---------- S--------

San Diego Serenade

I never saw the mornin' 'til I stayed up all night

I never saw the sunshine 'til you turned out the light

I never saw my hometown until I stayed away too long

I never heard the melody until I needed the song

I never saw the white line 'til I was leavin' you behind

I never knew I needed you until I was caught up in a bind now

I never spoke "I love you" 'til I cursed you in vain

I never felt my heart strings until I nearly went insane

I never saw the east coast until I moved to the west

I never saw the moonlight until it shone off of your breast

I never saw your heart until someone tried to steal, tried to steal it away

I never saw your tears until they rolled down your face

I never saw the mornin' 'til I stayed up all night

I never saw the sunshine 'til you turned out your love light, baby

I never saw my hometown 'til I stayed away too long

I never heard the melody until I needed the song

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), � 1974⁽¹⁾

Official release: "The Heart Of Saturday Night", Elektra/ Asylum Records, 1974

"Anthology Of Tom Waits", WEA/ Elektra, 1984

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

Known covers:

Something New. Barbie Benton, 1976. Playboy Records, PB-411

Staying Power/ San Diego Serenade. Barbie Benton, 1976. Trio/ Playboy Records, PB-203 (7" single w. tracks from "Something New", 1976)

Sweet Surprise. Eric Andersen. 1976. Arista Records

Right Side Up. Ralph McTell. 1976. Warner Bros K56296 (re-released in 1982 and 2001)

It Makes Me Feel Good. Cilla Black. March 1976. EMI Records

Lost And Found. Keith Carradine. 1978. Asylum 6E114 (re-released in 2004: "I'm Easy/ Lost & Found")

Get It Out In The Open. Freddy Henry. 1979. Cloud Records (Clouds 8809)

Take Heart. Juice Newton. 1979. Capitol ST-12000

Weather The Storm. Ralph McTell. 1982. Mays TG002 (LP - Reissue of Right Side Up. 1976)

Out Of The Dark. Claudia Schmidt. January, 1985. Flying Fish Records (re-released in 1993)

Love Comes To The Simple Heart. Dean Stevens. 1985. Vulcano Records

Yo Frankie. Dion (DiMucci). January, 1989. Bmg Special Prod.

Late Night Grande Hotel, Nanci Griffith, 1991. MCA Records, MCAD-10306

I Got Thunder. Baby Jane Dexter. January, 1993. Elba Records (re-released in 1998)

Blues Britannia. Various artists. 1993. Bridge Recording, various re-releases until 2004 (performed by Cliff Aungier)

Covers. Thomas Lang. 1994. Portazul Nippon Columbia

Horizon. Big Sky (Steve Louw). 1995. Polygram BPCD 1 (South-Africa)

Versions. Thomas Lang. 1996. Telegraph Records

Editions. Thomas Lang. 1997. Portazul Nippon Columbia

The Full Spectrum Of Sound. Sch�tze & St�ckle. 1997. Self-released (Germany)

In The Middle Of A Life. George Grove. June 1998. Folk Era Records

Bare Bones. David Gogo. January 2000. Ragged Pup Records

Nach mir die Sintflut - Ambros singt Waits. Wolfgang Ambros. October 9, 2000. Ariol/ Gig Records 74321 797002 (in German: "Heimatserenade")

Good Vibrations. Kate Dimbleby. October 10, 2000. Black Box Jazz

Old Friends. Marcus Dagan. November 1, 2000. Self-released

Right Side Up. Ralph McTell. November 2001. Leola TPGCD19 (CD version of the 1976 album)

This Is Me. Lynne Rothrock. November 29, 2002. Self-released

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

In An Otherwise Ordinary World. Eli Emily. 2003. NoVo Records

Long Way Down. Jason Myles Goss. May, 2003. Self-released

It's Not The Moon. Sara Leib. June, 2003. Panfer Records

Chamber Music. Norma Winstone and Klaus Gesing. 2004. Universal/ Emarcy

I'm Easy/ Lost And Found. Keith Carradine. April 6. 2004. Collector's Choice (originally released by Asylum in 1978 on "Lost and Found")

Slide It On Over. Les Wilson and The Mighty Housrockers. October, 2004. Self-released

Music For Torching. Reflectiostack. October, 2005. Self-released

And Then I Did. Jodie Borl�. November 2005. Self-released (Canada)

Run All Night. Rachael Cantu. February 7, 2006. Self-released

This Time. Michael Stern. August 2, 2006. Self-released

The Perfect Face. Arthur Dodge. March 20, 2007. Remedy Records

Real Emotional. Curtis Stigers. March 26, 2007. Universal

In Order. John Spendelow. November 18, 2007. Self-released

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ San Diego Serenade:

- Tom Waits (1973): "Writing on the piano is different than writing on guitar, you get different feels, in fact a lot of times you you write a tune with some other artist in mind which is, in fact, I got one of those right here, I kind of had Ray Charles in mind, it's called: San Diego Serenade." Interviewer - You wrote that with Ray Charles in mind? TW: " Yeah, I kind of thought he'd like to do it, I don't know. I don't know him, I don't talk to him." (Source: Folkscene 1973, with Howard and Roz Larman (KPFK-FM 90.7). Date: Los Angeles/ USA. August 12, 1973)

- Tom Waits (1977): "That song was about a girl I knew once," Waits said about "San Diego Serenade," one of his few compositions that displays any sort of personal reflection. "I was crazy about her," he said. "So was her husband. But that went the way of all flesh." (Source: "Waits: 'A Rumor In My Spare Time'" The Dallas Morning News (USA). November 13, 1977 by Pete Oppel)

Saving All My Love For You

(Foreign Affairs sessions alternate take, 1977)⁽¹⁾

[Studio chat and count-in:]

We get rolling and make some mistakes,

you can just keep going cause it's almost Friday night (?)

