nickel's worth of dreams?'

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: [?], � 1977

No official release: Foreign Affairs sessions, July - August 1977

at Filmways/ Heider Recording, Hollywood

Known covers:

None

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Listen to audio excerpt of A Nickel's Worth Of Dreams.

Foreign Affairs sessions, July - August 1977

at Filmways/ Heider Recording, Hollywood.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Bloodhound: n. [early 19C+] a policeman. [reverse anthropomorphism] (Source: Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000)

⁽²⁾ Ham-and-egger: An average person; a worker limited to routine tasks; one as common as ham and eggs or one who may make average wages or live an average, unexciting life (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner).

- Also mentioned in "Potter's Field": "Past the frozen ham-and-eggers at the penny arcade."

⁽³⁾ Irish Sweepstakes: "The Sweepstakes was a long-distance gambling event that took advantage of the love of the Irish around the world for a good horse race. Established in 1930, it was a government scheme to raise money to build Irish hospitals. At a time when gambling was generally illegal in the United States and Canada, the tickets were "marketed" internationally and sold on the black market, reaping considerable funds for the hospital program. The Irish Sweepstakes was held four times a year, and based on the results of four well-known horse races. As explained in the Columbia Encyclopedia, sweepstakes winners are the lucky ones who purchase one of the few tickets tied to the horse who would win the race! International popularity faded when gambling was legalized in other countries. Still, before it was disestablished under a cloud in 1987, the Sweepstakes had earned �135 million for Irish hospitals and paid �265 million in prizes" (Source: "Whatever Happened to the Irish Sweepstakes?" by Pat Friend. AllAboutIrish.com. Copyright � 2000-2003 Pat Friend.) 

⁽⁴⁾ Janitor: 1. One who attends to the maintenance or cleaning of a building. 2. A doorman (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company) 

⁽⁶⁾ Corvette Stingray: Sportscar model from Chevrolet Corvette series. Experimental concept car designed and first built in 1959 by then vice president of General Motors Styling. Famous for its unique thin shelled fiberglass body and hidden head lights. Introduced in 1964, as a commercial car. Completely re-styled in 1969. Over 500,000 Corvettes produced made it one of Chevrolet's most popular models.

- Corvette: also mentioned in: 16 Shells From A Thirty Ought Six, 1983: "And I tore out the buckets from a red Corvette.", Gun Street Girl, 1985: "Blew a hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette."

⁽⁷⁾ Four on the floor: Four on the floor means four gears on the stick shift. In the history of the modern manual transmission (1950s+) multiple gears have been the thing to have. Prior to the 50s, it was not uncommon to find a car with a two-speed transmission. During the muscle car era, three and four speed transmission setups were popular. Nearly every car built with a manual transmission came with a "four on the floor." Some trucks and family cars sported a "three on the tree"

Annie's Back In Town

In the evening he stumbles home with his tie undone⁽¹⁾

And as the moon sweeps 7th Avenue as usual

You lie awake at night

You remember when

now that Annie's back in town

Well I know why you're drinking

I know your alibi

Don't make up excuses

for those are tears in your eyes

And you're falling back in love again

now that Annie's back in town

And it came down through the grapevine

It put your business on the street⁽²⁾

I hear you've been hanging out 'til dawn

in some lunch room

Well you thought you've gotten over her

but that was 'til you found

that Annie's back in town

And all the corner boys⁽³⁾ are trouble-makers

and the sailors are all fools

You know it seems like some things round here

I guess they'll never change

Oh but it's always good for business

Guess we'll be seeing you around

now that Annie's back in town

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music, Inc. � 1978

Official release: "Paradise Alley" soundtrack. MCA 1500 (MCA 1696), 1978.⁽⁴⁾

Recorded September 7, 1978

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ In the evening he stumbles home with his tie undone

- Notice the same opening being used for Mr Henry/ Tie Undone (Foreign Affairs Sessions, July to August, 1977)

- Clip from Paradise Alley the movie (Transcription by Luke Martin as sent to Raindogs Listserv Discussionlist on May 8, 2000)

Tom sings: ...wake at night again, now that Annie's back in town..

Sly: Mumbles!

T: Yeah? Whaddayawant??

S: When was the last time you were with a woman?

T: Probably the Depression.

S: What you saving it for?

T: I dunno man, maybe A big finish.

S: Now you better get out a bit more, your're starting to look grey...I'm off

to visit the best lookin' tomato in the neighbourhood. 'night mumbles.

T: (singing) ...all the cornerboys still lollygag, the sailors shoot the

breeze.. well, some things around here never change... 

⁽²⁾ Street, put it on the: To give out information; to disclose a personal confidence or secret to many people; to let something be known (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽³⁾ Cornerboy

- n. [late 19C+] (orig. US) an idler who whiles away the time hanging around on street corners (corner cove, corner cowboy, corner man, drugstore cowboy, lounge lizzard, saloon-bar cowboy) (Source: Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000).

- Also mentioned in "Jersey Girl": "Got no time for the corner boys."

⁽⁴⁾ In the late 1970s Waits often used to perform this song as a medley quoting from "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" and "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'"

I Left My Heart In San Francisco

(Written by: Douglass Cross. Music by: George Cory.

Originally made famous by: Tony Bennett Performed as part of: Annie's Back In Town (Sydney, 1979))

The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay,

The glory that was Rome is just another day,

I've been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan,

I'm going home to my city by the bay

Chorus:

I left my heart in San Francisco, high on a hill it calls to me

To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.

The morning fog may chill the air, I don't care

My love waits there in San Francisco,

above the blue and windy sea,

When I come home to you, San Francisco,

your golden sun will shine for me

It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'

Quoting: It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'. Traditional.

Words and music by Wendell Hall. First performed by Wendell Hall in 1923

Chorus:

"Oh, it ain't gonna rain no more, no more, it ain't gonna rain no more

It rained last week and the week before, it ain't gonna rain no more

Mary had a little lamb, so goes the tale of yore

She loved that little lamb so much, she passed the plate for more

A bullfrog sat on a lily pad, looking up in the sky

He fell right off that lily pad, and got water in his eye

Oh, a peanut sat on a railroad track, it's heart was all a-flutter

Along came the 5:05 - Oops! peanut butter

A cow walked on the railroad track, the train was coming fast

The train got off the railroad track to let the cow go past!

I woke up in the morning, I glanced upon the wall

The roaches and the bedbugs were having a game of ball

The score was six to nothing, the roaches were ahead

A bedbug hit a home run and knocked me out of bed!

A doctor fell into a well and broke his collar bone

We think that he should tend the sick and leave the well alone

A farmer slipped on the old barn roof when rotten boards gave way

And as as he fell, he shrugged and said, "It's time to hit the hay"

Humpty Dumpty fell right down and landed on his head

So, all the horses and the men had scrambled eggs and bread"

ALTERNATE VERSION:

("There Ain't No Bugs On Me", traditional.

Recorded by Jerry with David Grisman for "Not For Kids Only")

Oh there ain't no bugs on me

There ain't no bugs on me

There may be bugs on some of you mugs

But there ain't no bugs on me

Well, the Juney bug comes in the month of June

The lightning bug comes in May

Bed bug comes just any old time

But, they're not going to stay

Oh there ain't no bugs on me

There ain't no bugs on me

There may be bugs on the rest of you mugs

But there ain't no bugs on me

Well, a bull frog sittin' on a lily pad

Looking up at the sky

The lily pad broke and the frog fell in

He got water all in his eye...ball

Mosquito he fly high

Mosquito he fly low

If old mosquito lands on me

He ain't a gonna fly no mo'

A peanut sittin' on a railroad track

His heart was all a flutter

Along come a choo-choo on the track

Toot! Toot! Peanut butter!

Well little bugs have littler bugs

Up on their backs to bite 'em

And the littler bugs have still littler bugs

And so ad infinitum

As I went walking through the woods

Humming a tune so gaily

The wind come whistling through the trees

And froze my ukelele

Oh there ain't no flies on me

There ain't no flies on me

There may be flies on some of you guys

But there ain't no flies on me

Oh there ain't no lobsters on me

There, ain't no lobsters on me

There may be lobsters on some of you mobsters

But there ain't no lobsters on me

Oh it ain't gonna rain no more no more

It ain't gonna rain no more

How in the heck can I wash my neck

When it ain't gonna rain no more?

Oh it ain't gonna rain no more, no more

It ain't gonna rain no more

How in the hell can the old folks tell

If it ain't gonna rain no more?

Jersey Girl (Live)

Jersey Girl

(Heartattack And Vine studio version, 1980)

Got no time for the corner boys⁽²⁾

Down in the street makin' all that noise

Don't want no whores on Eighth Avenue

Cause tonight I'm gonna be with you

Cause tonight I'm gonna take that ride

Across the river to the Jersey side

Take my baby to the carnival

And I'll take you on all the rides

Down the shore everything's all right

You with your baby on a Saturday night, yeah

Don't you know all my dreams come true

When I'm walkin' down the street with you

Sing sha la la la la la sha la la la la la la la la

Sha la la, sha la la la

Sha la la la, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la la la

Sha la la, sha la la la

Sha la la la la la

You know she thrills me with all her charms

When I'm wrapped up in my baby's arms

My little angel gives me everything

I know someday that she'll wear my ring

So don't bother me cause I got no time

I'm on my way to see that girl of mine, yeah

Nothin' else matters in this whole wide world

When you're in love with a Jersey girl

Sing sha la la la la la sha la la la la la la la la

Sha la la, sha la la la

Sha la la la, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la la la

Sha la la, sha la la la

Sha la la la la la

And I call your name

I can't sleep at night

Sha la la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la la

Sha la la la la, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la la la yeah

Sha la la la la la la la la

Sha la la, sha la la la

Oh I'm in love, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la la la yeah

Sha la la la la la la la la

Written by: Tom Waits⁽¹⁾

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), � 1980

Official release: "Heartattack And Vine", Elektra Entertainment/ WEA Entertainment Inc., 1980 & "Anthology Of Tom Waits", WEA/ Elektra, 1984

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Anthology" (Amsco Publications, 1988/ Nuova Carisch, 2000)

Jersey Girl

(Bounced Checks alternate take, 1980)

Got no time for the corner boys⁽²⁾

Down in the street makin' all that noise

Don't want no whores on Eighth Avenue

Cause tonight I'm gonna be with you

Cause tonight I'm gonna take that ride

Across the river to the Jersey side

Take my baby to the carnival

And I'll take you on all the rides

Down the shore everything's all right

You with your baby on a Saturday night, yeah

Don't you know all my dreams come true

When I'm walkin' down the street with you

Sing sha la la la la la, sha la la la la la la la la

Sha la la, la la la la la

Sha la la la, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la la, yeah yeah yeah

Sha la la, la la la la la

Sha la la la la la

You know she thrills me with all her charms

When I'm wrapped up in my baby's arms

My little angel gives me everything

I know someday that she'll wear my ring

So don't bother me cause I got no time

On my way to see that girl of mine, yeah

Nothin' else matters in this whole wide world

When you're in love with a Jersey girl

Sing sha la la la la la sha la la la la la la, yeah yeah yeah

Sha la la, la la la la la

Sha la la la, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la la

Sha la la la la la yeah yeah yeah

Sha la la, sha la la la

Sha la la la la la

And I call your name

I can't sleep at night

Sha la la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la yeah yeah yeah

Sha la la la la la la la

Sha la la la la, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la yeah

Don't bother ne cause I ain't got no time

Sha la la la la la la

Oh I'm in love, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), � 1980

Official release: "Bounced Checks", WEA/ Asylum Records, 1981

Jersey Girl

(Live version with Bruce Springsteen, 1981)

Got no time for the corner boys⁽²⁾

Down in the street makin' all that noise

Don't want no girls on Eighth Avenue

Cause tonight I'm gonna be with you

Cause tonight I'm gonna take that ride

Across the river to the Jersey side

Take my baby to the carnival

And I'll take you on all the rides

Down the shore everything's all right

You with your baby on a Saturday night

Don't you know that my dreams come true

when I'm walkin' down the street with you

Sing sha la la la la la sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la

Sha la la la, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la

Sha la la la la

You know she thrills me with all her charms

When I'm wrapped up in my baby's arms

My little angel gives me everything

I know someday she's gonna wear my ring

So don't bother me man I got no time

I'm on my way to see that girl of mine

Nothin' else matters in this whole wide world

when you're in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la la sha la la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la

Sha la la la, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la

And I call your name

I can't sleep at night

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la

I see you on the street and you look so tired

I know that job you've got leaves you so uninspired

When I come by to take you out to eat

I find you dressed upon the bed and baby, fast asleep⁽³⁾

Go in the bathroom, put that make-up on

We're gonna take that little brat of yours, and drop her off at your mom's

Oh, I know a place where the dancin's free

Come on girl, won't you go with me?⁽³⁾

Sha la la la la la sha la la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la

Sha la la la, I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la

I'm in love with a Jersey girl

Sha la la la la

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la la

Sha la la la la la

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), � 1980

No official release. Live duet with Bruce Springsteen. L.A. Sports Arena. August 24, 1981

Known covers:

Suspicion, Lisa Bade. 1982. Elektra SP 6-4897

Live 1975-1985. Bruce Springsteen, 1987. Sony Music/ Legacy Records

Hessel Live Ahoy '91, Hessel. 1991. Self-released

Fat Cats. Johnny Hooper. December, 1992. Self-released CDJRH2

To All My Friends In Far Flung Places. Dave Van Ronk. December, 1994. Gazell

Step Right Up (The Songs Of Tom Waits). Various artists. November, 1995. Manifesto Records. Performed by Pale Saints

Temptation. Holly Cole, 1995. Blue Note Records/ Capital (Japan/ USA)

Blue York, Blue York. Various artists. November 20, 1996. Blue Note Records

Live 1975-1985. Bruce Springsteen, 1997. Legacy Records (re-release of 1987 version, 3 box set)

Ugly. Jon Bon Jovi. 1998. Mercury Records (single)

Live From The Mountain Stage Lounge. Various artists. April, 1998. Blue Plate (live version performed by Holly Cole)

Live At The World Cafe (Vol. 7). Moxy Fruvous. April, 1998. The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, WC9807/ PRI (live version)

Collection. Holly Cole Trio. September, 1998. EMI (Australia)

Country Lover. Ben Olander. 1998. Leco Music

Don't Ask Me. Brian Fraser. 1999. Black Market Music

Getting There. The Bacon Brothers. August, 1999. Bluxo Records

Santa Baby: Live In Toronto. Holly Cole. January 25, 2000. EMI International

The Best Of Holly Cole. Holly Cole. November, 2000. Blue Note Records

Tropical Soul. Dennis McCaughey & Tropical Soul. November, 2000. Migration Music

Taivas Sinivalkoinen. Bablo. February 12, 2001. Self- released

10:30 Thursdays. Andy Cowan. May, 2001. Self-released BMM 245.2

Live At The Kammerspiele. Me And Cassity. 2002. Tapete Records

Jersey�s Talkin. Various artists. September, 2002. BluesKid (performed by The Mango Brothers)

Homegrown. Nussbaumer/ Weber/ Kreil. 2003. Self-released

Sometimes. Claudia Bettinaglio. September, 2003. CrossCut Records

Greetings From Hell - The Tom Waits Songbook, Hell Blues Choir. September, 2003. Tylden & Co (Norway)

Swingin� it. 8 To The Bar. 2004. Self-released (Germany) 

Songman V. Mike Sinatra. 2004. Monophonic

Sometimes... Claudia Bettinaglio. August, 2004. CrossCut Records

The Holly Cole Collection - Vol. 1. Holly Cole. October 12, 2004. Magada International (same version as on Temptation, 1995)

Twenty Fifth Anniversary Collection. Bagatelle. November 29, 2004. Self-released

Crosseyed Cat. Turnip Greens. March 21, 2006. Cope Records (Denmark)

Ameri-mf-cana. Ameri-mf-cana (Sue Burkhart and Ed Vadas). September 1, 2007. Self-released

Absolutely Live. The Bluesbreakers. July 2008. Extraplatte (Austria)

Misfits. The Hot Java Band. August 22, 2008. Cool Vision Records

Father Time. Hal Ketchum. September 9, 2008. Curb Records

Fragile. Joni Keen Jazz. February 5, 2009. Skylark Records

Under Cover #1. Peter Viskinde. March 2, 2009. Poplick Records

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Jersey Girl:

- Tom Waits (1980): "I never thought I would catch myself saying "sha la la" in a song. This is my first experiment with "sha la la." It has one of them kinda Drifters feels. I didn't wanna say "muscular dystrophy" in it or anything, 'cause I didn't think it fit in with the feel of the number. So lyrically I tried to do it straight ahead, a guy walking down the street to see his girl." (Source: "Heartattack and Vine". Us promo pack: Stephen Peeples. September 4, 1980)

- Q (1998): When you wrote "Jersey Girl," [TW "mmm"] did you have Bruce Springsteen in the back of your mind? I know you've been asked this. [TW] No, well I wrote it for my wife, she's from Jersey, well she's originally from Illinois, she moved to New Jersey, and she grew up there, Morristown, New Jersey, and so I wrote it for her when we met, and eh, so.. eh. [DJ] Were you flattered by Bruce Springsteen doing it? [TW] Yeah! I like it, I like that version. I got up on stage and sang it with him one night in Los Angeles in front of about ten million people, and it scared the hell outa me. Um, Yeah I do like it. With the little glockenspiel in there, an a... [DJ] It's seems somehow very natural for him to do it, seemed like it sort of fit into his style well. [TW] Well, I've done all I can to help him, you know. He's been in such a jam, financially so uh, y'know... [DJ] I'm sure he appreciated that a lot.. [TW] No, iss.... I really liked that version. (Source: "Mixed Bag, WNEW New York ". Interview on WNEW FM. October, 1998)

- Jay S. Jacobs (2000): "Waits had invited Jerry Yester to arrange and conduct "Jersey Girl" and "Ruby's Arms," and he later remarked that Yester's arrangement for the latter just blew him away - he loved the fact that the brass choir sounded so much like a Salvation Army band." It would be the last time Yester and Waits ever worked together. "Right after Heartattack and Vine - or like a year after - I moved to Hawaii," Yester recalls. "And he moved up North. And I haven't seen him since. I've talked to him on the phone, but I haven't seen him since then - except in the movies . . ." (Source: Wild Years, The Music and Myth of Tom Waits. Jay S. Jacobs, 2000)

⁽²⁾ Cornerboy

- n. [late 19C+] (orig. US) an idler who whiles away the time hanging around on street corners (corner cove, corner cowboy, corner man, drugstore cowboy, lounge lizzard, saloon-bar cowboy) (Source: Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000).