Three... four...

It's too early for the circus, it's too late for the bars

Everyone's sleepin' but the paperboys

And no one in this town is makin' any noise

But the dogs and the milkmen and me

The girls around here all look like Cadillacs

And no one likes a stranger here

I'd come home but I'm afraid that you won't take me back

But I'd trade off everything just to have you near

I know I'm irresponsible and I don't behave

And I ruin everything that I do

And I'll probably get arrested when I'm in my grave

But I'll be savin' all my love for you

I paid fifteen dollars for a prostitute

With too much makeup and a broken shoe

But her eyes were just a counterfeit, she tried to gyp me out of it

But you know that I'm still in love with you

Don't listen to the rumors that you hear about me

Cause I ain't half as bad as they make me out to be

Well, I may lose my mind but baby, can't you see

That I'll be savin' all my love for you

Written by: Tom Waits

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

Official release: Heartattack And Vine, Elektra Entertainment/ WEA Entertainment Inc., 1980

(Transcribed by Ulf Berggren. Listserv Raindogs discussionlist. July, 2000)

Saving All My Love For You

(Heartattack And Vine studio version, 1980)⁽¹⁾

It's too early for the circus, it's too late for the bars

Everyone's sleepin' but the paperboys

And no one in this town is makin' any noise

But the dogs and the milkmen and me

The girls around here all look like Cadillacs

And no one likes a stranger here

I'd come home but I'm afraid that you won't take me back

But I'd trade off everything just to have you near

I know I'm irresponsible and I don't behave

And I ruin everything that I do

And I'll probably get arrested when I'm in my grave

But I'll be savin' all my love for you

I paid fifteen dollars for a prostitute

With too much makeup and a broken shoe

But her eyes were just a counterfeit, she tried to gyp me out of it

But you know that I'm still in love with you

Don't listen to the rumors that you hear about me

Cause I ain't half as bad as they make me out to be

Well, I may lose my mind but baby, can't you see

That I'll be savin' all my love for you

Written by: Tom Waits

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

Official release: Heartattack And Vine, Elektra Entertainment/ WEA Entertainment Inc., 1980

Known covers:

For The City. Johnny Hooper. January, 1994. Townsend Records

Saving All My Love For You (a tribute to Tom Waits). Claudia Bettinaglio. January, 2001. Taxim Records (Germany)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Tom Waits (1980): "That's an old song, about four years old. It was scratched off of another album, I think Foreign Affairs. SP: There's a line in that tune about a prostitute with too much makeup and a broken shoe. On your last LP, Blue Valentine, the tune "$29.00" talks about another lady of the night who had a broken shoe... TW: (laughs) Same girl!" (Source: "Heartattack and Vine". Us promo pack: Stephen Peeples. September 4, 1980)

Scarecrow

Buzzards drive a crooked sky

Make a junkie's promise in a courier's eye

And a bankrupt corduroy wad on the thigh

A strangled acre by a thirsty stream

A crucified body, just a three day stubble

On the chin of a nightmare stampede

And tomorrow'll be hirin' a two dollar gun

And I tell you that someone's gonna pay

Cause when the weathervane's sleeping

And the moon turns its back

And crawl on the belly on the railroad tracks

And keep well hidden till the porchlights dim

And pump sixteen shells in the belly of a scarecrow⁽¹⁾

And blame it all on him

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: [?], � 1977

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

Recorded during the 'Foreign Affairs' sessions, July through August, 1977

Known covers:

None

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Listen to audio excerpt of Scarecrow

Foreign Affairs sessions, 1977.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Scarecrow was recorded during the "Foreign Affairs" sessions in 1977. It was never officially released. Waits did however recycle parts of the song for "16 Shells From A Thirty Ought Six" (Swordfishtrombones, 1983) and "Potter's Field" (Foreign Affairs, 1977)

Sea Of Love

Come with me, my love

To the sea, the sea of love

I wanna tell you how much I love you

But I'm drowning in a sea of love

Do you remember the night we met?

That's the night I knew you were my pet

I wanna tell you how much I love you

But I'm drowning in a sea of love

Come with me to the sea, yeah

Do you remember the night we met?

Well, that's the night I just knew you were my pet

I wanna tell you how much I love you

But I'm down here in the sea of love

Come with me to the sea, yeah

Oh and do you remember the night we met?

That's the night I just knew you were my pet

I wanna tell you how much I love you

Goin' down here in the sea of love

Come with me to the sea, oh yeah

Do you remember the night we met?