- Also mentioned in "Annie's back In Town": "And all the corner boys are trouble-makers."

⁽³⁾ The best known cover is of course that made by Bruce Springsteen. He first performed the song at Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey, July 2, 1981. There is a bootleg (audience) tape available from that show. He performed it again a week later, on July 9, 1981, and this time he recorded it himself and released it as B-side of the 7" single 'Cover Me' in 1981. It's also available in the box-set 'Bruce Springsteen Live 1975-1985' released in 1986. ...Bruce added a verse of his own: "I see you on the street and you look so tired I know that job you've got leaves you so uninspired When I come by to take you out to eat I find you dressed upon the bed and baby, fast asleep Go in the bathroom, put that make-up on We're gonna take that little brat of yours, and drop her off at your mom's Oh, I know a place where the dancin's free Come on girl, won't you go with me?" There is also a version with Tom and Bruce doing the song together. It was recorded at a Springsteen concert at LA Sports Arena, Los Angeles, August 24, 1981'. (Submitted by Ulf Berggren. Listserv Raindogs discussionlist. March, 2000)

Michael Tearson (1985): "I have to ask you about the Springsteen cover of "Jersey Girls". How did you first hear that and how did you first react when you heard it?" Tom Waits: "I don't know when I first heard that. Oh I got a tape... yeah. I heard it on the eh... I don't know, I guess I heard it on the radio. Yeah, I heard it on the radio. I said: "Yeah, that's a pretty good song there." (laughs) Yeah, I did what I could to help him out. As far as I'm concerned he's on his own now. Eh, I've done what I can for his career and eh... y'know? Well, I liked it, I really liked it. And I heard it a lot, it was on some jukeboxes and that's kinda nice too, y'know? Yeah, it was a good feeling. And I liked the way he did it. Yeah, I liked it a lot. Yeah, he's a real nice guy." (Source: "Nightlines Interview" Nightlines on CBC Stereo (Canada) conducted by Michael Tearson. Date: New York. Late 1985)

Q (1998): Were you flattered by Bruce Springsteen doing it? Tom Waits: Yeah! I like it, I like that version. I got up on stage and sang it with him one night in Los Angeles in front of about ten million people, and it scared the hell outa me. Um, Yeah I do like it. With the little glockenspiel in there, an a... DJ: It's seems somehow very natural for him to do it, seemed like it sort of fit into his style well. TW: Well, I've done all I can to help him, you know. He's been in such a jam, financially so uh, y'know... DJ: I'm sure he appreciated that a lot.. TW: No, iss.... I really liked that version. (Source: "Mixed Bag, WNEW New York". Interview on WNEW FM. October, 1998)

Little Drop Of Poison

(End Of Violence version, 1997)

I like my town with a little drop of poison

Nobody knows, they're lining up to go insane

I'm all alone, I smoke my friends down to the filter

But I feel much cleaner after it rains

She left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall

She always had that little drop of poison

She left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall

She always had that little drop of poison

Did the devil make the world while god was sleeping

Someone said you'll never get a wish from a bone

Another long goodbye and a hundred sailors

That deep blue sky is my home

She left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall

She always had that little drop of poison

She left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall

She always had that little drop of poison

A rat always knows when he's in with weasels

Here you loose a little every day

I remember when a million was a million

They all have ways to make you pay

They all have ways to make you pay

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music Inc., � 1997/ 2006

Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording studios. Cotati, CA/ USA, 1997

Official release: "Spain Every Time I try/ End Of Violence soundtrack", Outpost Recordings, 1997

Little Drop Of Poison

(Orphans studio version, 2006)

I like my town with a little drop of poison

Nobody knows, they're lining up to go insane

I'm all alone, I smoke my friends down to the filter

But I feel much cleaner after it rains

And she left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall

She always had that little drop of poison



Did the devil make the world while god was sleeping?

You'll never get a wish from a bone

Another long goodbye and a hundred sailors

That deep blue sky is my home

And she left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall

She always had that little drop of poison



Well, the rat always knows when he's in with weasels

Here you loose a little every day

Well, I remember when a million was a million

They all have ways to make you pay

And she left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall

She always had that little drop of poison

And she left in the fall, that's her picture on the wall

She always had that little drop of poison

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1997/ 2006

Official release: Orphans (Bawlers), (P) & � 2006 Anti Inc.

Known covers:

Bangin' On The Table With An Old Tin Cup. Pascal Fricke. April 12, 2007. Self-released (Germany) 

The Shape Of You. Nina Vox. January 6, 2009. Scarab Music (Australia) 

Despite Your Destination. Shay Estes & Trio ALL. December 5, 2009. Self-released

Mr. Henry (Early)

Mr. Henry

(Early demo version, 1977. Also known as: Tie Undone)

In the evening he staggers home with his tie undone⁽¹⁾

He's as poor as a church mouse⁽²⁾, and he's whistlin' at the night

And he's tuggin' at his shirttail, and jinglin' a church key⁽³⁾

And chewin' on a toothpick, on another binge⁽⁴⁾

And tramplin' the rosebush, whistlin' to himself

Now don't wake up the neighbors, spittin' on the hinge

And rattlin' the milk bottles, trippin' on a skate

And hidin' from the paper boy before it's too late

Well, the screen door's open, don't make no noise in the kitchen

He got no excuse for a cold, gray wife that starts bitchin'

That the no good bum⁽⁵⁾ is at it again

After she's given him all the best years of her life

(you must be kidding me!)

He'll tell her he was celebrating Savage's divorce

And he played a hunch⁽⁶⁾ out at Yonkers⁽⁷⁾, you never can trust a horse

And thrown in jail, swore he'd never do these things again

He's got an alibi, but never tells her

where he's been

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc., � 1977

No official release. Foreign Affairs sessions, July to August, 1977

Mr. Henry

(Studio version, 1981. Also known as: Tie Undone)

Mr. Henry staggers home when the evening's done

He's as poor as a church mouse⁽²⁾, high on the Meyer's rum

Tuggin' at his shirttail, jinglin' his church key⁽³⁾

Chewin' on a toothpick, on another binge⁽⁴⁾

Tramplin' the rosebush, whistlin' to himself

Now don't wake up the neighbors, spittin' on the hinge

Rattlin' the milk bottles and trippin' on a skate

Hidin' from the newsboy

before it's too late

The screen door's open, don't make no noise in the kitchen

Got no excuse for a cold gray wife that starts bitchin'

That the no good bum⁽⁵⁾ is at it again

After she's given him all the best years of her life

He'll tell her he was celebrating Savage's divorce

Played a hunch⁽⁶⁾ out at Yonkers⁽⁷⁾, you can never trust a horse

And thrown in jail, and swore he'd never do these things again

He's got an alibi,

but never tells her

where he's been

"Henry!"

"Henry!"

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc., � 1977

Official release: "Bounced Checks", WEA/ Asylum Records, 1981

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ In the evening he staggers home with his tie undone: Notice the same opening being used for Annie's Back In Town ("Paradise Alley" soundtrack, 1978)

⁽²⁾ Church mouse, poor as a:

- In a church there is no cupboard or pantry, where mice most do congregate. (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. � 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd). 

- Also mentioned in "Blow Wind Blow": "I got quiet as a church mouse."

⁽³⁾ Church key 

- n.: A bottle or can opener, esp. as used to open a container of beer (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang - Supplement, Wentworth/ Flexner).

- Also mentioned in Kentucky Avenue: "Just put a church key in your pocket, we'll hop that freight train in the hall."

⁽⁴⁾ Binge n.: 1. A drunken spree 2. A spree of any kind; a period of self-indulgence (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽⁵⁾ Bum

- n.: 1. Generally, a beggar, tramp, hobo, vagrant, or loafer; also, any jobless man or youth having little or no income; a poor, poorly dressed, and unkempt frequenter of saloons; a down-and-outer; sometimes , a hoodlum 2. A drifter; a grifter 3. Any male without a professional occupation, goal in life, or social prestige; any disreputable or disliked youth (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner).

- Also mentioned in "Better Off Without A Wife" (Here's to the bachelors and the Bowery bums), "Barber Shop" (Well, if I had a million dollars, what would I do? I'd probably be a barber, not a bum like you)

⁽⁶⁾ Hunch: n. A strong, intuitive impression that something will happen; -- said to be from the gambler's superstition that it brings luck to touch the hump of a hunchback. [Colloq. or Slang] (Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, � 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.)

⁽⁷⁾ Yonkers: Famous horse racetrack at the city of Yonkers, north of New York City

No One Can Forgive Me But My Baby

Crack a mean whip, carry a big gun

Cast a long shadow till the day is done

Do ninety miles an hour down the Devil's trail

Done hard time in a hundred jails

No one can forgive me but my baby

No one can forgive me but my baby

No one can forgive me but my baby

Now Jesus don't know, Mary don't know

Preacher don't know, Momma don't know

Daddy don't know, my brother don't know

St. John don't know, St. Peter don't know

No one can forgive me but my baby

I took a hundred dollars from a blind man's hand

I slept with the whores on the burnin' sand

Got twenty-seven children I've never seen

Got blood on my hands that will never come clean

I got long arms, tell big lies

Stole the pennies from my dear mother's eyes

I'm tall in the saddle, about six foot nine

I beat up revenuers all the time

No one can forgive me but my baby

Oh, no one can forgive me but my baby

I got a mean temper, I'm a big liar

Broke all the laws, set the house on fire

When I stand before Jesus and he asks me to kneel

I'll tell him maybe we can make a deal

No one can forgive me but my baby

No one can forgive me but my baby

I don't pay no bills, I don't say no prayers

Give back nothin', and I take all dares

Stole a car and I got me a gun

If there ain't no road I'm gonna make me one

Broke my baby's heart, and I whip my dog

I don't say nothin' when I meet my God

No one can forgive me but my baby

No one can forgive me but my baby

No one can forgive me but my baby

No one can forgive me but my baby

No one can forgive me but my baby

Forgive me, baby

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: [?], copyright control � 1992

Official release: "Got Love If You Want It" John Hammond, Point Blank, 1992

Tom Waits does not perform on this recording

Known covers:

Got Love If You Want It. John Hammond. April, 1992. Charisma 86285. Emd/ Virgin

Other Sides. Hans Olson. 1999. Willing Wheels (France)

Only A Fool. Delta Roux (Milligan/ Bodine). September 30, 2002. Taxim

Big Lonesome Radio. Mark Lemhouse. October 17, 2002. Yellow Dog Records

St. Slide. Bj�rn Berge. 2004. Chicken Farm Records

Once More Before I Go

Once more before I go

Out to Killarney

Once more before I go

Beg me to stay

As the wind blows across my grave

I will be calling

Once more before I go

Once more forever more

Once more before I go

I will remember

Once more before I go

Beg me to stay

Once more before I go

I will be calling

La la la la la la la

La la la ever more

Once more before I go

I will be calling

Once more before I go

Beg me to stay

Written by: [?]

Published by: [?], � 1987

No official release: freeform singing by Tom Waits, from the movie Candy Mountain 1987

Known covers:

N/A

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Listen to audio excerpt of Once More Before I Go.

Taken from the movie Candy Mountain (1987).

Paradise Alley

(Meet Me In) Paradise Alley

When the hawk's in the kitchen and the sirens in bloom

And the losers have been swept from the gin mills⁽²⁾

Hello sucker, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

34th Street good tidings to you

And will you meet me in Paradise Alley tonight

We'll leave town in a bottle of whiskey

And come on, you old scarecrow, and be a wheel⁽³⁾, not a lamppost

Just put a saddle on a wishbone, and you're halfway there

You know, the heroes will wait where their dreams used to be

Go on and ask the hooligans⁽⁴⁾ as they sweep down the midway

I'm going waltzing tonight with the Statue of Liberty

And come on, you old lazy-bones, let's get out of this place

Will you meet me in Paradise Alley tonight

We'll leave town in a bottle of whiskey

And come on, you old scarecrow, and be a wheel, not a lamppost

Just put a saddle on a wishbone, and you're halfway there

Now there's a counterfeit moon, and I'm seeing right through it

Cause the dawn spent it all in one place

And we'll rise to the top of the morning tonight

You can ride on my shoulders, and I'll show you the way⁽⁵⁾

If you meet me in Paradise Alley tonight

We'll leave town in a bottle of whiskey

So come on, you old scarecrow, and be a wheel, not a lamppost

Just put a saddle on a wishbone, and you're halfway there

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music, Inc. � 1978

Official release: "Paradise Alley" soundtrack. MCA 1500 (MCA 1696), 1978.

Recorded September 7, 1978

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Paradise Alley: Lower East Side neighborhood in New York city (corner: 174 Street/ Avenue A.) "This was the site of Paradise Alley, tenement courtyard featured in Jack Kerouac's "Subterraneans" and Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." After the buildings were torn down, part of the site became the Chico Mendez Mural Garden, commemorating the murdered Brazilian environmentalist. After the garden was bulldozed, the Weinberg Apartments were built here by the Educational Alliance, a group originally dedicated to assimilating Jewish immigrants" (Source: "New York Songlines", by Jim Naureckas, 2003) 

⁽²⁾ Gin mill, gin-mill, ginmill n.: Any cheap saloon, bar, or nightclub; orig. a speakeasy. Any kind of public drinking place, as saloon (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner) 

⁽³⁾ Wheel n.: A person in authority (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner).

- Big wheel: n. [1930s] an important, influential person, esp. in business [the image of a smooth-running powerful machine] (Source: Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000).

- Also mentioned in "The One That Got Away" (Could have been on Easy Street, could have been a wheel)

⁽⁴⁾ Hooligan n.: A hoodlum; a ruffian; a tough guy (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽⁵⁾ You can ride on my shoulders, and I'll show you the way: Might refer to the St. Christopher legend as also mentioned in Hang On St. Christopher (1987) and Tom Traubert's Blues (1976). St. Christopher Catholic patron saint of travellers, or the religious medal dedicated to him. There are several legends about him including the one in which he was crossing a river when a child asked to be carried across. When Christopher put the child on his shoulders he found the child was unbelievably heavy. The child, according to the legend, was Christ carrying the weight of the whole world. His former holy day is July 25. The religious medal dedicated to this saint says: "Protect me" or "Protect us

Playin' Hooky

I'm playin' hooky, I'm playin' hooky

I can't walk cool when I got books underneath my arm

I'm playin' hooky, I'm playin' hooky

And I'm afraid I will be failing to be hearing the alarm

I refuse to go to school, think I'll play a little pool

And I will pass on the curriculum today

I apologize to educational supplies

Statistics just keep getting in my way

How will they teach me how to learn I don't want to be no attorney

Or receive a credential just like Raymond

I'm playin' hooky, I'm playin' hooky

I can't walk cool when I got books underneath my arm

Playin' hooky, I'm playin' hooky

And I'm afraid I would be failing to be hearing the alarm

Maximum security is some peculiarity

My educationality has brought me to a conclusion

Institutionality that tries to blow the malady

Can never seem to go to the release

So can you blame me if I'm tempted

And the chug down is pre-empted

Playin' hooky, I'm playin' hooky

I can't walk cool when I got books underneath my arm

I'm playin' hooky, I'm playin' hooky

And I'm afraid I would be failing to be hearing the alarm

Counselors said I'm maladjusted and I never can be trusted

Irreconcilable differences cause problems with the faculty

Conflicting interests in the area

But I should intend to be considering vocationally

I must be dealt with very gently and I might say incidentally

Playin' hooky, I'm playin' hooky

Can't walk cool when I got books underneath my arm

I'm playin' hooky, I'm playin' hooky

And I'm afraid I would be failing to be hearing the alarm

About this [?] called detention, with the captives aforementioned

Assuming the dilemma's to rile the guard

Here's a memo to communicate or maybe you should demonstrate

Instead of just divulging information in regard

Beyond the shadow of a doubt, you can trample yourself out

Playin' hooky, playin' hooky

I can't walk cool when I got books underneath my arm

I'm playin' hooky, I'm playin' hooky

And I'm afraid I would be failing to be hearing the alarm

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music, Inc., � 1977

Unofficial releases: A Nickle's Worth of Dreams, Triangle/ PYRAM PYCD 081,

Drunk On The Moon, Tales From The Underground 3

(Transcribed by Ulf Berggren. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist, 2000)

Known covers:

None

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Listen to audio excerpt of Playin' Hooky

Foreign Affairs sessions, 1977.

Poor Little Lamb/ Slam On Little Sheep

Poor Little Lamb

(Also known as: Slam On Little Sheep)

Poor little lamb, now his fleece is all cold

Wakes up in the morning alone

Poor little lamb knows what's coming

Life is an empty cup⁽¹⁾

Poor little lamb, watch your shoulder

Coyote's waiting out there

Nobody will get any older

If we don't find a way out of here

So let's go on a bummer this summer

Where we won't have to be afraid

The world will be on a hummer, boys

And we'll laugh and we'll drink lemonade

Written by: Tom Waits and William Kennedy

Published by: Taft/ Barish Music/ Famous Mysic , LLC (ASCAP) and Jalma Music Inc., � 1987/ 2006

Demo recording 1987 (Ironweed soundtrack)

Official release: Orphans (Bastards), (P) & � 2006 Anti Inc.

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Life is an empty cup

- Charles Champlin (1988): "Waits wrote a song for "Ironweed" with its novelist-screenwriter William Kennedy. It's called "Poor Little Lamb" and, Waits said, "It's based on a poem he saw on the side of a bridge when he was a kid. 'Life is an empty cup' is one of the lines. It's like those nursery rhymes you may understand one way when you're a kid and another way later on, like 'Ring Around the Rosy' is about scarlet fever and when they all fall down, they fall down dead." (Source: "Tom Waits: Eccentric In The Very Best Sense", by Charles Champlin. Los Angeles Times. January 14, 1988)

- Tom Waits (2006): "There's one song I wrote with [Ironweed novelist] William Kennedy out in Albany. He came across this poem written on a bridge by some hobos, so he copied it down and saved it for years. He showed it to me and suggested we turn it into a song, so we did." (Source: "Tom Waits: Haunted songster's revelatory dispatch from the Twilight Zone", Now Magazine (Canada). Vol. 26, no. 11. November 16 - 22, 2006. By Tim Perlich)

Rainbow Sleeves

You used to dream yourself away each night

To places that you've never been

On wings made of wishes that you whispered to yourself

Back when every night the moon and you would sweep away

To places that you knew you would never get the blues

Now whiskey gives you wings to carry each one of your dreams

And the moon does not belong to you

But I believe that your heart keeps young dreams

Well, I've been told to keep from ever growing old

And a heart that has been broken will be stronger when it mends

Don't let the blues stop your singing

Darling, you only got a broken wing

Hey, you just hang on to my rainbow

Hang on to my rainbow

Hang on to my rainbow sleeves

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music Inc., � 1983⁽¹⁾

Official release: "Girl At Her Volcano", Rickie Lee Jones. Warner Bros, 1983

Performed by Rickie Lee Jones

Known covers:

Girl At Her Volcano. Rickie Lee Jones. 1983. WEA

Women. Don Bouchat. August 31, 1994. Self-released

Britches. Barbara McAfee. 1996. Self-released

Against The Tide. Davis Gaines. November 19, 1996. Lap Records

Faithfull Covers. Andi Sexgang. April 4, 2000. Dressed to Kill

Soho Stories. Ian Shaw. May 21, 2001. Milestone

From The Heart. Eric Van Aro. April 23, 2002. The Orchard

Just You, Just Me. Joy Wright. 2003. High Dunes, LLC (medley w. "Two Little Clouds")

Delicate Hour. Patty Morabito. January 7, 2003. Lml Music

Painted Songs. Rainbow Sleeves (Eddie N�nning and Lara Schallenberg). Rough Trade

In His Eyes. Ellen Greene & Christian Klikovits. August 23, 2004. Rainbow Records

With One More Look At You. Deanna Dubbin. 2005. Self-released

Teargirl. Jane Lui. May, 2005. Self-released

The Blue-faced Sessions Part 1. La Kidda. May 23, 2005. Essential Dance Music (The Netherlands)

Under The Covers. Anna Beaumont. November 9, 2005. Indie Pool Inc.

Shiny And New. Jonathan Rayson. April 11, 2006. Lml Music

I'm Not Waiting. Julia Murney. May 9, 2006. Sh-K Boom Records

Keeping You In Mind. Emily Saxe. September 13, 2006. Self-released (USA)

Shed. Kyle Bronsdon. July 2008. Self-released

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Listen to audio excerpt of Rainbow Sleeves as sung by Rickie Lee Jones.

Taken from "Girl At Her Volcano" (WEA, 1983).

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Rainbow Sleeves: Waits states he originally wrote the song for Bette Midler. Midler has indeed performed the song live (World Tour 1978, Divine Madness tour 1979-1980) but she didn't have the song released on any record. Earliest known live version by Midler is "September 20, 1978. The London Palladium - London, UK" thus dating the song back to 1978 (Blue Valentine era, when Waits and Rickie Lee Jones were dating) or earlier. It seems Rickie Lee Jones was already familiar with the song (and referring to it) in 1981 (Pirates): "And I won't need a pilot. Got a pirate who might sail. Somewhere I heard far away. You answer me. So I'm holding on. To your rainbow sleeves" One might assume she heard the song as performed by Midler, only to record it in 1983 (Girl At Her Volcano). Waits has never recorded nor performed the song. 



- Tom Waits (1985): "Yeah, that was written for Bette Midler. She did it on the road, and then on a TV show once. Bette's one of my oldest friends. She's a real touchstone for me." (Source: "The Marlowe Of The Ivories" New Musical Express magazine (UK), by Barney Hoskyns. Date: May 25, 1985)

- Tom Waits (1988): "I wrote some songs for her (Bette Midler). like "I Never Talk to Strangers" and "Rainbow Sleeves." As soon as I met her, I felt like I had already known her she can do an hour on your hair. We can talk about anything. I love her musical impulses; she has a great sense of history in terms of her involvement in show business. She wanted to open a lounge act together, featuring us as Edie and Edie Wednesday. We've been friends for a long time, you know, since '74." (Source: "Tom's Wild Years" Interview magazine: Francis Thumm. Livingston/ Montana. October, 1988)

Smuggler's Waltz/ Bronx Lullaby

Smuggler's Waltz

(Also known as: Bronx Lullaby)

Daggers of moonlight

Murder the sheets

in the stink of a four dollar room

And Daddy's gone a-hunting⁽¹⁾

for a dimebag⁽²⁾ of schoolboy⁽³⁾

Tied up with a yellow balloon⁽⁴⁾

So hush little baby

daddy must go

I'll cover you up with a blanket of snow

By the time I make Jersey

you'll be in heaven

In a pretty blue shoe box⁽⁵⁾, I know

So sing a song of ten grand

with a pocket full of dough⁽⁶⁾

And I can't take you to Baltimore

Wake God up in heaven

Have him look down below

There's a little lost angel

blooming in the snow

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: [?]., � 1982

Official release: TV documentary "Poetry In Motion", 1982

Released on video by Miramax in 1982. Released on video and CDV by Voyager in 1992

Known covers:

Bangin' On The Table With An Old Tin Cup. Pascal Fricke. April 12, 2007. Self-released (Germany)

<object height="385" width="480"></object> 

Waits performing "Bronx Lullaby" (Poetry in Motion, 1982). TV documentary directed by Ron Mann.

Released on video by Miramax in 1982, released on LD/ CD-ROM by Voyager Press (the Criterion company) in 1992 (VP1020L)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ And Daddy's gone a-hunting: Quoting: "Bye Baby Bunting" (Traditional: writer/ author unknown).

- Version 1: "Bye baby bunting. Daddy's gone a'hunting. Mummy's gone a'milking. Sister's gone a'silking. Brother's gone to buy a skin. To wrap the baby bunting in."

- Version 2: "Bye, O baby bunting. Daddy's gone a hunting. To get a little rabbit skin. To wrap his baby bunting in. Bye, O baby bunting. Daddy's gone a hunting. To get a little lambie skin. To wrap his baby bunting in. Bye, O baby bunting. Daddy's gone a hunting. A rosy wisp of cloud to win. To wrap his baby bunting in."

⁽²⁾ Dime bag: Ten dollars' worth of a drug, as a half-ounce of marijuana. Drug culture and student use (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽³⁾ Schoolboy n.

- Street name for Codeine (phosphate). This alkaloid is found in opium in concentrations ranging from 0.7 to 2.5 percent. Most codeine used in the United States is produced from morphine (Source: Drug Free Workplace, Daniel C. Drew, M.D.)

- [1960s-1970s] (drugs) cocaine, codeine, cough syrup, anything seen (by heroin users) as a drug for 'beginners'. [1970s+] (US Black) a neophyte in the street life, an apprentice criminal. (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

⁽⁴⁾ Balloon n.: 1. A toy rubber balloon used to hold heroin, narcotics (Source: New dictionary of American slang, Chapman) 2a. (drugs) a condom that is used to carry heroin, cocaine or any other powdered narcotic drug 2b. (drugs) a heroin supplier [portions of heroin are often sold in a contraceptive, tied off at the end] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

⁽⁵⁾ Shoe-box n.: Something resembling or suggestive of a shoe-box, as a plain, rectangular building or a cramped room or dwelling (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin - Third Edition)

⁽⁶⁾ Sing a song of ten grand with a pocket full of dough

- Dough n.: Money, cash (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner).

- This is a variation on the phrase "Sing a song of sixpence, pocket full of rye", quoting from: Sing A Song Of Sixpence. Children's song. Written by: Unknown. Adapted by: Terry Kluytmans: " Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye; Four and twenty blackbirds Baked in a pie! When the pie was opened, The birds began to sing; Wasn't that a dainty dish To set before the king? The king was in his counting house, Counting all the money; The queen was in the parlor, Eating bread with honey The maid was in the garden, Hanging out the clothes; When down came a blackbird Who snapped off her nose!"

- Notice this phrase being used in Midnight Lullaby, 1971/ 1973: "Sing a song of sixpence, pocket full of rye. Hush-a-bye my baby, no need to be crying."

Source: still from "Poetry in Motion" (1982)

Standing On The Corner

Well, I'm standin' on the corner, watchin' all the girls go by

I'm always standin' on the corner, underneath the springtime sky

Well, you can't go to jail for what you're thinkin'

Or for the "wooo" look in your eye

You been standin' on the corner, watchin' all the girls

Watchin' all the girls, watchin' all the girls, they go by

And it's Saturday and I'm so broke

And I couldn't buy a girl a nickel Coke

I'm goin', so what, I'm feelin' just like a millionaire

Now just take me down to Main Street

And I'll survey the harem waitin' for me there

I'm gonna be standin' on the corner, watchin' all the girls go by

Oh baby, what you do now?

Standin' on the corner, givin' all the girls the eye

Well this ain't much of an occupation

Give it a whirl, give it a try

And you'll be standin' on the corner, watchin' all the girls

Watchin' all the girls, watchin' all the girls, they go by

You know that I'm the cat that's got the cream

And I ain't got me a girl, but I can dream

I ain't got me a girl, but I can wish

Now just take me down to Main Street

And I'll select my own imaginary dish

I'm standin' on the corner, watchin' all the girls go by

I'm gonna be standin' on the corner, underneath the springtime sky

You know you can't get arrested for what you're thinkin'

Or for the "wooo" look in your eye

You been standin' on the corner, watchin' all the girls

Watchin' all the girls, watchin' all the girls, they go by

I'm gonna watch 'em go by

Oh, hubba hubba⁽¹⁾, man

Go by, yeah

I'm gonna watch 'em go by

Written by: Frank Loesser

Published by: [?] � 1956

Official release: Originally performed by Shorty Long, Alan Gilbert, John Henson, and Roy Lazarus,

in the musical 'The Most Happy Fella' in 1956 ⁽²⁾

Recorded by the King Brothers in 1960 and by the Four Lads, also in 1960

Tom Waits version: Agora Ballroom, Cleveland/ Ohio. August 25, 1976

Known covers:

N/A

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Listen to audio excerpt of Standing On The Corner.

Agora Ballroom, Cleveland/ USA. August 25, 1976.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Hubba-hubba: 

- excl. [1940s+] (US teen) term of approval, esp. when directed at a passing girl [hubba! hubba!, a college cheer] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9).

- Also mentioned in intro to Emotional Weather Report, 1975: "See, I... I used to know a girl... Yeah, and it was a hubba-hubba and ding ding ding, I said baby you got everything."

⁽²⁾ Standing On The Corner (Original version: lyrics and music: Frank Loesser. From "The Most Happy Fella"): "Standing on the corner, watching all the girls go by Standing on the corner, watching all the girls go by Brother you don't know a nicer occupation Matter of fact, neither do I Than standing on the corner, watching all the girls Watching all the girls, watching all the girls go by I'm the cat that go the cream Haven't got a girl but I can dream Haven't got a girl but I can wish So take me down on Mainstreet And that's where I select my imaginary dish Standing on the corner, watching all the girls go by Standing on the corner, giving all the girls the eye Brother if you've got a rich imagination Give it a whirl, give it a try Try standing on the corner, watching all the girls Watching all the girls, watching all the girls go by Saturday and I'm so broke Couldn't buy a girl a nickel coke Still I'm living like a millionaire When I take me down on Mainstreet And I revue the harem parading for me there Standing on the corner, watching all the girls go by Standing on the corner, underneath the springtime sky Brother you can't go to jail for what you're thinking Or for the "oooh" look in your eye You're only standing on the corner, watching all the girls Watching all the girls, watching all the girls go by."

Strange Weather (Demo)

Strange Weather

(Acoustic demo version, 1987)

Will you take me across the channel

London Bridge is falling down⁽²⁾

Strange, a woman tries to save

More than a man will try to drown

And it's the rain that they predicted

And the forecast every time

The rose has died because you picked it

I believe that brandy's mine

And all over the world

Strangers talk only about the weather

All over the world it's the same

It's the same

It's the same

And the world is getting flatter

And the sky is falling all around

And nothing is the matter

For I'll never cry in town

And a love like ours, my dear

Is best measured when it's down

And I never buy umbrellas

For there's always one around

And all over the world

Strangers talk only about the weather

All over the world it's the same

It's the same

And all over the world

Strangers talk only about the weather

All over the world it's the same

It's the same

And you know that it's beginning

And you know that it's the end

Once again we are strangers

As the fog goes rolling in

And all over the world

Strangers talk only about the weather

All over the world it's the same

It's the same

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan⁽¹⁾

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1986-1987

No official release: demo version broadcast on KCRW-FM, Santa Monica, August 24, 1987

The song was written for Marianne Faithfull: 'Strange Weather', 1987

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Strange Weather

(Marianne Faithfull version, 1987)

Will you take me across the Channel,

London Bridge is falling down.

Strange a woman tries to save

What a man will try to drown.

And he's the rain that they predicted,

It's the forecast every time.

The rose has died because you picked it

An' I believe that brandy's mine.

And all over the world Strangers

Talk only about the weather.

All over the world

It's the same

It's the same

It's the same.