That's the night I just knew you were my pet

I wanna tell you how much I love you

But I'm down here in the sea of love

Oh come with me to the sea, oh yeah

Come with me, my love

To the sea, the sea of love

I wanna tell you how much I love you

But I'm down here in the sea of love

Oh come with me to the sea, oh yeah

Written by: John Philip Baptiste (aka. Phil Phillips) and George Khoury, � 1959⁽¹⁾

Published by: Forth Knox Music, Inc. (BMI)/ Tek Publishing (BMI), Trio Music Co. Inc/ Windswept Holdings , LLC (BMI)

Original recording by Phil Phillips and the Twilights, 1959.

Official release (Waits version): Sea of Love (original motion picture soundtrack). Various artists. November, 1989. Label: Polygram (mercury 842 170-2)

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

Known covers:

N/A

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Covering: "Sea Of Love" written by John Philip Baptiste (aka. Phil Phillips) and George Khoury, 1959. Original recording by Phil Phillips and the Twilights, 1959: "...Come with me, my love. To the sea, the sea of love. I want to tell you how much I love you. Do you remember when we met? That's the day I knew you were my pet. I want to tell you how much I love you. Come with me to the sea of love. Do you remember when we met? That's the day I knew you were my pet. I want to tell you how much I love you. Come with me to the sea of love. Do you remember when we met? That's the day I knew you were my pet. I want to tell you how much I love you".

Semi Suite

[One, two, three, four]

Well, you hate those diesels rollin'

Those Friday nights out bowlin'

When he's off for a twelve-hour lay over night

You wish you had a dollar

For every time he hollered

That he's leavin' and he's never comin' back

But the curtain-laced billow

And his hands on your pillow

And his trousers are hangin' on the chair

You're lyin' through your pain, babe

But you're gonna tell him he's your man

And you ain't got the courage to leave

He tells you that you're on his mind

You're the only one he's ever gonna find that's

Kinda special, and understands his complicated soul

But the only place a man can breathe

And collect his thoughts is

Midnight and flyin' away on the road

But you've packed and unpacked

So many times you've lost track

And the steam heat is drippin' off the walls

But when you hear his engines

You're lookin' through the window in the kitchen and you know

You're always gonna be there when he calls

Cause he's a truck drivin' man, stoppin' when he can

He's a truck drivin' man, stoppin' when he can

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), � 1974

Official release: The Heart Of Saturday Night, Elektra/ Asylum Records, 1974

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Live intro from Tokyo, 1977: "I'd like to do a little American soap opera for you tonight It's called 'The Days of Our Lives' And as the world is turning on you You're falling on the edge of night In a small little town outside of Albuquerque I'll be there with bells on, baby You are my sunshine" (Transcription by Ulf Berggren. Listserv Raindogs discussionlist. July, 2000)

Shake It

Strip Poker Motel

Got a small blue tail

Hot ice, cold cash

I never been no good at staying out of jail

Wheel spin, roulette

Who's giving, don't get

Ripped shirt, black eye

Tuxedo, bow tie

Dark sound, straight road

Get lost, get loaded

Enlisted men, off duty

Stolen clouds, dark beauty

Cold gun, wild rose

Night clerk, door closed

Lie down baby 

Your love is a faucet

Called China, cell phone

Chun King, not home

You know I feel like a preacher waving a gun around⁽¹⁾

Shake it, shake it. shake it baby!

Shake it, shake it, shake it now

Shake it, shake it, shake it baby

Shake it, shake it, shake it now

Shake it, shake it, shake it baby

Shake it, shake it, shake it now

Outside, it's damp

Put a towel on that lamp

You look hot in this light

I can love you all night

Shoes off, hair down

Got a pink nightgown

Mike Tyson, KO'ed

On the wild, blue road

Small town, straight road

That rooster, done crowed

Flat tire, homemade cross

You know I feel like a preacher waving a gun around

Shake it, shake it, shake it baby!

Shake it, shake it, shake it now

Shake it. shake it, shake it baby

Shake it, shake it, shake it now

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 2004

Official release: Real Gone, (P) & � 2004 Anti Inc.

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Like a preacher waving a gun around: this line was inspired by American comedian Bill Hicks (1961-1994)

- Tom Waits (1999): "Bill Hicks, blowtorch, excavator, truthsayer and brain specialist, like a reverend waving a gun around. Pay attention to Rant in E Minor, it is a major work, as important as Lenny Bruce's. He will correct your vision. His life was cut short by cancer, though he did leave his tools here. Others will drive on the road he built. Long may his records rant even though he can't." (Source: "Tom Waits, Artist Choice". Hear Music Artist's Choice October, 1999. Re-printed in "It's Perfect Madness". The Observer (UK). March 20, 2005)

- Tom Waits (2005): "Als ich diese Zeile, "I feel like a preacher waving a gun around", geschrieben habe, dachte ich an Bill Hicks. Das ist vermutlich der wichtigste amerikanische Komiker seit Lenny Bruce. Er ist 1994 gestorben. Er war sehr lustig und hatte einen sehr dunklen und verdrehten Humor. Bill Hicks ist dieser Prediger. Oder Jerry Lee Lewis - auch so ein Waffen wedelnder Prediger." Transl.: "When I wrote that line "I feel like a preacher waving a gun around" I was thinking of Bill Hicks. He's probably the most important comedian since Lenny Bruce. He died in 1994. He was very funny and had a dark and twisted humour. Bill Hicks is this preacher. Or Jerry Lee Lewis - another gun waving preacher." (Source: "Tom Waits: Familienmensch". WOM magazine (Germany). October, 2004. By Michael Ernst)

Shiny Things

(Woyzeck theatre version, 2000)⁽¹⁾

The things a crow puts in his nest

They are always things he finds that shine best

Somehow they'll find a shiny dime, a silver twine

From a Valentine

The crows all bring them shiny things

Leave me alone you big ol' Moon

the light you cast is just a liar

You're like the crows, 'cos if it glows

You're dressed to go, you guessed I know

You'll always cling to shiny things

Well, I'm not dancing here tonight

But things are bound to turn around

Though the only I want that shines is to be king

here in your eyes

To be your only shiny thing

As published in the Woyzeck songbook (Betty Nansen Teatret, 2000)

Written by: Tom Waits/ Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Publishing (ASCAP), � 2000

Further reading: Woyzeck Full Story

Shiny Things

(Orphans studio version, 2006)

The things a crow puts in his nest

They are always things he finds that shine best

Somehow he'll find

a shiny dime

a silver twine

from a Valentine

The crows all bring

them shiny things

Leave me alone you big ol' moon

the light you cast is just a liar

You're like the crows

'cos if it glows

you're dressed to go

you guessed I know

You'll always bring

 them shiny things

Well, I'm not dancing here tonight

But things are bound to turn around

The only thing

I want that shines

is to be king

there in your eyes

To be your only

shiny thing

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 2000/ 2006

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

Further reading: Woyzeck Full Story

Known covers:

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

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Listen to audio excerpt of Shiny Things as performed in the theatre play Woyzeck.

Sung by Benjamin Boe Rasmussen (as Karl).

Betty Nansen theatre. Copenhagen/ Denmark. November 20, 2000.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Sung by Karl the fool in act 2, scene 5.

Shiver Me Timbers

(Early demo version, 1971)

I'm leavin' my fam'ly and leavin' my friends

My body's at home and my heart's in the wind

Where the clouds are like headlines on a new front page sky

My tears are salt water and the moon's full and high

And I know Martin Eden⁽²⁾ is gonna be proud of me

And many before me who've been called by the sea

To be up in the crow's nest and singin' my say

And shiver me timbers I'm a-sailin' away

The fog's liftin' and the sand's shiftin' and I'm driftin' on out

And Ol' Captain Ahab⁽³⁾ he ain't got nothin' on me

So come on and swallow me, don't follow me I travel alone

Blue water's⁽⁴⁾ my daughter and I'm skipping like a stone

So please call my missus, tell her not to cry

My goodbye is written by the moon in the sky

Hey, and nobody knows me I can't fathom my stayin'

And shiver me timbers I'm a-sailin' away

And the fog's liftin' and the sand's shiftin' and I'm driftin' on out

Ol' Captain Ahab he ain't got nothin' on me

So come on and swallow me, don't follow me I travel alone

Blue water's my daughter and I'm skipping like a stone

And I'm leavin' my family leavin' my friends

My body's at home but my heart's in the wind

where the clouds are like headlines on a new front page sky

And shiver me timbers I'm a-sailin' away

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Warner Chappell Music Ltd., 1971-1992 & Bizarre/ Straight Records, 1992

Official release: "The Early Years 2". Issued under licence from Bizarre/ Straight Records by Edsel Records, 1992

Recorded July - December 1971, Los Angeles, CA

(Not authorized by Tom Waits)

Shiver Me Timbers

(The Heart Of Saturday Night studio version, 1974)

I'm leavin' my family, I'm leavin' all my friends

My body's at home, but my heart's in the wind

Where the clouds are like headlines on a new front page sky

My tears are salt water, and the moon's full and high

And I know Martin Eden's⁽²⁾ gonna be proud of me now

And many before me, who've been called by the sea

To be up in the crow's nest, and singin' my say

Shiver me timbers, cause I'm a-sailin' away

And the fog's liftin', and the sand's shiftin', and I'm driftin' on out

Ol' Captain Ahab⁽³⁾, he ain't got nothin' on me now

So swallow me, don't follow me, I'm travellin' alone

Blue water's⁽⁴⁾ my daughter, and I'm gonna skip like a stone

So please call my missus, gotta tell her not to cry now

Cause my goodbye is written by the moon in the sky

Hey, and nobody knows me, I can't fathom my stayin'

And shiver me timbers, cause I'm a-sailin' away

And the fog's liftin', and the sand's shiftin', and I'm driftin' on out

And ol' Captain Ahab, he ain't got nothin' on me

So come and swallow me, follow me, I'm travellin' alone

Blue water's my daughter, I'm gonna skip like a stone

And I'm leavin' my family, I'm leavin' all my friends

My body's at home, but my heart's in the wind

Where the clouds are like headlines upon a new front page sky

And shiver me timbers, cause I'm a-sailin' away

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), � 1974

Official release: The Heart Of Saturday Night, Elektra/ Asylum Records, 1974

Known covers:

Songs For The New Depression. Bette Midler, 1976. Atlantic

Live At Last. Bette Midler, 1977. Atlantic

Divine Madness. Bette Midler, 1980. Atlantic

Coming To My Own. John Lone. 1990. Japanese issue WPCL-187

Experience The Divine. Bette Midler, 1993. Atlantic (re-released in 1997)