The word is getting flatter,

The sky is falling all around.

And nothing is the matter

For I never cry in town.

And a love like ours, my dear,

Is best measured when it's down.

And I never buy umbrellas,

For there's always one around.

And all over the world Strangers

Talk only about the weather.

All over the world

It's the same

It's the same

It's the same.

And you know that it's beginning,

And you know that it's the end

When once again we are strangers

And the fog comes rolling in.

And all over the world Strangers

Talk only about the weather.

All over the world

It's the same

It's the same

It's the same.

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan

Official release (Marianne Faithfull): Strange Weather. Marianne Faithfull, 1987 PGD/ Polygram 842593 (CD).

Island Records 7 90613-1 (LP). Island 422 842 593-2 (CD)

Published by: Jalma Music, Admin. by Ackee Music, Inc. (ASCAP), � 1987-1988-1998

Official release (Tom Waits): "Big Time", � Island Visual Arts Inc. (P) Island Records Inc., 1988 &

"Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998

(Recorded at The Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles. November 9, 1987)

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Strange Weather

(Big Time live version, 1988)

Will you take me across the channel

London Bridge is falling down⁽²⁾

Strange, a woman tries to save

More than a man will try to drown

And it's the rain that they predicted

It's the forecast every time

The rose has died because you picked it

I believe that brandy's mine

And all over the world

Strangers talk only about the weather

All over the world it's the same

It's the same

And the world is getting flatter

And the sky is falling all around

Oh, and nothing is the matter

For I'll never cry in town

And a love like ours, my dear

Is best measured when it's down

And I never buy umbrellas

Cause there's always one around

And all over the world

Strangers talk only about the weather

All over the world it's the same

It's the same

And you know that it's beginning

And you know that it's the end

Once again we are strangers

As the fog goes rolling in

And all over the world

Strangers talk only about the weather

All over the world it's the same

It's the same

It's the same

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music, Admin. by Ackee Music, Inc. (ASCAP), � 1987-1988-1998

Official release: "Big Time", � Island Visual Arts Inc. (P) Island Records Inc., 1988 &

"Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998

(Recorded at The Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles. November 9, 1987)

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Further reading: Big Time full story

Known covers:

Strange Weather. Marianne Faithfull, 1987. PGD/ Polygram 842593 (CD). Island Records 7 90613-1 (LP). Island 422 842 593-2 (CD, 1990)

Blazing Away. Marianne Faithfull. January 3, 1995. Island (Universal)

Marianne Faithfull, The Island Anthology. Marianne Faithfull. October, 1998. Island (Universal)

Silent House. Vera Coomans & Philip Hoessen. November 1998. Pink Records (The Netherlands)

Faithfull Covers. Andi Sexgang. April 4, 2000. Dressed to Kill

Devil May Care. Kate Hammett-Vaughan. April, 2002. Maximum Jazz MAX-1201

Voice & Bass. Georgette Dee. November 17, 2003. Dmd Music (DA Music Germany)

Spider And The Fly. Onalea. April 29, 2005. Dandi Productions (Canada)

Crow's Nest/ Nid De Pie. Claire Jenkins Avec Band. September 10, 2007. Self-released (Canada)

Dolphin Blue Live. Dolphin Blue. December, 2007. Rising Sun Productions (German CDR)

<object height="344" width="425"></object> 

Waits performing "Strange Weather" taken from the Big Time concert video.

Recorded live at the Wiltern Theatre. Los Angeles/ USA. November 9, 1987.

PolyGram Video (Island Visual Arts)/ Fries Home Video (Fries Entertainment Inc.), 1988.

With: Michael Blair, Ralph Carney, Greg Cohen, Marc Ribot and Willy Schwarz.

Stage show concept: Kathleen Brennan & Tom Waits. Directed by Chris Blum. 

Video blocked in Germany by Universal Music Group (UMG).

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Tom Waits (1987): "We did this at home, I haven't really listened to it all that much. Kathleen and I wrote this together so this is the first version of it and then we gave it to Marianne and she recorded it on an album that she did with Hal Willner - who may be listening." (Source: KCRW-FM interview. August 24, 1987)

⁽²⁾ London Bridge is falling down: Quoting from "London Bridge" (Traditional, unknown copyright)

- Version 1: "London Bridge is falling down, Falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down, My fair lady! Build it up with iron bars, Iron bars, iron bars. Build it up with iron bars, My fair lady! Iron bars will bend and break, Bend and break, bend and break. Iron bars will bend and break, My fair lady! Build it up with needles and pins, Needles and pins, needles and pins. Build it up with needles and pins, My fair lady! Pins and needles rust and bend, Rust and bend, rust and bend. Pins and needles rust and bend, My fair lady! Build it up with penny loaves, Penny loaves, penny loaves. Build it up with penny loaves, My fair lady! Penny loaves will tumble down, Tumble down, tumble down. Penny loaves will tumble down, My fair lady! Build it up with silver and gold, Silver and gold, silver and gold. Build it up with silver and gold, My fair lady! Gold and silver I've not got, I've not got, I've not got. Gold and silver I've not got, My fair lady! Here's a prisoner I have got, I have got, I have got. Here's a prisoner I have got, My fair lady! What's the prisoner done to you, Done to you, done to you? What's the prisoner done to you, My fair lady! Stole my watch and broke my chain, Broke my chain, broke my chain. Stole my watch and broke my chain, My fair lady! What'll you take to set him free, Set him free, set him free? What'll you take to set him free, My fair lady! One hundred pounds will set him free, Set him free, set him free. One hundred pounds will set him free, My fair lady! One hundred pounds we have not got, Have not got, have not got. One hundred pounds we have not got, My fair lady! Then off to prison he must go, He must go, he must go. Then off to prison he must go, My fair lady!"

- Version 2 (Source: Zelo Nursery Rhymes ( (c) 1996-2000 C. Thomas Wright III): "London Bridge is falling down, Falling down, Falling down London Bridge is falling down, My fair lady Take a key and lock her up, Lock her up, Lock her up Take a key and lock her up, My fair lady How will we build it up, Build it up, Build it up? How will we build it up, My fair lady? Build it up with silver and gold, Silver and gold, Silver and gold Build it up with silver and gold, My fair lady Gold and silver I have none, I have none, I have none Gold and silver I have none, My fair lady Build it up with needles and pins, Needles and pins, Needles and pins Build it up with needles and pins, My fair lady Pins and needles bend and break, Bend and break, Bend and break Pins and needles bend and break, My fair lady Build it up with wood and clay, Wood and clay, Wood and clay Build it up with wood and clay, My fair lady Wood and clay will wash away, Wash away, Wash away Wood and clay will wash away, My fair lady Build it up with stone so strong, Stone so strong, Stone so strong Build it up with stone so strong, My fair lady Stone so strong will last so long, Last so long, Last so long Stone so strong will last so long, My fair lady."

Stray Dog Help Yourself

That old stray hound dog by the meat market now

Lickin' his chops⁽¹⁾ for some greasy chow

Top sirloin, pork chops, New York cut

Salisbury ground 'round, hangin' 'round downtown

Dropped out of school, naturally cool

Liftin' his leg on a fireplug

With greasy gravy drippings and the gristle on his mug⁽²⁾

Stray dog, help yourself

Now he's scratchin' his ass, he be swattin' them flies

Gettin' involved with his dinnertime, and that's no lie

I said, stray dog, be cool boy, go on pull your caper

Usin' yesterday's paper for a table cloth

That old stray hound dog by the meat market now

Lickin' his chops for some greasy chow

And if they catch him on a trash can bin

Stray dog, help yourself

Catch him on a trash can bin

Stray dog, help yourself

Stray dog, help yourself

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc., 1976

Unofficial release: Tales From The Underground Volume 3

From: Small Change sessions. July 15, 1976

Known covers:

None

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Listen to audio excerpt of Stray Dog Help Yourself.

Small Change sessions. July 15, 1976.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Lick (one's) chops: To wait with anticipation. Common use (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽²⁾ Mug n.: The face. The mouth; the chin; the jaw. Prize fight use (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

The Big Rock Candy Mountain

On the Big Rock Candy Mountain

The cops have wooden legs

The bulldogs all have rubber teeth

And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs

(...edit...)

On the Big Rock Candy Mountain

You never change your socks

And little streams of alcohol

Come trickling down the rocks

I'm bound to go

Where the wind don't blow

On the big rock Candy Mountain

On the big rock Candy Mountain

It's a land that's fair and bright

Handouts grow on bushes

And you sleep out every night

I'm bound to go

Where the wind don't blow

Traditional hobo ballad attributed to Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock

Published by: [?], � 1987

No official release. From the film "Ironweed", 1987

Unofficial release: "Tales From The Underground, Vol. 3" ⁽¹⁾

Known covers:

N/A

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Listen to audio excerpt of The Big Rock Candy Mountain.

From the film "Ironweed", 1987.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ The Big Rock Candy Mountain:

- Version 1:  (children-friendly version): "In the big rock candy mountains There's a land that's fair and bright Where the handouts grow on bushes And you sleep out ev'ry night Where the boxcars are all empty And the sun shines ev'ry day Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow In the big rock candy mountains Oh, the buzzin' of the bees in the peppermint trees 'Round the soda water fountains Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings In the big rock candy mountains In the big rock candy mountains You never change your socks And little streams of lemonade Come a-tricklin' down the rocks The hobos there are friendly And their fires all burn bright There's a lake of stew and soda, too You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe In the big rock candy mountains Oh, the buzzin' of the bees in the peppermint trees 'Round the soda water fountains Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings In the big rock candy mountains." 

- Version 2: (Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock): "On a summer day In the month of May A burly bum came hiking Down a shady lane Through the sugar cane He was looking for his liking As he roamed along He sang a song Of the land of milk and honey Where a bum can stay For many a day And he won't need any money Oh the buzzin' of the bees In the cigarette trees Near the soda water fountain At the lemonade springs Where the bluebird sings On the big rock candy mountain There's a lake of gin We can both jump in And the handouts grow on bushes In the new-mown hay We can sleep all day And the bars all have free lunches Where the mail train stops And there ain't no cops And the folks are tender-hearted Where you never change your socks And you never throw rocks And your hair is never parted Oh, a farmer and his son They were on the run To the hay field they were bounding Said the bum to the son Why don't you come To that big rock candy mountain? So the very next day They hiked away The mileposts they were counting But they never arrived At the lemonade tide On the big rock candy mountain One evening as the sun went down And the jungle fires were burning Down the track came a hobo hiking He said: Boys, I'm not turning I'm heading for a land that's far away Beside the crystal fountain I'll see you all this coming fall In the big rock candy mountain In the big rock candy mountain It's a land that's fair and bright The handouts grow on bushes And you sleep out every night The boxcars all are empty And the sun shines every day I'm bound to go Where there ain't no snow Where the sleet don't fall And the winds don't blow In the big rock candy mountain In the big rock candy mountain You never change your socks And little streams of alcohol Come trickling down the rocks O, the shacks all have to tip their hats And the railway bulls are blind There's a lake of stew And ginger ale too And you can paddle All around it in a big canoe In the big rock candy mountain In the big rock candy mountain The cops have wooden legs The bulldogs all have rubber teeth And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs The box-cars all are empty And the sun shines every day I'm bound to go Where there ain't no snow Where the sleet don't fall And the winds don't blow In the big rock candy mountain In the big rock candy mountain The jails are made of tin You can slip right out again As soon as they put you in . There ain't no short-handled shovels No axes, saws nor picks I'm bound to stay Where you sleep all day Where they hung the jerk That invented work In the big rock candy mountain."

The Movie

KN: I was talking to Tom about this movie that nobody wants me to make. It's a musical called 'M', starring Siamese twins connected by the lips.

TW: Connected by the lips? That's...

KN: I figured out how to do that too. You see, I have this dentist friend, a very religious guy. In fact he believes in the laying on of hands. He really would touch your tooth, and they'd get better. That's why I go to him, I can't stand pain.

TW: Right! Hehehe...

KN: But I'm getting off the track. He has a... you know, I think he'd go along. He could be in the movie, okay? I think he should be in the movie.

TW: All right. Does he have any acting experience?

KN: No no no.

TW: No?

KN: He'd be a re-actor.

TW: Ah! Ah!

KN: He has this yellow mask that he wears.

TW: Yeah.

KN: And yellow gloves. He's afraid, you know... he's very nervous.

TW: Oh.

KN: But I'd get the camera on him, wide-angled camera, and I'd ask him if he could make a double mouth piece.

TW: Mhm.

KN: What I'm thinking of, you've seen these things that they use in the circus, where the girl bites into this mouth piece and they pull her up to...

TW: Ah yeah, yeah. They suspend her by it, and she's biting on to some kind of a stick or something.

KN: Up to the top of the tent.

TW: Yeah, right.

KN: Well, he'd make a double thing with a little rubber holding it together. And then we'd audition these identical twins, and that would hold them together, so it would seem... you know, it would look like what I'm talking about.

TW: Right. Hmm.

KN: Maybe we should have a boy and girl. Are there boy and girl identical twins?

TW: I'd rather not... I wouldn't call them identical if they were boy and girl.

KN: Maybe they could be. And then they could get separated in the film. See, the idea is not just that though. That's just part of it. There's another guy in the film that I try to help. Cause I thought of calling the movie 'The Devout Catalyst'. There's the title. And there's another guy who is a tattoo artist, and... but he's avant-garde, he wants to do something very special.

TW: Something new... in a way.

KN: Yeah, so we go to this chemist that I know, and he makes a slippery ink, so the tattoo, you know, it just doesn't sit there. It moves slowly across the surface of the skin towards the nearest opening. You see, there's... how many openings are there?

TW: Oh, you mean orifice? Uh... how many actual...?

KN: One two three...

TW: Two three four five uh... six

KN: Whichever one it's closest to, it goes in there, and then it moves inside your body through the Endothelium, and... Say it was an eagle. It gets inside of you and it gets digested. Maybe it gets stuck behind your right knee cap.

TW: Right, yeah!

KN: You rub it, it gets lose and when it comes out it looks like a Klee, or maybe a Rouault or, you know... or Thurber. You know...

TW: That's wild. Oh yeah, I got a little money laying around that... I've been... you know...

KN: What we have to have with that is... Well, that's a special effect. We'll have to get some kind of decal slide across this... But the trouble is when I tell anyone about this, they laugh and...

TW: Hehe...

KN: So what I figured I'd do is put my own money in it.

TW: Yeah! There! There you go, yeah...

KN: In the movie, the kids, my three kids, and my wife wanna have me committed. That's the plot. If you really do what you wanna do, they'll commit you!

TW: Yeah... Wow...

KN: It'd be a great movie.

TW: Well, are you gonna direct...?

KN: Well, if we can get Jerry to do the music track...

TW: The music, yeah.

KN: And you could, you know...

TW: Yeah, I could play a part.

KN: Well, you could be the guy I'm talking to you about.

TW: Yeah.

KN: Get a far-out bar and sit there and... star!

TW: Yeah.

KN: Yeah. In a musical called 'M'.

TW: Well, I'm looking to diversify my investment portfolio, and I've been looking to get into something strange, you know, so...

KN: Hey! What we could do is, we could have you in it, you take out your wallet, and moths fly out.⁽¹⁾

TW: Yeah...

KN: That's a special effect too.

TW: Hehehehe. You get a bug guy for that. They have bug guys in Hollywood. All they do is, they work in the insect world. You're gonna have a lot of medical footage in this too, I guess?

KN: Yeah, I could put that thing in about the January flies too, in our bedroom.

TW: January flies, what...?

KN: That was insane.

TW: What are January flies?

KN: Well, we don't have them in Chicago, but in the middle of January, you went to the bedroom and there were twenty of these... almost as big as horse flies, on the pink walls, and...

TW: That's annoying.

KN: Oh, it's terrible. And they were sluggish, cause it was January.

TW: They were a little slow.

KN: And I couldn't hit them with the paper, cause they'd splat.

TW: Yeah.

KN: And I couldn't spray them... you know...

TW: You're going to sleep, you don't want that in the room.

KN: No, I'd kill myself that way. So I got the bright idea to get the vacuum cleaner and, with the long hose, we sucked them into the vacuum cleaner. And then they were all gone.

TW: Well, but they were in the vacuum cleaner really.

KN: Yeah, and still alive too. Cause that's like a wind tunnel. They went down there... so we... I put some, you know, tissue paper at the end so that they wouldn't get out. But they'd come back! The next night there were twenty or thirty more. So... well, what I did then, I called the chimney sweep.

TW: Chimney sweep?

KN: Yeah, there's a girl by the name of Debbie Dove.

TW: She's a chimney sweep?

KN: Yeah, from Vermont.

TW: Ah!

KN: And she said, let me check your chimney!

TW: Yeah yeah, that's a good place to start. I mean, if you have a fly problem, a lot of people will look at the chimney first.

KN: And she took the barricade that I had so that nobody could come in through the chimney. There were two dead squirrels inside there, you know. That's the... sad end.

TW: Aaawww...

KN: The flies belonged to the squirrels.

TW: All right, yeah...

KN: Yeah. She sold us three squirrel traps for the chimney and... we're safe now!

TW: Yeah, no more flies!

KN: Do you think we could get her in the film?

TW: Gee, I don't know. We could write a part for her.

KN: Yeah, we should!

TW: Does she have any film experience?

KN: Guess we'd have to get two dead squirrels in the film too.

TW: Yeah well, you get an animal guy for that.

KN: Yeah. Gee, I'm so glad that you're interested in this, really!

TW: Yeah, I think... I'm ready to go into production, so you just let me know.

KN: Ah, great. We'll call it 'The Devout Catalyst'.

TW: I love it!

KN: Yeah, good title.

TW: A lot of action in the film too, I guess?

KN: Oh yeah yeah yeah. I have one thing. I have this picture window ant colony, that I'll have for the titles.

TW: So the ants will actually spell out the title of the film, and the credits?

KN: Well, they'll actually pull little tissue paper credits through it.

TW: Nice.

KN: Yeah. Or a fly with a little trailer, with the title of the film on, flying around the bed.

TW: Nice, nice...

KN: Well, Tom, you've made me feel a lot better. Thanks, I... seriously, I thought no one cared, but... thanks!

TW: I'm there for you, Ken!

KN: You're a pal.

TW: Thanks.

Written by: Ken Nordine & Tom Waits

Published by: LYRICS Rubber frog Publishing (ASCAP)/ MUSIC Ice Nine Publishing (ASCAP), � 1991

Official release: Devout Catalyst - Ken Nordine, Grateful Dead Productions Inc., 1992

Spoken word: Nordine & Waits

Known covers:

N/A

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ And moths fly out

- From "Franks Wild Years" (the play, 1986): Frank: "I needed to get out. The air is invigorating... life's rich pageant... and I don't care who I have to step on on my way back down! With a song in my shoe, and a nail in my heart, I stand before you with moths in my change purse. ha-ha..."

- "Tom Waits saves cigarette coupons. Moths fly from his change purse. The keys fall off his piano. Business as usual. (Source: "Boho Blues" Spin Magazine, by Bart Bull. September, 1987)

With A Suitcase

With A Suitcase (Street Band)

(Paradise Alley session, 1978. Also known as: Suitcase I)

With a suitcase, and a couple of bucks

I'm gonna skip this rhubarb⁽¹⁾, slide down the boulevard

I ain't gonna take that dame with me

She's full of malarkey⁽²⁾

Just as soon as it's dark, I'll get a one-way token

On the first thing smokin' out of town

And I'm goin' out to East St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago

Wichita, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Miami, Florida

Downtown Tulsa, Champaigne-Urbana

Bangor, all aboard, Houston and Atlanta

Goin' to Joliet, Bernadette, maybe Philadelphia

'Picket out to Tittsburgh'⁽³⁾ , any burgh, hamburger

Springfield Junction, Primrose Lane

I may get me a nose-job⁽⁴⁾ and change my name

Cause she drinks all my liquor and she steals all the covers

And she swears like a sailor

If I ever have to bail her out of jail again, I'm gonna lose my mind

Who needs the aggravation

Charlie, take me to the station

Get a one-way token on the first thing smokin' out of town

And go out to East St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago

Wichita, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Miami, Florida

Downtown Tulsa, Champaigne-Urbana

Bangor, all aboard, Houston and Atlanta

Goin' to Joliet, Bernadette, maybe Philadelphia

'Picket out to Tittsburgh', any burgh, cheeseburger

Springfield Junction, Primrose Lane

I may get me a nose-job and change my name

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: [?], � 1978

No official release: from the Paradise Alley sessions. September 7, 1978

With A Suitcase (Rhythm Section)

(Paradise Alley sessions, 1978. Also known as: Suitcase II)

With a suitcase, and a couple of bucks

I'm gonna skip this rhubarb, slide down the boulevard

I ain't gonna take that dame with me

Cause she's full of malarkey

Just as soon as it's dark, I'll get a one-way token

On the first thing smokin' out of town

And I'm goin' out to East St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago

Wichita, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Miami, Florida

Downtown Tulsa, Champaigne-Urbana

Bangor, all aboard, Houston and Atlanta

Goin' to Joliet, Bernadette, maybe Philadelphia

'Picket out to Tittsburgh', any burgh, cheeseburger

Springfield Junction, Primrose Lane

I may get me a nose-job and change my name

Well, she drinks all my liquor and she steals all the covers

And she swears like a sailor

If I ever have to bail her out of jail again, I'm gonna lose my mind

Who needs the aggravation

Charlie, take me to the station

I'll get a one-way token on the first thing smokin' out of town

And I'm goin' out to East St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago

Wichita, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Miami, Florida

Downtown Tulsa, Champaigne-Urbana

Bangor, all aboard, Houston and Atlanta

Goin' to Joliet, Bernadette, maybe Philadelphia

'Picket out to Tittsburgh', any burgh, Fur Burger

Springfield Junction, Primrose Lane

I may get me a nose-job and change my name

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: [?], � 1978

No official release: from the Paradise Alley sessions. September 7, 1978

Known covers:

None

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Listen to audio excerpt of With A Suitcase.

Paradise Alley sessions. September 7, 1978.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Rhubarb: n. 1. [1940s+] (US) an argument, a noisy dispute, esp. one that takes place on the field of play at a sporting event. 2. [1960s+] nonsense, rubbish [a mix of uses, e.g. theatrical, the actors' traditional muttering of Rhubarb to provide background in crowd scenes; and sporting, baseball fans' term to describe a disturbance. The term was popularized c.1943 by the US baseball commentator 'Red' Barber, whose memoirs were entitled Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat (1968)] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9) 

⁽²⁾ Malarkey:

-  n.: Exaggerated talk; tedious talk; lies; boloney, bunk. Not common (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

- "It is originally American slang, meaning humbug, foolishness or nonsense. In the early days it was variously spelt, not just in the ways you give but also as malaky or mullarkey. Nobody is sure where it comes from: it just appears out of the blue in the 1920s. Some say it derives from the Irish word mullachan for a strongly built boy, hence a ruffian. My personal theory, based on one of the early spellings, is that it comes from the Irish surname Mullarkey, presumably a person of that name, in the same way that-for example-hooligan does. But who, or when, or where, I've no idea." (Source: World Wide Words is copyright � Michael Quinion, 1996-2004) 

⁽³⁾ Picket out to Tittsburgh: Taken from this joke: "A guy goes up to the ticket window at the bus terminal where he is greeted by a beautiful, large-chested woman. "I'd like two pickets to Tittsburgh", he says.  Realizing his faux pas, he blushes and retreats to the seating area. After regaining his composure he decides to try again, in spite of his embarrassment. "Forgive me for that, miss...I'd like two pickets to Tittsburgh."  Again he blushes, and retreats. Then he sees a priest and decides to enlist his help. "Pardon me, father, but would you be kind enough to help me..." So the priest goes up to the counter and asks the woman for two tickets to Pittsburgh. She gives them to him, where upon he asks... "And can I please have two nipples for this dime?"" (Submitted by Ulf Berggren/ Tony Patricca. Listserv Raindogs discussionlist. December, 2000)

⁽⁴⁾ Nose job: n. [1950s+] a rhinoplasty, cosmetic plastic surgey on one's nose (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

Beautiful Maladies, 1998 (Compilation)

16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six

(Swordfishtrombones studio version, 1983)

I plugged⁽²⁾ sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six⁽³⁾

And a black crow snuck through a hole in the sky

So I spent all my buttons on an old pack mule

Oh, and I made me a ladder from a pawn shop marimba⁽⁴⁾

And I leaned it up against a dandelion tree

Leaned it up against a dandelion tree

Leaned it up against a dandelion tree

Ma, cook them feathers on a tire iron spit

And I filled me a sachel⁽⁵⁾ full of old pig corn⁽⁶⁾

And I beat me a billy⁽⁷⁾ from an old French horn

Whoa, and I kicked that mule to the top of the tree

Kicked that mule to the top of the tree

Blew me a hole 'bout the size of a kickdrum⁽⁸⁾

And I cut me a switch from a long branch elbow

I'm gonna whittle you into kindlin''⁽⁹⁾

Black crow, sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Whittle you into kindlin'

Black crow, sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Well, I slept in the holler of a dry creek bed

And I tore out the buckets from a red Corvette⁽¹⁰⁾

Tore out the buckets⁽¹¹⁾ from a red Corvette

Lionel and Dave and the Butcher made three

Oh, you got to meet me by the knuckles of the skinnybone tree

With the strings of a Washburn⁽¹²⁾ stretched like a clothes line

Oh, you know me and that mule scrambled right through the hole

Me and that mule scrambled right through the hole

I'm gonna whittle you into kindlin'

Black crow, sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Whittle you into kindlin'

Black crow, sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Now I hold him prisoner in a Washburn jail

That I strapped on the back of my old kick mule

Strapped it on the back of my old kick mule

I bang on the strings just to drive him crazy

Oh, I strum it loud to rattle his cage

Strum it loud just to rattle his cage

Strum it loud just to rattle his cage

Strum it loud just to rattle his cage

Whoa, I'm gonna whittle you into kindlin'

Black crow, sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Whittle you into kindlin'

Black crow, sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music admin. by Ackee Music Inc. (ASCAP), � 1983-1998

Official release: "Swordfishtrombones", Island Records Inc., 1983 &

"Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six

(Big Time live version, 1988)

Good evening!

Plugged⁽²⁾ sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six⁽³⁾

And a black crow snuck through a hole in the sky

And I spent all my buttons on an old pack mule

And I made me a ladder from a pawn shop marimba⁽⁴⁾

I leaned it all up 'gainst a dandelion tree

I leaned it all up 'gainst a dandelion tree

Gonna whittle you into kindlin''⁽⁹⁾

Sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Whittle you into kindlin'

Sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Now, I slept in the holler of a dry creek bed

And I tore out the buckets from a red Corvette⁽¹⁰⁾

Tore out the buckets⁽¹¹⁾ from a red Corvette

Lionel and Dave, Butcher made three

Meet me by the knuckles of the skinnybone tree

With the strings of a Washburn⁽¹²⁾ like a clothes line

Now, me and that mule, right through the hole

Me and that mule, right through the hole

Whittle you into kindlin'

Sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Whittle you into kindlin'

Sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

I will whittle you into kindlin'

Sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Whittle you into kindlin'

Sixteen shells from a thirty-ought six

Gonna take a

38 hours long gone train

I just

Long gone train

Just long gone train

I just long

I just long

I just long

Long

Hey-hey. 

Good evening!

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music, Admin. by Ackee Music, Inc. (ASCAP), � 1983-1988

Official release: "Big Time", � Island Visual Arts Inc. (P) Island Records Inc., 1988

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Further reading: Big Time full story

Known covers:

The Piano Has Been Drinking. The Piano Has been Drinking. April, 1990. Chlodwig/ BMG Germany (in German/ K�lsch)

It's A Mystery. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band. 1995. Capitol/ EMI Records

Bukowski Waits For Us - Vol. 2. Michael Kiessling. September 25, 2000. Buschfunk (Germany)

Wicked Grin. John Hammond. March 13, 2001. Emd/ Virgin

God Is A Tom Waits Fan. The Box Spring Hogs. May 2004. Self-released demo

For My Smoke. Shiloh Lindsey. July 30, 2004. Self-released

Koskenkorvapuusti. The Mescaline Smugglers. 2006. Self-released

Wailin´Inc. Live. Wailin´Inc. (James Wailin). May 16, 2006. No Cover Productions (NCPR42)

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Music video promoting: "16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six" taken from the Big Time concert video.

Recorded live at the Warfield Theatre. San Francisco/ USA. November 5, 1987.

PolyGram Video (Island Visual Arts)/ Fries Home Video (Fries Entertainment Inc.), 1988.

With: Michael Blair, Ralph Carney, Greg Cohen, Marc Ribot and Willy Schwarz.

Stage show concept: Kathleen Brennan & Tom Waits. Directed by Chris Blum.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ 16 Shells From A Thirty Ought Six

- Tom Waits (1983): "I tried to get a 'chain gang work song-feel holler. Get a low trombone to give a feeling of a freight train going by. It's Stephen Hodges on drums, Larry Taylor on acoustic bass, Fred Tackett on electric guitar, Victor Feldman on brake drum and bell plate and Joe Romano on trombone. So, I wanted to have that kind of a sledgehammer coming down on anvil. Originally I saw the story as a guy and a mule going off looking for this crow. He has a Washburn guitar strapped on the side of his mule and when he gets the crow he pulls the strings back and shoves this bird inside the guitar and then the strings make like a jail. Then he bangs on the strings and the bird goes out of his mind as he is riding off over the hill. So I tried to make the story a bit impressionistic but at the same time adding some very specific images in there. I worked a long time on this. The feel of it was really critical. I added snare and we pulled the snare off 'cause it made it shuffle too much. I liked the holes in it as much as I liked what was in them. It was a matter of trying to get that feeling of a train going. Originally I tried it just with organ and bass. Then I was afraid to add too much to it 'cause sometimes you get a feel that's appropiate. If you try to heap too much on it then it crumbles into the strain" (Source: "Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones". Island Promo interview, 1983)

- Tom Waits (1983): "16 Shells - I wanted a chain gang sort of a feel - banging a hammer on an anvil - Huuh - like a work song -Huuh. used brake drum and bell plate and tried to take it outside -certain instruments bring you indoors, other instruments take you outdoors, trying to get that kind of feel on it" (Source: Unidentified Swordfishtrombones Interview (interviewer's tape). Date: 1983/ 1984)

- Tom Waits (1983): "16 Shells From A 30.6" is a field holler done with a hammer on an anvil. It's about this guy who captures this black crow and puts it in his guitar and then bangs on the strings and drives the bird mad on the side his mule as he goes off. Originally, I was going to put 16 shells in the belly of a scarecrow and blame it all on him. It was about a farmer in Kansas and it wouldn't rain, so he got despondent and shot his scarecrow"  (Source: "The Beat Goes On" Rock Bill magazine (USA). October 1983, by Kid Millions)

-  Quoting from "Scarecrow" (Unreleased track, from 'Foreign Affairs' sessions, July through August, 1977): "... And pump sixteen shells in the belly of a scarecrow. And blame it all on him."

⁽²⁾ Plug v.: To shoot someone, esp. to kill by shooting (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽³⁾ Thirty Ought Six: Rifle designed in 1906 with a bullet/ barrel gauge of 30. Ought is colloquial for the number zero.

⁽⁴⁾ Marimba: A row of tuned wooden bars mounted in a box and played with mallets - similar to a xylophone or vibraphone (Source: The Folk File, Bill Markwick)

⁽⁵⁾ Sachel: (satchel) n. A small bag, often having a shoulder strap, used for carrying books or clothing (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company)

⁽⁶⁾ Pig corn: Genetically modified low-phytate corn grown for feeding pigs and chickens. Not meant for human consumption

⁽⁷⁾ Billy: "A billy or billy-can is a kettle that a traveller or hiker would take along. So it's a small kettle that one would use over an open fire. A popular reference for this would be the Austrailian song Waltzing Matilda (...and he sang as he sat and waited while his billy boiled, you'll come a waltzing Matilda with me...) So in the Waits song - he makes a kettle (billy) out of the bell of a French horn." (Submitted by Phil Kane as sent to Tom Waits Library. Library. July 2, 2004)

⁽⁸⁾ Kick drum n.: The bass drum in a drum kit, operated by a foot pedal (Source: The Folk File, Bill Markwick)

⁽⁹⁾ Whittle (you) into kindlin': Whittle is to carve delicately with a knife, kindling a small piece of wood with which to start a fire. Another way to say this would be to cut you down to size, to put you in your place (Submitted by Mark Cook, eGroups discussionlist. September, 2000)

⁽¹⁰⁾ Corvette: American sportscar produced by Chevrolet.

- Corvette: also mentioned in: A Nickel's Worth Of Dreams, 1977: "And take that Corvette Stingray with a four-on-the-floor.", Gun Street Girl, 1985: "Blew a hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette."