Mister No Good. Ole Friis. September 21, 1994. Poul Hansen/ Kick Records (Denmark)

Live At The Troubadour. Glenn Yarbrough. October 31, 1994. Folk Era Records (recorded live in 1978)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Singer! Tom Lewis. 1995. Borealis (Canada)

I Could Have Been A Sailor. Glenn Yarbrough. May 3, 1995. Folk Era Records

Rockall. The House Band. June, 1996. Green Linnet Records GLCD 1174

Experience The Divine. Bette Midler, 1997 (Canadian re-release of the 1993 original)

Street Songs, Jazzy Tunes & Down Home Blues. Richard Ray Farrell. 1998. Stormy Monday Records MO - 80035 (Germany)

Listen to my Heart. Laurie Beechman. 1999. Excelsior LB CD001; DRG 5216 (medley w. "Sail Away")

Random White Boy. Kirk Detweiler. May 1999. Dancing Bull Music

Blessed Are The Sheepherders. Zen For Primates. October, 1999. Bummer Tent Records

Nach mir die Sintflut - Ambros singt Waits. Wolfgang Ambros. October 9, 2000. Ariol/ Gig Records 74321 797002 (in German: "Nach mir die Sintflut")

The Day The Tall Ships Came. Glenn Yarbrough & The Shaw Brothers. November, 2000. Folk Era Records

Hawaiki Nui - 'Something to Say', Pomaika'i and Friends. 19 December, 2000 Hawaiki Nui Entertainment Group

The Song Is Mine. John DePalma. March 12, 2002. LML Music

Half Cocked And Fully Loaded. Front Porch Swingin Liquor Pigs. May 2002. Neckless Records

Under The Influence - The songs of Tom Waits. Barry Charles. 2003. Tara Hall Productions (Australia)

Paper Heart. Diane Jarvi. 2004. Lupine Records

Let Me Be Strong. Valerie Sneade. September 21, 2004. Turning Leaf Records

The Holly Cole Collection - Vol. 1. Holly Cole. October 12, 2004. Magada International (Japanese release)

Seemannsbraut Ist Die See. Angelika Thomas & Anna Sch�fer. November 8, 2004. Bear Family Records

Off the Cuff. Troubadours Of Divine Bliss. April, 2005. Self-released

Song Ablaze. Tommy O'Sullivan. May 17, 2006. Self-released

Into The Midnight Waltz. Susan Welch. October 4, 2005. Self-released

Songs For The Jesse. Kirk Detweiler & Friends. January 6, 2007. Dancing Bull Music (same version as on Random White Boy, 1999)

Bein' Green. Paul L. Martin. June 10, 2007. MMP Ltd.

My Heart´s In The Wind. Deborah Shulman. November 13, 2007. Self-released

All Done And Dusted. Alexa Rodrian. September 1, 2008. NRW Records

Finding Home. Rena Strober. June 24, 2008. Self-released

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

Covers. James Taylor. February 2, 2009. UMTV (UK)

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

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Shiver me timbers: "This is one of those supposedly nautical expressions that seem to be better known through a couple of appearances in fiction than by any actual sailors' usage. It's an exclamation that may allude to a ship striking some rock or other obstacle so hard that her timbers shiver, or shake, so implying a calamity has occurred. It is first recorded as being used by Captain Frederick Marryat in Jacob Faithful in 1835: "I won't thrash you Tom. Shiver my timbers if I do". It has gained a firm place in the language because almost fifty years later Robert Louis Stevenson found it to be just the kind of old-salt saying that fitted the character of Long John Silver in Treasure Island: "Cross me, and you'll go where many a good man's gone before you ... some to the yard-arm, shiver my timbers, and some by the board, and all to feed the fishes". Since then, it's mainly been the preserve of second-rate seafaring yarns." (Source: World Wide Words is copyright � Michael Quinion, 1996-2004)

⁽²⁾ Martin Eden: Character from the same titled book by Jack London from 1909

⁽³⁾ Ahab: Also Achab. Main character in "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville.

⁽⁴⁾ Blue water: The open ocean (Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, � 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.)

Shore Leave

Well, with buck shot⁽²⁾ eyes and a purple heart⁽³⁾

I rolled down the national stroll⁽⁴⁾

And with a big fat paycheck strapped to my hip-sack

And a shore leave wristwatch underneath my sleeve

In a Hong Kong drizzle⁽⁵⁾ on Cuban heels⁽⁶⁾

I rowed down the gutter to the Blood Bank

And I'd left all my papers on the Ticonderoga⁽⁷⁾

And I was in bad need of a shave

I slopped at the corner on cold chow mein

And shot billiards with a midget until the rain stopped

And I bought a long sleeved shirt with horses on the front

And some gum and a lighter and a knife

And a new deck of cards with girls on the back

And I sat down and wrote a letter to my wife

And I said, baby, I'm so far away from home

And I miss my baby so

I can't make it by myself

I love you so

And I was pacing⁽⁸⁾ myself, trying to make it all last

Squeezing all the life out of a lousy two-day pass

And I had a cold one⁽⁹⁾ at the Dragon with some Filipino floor show

And I talked baseball with a lieutenant over a Singapore Sling⁽¹⁰⁾

And I wondered how the same moon outside over this Chinatown fair

Could look down on Illinois and find you there⁽¹¹⁾

I know I love you, baby

And I'm so far away from home

I'm so far away from home

Yeah, I miss my baby so

I can't make it by myself

I love you so

Shore Leave, shore leave, shore leave, shore leave, shore leave

shore Leave, shore leave, shore leave, shore leave, shore leave

shore Leave, shore leave, shore leave, shore leave, shore leave

shore Leave, shore leave

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:

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

Under The Influence - The songs of Tom Waits. Barry Charles. 2003. Tara Hall Productions (Australia)

Blue Whisper. The Headhunters. April 3, 2007. Self-released (Italy)

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

Waits performing "Shore Leave" 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.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Shore Leave

- Tom Waits (1983): "It's kind of an oriental Bobby "Blue" Bland approach. Musically it's essentially very simple. It's a minor blues. I tried to add some musical sound effects with the assistance of a low trombone to five a feeling of a bus going by, and metal aunglongs the sound of tin cans in the wind, or rice on the bass drum to give a feeling of the waves hitting the shore. Just to capture the mood more than anything, of a marching marine or whatever walking down the wet street in Hong Kong and missing his wife back home. I worked in a restaurant in a sailor town for a long time. It's Porkcola/ National City. So, it was something I saw every night. It was next to a tattoo parlor and a country & western dance hall and a Mexican movie theater. So I imagined this Chinese pinwheel in a fireworks display spinning, spinning and turning and then slowing down. As it slowed down it dislodged into a windmill in Illinois. That same of... and then looked down on us. A home. Where a woman is sitting in the living room sleeping on chairs with the television on. When he's having eggs at some grumulant (?) joint, you know, thousands of miles away"(Source: "Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones". Island Promo interview, 1983)

- Tom Waits (1983): "Some of the stuff on Shore Leave is like sound effects, the low trombone is like a bus going by and I got a little more adventurous, I'm still a little timid about it but melody is what really hits me first, melody is the first thing that seduces me" (Source: Unidentified Swordfishtrombones Interview (interviewer's tape). Date: 1983/ 1984)

- Tom Waits (1983): "Shore Leave is a Chief Botswain's mate's nightmare with a bottle of 10 High and a black eye" (Source: "The Beat Goes On" Rock Bill magazine (USA). October 1983, by Kid Millions)

⁽²⁾ Buckshot: n.: 

- A large lead shot for shotgun shells, used especially in hunting big game (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin - Third Edition) 

- One variation of the little metal pellets that fill a shotgun shell. An individual piece of buckshot is larger and more damaging than some other types, like birdshot. Larger pellets for larger animals (Submitted by Russell Fischer. Raindogs Listserv discussionlist. September, 2000).

- Waits might be playing with the common phrase "bloodshot eyes":

- Bloodshot: blood�shot adj. Red and inflamed as a result of locally congested blood vessels: bloodshot eyes (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company) 

 ⁽³⁾ Purple heart

- n. [1960s] (drugs) 1. amphetamines 2. (rarely) barbituates. (the colour of the pills) (Source: Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000)

- Any barbituate or mixture of a barbituate and morphine used as a narcotic by addicts, esp. a Nembutal (trademark) capsule; a "goof ball" or "yellow jacket" Orig. W.W.II Army addict use, when the addicts would take or mix any drugs they could obtain from military medical supplies. (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

- American military decoration awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action. It is specifically a combat decoration.

⁽⁴⁾ Stroll:

- n.: A road, highway, or street. c1935 jive use; some Negro use (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner).

- Also mentioned in "Nighthawk Postcards" (With the tight knots of moviegoers and out-of-towners on the stroll...), "Drunk On The Moon" (Tight-slack clad girls on the graveyard shift, 'Neath the cement stroll, catch the midnight drift...)

⁽⁵⁾ Drizzle: A fine, gentle, misty rain (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company) 

⁽⁶⁾ Cuban heels: mens boot, half boot or shoe with high heels (e.g. Manhattan half boot, Wincklepicker, Chelsea boot, etc.)

Tom Waits (1999): "When I started looking for pointed shoes, I used to go to Fairfax on Orchard Street in New York City, one of those little pushcart guys. I'd say, "You got any pointy shoes?" They would go way, way in the back and come back with a dusty box, blow the dust off the top and say, "What do you want with these things? Give me 20 bucks. Go on, get outta here!" And that was the beginning. From there, I saw it grow into a burgeoning industry, a pointy industry. The ultimate was the pointy toe and Cuban heel. But I was younger then. Now, I go for comfort and roadability" (Source: "The Man Who Howled Wolf" Magnet magazine, by Jonathan Valania. Date: Astro Motel/ Mission Cafe, Santa Rosa. June-July, 1999)