⁽¹¹⁾ Buckets: car front seats

⁽¹²⁾ Washburn: Brand of a guitar maker

Clap Hands

(Rain Dogs studio version, 1985)

Sane, sane, they're all insane

Fireman's blind, the conductor is lame

A Cincinnati jacket and a sad luck dame

Hangin' out the window with a bottle full of rain

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Said roar, roar, the thunder and the roar

Sumbitch is never comin' back here no more

The moon in the window and a bird on the pole

We can always find a millionaire to shovel all the coal⁽²⁾

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Said steam, steam, a hundred bad dreams

Goin' up to Harlem with a pistol in his jeans

A fifty dollar bill inside a Paladin's⁽³⁾ hat

And nobody's sure where Mr. Knickerbocker's⁽⁴⁾ at

Roar, roar, the thunder and the roar

Sumbitch is never comin' back here no more

Moon in the window and a bird on the pole

Always find a millionaire to shovel all the coal

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

I said steam, steam, with a hundred bad dreams

Goin' up to Harlem with a pistol in his jeans

A fifty dollar bill inside a Paladin's hat

And nobody's sure where Mr. Knickerbocker's at

Shine, shine, a Roosevelt dime⁽⁵⁾

All the way to Baltimore and runnin' out of time

Salvation Army seemed to wind up in the hole

They all went to Heaven in a little row boat

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Clap hands

Oh clap hands

Oh clap hands

Oh clap hands

Clap hands

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1985-1998

Official release: "Rain Dogs", Island Records Inc., 1985 &

"Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Anthology 1983-2000" (Nuova Carisch s.r.l. Milan/ Italy, 2001)

Clap Hands

(Big Time live version, 1988)

Wine, wine, why the goose drank wine⁽¹⁾

And the monkey chewed tobacco on a streetcar line

Now the line broke and the monkey got choked

And they all went to heaven in a little row boat

Clap hands

Sane, sane, they're all insane, fireman's blind, the conductor's lame

A Cincinnati jacket and a sad-luck dame

Hang out the window with a bottle full of rain

Clap hands, oh clap hands, oh clap hands, well clap hands

I said roar, it's the thunder and the roar

I ain't never coming back no more

There's a moon in the window, a bird on the pole

I can always find a millionaire to shovel all the coal⁽²⁾

Well clap hands baby, well clap hands, clap hands

I said dream, it's a hundred bad dreams

Going up to Harlem with a pistol in my jeans

A Cincinnati jacket and a sad-luck dame

Hanging out the window with a bottle full of rain

Now it's roar, it's the thunder and the roar

I ain't coming back no more

I got a moon in the window, a bird on the pole

I can always find a millionaire to shovel all the coal

Clap hands, well clap hands baby, well clap hands

Clap hands, clap hands

Shine, shine, a Roosevelt dime⁽³⁾

All the way to Baltimore and running out of time

Salvation Army seemed to wind up in the hole

All went to heaven in a little row boat

It's roar, it's the thunder and the roar

I ain't coming back no more

I got a moon in the window, a bird on the pole

I can always find a millionaire to shovel all the coal

Clap hands, well clap hands, clap hands

Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands

Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands

Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands

Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands

Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands

Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music, Admin. by Ackee Music, Inc. (ASCAP), � 1985-1988

Official release: "Big Time", � Island Visual Arts Inc. (P) Island Records Inc., 1988

Also included in Big Time movie (1988). Further reading: Big Time full story

Known covers:

Fjorton S�nger. Bad Liver & Hans Brustna Hj�rtan. 1989. Nonstop Records (1989), City Records (re-release May, 1993) NSM 33-15 (in Swedish: "Sl� dank")

The Piano Has Been Drinking. The Piano Has been Drinking (Gerd K�ster). April, 1990 Chlodwig (BMG Germany). Performed in German/ K�lsch (Maat H��sch)

Live 1989-1993. The Piano Has Been Drinking (Gerd K�ster). November 15, 1993. Chlodwig (BMG/ Germany). Performed in German/ K�lsch (Maat H��sch)

Bo Ramsey And The Backsliders Live. Bo Ramsey And The Backsliders. June, 1995. Trailer

Tanz Um Den Heiligen Bim Bam. Gerd K�ster. October 30, 1995. Chlodwig (BMG). Performed in German/ K�lsch (Maat H��sch)

What's All These Blues About? Lex Romane & Joe Riillo. June, 1996. Self-released

Deep Blue. Peter Mulvey. 1997. Eastern Front Records

Whispers Of Time. Toxic Blues Again. December, 1999. Self-released

Wits End Sessions. Big Skin and Gary Knowlton. 2000. Self-released

Bukowski Waits For Us - Vol. 1. Michael Kiessling. September 25, 2000. Buschfunk (Germany)

Metropolis. Caravane de Ville. 2001. Mescal/ Sony

Saving All My Love For You (a tribute to Tom Waits). Claudia Bettinaglio. January, 2001. Taxim Records (Germany)

Wicked Grin. John Hammond. March 13, 2001. Emd/ Virgin

Dancing With St. Peter. Sign Of 4. October 7, 2002. Track Records

Kazik Staszewski "Piosenki Toma Waitsa". Kazik Staszewski. March, 2003. VIP Production / Luna Music: LUNCD 093-2 (in Polish)

In Cattivit�. Quintorigo. March, 2003. Universal Italia

Dancing With St. Peter. $ign Of 4. April, 2003. Track (Navarre)

Pornoshow - Laura Fedele Interpreta Tom Waits. Laura Fedele. May, 2003. Auditorium, AUD 00902 (in Italian)

God Is A Tom Waits Fan. The Box Spring Hogs. May 2004. Self-released demo

The Silverhearts Play Raindogs. The Silverhearts. October 5, 2005. Banbury Park Records

El Mundo Es Plano. Purple Sex Heads. 2006. Valve Records

Lucky To Be Alive. Various artists. May 19, 2006. Dossier Records (Germany) benefit sampler (performed by Carsten Klatte)

Keys to the Castle. Mare Edstrom. September 15, 2006. Spiritone Records

Guitar Screams Live. Jeff Kollman. October, 2006. Marmaduke

Steve Evans Quartet, 2 Sets. Steve Evans. December 4, 2006. Self-released

Blue Whisper. The Headhunters. April 3, 2007. Self-released (Italy)

<object height="344" width="425"></object> 

Waits performing "Clap Hands" taken from the Big Time concert video.

Recorded live at the Wiltern Theatre. Los Angeles/ USA. November 7/8, 1987.

PolyGram Video (Island Visual Arts)/ Fries Home Video (Fries Entertainment Inc.), 1988.

With: Michael Blair, Ralph Carney, Greg Cohen, Marc Ribot and Willy Schwarz.

Stage show concept: Kathleen Brennan & Tom Waits. Directed by Chris Blum.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Clap Hands

- Tom Waits (1985): "Well I just kinda embedded a nursery rhyme. Just a eh... You know, eh: "Wine, wine, why the goose drank wine/ the monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line/ The line broke the monkey got choked/ we all went to heaven in a little row boat" yeah. "Shine, shine, a Roosevelt dime/ All the way to Baltimore and running out of time." Same meter, same... I just tried to imagine all these eh... these guys going up the A-train. All the millionaires in tuxedos shoveling all the coal into the... y'know? Everyone's hanging out of the window, y'know? Just kind of a little... dark little... kind of a Ralph Steadman eh drawing." (Source: "Nightlines Interview" Nightlines on CBC Stereo (Canada) conducted by Michael Tearson. Date: New York. Late 1985)

- Tom Waits (1985): "As you get older, the things it was once important to have around you become less so, especially with children. New York is like a weapon, you live with all these contradictions and it's intense, sometimes unbearable." "It's a place where you think you should be doing more about what you see around you, a place where the deadline to get the picture of the bum outside your apartment becomes more important than his deadline to get a crust or a place to sleep, which is a real deadline." "You see things like the $400 shoe followed by the $500 ball gown stepping into the pool of blood from the bum that was killed the night before. That's what I was trying to get in that song 'Clap Hands' - "You can always find a millionaire to shovel all the coal" because millionaires like to go places that are downbeat, that aren't so chi chi." (Source: "Hard Rain". New Musical Express: Gavin Martin. October 19, 1985) 

- Wine, wine, why the goose drank wine. Quoting: American jump rope rhyme/ children's clapping song. Sometimes called "A Rubber Dolly".

- Version 1: A Rubber Dolly "My mommy told me If I was goodie That she would buy me A rubber dolly My auntie told her I kissed a soldier. Now she won't buy me A rubber dolly Ohhhhh...3..6..9.. The goose drank wine, The monkey spit tobacco, On the streetcar line, Line broke, The monkey got choked, And they all went to heaven in a little row boat. Clap-Clap!"

- Version 2: Untitled jump rope rhyme "Three, six, nine, the goose drank wine, The monkey chewed tobacco on the street car line The lion choked, the monkey croaked, And they all went to heaven in a little row boat, Clap-Clap! Clap-Clap!"

⁽²⁾ A millionaire to shovel all that coal:

- Tom Waits (1985): "New York is like a weapon, you live with all these contradictions and it's intense, sometimes unbearable... It's a place where you think you should be doing more about what you see around you, a place where the deadline to get the picture of the bum outside your apartment becomes more important than his deadline to get a crust or a place to sleep, which is a real deadline. You see things like the $ 400 shoe followed by the $500 ballgown stepping into the pool of blood from the bum that was killed the night before. That's what I was trying to get in that song 'Clap Hands' - "You can always find a millionaire to shovel all the coal" because millionair es like to go places that are downbeat, that aren't so chi chi." (Source: "Hard Rain". New Musical Express: Gavin Martin. October 19, 1985)

⁽³⁾ Palladin's hat: Palladin (Richard Boone) was a character in the 'Have Gun Will Travel' CBS television series in the '1950s/ 1960s. "The hit CBS series aired from 1957 to 1963 and was centered on Paladin, an educated knight-errant gunslinger who, upon payment of $1,000, would leave his well-appointed suite in San Francisco's Hotel Carlton to pursue whatever mission of mercy or justice a well-heeled client commissioned. A gourmet and connoisseur of fine wine, fine women, and Ming Dynasty artifacts, Paladin would quote Keats, Shelley, and Shakespeare with the same self-assurance that he brought to the subjugation of frontier evildoers. Unlike the archetypal western hero, Paladin wore black rather than white, complete with an ebony hat embellished by a band of silver conches and a holster embossed with a silver chess knight. He sported a villain's mustache and wasn't enamored of his horse; declining even to justify its existence with an appealing name. And he seemed to relish the adventures of the mind--his chess matches and library--far more than the frontier confrontations from which he drew his livelihood." (Source: "Have Gun Will Travel" by Peter Orlick. The Museum of Broadcast Communications � 2003 Copyright)

⁽⁴⁾ Knickerbocker: In the New York of the 1830's this was the popular name for the wealthy descendant of Dutch immigrants. At the time the expression gained popularity through the humoristic book "History of New York" (seen through the eyes of the main character Diedrich Knickebocker). Later on the name was also used for bibliophiles or "bookworms"

⁽⁵⁾ Roosevelt dime: U.S. coin denomination: 10-cent. All of the U.S. coins currently minted portray past U.S. Presidents. They are the Lincoln one-cent piece, adopted in 1909; the 25-cent piece portraying Washington, first minted in 1932; the five-cent piece honouring Jefferson, adopted in 1938; the Franklin D. Roosevelt dime, introduced in 1946; and the Kennedy half-dollar, which appeared in 1964. Coin denominations: 25-cent, 10-cent, five-cent, and one-cent pieces, are familiarly known as the quarter, dime, nickel, and penny

Cold Cold Ground (Live)

(Frank's Wild Years studio version, 1987)⁽¹⁾

Crest fallen⁽²⁾ sidekick⁽³⁾ in an old cafe

Never slept with a dream before he had to go away

There's a bell in the tower, Uncle Ray bought a round

Don't worry 'bout the army in the cold cold ground

Cold cold ground

Cold cold ground

Cold cold ground

Now don't be a cry baby when there's wood in the shed

There's a bird in the chimney and a stone in my bed

When the road's washed out, we pass the bottle around

And wait in the arms of the cold cold ground

The cold cold ground

The cold cold ground

The cold cold ground

There's a ribbon in the willow and a tire swing rope

And a briar patch of berries takin' over the slope

The cat'll sleep in the mailbox and we'll never go to town

Till we bury every dream in the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

The cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

Give me a Winchester rifle and a whole box of shells

Blow the roof off the goat barn, let it roll down the hill

The piano is firewood, Times Square is a dream

I find we'll lay down together in the cold cold ground

The cold cold ground

The cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

Call the cops on the Breedloves⁽⁴⁾, bring a Bible and a rope

And a whole box of Rebel⁽⁵⁾ and a bar of soap

Make a pile of trunk tires and burn 'em all down

Bring a dollar with you, baby, in the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

Take a weathervane rooster, throw rocks at his head

Stop talking to the neighbors until we all go dead

Beware of my temper and the dog that I've found

Break all the windows in the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1986-1987

Official release: Frank's Wild Years, Island Records Inc., 1987

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Further reading: Frank's Wild Years the play

Cold Cold Ground

(Big Time live version, 1988)⁽¹⁾

Well, Crest fallen⁽²⁾ sidekick⁽³⁾ in an old cafe

It slept with a dream before he had to go away

There's a bell in the tower, Uncle Ray bought a round

Don't worry 'bout the army in the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

Now don't be a cry baby when there's wood in the shed

There's a bird in the chimney and a stone in my bed

And the road's washed out, we pass the bottle around

And wait in the arms of the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

There's a ribbon in the willow and a tire swing rope

A briar patch of berries takin' over the slope

The cat'll sleep in the mailbox and we'll never go to town

Bury every dream in the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

Give me a Winchester rifle and a whole box of shells

Blow the roof off the goat barn, let it roll down the hill

The piano is firewood, Times Square is a dream

Lay down together in the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

Call the cops on the Breedloves⁽⁴⁾, bring a Bible and a rope

Whole box of Rebel⁽⁵⁾ and a bar of soap

Make a pile of trunk tires and burn 'em all down

Bring a dollar with you, baby, in the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

In the cold cold ground

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music, Admin. by Ackee Music, Inc. (ASCAP), � 1986-1987-1988-1998

Official release: "Big Time", � Island Visual Arts Inc. (P) Island Records Inc., 1988 &

"Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Further reading: Frank's Wild Years the play

Also included in Big Time movie (1988). Further reading: Big Time full story

Known covers:

Leave A Light On, John Gogo. August, 1997. Cd Cd's (Canada)

Miles On The Rail. Grievous Angels. September 8, 1998. Bloodshot Records, BS 038

Bukowski Waits For Us - Vol. 1. Michael Kiessling. September 25, 2000. Buschfunk (Germany)

Being Tom Waits. Billy`s Band. 2001. Self-released demo album (Russia)

Saving All My Love For You (a tribute to Tom Waits). Claudia Bettinaglio. January, 2001. Taxim Records (Germany)

The Greatest Story Ever Hula'd. Grabass Charlestons. October 31, 2003. No Idea Records

<object height="344" width="425"></object> 

Music video promoting: "Cold Cold Ground" taken from the Big Time concert video.

Recorded live at the Wiltern Theatre. Los Angeles/ USA. November 9, 1987.

PolyGram Video (Island Visual Arts)/ Fries Home Video (Fries Entertainment Inc.), 1988.

With: Michael Blair, Ralph Carney, Greg Cohen, Marc Ribot and Willy Schwarz.

Stage show concept: Kathleen Brennan & Tom Waits. Directed by Chris Blum. 

Video blocked in Germany by Universal Music Group (UMG).

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Cold Cold Ground:

- Tom Waits (1987): "That's the only real Marty Robbins-influenced number on there. Just kind of a hardening back to his earlier times; a romantic song thinking about home, and all that." (Source: "From the set of Ironweed, Tom Waits talks with Rip Rense". New York Post: Rip Rense. Early 1987)

- Intro from the movie 'Big Time' (1988): "It's good to be back in the land of wigs and novelties. Go ahead and laugh, but when you're in Indiana and you need wigs and novelties... You can hang it up, buddy! I looked everywhere. Woke up in a cold sweat, one thing on my mind I wanted a cigarette lighter as big as an encyclopedia You know those? You open the top and it goes CLINK And then WHOOM It's thrilling It's good to be in the Wilshire district, you know You know, close to everything Shopping and that type of thing All real important things with us Actually, Wilshire's a little snooty Western's very friendly So we're kind of... we're kind of... Would you say we're on the corner of Friendly and Snooty? The two missing seven dwarfs Friendly and Snooty All right, this is a song about a little guy who lives in a little house... " (Submitted by Ulf Berggren. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist, 2000). Refers to the Wiltern Theatre being on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue.