⁽⁷⁾ Ticonderoga: Leadship of a U.S. navy class of cruisers (CV-14, later CVA-14 & CVS-14), active 1944-1974. In 1944 Ticonderoga transported aircraft to Hawaii, took part in underway ordnance replenishment experiments and trained her crew and air group for participation in the war against Japan. After steaming to the western Pacific in October, the carrier launched her first strikes on 5 November 1944, hitting targets ashore and afloat in the northern Philippines area. In January 1945, Ticonderoga took part in raids against Japanese assets in Indochina, China, Luzon and Formosa. Hit by two "Kamikaze" suicide planes on 21 January, she lost over 140 crewmen and had to go to the U.S. for repairs. Ticonderoga returned to the combat area in late May. For the remaining two and a half months of the Pacific War, her planes made regular attacks on the Japanese home islands. From September 1945 into January 1946, she transported veterans home across the Pacific. Ticonderoga deployed ten times to the western Pacific in 1957-69. In August 1964, during her sixth WestPac cruise, her planes participated in air strikes against North Vietnamese targets during the "Tonkin Gulf Incident" that gradually led to massive U.S. involvement in Southeast Asian combat operations. Vietnam War missions dominated Ticonderoga's next four Seventh Fleet deployments. In October 1969, she was redesignated CVS-14 and converted to an antisubmarine warfare support carrier. The ship made two more cruises to Asian waters in that capacity. In 1972, she took part in space flight recovery efforts for the Apollo 16 and 17 Moon flights. Decommissioned in September 1973, USS Ticonderoga was sold for scrapping a year later. (Source: Naval Historical Center home page, 2001-2003)

⁽⁸⁾ Pace: v. [1970s] (US black) to live a fast, exciting and varied life (Source: Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000)

⁽⁹⁾ Cold one: n. [1920s+] (orig. US) a bottle of beer, [orig. a conscious euph. for a cold beer, used during Prohibition (1920-33) when it was better not to mention alcohol in any form) (Source: Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000)

⁽¹⁰⁾ Singapore Sling: The Singapore Sling was created at Raffles Hotel in 1915 by Hainanese-Chinese bartender, Mr. Ngiam Tong Boon. Originally, the Singapore Sling was meant as a woman's drink, hence the attractive pink color. Today it is very definitely a drink enjoyed by all. "Probably no mixed drink has been as mistreated as this one". As Dale DeGroff, mixologist of Blackbird Restaurant in New York City, says, "The only thing most bartenders know about the Singapore Sling is that it's supposed to be red." This is an adaptation of the original recipe from Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Fill a shaker with ice. Add 6 tablespoons pineapple juice, 2 tablespoons gin, 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, 1 tablespoon Cherry Heering, 1 tablespoon grenadine, 1/2 tablespoon Benedictine, a dash of Triple Sec and 3 dashes of Angostura bitters. Shake for 1 minute and strain over ice into a tall glass

⁽¹¹⁾ Could look down on Illinois and find you there: Might refer to Kathleen Brennan as also mentioned in Johnsburg, Illinois, 1983: "And she grew up outside McHenry in Johnsburg, Illinois..."

Silent Night

Silent night, Holy night

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon Virgin Mother and Child

Holy Infant so tender and mild

Sleep in Heavenly peace

Sleep in Heavenly peace

Silent night, Holy night

Shepherds quake at the sight

Glories stream from Heaven afar

Heavenly hosts sing Hallelujah

Christ, the Savior is born

Christ, the Savior is born

Silent night, Holy night

Son of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from thy Holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord, at thy birth

Jesus, Lord, at thy birth

Written by: Joseph Mohr (translated)⁽¹⁾

Music by: Franz Gruber, 1818

Official release: SOS United, SOS United charity album, 1989

Known covers:

N/A

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Original version "Silent Night". Traditional, written by: Joseph Mohr (translated). Music by: Franz Gruber. Written in 1818. Also used during the late 1970s in a medley with Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis

Singapore

We sail tonight for Singapore, we're all as mad as hatters⁽²⁾ here

I've fallen for a tawny moor, took off to the Land of Nod⁽³⁾

Drank with all the Chinamen, walked the sewers of Paris⁽⁴⁾

I danced along a colored wind, dangled from a rope of sand

You must say goodbye to me

We sail tonight for Singapore, don't fall asleep while you're ashore

Cross your heart and hope to die, when you hear the children cry

Let marrowbone and cleaver choose, while making feet for children's shoes⁽⁵⁾

Through the alley, back from hell, when you hear that steeple bell

You must say goodbye to me.

Wipe him down with gasoline, till his arms are hard and mean

From now on, boys, this iron boat's your home

So heave away, boys

We sail tonight for Singapore, take your blankets from the floor

Wash your mouth out by the door, the whole town's made of iron ore

Every witness turns to steam, they all become Italian dreams

Fill your pockets up with earth, get yourself a dollar's worth

Away boys, away boys, heave away

The captain is a one-armed dwarf, he's throwing dice along the wharf

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King⁽⁶⁾

So take this ring

We sail tonight for Singapore, we're all as mad as hatters here

I've fallen for a tawny moor, took off to the Land of Nod

Drank with all the Chinamen, walked the sewers of Paris

I drank along a colored wind, I dangled from a rope of sand

You must say goodbye to me

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 - Beautiful Maladies" (Amsco Publications, 1997)

Known covers:

Kazik Staszewski "Piosenki Toma Waitsa". Kazik Staszewski. March, 2003. VIP Production / Luna Music: LUNCD 093-2 (in Polish)

Unplugged. Anne B�renz & Frank Wolff. 2003. B�chergilde (Germany)

The Silverhearts Play Raindogs. The Silverhearts. October 5, 2005. Banbury Park Records