⁽²⁾ Crestfallen: To be or to look disheartened, saddened, depressed, like chapfallen and chopfallen, indicates the physical signs of a drooping spirit. A bird with a drooping crest is cast down in spirits, confidence and courage(Source: A dictionary of euphemisms, Neaman/ Silver)

⁽³⁾ Side-kick, sidekick n.: A partner; a close friend or comrade; a pal; a buddy (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽⁴⁾ Breedlove: A name of a family from the book "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

⁽⁵⁾ Whole box of Rebel: "Must say that I always thought "whole box of rebel and a bar of soap" was a reference to a case ("box") of Rebel Yell, a bourbon that is a favorite of Tom's close personal friend Keith Richards. In fact, I would not be at all surprised if Keith kept the company in business, and not through endorsements, if you know what I'm saying" (Submitted by Brendan Costello. Raindogs Listserv discussionlist. September, 2000)

Downtown Train

(Rain Dogs studio version, 1985)

Outside another yellow moon

Has punched a hole in the nighttime

Yes I climb through the window and down to the street

I'm shining like a new dime

The downtown trains are full with all those Brooklyn girls

They try so hard to break out of their little worlds

Well, you wave your hand and they scatter like crows

They have nothing that will ever capture your heart

They're just thorns without the rose

Be careful of them in the dark

Oh, if I was the one

You chose to be your only one

Oh yeah

Can't you hear me now

Can't you hear me now

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train

Every night it's just the same

You leave me lonely

Now I know your window and I know it's late

I know your stairs and your doorway

I walk down your street and past your gate

I stand by the light at the four way

You watch them as they fall

Oh baby, they all have heartattacks

They stay at the carnival but they'll never win you back

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train

Every night, every night it's just the same

Oh baby

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train

All of my dreams they fall like rain

Oh baby, on a downtown train

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train

Every night, every night it's just the same

Oh baby

Will I see you tonight

Oh, on a downtown train

All of my dreams just fall like rain

All on a downtown train

All on a downtown train

All on a downtown train

All on a downtown train

On a downtown train

Downtown train

Ooooh, baby

All on a downtown train

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1985-1998

Official release: "Rain Dogs", Island Records Inc., 1985 &

"Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998⁽¹⁾

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Downtown Train

(NME alternate mix, 1986)

Outside another yellow moon

has punched a hole in the nighttime, yes

I climb through the window and down to the street

I'm shining like a new dime

The downtown trains are full with all those Brooklyn girls

They try so hard to break out of their little worlds

Well, you wave your hand and they scatter like crows

They have nothing that will ever capture your heart

They're just thorns without the rose

Be careful of them in the dark

Oh, if I was the one

You chose to be your only one

Oh yeah

Can't you hear me now

Can't you hear me now

Will I see you tonight

on a downtown train

Every night, it's just the same

You leave me lonely, now

I know your window and I know it's late

I know your stairs and your doorway

I walk down your street and past your gate

I stand by the light at the four way

You watch them as they fall

Oh baby, they all have heartattacks

They stay at the carnival but they'll never win you back

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train

Every night, every night it's just the same

Oh baby

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train

All of my dreams they fall like rain

Oh baby, on a downtown train

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train

Every night, every night it's just the same

Oh baby

Will I see you tonight

Oh, on a downtown train

All of my dreams just fall like rain

All on a downtown train

All on a downtown train

All on a downtown train

On a downtown train

Downtown train

Ooooh, baby

All on a downtown train

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1985

Official release: NME's Big Four (New Musical Express), 1986

Given free with New Musical Express magazine (UK). 4-Track 7" EP

(exclusive NME version produced by Tom Waits, 1985)

Known covers:

Hometown Girl. Mary-Chapin Carpenter. February, 1987/ 1989. Sony Music (1987). Columbia (1989)

Never Enough. Patty Smyth. January, 1987. Sony Music

Road to Bayamon. Tom Russell. 1988. Philo Records

Storyteller (Complete Anthology). Rod Stewart. October, 1989. WEA/ Warner Bros. Records (25987)

Downtown Train. Rod Stewart. March, 1990. WEA/ Warner Bros

The Piano Has Been Drinking. The Piano Has been Drinking. April, 1990 Chlodwig (BMG Germany). Performed in German/ K�lsch

Acoustic. Everything But The Girl. June, 1992. WEA/ Atlantic

Nada Suena Igual. Los Hermanos Dalton. 1994. Dro East West (CD single and cassette)

If We Fall In Love Tonight. Rod Stewart. November, 1996. WEA/ Warner Bros

Greatest Hits. Patty Smyth. September, 1998. Sony Music

Krams - Das Letzte Konzert. Gerhard Gundermann. November 1, 1998. Buschfunk (Germany)

Live At Pastabilities. Gary Frenay And Arty Lenin. December 1, 1999. Vector

The Way I Feel. Erik Carlson. 2001. Self-released

Bring It On. Clelia Adams. 2001. Self-released (Australia: re-released in 2004)

Plays the Hits Made Famous by Rod Stewart. The Starsound Orchestra. February 13, 2001. Delta

The Great City. Touchwood. October, 2001. Self-released

The Very Best Of Rod Stewart. Rod Stewart. November, 2001. Warner Bros. Records

Sparks Of Passion - Rarities. The Rocking Chairs. 2002. River Nile Records

Train Songs. Spring String Quartet. 2002. CCn'C Records (instrumental)

Never Give Up Never Give In. Zoe McCulloch. 2003 Label: Mustang Music (instrumental)

Greetings From Hell - The Tom Waits Songbook, Hell Blues Choir. September, 2003. Tylden & Co (Norway)

Bukowski Waits For You. Michael Kiessling. June 14, 2004. Buschfunk (Germany)

The Silverhearts Play Raindogs. The Silverhearts. October 5, 2005. Banbury Park Records

Now Then & Forever: a salute to Rod Stewart. Dameon Styles. September, 2006. Razor Productions

Pengabrorsan. MoneyBrother. December 6, 2006. Hacka Skivindustri (Sweden). In Swedish: "T�get Som G�r In Till Stan"

The Blue Rose Christmas Party 2006. Blue Rose Rockestra. July 1, 2007. Blue Rose Records

First Class Fools. Blues Package. January 28, 2008. Moonsound Records

Scheißkerl. Shawue. September 19, 2008. death-online.com

<object height="344" width="425"></object> 

Promo video for "Downtown Train" (Island, 1985)

Directed by Jean Baptiste Mondino. October 18, 1985.

Video blocked in Germany by Universal Music Group (UMG).

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Downtown Train

- Michael Tearson (1985): "Downtown Train" Tom Waits: Yeah, that's kind of a pop song. Or an attempt at a pop song (laughs). You know? (sings: la-la -la-la-laaa). MT: It's got some other people playing on it. G.E. Smith from the Hall and Oats band, Tony Levin on bass... TW: Yeah... Ehhh... all nice guys. MT: How did you bring those particular players into this one? TW: Ehm... Well, they were all well paid... MT: That helps... TW: ... believe me... (laughs) A triple scale. All real nice guys. I tried that song with the other band and then... It just didn't make it. So you can't get the guys to play like this on some of the stuff. I just couldn't find the right guys. MT: It also gives the album a different kind of dimension there. TW: Mmm... MT: A little bit of a different sound. TW: Yeah a little bit. Yeah, that was hard to do cause I wasn't sure where I was going. It was kinda unfamiliar. (Source: "Nightlines Interview" Nightlines on CBC Stereo (Canada) conducted by Michael Tearson. Date: New York. Late 1985)

Earth Died Screaming

Rudy's on the midway and Jacob's in the hole

The monkey's on the ladder, the devil shovels coal

With crows as big as airplanes, the lion has three heads

And someone will eat the skin that he sheds

Well, the earth died screaming

While I lay dreaming

Well, the earth died screaming

While I lay dreaming

Dreaming of you

Well, hell doesn't want you and heaven is full⁽²⁾

Bring me some water, put it in this skull

I walk between the raindrops, I wait in Bug House⁽³⁾ Square

And the Army Ants, they leave nothin' but the bones⁽⁴⁾

And the earth died screaming

While I lay dreaming

Well, the earth died screaming

While I lay dreaming

Well, the earth died screaming

While I lay dreaming

Dreaming of you

There was thunder, there was lightning, then the stars went out

And the moon fell from the sky, it rained mackerel⁽⁵⁾, it rained trout

And the great day of wrath has come, and here's mud in your big red eye⁽⁶⁾

And the poker's in the fire and the locusts take the sky⁽⁷⁾

Well, the earth died screaming

While I lay dreaming

Well, the earth died screaming

While I lay dreaming

Well, the earth died screaming

While I lay dreaming

I lay dreaming of you (dreaming of you)

I'm dreaming of you (dreaming of you)

I'm dreaming of you (dreaming of you)

I'm dreaming of you (dreaming of you)

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), 1992-1998

Official release: "Bone Machine", Island Records Inc., 1992 &

"Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Known covers:

Bukowski Waits For Us - Vol. 2. Michael Kiessling. September 25, 2000. Buschfunk (Germany)

Mistress. Mistress. 2002. Rage of Achilles (re-released in 2005 by Earache/ SPV)

Shanghai Show. Neues Frankfurter Schulorchester (Anne B�renz and Frank Wolff). 2004. B�chergilde (Germany)

God Is A Tom Waits Fan. The Box Spring Hogs. May 2004. Self-released demo

Bangin' On The Table With An Old Tin Cup. Pascal Fricke. April 12, 2007. Self-released (Germany)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Earth Died Screaming:

- Tom Waits (1992): "I have some new categories," he says. "The end of the world, that's kind of a new category for me. Suicide notes. Murder. "The Earth Died Screaming" that's one of my favorites; it's got kind of an apocalyptic, I don't know, African thing." (Source: Composer, musician, performer, actor - Tom Waits is a Renaissance man whose musique noir captures the sound of the Dark Age. PULSE!. September, 1992. By: Derk Richardson)

- Tom Waits (1992): "On 'The Earth Died Screaming,' we got sticks and we tried them everywhere, I wanted to try and get some of that sound of pygmy field recordings that I love so much, and we couldn't get it. We tried different places in the room, different microphones, nothing. Different kinds of sticks, sizes of sticks. And then we went outside and just put a microphone on the asphalt and there it was, boom, 'cause we were outside. (Source: Composer, musician, performer, actor - Tom Waits is a Renaissance man whose musique noir captures the sound of the Dark Age. PULSE!. September, 1992 By: Derk Richardson)

- Tom Waits (1992): "I like the Earth Died Screaming. We have a pygmy percussion unit on there called the Boners that we formed during the making of it and we recorded outside. Took the microphone outside onto the dirt and put it up and had everybody play sticks on the sidewalk cause we couldn't get the same sound in the studio. It's too resonant. And most of those field recordings that you hear were all recorded outside." (Source: "KCRW-FM Radio: Evening Becomes Eclectic" Date: Santa Monica/ USA. October 9, 1992 (?))

- Tom Waits (1992): "It's [bible imagery in Bone Machine] my wife's fault. She's a lapsed Catholic. It's her fault. Yeah, there's some Biblical stuff on there. Earth Died Screaming - that's from the Book Of Rudy actually. He was one of the lost disciples. He was in, then he was out, finally he opened up a cafe." (Source: "KCRW-FM Radio: Evening Becomes Eclectic" Date: Santa Monica/ USA. October 9, 1992 (?))

- Tom Waits (1992): "Went through a lot of different changes. Tried to get this pygmy drum thing. A field recording of people playing sticks outdoors. We had to go outside for that. The poker's in the fire, and the locust takes the sky, and the earth died screaming. There's an old science fiction movie called "The Earth Died Screaming."* I've never seen the movie, I just heard the title. but I could work with that. I could do something with that. That's Les Claypool from Primus playing bass on it, and then there's bones, and then I put on the Tennessee Ernie Ford vocal. It's one of my favorites. It seems to march over the hill --- a bone parade marching over the hill." (Source: Bone Machine press kit, Rip Rense. Late 1992)

* "The Earth Dies Screaming" (1964, UK). B&W low budget science fiction/horror movie directed by Terence Fisher, written by Harry Spalding. Cast: Willard Parker - Jeff Nolan, Virginia Field - Peggy Taggett, Dennis Price - Quinn Taggett, Vanda Godsell - Violet Courtland, Thorley Walters - Edgar Otis, David Spenser - Mel, Anna Palk - Lorna

Tom Waits (1993): "[Les Claypool] came up and played on "The Earth Died Screaming." He was in between fishing trips at the time. He's great, he's got such an elastic approach to the instrument: a fretless, spastic, elastic, rubberized plasticene approach. He's like a fun house mirror. He can take and elongate his face. He's a real pawnshop weasel, endlessly in pawnshops. I think that's why he tours." (Source: "Tom Waits" Thrasher Magazine (US skate magazine), by Brian Brannon. Date: February, 1993)

Brian Brannon (1993): "On that song "The Earth Died Screaming," do you think the Earth is dying and we're just living in our own little dreams and ignoring it?" TW: "I guess, but I think the world is going to be here a whole lot longer after we're gone. I'm just waiting for the whole world to open up and swallow us all in, scrape us all off its back. I think the world is a living organism. When you stick a shovel in the ground, have you ever heard the earth go "Uhhgm?" And we're living on the decomposed remains of our ancestors, both animal, mineral and vegetable. So it is a living thing. I don't think it's going to die screaming, I think we're going to die screaming, in the swamp of time."(Source: "Tom Waits" Thrasher Magazine (US skate magazine), by Brian Brannon. Date: February, 1993)

Tom Waits (1993): Well, ultimately it [Chamberlin] was mass produced, and they were out there like Fender Rhodes, only on a much smaller scale. But they were marketed, advertised and sold in music stores, and they had displays, and everyone heard this name Chamberlain. JJ: Did you use it on 'Bone Machine'? TW: Only on two songs, on "The Earth Died Screaming" and "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me". (Source: Straight No Chaser [Spring 1993]. Interview by Jim Jarmusch)

Jim Jarmusch (1993): There's a lot of strange religious imagery in your house. But on a kind of grotesque level. TW: Yeah, "The Earth Died Screaming" was an attempt at some of that. "Rudy's on the midway, Jacob's in the hole," that's all from the Book of Rudy, which is one of the lost books of the Bible, the Book of Rudy. JJ: I'm not familiar with the Book of Rudy. TW: No, it's the uh, it's still being held in a library in Russia. Give 'em back, give 'em back! So it's great to go into a room with somebody you really love and have known for a long time. JJ: What songs on 'Bone Machine' did you collaborate with Kathleen on? TW: About half of 'em. I don't know which ones, they all seem mixed up to me. "I Don't Wanna Grow Up", "The Earth Died Screaming". "All Stripped Down" is kind of a religious song, 'cause you can't get into heaven until you're all stripped down." (Source: Straight No Chaser [Spring 1993]. Interview by Jim Jarmusch)

Tom Waits (1993): "It's part of an interior design. (pause) Hey, that pygmy stuff that you sent me really flipped me! It really got me listening, because we struggled for a couple days with getting the sound of a stick orchestra inside the studio for "Earth Died Screaming". We tried every configuration and position of the microphone, and finally I said, "Well, why don't we go outside, isn't that where all these recordings are made?" And five minutes later we had a mike up, we were hitting it, it was there. It was that simple." (Source: Straight No Chaser [Spring 1993]. Interview by Jim Jarmusch)

Tom Waits (1994): "Earth Died Screaming" is kind of a cyber, a cyber-drama, umm... And the moon fell from the sky It rained macarell, it rained trout And the great day of wrath has come And here's mud in your big red eye And the poker's in the fire...locusts take to the sky Umm...Revelations. It's all in Revelations. It's a heavy chapter. The "Earth Died Screaming" is a warning I guess, It's one of those songs... I haven't written a song like that really before. Like that, what I mean is kind of a, it has a certain, it is a warning...ha...like the end is near. The guys that I used to always love on downtown LA - Fifth and Main - with the briefcase with the speaker in it and the crummy little amplifier in it, going back and forth on a little wire screaming about the end of the world. I used to just stop and listen to those guys. Oh! To keep a crowd on a corner, now that, that is where you cut your teeth as a public speaker, is on a busy corner at like 5:00 on a Friday afternoon, downtown Los Angeles...and you're talking about Jesus. Now...Those were thrilling moments for me. I guess, umm, if you can make somebody wanna stop and listen, you can pretty much tell them anything, at least for the period of time it takes you to tell them, and then they're going to move on." (Source: Bone Machine Operator's Manual. November 30, 1994)

⁽²⁾ Heaven is full: Notice the same phrase being used in Dirt in The Ground, 1992: "Cause hell's boiling over and heaven is full."

⁽³⁾ Bughouse square:

- n. [20C] (US) any centre of urban life, typically Union Square, New York City, or Washington Square, Chicago where tramps, vagrants, the more or less deranged and any other eccentrics gather. (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9).

- Bughouse: n.: An insane asylum (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽⁴⁾ And the Army Ants, they leave nothin' but the bones: Later referred to in the spoken word piece Army Ants of Orphans (2006): "And as we discussed last semester, the Army Ants will leave nothing but your bones."

⁽⁵⁾ Mackerel, raining: Might refer to "A Mackerel Sky", a sky spotted like a mackerel. (Mackerel from the Latin, macula, a spot whence the French maquereau. German mackrele, Welsh macrell, etc.) (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. � 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd)

⁽⁶⁾ Big red eye: Big eye:

- n. (US) 1. [19C+] avarice, greed; thus have the big eye for, to covet. 2. [1950s] a stare, esp. when hostile or curious; thus big eye, to stare at (Source: Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000). 

- Have red-eye for/ red one's eye/ red eye after, to: phr. [20C] (W.1) to become obsessed with at first sight and thus to desire to possess immediately [the red eyes that are trad. associated with madness] (look with red-eye/ red-eye at, to) (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

- Here's mud to your eye! excl. [1910s+] a toast when drinking. [orig. milit. use; thus ref. ? to muddy trenches of W.W.1] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

⁽⁷⁾ Locusts take the sky: Apocalyptic vision. One of the 7 plagues of Egypt was the plague of locusts, they cover the land and devour all plants in sight (Submitted by Tricia Pierce. Raindogs Listserv discussionlist. September, 2000)

Frank's Wild Years

Frank⁽²⁾ settled down in the Valley⁽³⁾

and he hung his wild years on a nail that he drove through his wife's forehead

He sold used office furniture out there on San Fernando Road

and assumed a 30,000 dollar loan at fifteen and a quarter percent

put a down payment on a little two bedroom place

His wife was a spent piece of used jet trash

Made good Bloody Mary's

Kept her mouth shut most of the time

Had a little Chihuahua named Carlos⁽⁴⁾

that had some kind of skin disease

and was totally blind

They had a thoroughly modern kitchen

Self-cleaning oven, the whole bit

Frank drove a little sedan

They were so happy

One night Frank was on his way home from work

He stopped at the liquor store

Picked up a couple of Mickey's Big Mouths⁽⁵⁾

Drank 'em in the car, and with a Shell station

he got a gallon of gas in a can

Drove home, doused everything in the house

Torched it

Parked across the street laughing

Watching it burn

All Halloween orange and chimney red

Then Frank put on a top forty station

Got on the Hollywood Freeway

and headed North⁽⁶⁾

Never could stand that dog

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1983-1998

Official release: "Swordfishtrombones", Island Records Inc., 1983 &

"Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Also included in Big Time movie (1988). Further reading: Big Time full story

Known covers:

Un Giro Extra�o. La Chicana. September, 2000. Self-released ("Los a�os de joda de An�bal")

Laiv. Davide Van De Sfroos. June, 2002. (Tarantanius) Venus (in Italian)

Cancion Llorada. La Chicana. June, 2005. Galileo Music Communication (new version of "Los a�os de joda de An�bal")

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Listen to audio excerpt of Frank's Wild Years as performed in the theatre play Frank's Wild Years.

The Briar Street Theatre (Steppenwolf Theatre Company). Chicago/ USA. June 17, 1986.

Ripped from low resolution audience tape

<object height="344" width="425"></object> 

Waits performing "Frank's Wild Years" taken from the Big Time concert video.

Recorded live at the Warfield Theatre. San Francisco/ USA. November 5, 1987.

PolyGram Video (Island Visual Arts)/ Fries Home Video (Fries Entertainment Inc.), 1988.

With: Michael Blair, Ralph Carney, Greg Cohen, Marc Ribot and Willy Schwarz.

Stage show concept: Kathleen Brennan & Tom Waits. Directed by Chris Blum.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Franks Wild Years:

- Tom Waits (1983): "Charles Bukowski had a story that essentially was saying that it's the little things that drive men mad. It's not the big things. It's not World War II. It's the broken shoe lace when there is no time left that sends men completely out their minds. So this is kind of in that spirit. Little of a Ken Nordine flavour. Ronnie Barren alias Rev. Eather from New Orleans, Lousiana, on Hammond organ and Larry Taylor, originally with Canned Heat, on dog house. I think there is a little bit of Frank in everybody" (Source: "Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones". Island Promo interview, 1983)

- Tom Waits (1983): "Crumbling beauty, Frank is a little bit of that American dream gone straight to hell. Frank is more of a commentary on real estate brokers and insurance investigators and defense attorneys, That fear, that button down, 8 o'clock, the whistle blows, Bermuda shorts approach to life. I've never like chihuahuas" (Source: Unidentified Swordfishtrombones Interview (interviewer's tape). Date: 1983/ 1984)

- Tom Waits (1983): "Insurance investigator in California. Just eavesdropping. Added my own funhouse mirror" (Source: "Tom Waits For No Man". Melody Maker. Brian Case. October 29, 1983) 

- Tom Waits (1983): "Frank's Wild Years" He was a real estate agent that I met. It's a salute to the kind of guy l want to grow up to be some day "Frank hung his wild years on a nail he drove through his wife's forehead." It's a cathartic dream" (Source: "The Beat Goes On" Rock Bill magazine (USA). October 1983, by Kid Millions)

- Barney Hoskyns (1985): Did his wife die in the fire? TW: "No, I didn't want to give the impression that she went up in the smoke. She was at the beauty parlour." BH: But the dog. TW: "The dog, yeah, the dog may have..." (Source: "The Marlowe Of The Ivories". New Musical Express magazine. Barney Hoskyns. May 25, 1985)

- Pete Silverton (1986): "At the end of the song Frank burns the house down with the dog inside. Does he get charged with arson?" TW: "No, he goes to Vegas, ends up dreaming his way back home." PS: "And the dog's gone?" TW: "The dog has disappeared" (Source: "Waits Happening" Beat magazine 1986, by Pete Silverton)

- Gavin Martin (1985): How did 'Frank's Wild Years' turn into a musical? TW: "The song was like a fortune cookie, after I wrote it I thought what happened to this guy. Everybody knows guys like that, people you haven't seen in a long time, what happens to these people? What happened to John Chrisswicky? Oh Jesus, John's second wife left him and he went to work in a slaughterhouse for a while. Then he was in a rendering unit, of course his dad was always in the wine business that didn't interest John, I hear he ended up as a mercenary soldier." "People go through these permutations in different stages of their life, perceived by someone else it can look strange. I imagined Frank along those lines. Y'see my folks split up when I was kid and ... hey, look, let me give you $100 and I'll lie down on the couch over there, you take notes and see if we can't get to the bottom of this" (Source: "Hard Rain". New Musical Express: Gavin Martin. October 19, 1985) 

- Q (1986): Why is Franks Wild Years the song so short? TW: "Well I kind of said what I had on my mind and then decided to pack it up and go home. Some of it is inspired by Ken Nordine who's a real hero of mine. I love his thought process and his word jazz and his stories, they're like movies for the ears" (Source: "WXRT-FM Radio Interview" Date: Chicago. July 11, 1986)

- Mark Kemp (2006): "But just who was that Frank character? Was he named after Zappa? After all, the short narrative "Frank's Wild Years," from Swordfishtrombones, had been dedicated to Frankie Z. Tom Waits: "Gee, I don't know," Waits says. "My dad's name is Jesse Frank. It's just a name. It's just a guy I half made up. My dad left the family when I was young, so you know, that's pretty eventful. I may have been telling some of that story-'He got on the Hollywood Freeway and headed north/Never could stand that dog'-it was probably a reaction to that. I was rewriting the story and putting it in my own language" (Source: "Tom Waits: Weird Science". Harp magazine (USA). December 1, 2006. Telephone interview by Mark Kemp)

⁽²⁾ Frank: This fictional character gave rise to the theatre production: "Frank's Wild Years". For this production Frank was renamed Frank O'Brien, in stead of Frank Leroux. Waits' father's first name is Frank.

⁽³⁾ The Valley: San Fernando Valley Los Angeles, CA.

⁽⁴⁾ Had a little Chihuahua named Carlos: A very small dog of a breed originating in Mexico, having pointed ears and a smooth coat

⁽⁵⁾ Mickey's: American malt beer. Made by Hireman. Alcohol content: 6.0%. Its green-colored bottle and the name of "Mickey's" are popular among young people. Its big top is easy to open, and you can drink out of it as if you are drinking from a glass. Its characteristically strong flavor of malts is different from other American water-like beers.

⁽⁶⁾ Got on the Hollywood Freeway and headed North: 101 Hollywood Freeway Los Angeles, one of the busiest freeways in the US (US 101, SR 101). Generally a "freeway" is a grade separated divided highway designed for high speeds. Contrary to popular belief, a freeway is not a highway "free" from tolls. The "free" in freeway instead refers to a legislative definition passed by the California Legislature in 1939 which provided for a highway that would be free of encroaching properties and which provided for control of access. At the time this was very controversial since property owners next to the road could have no rights of direct access." Heading North on the Hollywood Freeway would mean one is driving in the direction of Bakersfield, Fresno, San Francisco

Good Old World (Waltz)

When I was a boy, the moon was a pearl

The sun was a yellow gold

But when I was a man, the wind blew cold

The hills were upside down

But now that I have gone from here

There's no place I'd rather be

Than to float my chances on the tide

Back in the good old world

On October's last, I'll fly back home

Rolling down winding way

And all I've got's a pocket full

Of flowers on my grave

But now summer is gone I remember it best

Back in the good old world

I remember when, she held my hand

And we walked home alone in the rain

How pretty her mouth, how soft her hair

Nothing can be the same

And there's a rose upon her breast

Where I long to lay my head

And her hair was so yellow, and the wine was so red

Back in the good old world

There's a rose upon her breast

Where I long to lay my head

And her hair was so yellow, and the wine is so red

Back in the good old world

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP) administered by Ackee Music Inc. (ASCAP), � 1991-1998

Official release: "Night On Earth (Original Soundtrack Recording)", Island Records Inc., 1992 & "Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Known covers:

Temptation. Holly Cole, 1995. Blue Note Records/ Capital (Japan/ USA)

It Happened One Night. Holly Cole. June, 1995. Blue Note Records (Japan) 

Innocent When You Dream. Brandon Bernstein. February 26, 2010. Jazz Collective Records

Back In The Good Old World (Night On Earth)

Hang On St. Christopher

Hang on St. Christopher⁽²⁾ through the smoke and the oil

Buckle down the rumble seat, let the radiator boil

Got an overhead downshift and a two dollar grill

Got an 85 cabin on an 85 hill

Hang on St. Christopher on the passenger side

Open it up, tonight the Devil can ride⁽³⁾

Hang on St. Christopher with a barrel house⁽⁴⁾ dog

Kick me up Mount Baldy⁽⁵⁾, throw me out in the fog

Tear a hole in the jack pot, drive a stake through his heart

Do a 100 on the grapevine⁽⁶⁾, do a jump on the start

Hang on St. Christopher, now don't let me go

Get me to Reno⁽⁷⁾ and bring it in low, yeah

Hang on St. Christopher with the hammer to the floor

Put a hi ball in the crank case⁽⁸⁾, nail a crow to the door

Get a bottle for the jockey⁽⁹⁾, gimme a 294

There's a 750 Norton⁽¹⁰⁾ bustin' down January's door

Hang on St. Christopher on the passenger side

Open it up, tonight the Devil can ride

Hang on St. Christopher and don't let me go

Get to me Reno, got to bring it in low

Put my baby on the flat car, got to burn down the caboose

Get 'em all jacked up⁽¹¹⁾ on whiskey, then we'll turn the mad dog loose

Hang on St. Christopher on the passenger side

Open it up, tonight the Devil can ride, yeah

Oh yeah.

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1986-1987-1998

Official release: "Frank's Wild Years", Island Records Inc., 1987 &

"Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998

Extended version and instrumental version released as 2-track 12" single

(P) & � 1987 Island Records Ltd � 1987 Jalma Music (ASCAP) Island 96750 ⁽¹⁰⁾

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Further reading: Frank's Wild Years the play

Also included in Big Time movie (1988). Further reading: Big Time full story

Known covers:

Freakshow. Bulletboys, 1991. Warner Bros. Records

A Spanner In The Works. Rod Stewart. June, 1995. Warner Bros. Records

Sound Of Someone Leaving. The Exiles. July 11, 2007. Non Zero Records (Australia)

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Listen to audio excerpt of Hang On St. Christopher as performed in the theatre play Frank's Wild Years.

The Briar Street Theatre (Steppenwolf Theatre Company). Chicago/ USA. June 17, 1986.

Ripped from low resolution audience tape

<object height="344" width="425"></object> 

Waits performing "Hang On St. Christopher" taken from the Big Time concert video.

Recorded live at the Warfield Theatre. San Francisco/ USA. November 5, 1987.

PolyGram Video (Island Visual Arts)/ Fries Home Video (Fries Entertainment Inc.), 1988.

With: Michael Blair, Ralph Carney, Greg Cohen, Marc Ribot and Willy Schwarz.

Stage show concept: Kathleen Brennan & Tom Waits. Directed by Chris Blum.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Hang On St. Christopher

- Tom Waits (1987): "Little Jamaican shoeshine music, there. Kind of a depraved Vaudeville train announcer. Ummm. . . It was really great to see Bill Schimmel, classically trained at Juilliard, on his hands and knees, playing the pedals of the B-3 organ with his fists. Working up a sweat. It was worth it just for that. Has kind of a little bit of a North African horn action going on --- that's Ralph Carney and Greg Cohen. I think it moves along rather well. Kind of mutant James Brown." (Source: "From the set of Ironweed, Tom Waits talks with Rip Rense". New York Post: Rip Rense. Early 1987)

- Tom Waits (1987): "But I just hate the way most equipment and instruments look on a stage... The wires and all that. These necessary, utility items make me feel like I'm in an emergency ward. I want to take the Leslie bass pedals and raise them up to a kitchen table so you can play them with your fists. Which is what we did in the studio on "Hang On St. Christopher." (Source: "Tom Waits Is Flying Upside Down (On Purpose)" Musician magazine (USA), by Mark Rowland. Date: Travelers Cafe/ Los Angeles. October, 1987)

⁽²⁾ Christopher, St.

- Catholic patron saint of travellers, or the religious medal dedicated to him. There are several legends about him including the one in which he was crossing a river when a child asked to be carried across. When Christopher put the child on his shoulders he found the child was unbelievably heavy. The child, according to the legend, was Christ carrying the weight of the whole world. His former holy day is July 25.The religious medal dedicated to this saint says: "Protect me" or "Protect us".

- Also mentioned in Tom Traubert's Blues: "Now I've lost my St. Christopher, now that I've kissed her."

⁽³⁾ Tonight the Devil can ride: Might refer to "Don't Let The Devil Ride", a traditional gospel also performed as blues tune. Performed by various artists (Sonny Treadway, Campbell Brothers, Oris Mays, Gospel Hummingbirds). Lyrics (Gospel Hummingbirds version): "Don't let the devil ride, Don't let the devil ride. If you let him ride, He might want to drive, Don't let the devil ride. Don't let the devil drive, Don't let the devil drive. If you let him drive, He'll throw you outside, Don't let the devil drive." (Thanks to Bart Bull, 2005 for pointing out this reference)

⁽⁴⁾ Barrel-house, barrelhouse n.: A brothel; orig. a combination cheap saloon, brothel, and rooming house (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽⁵⁾ Mount Baldy: A snow capped peak over Pomona Valley on the eastern edge of L.A. County in California (Submitted by Cheryl Dillis. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist. September, 2000)

⁽⁶⁾ Do a 100 on the grapevine: "The "Grapevine" is the nickname of a stretch of Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles, as it descends from the Tehachapi Mountains into the Central Valley, crossing the Tejon Pass. It's got a pretty steep grade and lots of curves, and the idea of going 100 mph on it is daunting. Waits in fact might be referring to the old Ridge Route, which traversed the Tejon Pass before the Interstate was built and likely was less robust a road" (Source: Jim O'Grady, March 2009).

⁽⁷⁾ Reno: also mentioned in: Better off without a wife, 1975: "Never been no Valentino, had a girl who lived in Reno.", Wrong side of the road, 1978: "And we'll drive all the way to Reno on the wrong side of the road."