Sex In Obertrubach. Feinton. March 1, 2006. TP9 Records (Germany)

Bye-Bye. Anne B�renz. October, 2006. Stalburg Theater (Germany)

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

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Singapore

- Tom Waits (1985): "Sometimes I close my eyes real hard and I see a picture of what I want, the song. 'Singapore' started like that, Richard Burton with a bottle of festival brandy preparing to go on board ship. I tried to make my voice like his - "In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king" - I took that from Orwell I think. NME - Which book? TW - Mary Poppins, one of the big ones." (Source: "Hard Rain". New Musical Express: Gavin Martin. October 19 1985)

- Tom Waits (1985): "Nowadays, if you want a certain sound you don't have to get it now, you can get it later. When you're mixing, electronically. I wanted to get it now, so I felt I cooked it and I ate it. You can establish percussion sounds later electronically. But I ended up banging on things so I felt that it really responded. If I couldn't get the right sound out of the drum set we'd get a chest of drawers in the bathroom and hit it real hard with a two-by-four. Things like that. That's on "Singapore". Those little things made me feel more involved that sampling on a synthesizer." (Source: "Tom Waits for no man". Spin Magazine: Glenn O'Brien. November 1985)

- Tom Waits (1985): "Singapore is kind of like Dick Burton in Taiwan and he can't get a drink." (Source: "Rain Dogs Island Promo Tape" (taped comments on songs as sent to radio stations). Date: late 1985)

- Tom Waits (1985): "Ehm... I was thinking about what would happen if Richard Burton got stranded in Hong Kong somewhere or... y'know. He's this burly English with... y'know? You know a sheet mantras of... somewhere in eh...somewhere off. y'know? Taiwan or Guam, Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai eh Philippines, somewhere over there y'know? So I tried to imagine what would be going through eh... Make it like a Richard Burton number." (Source: "Nightlines Interview" Nightlines on CBC Stereo (Canada) conducted by Michael Tearson. Date: New York. Late 1985)

- Tom Waits (1998): "It's an adventure song. I like adventure songs and I always remembered that in the studio the drum sound that we used was a two by four attacking somebody's chest of drawers and the whole song played and all the backbeats were played with a two by four hitting the chest of drawers repeatedly and on the last bar of the song the whole piece of furniture had collapsed and there was nothing left of it and the song was over but it was just a - That's what I think of when I hear the song. I see the pile of wood and it excites me. Michael Blair was the percussionist. It wasn't a very expensive chest of drawers - it was just one that we'd found out on the sidewalk." (Source: "KCRW-FM: Morning Becomes Eclectic (interviewed by Chris Douridas)" Date: March 31, 1998) 

⁽²⁾ Mad hatter

- Someone who sells drugs and other illegal substances. ("I'm going to go pick some stuff up from the madhatter up on Main.") (Source: The Online Slang Dictionary, Walter Rader).

- Mad as a hatter phr. [mid-19C] very mad, utterly insane. [the use in 18C of mercurous nitrate in tanning of felt hats. This was absorbed by the hatters, in whom the effects could produce mental problems]. (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9).

- Might also refer to the Alice character. Also mentioned in "Diamonds And Gold": "There's a hole in the ladder, a fence we can climb Mad as a hatter, you're thin as a dime."

- "These days we associate mad as a hatter with a bit of whimsy in Lewis Carroll's famous children's book Alice in Wonderland of 1865. Carroll didn't invent the phrase, though. By the time he wrote the book it was already well known; the first example I can find is from a work by Thomas Chandler Haliburton (Judge Haliburton), of Nova Scotia, who was well-known in the 1830s for his comic writings about the character Sam Slick; in The Clockmaker; or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville of 1836, he wrote: "Father he larfed out like any thing; I thought he would never stop-and sister Sall got right up and walked out of the room, as mad as a hatter". As the author felt no need to explain it, by then it was clearly well known in his part of North America. Whether it was invented there, I don't know, but it seems likely. An early British reference is in Pendennis by William Makepeace Thackeray, serialised between 1848-50: "We were talking about it at mess, yesterday, and chaffing Derby Oaks-until he was as mad as a hatter". Note, by the way, that mad is being used in both these cases in the sense of being angry rather than insane, so these examples better fit the sense of phrases like mad as a wet hen, mad as a hornet, mad as a cut snake, mad as a meat axe, and other wonderful similes, of which the first two are American and the last two from Australia or New Zealand. But Thomas Hughes, in Tom Brown's Schooldays, used it in the same way that Lewis Carroll was later to do: "He's a very good fellow, but as mad as a hatter". Few people who use the phrase today realise that there's a story of human suffering behind it; the term actually derives from an early industrial occupational disease. Felt hats were once very popular in North America and Europe; an example is the top hat. The best sorts were made from beaver fur, but cheaper ones used furs such as rabbit instead. A complicated set of processes was needed to turn the fur into a finished hat. With the cheaper sorts of fur, an early step was to brush a solution of a mercury compound-usually mercurous nitrate-on to the fur to roughen the fibres and make them mat more easily, a process called carroting because it made the fur turn orange. Beaver fur had natural serrated edges that made this unnecessary, one reason why it was preferred, but the cost and scarcity of beaver meant that other furs had to be used. Whatever the source of the fur, the fibres were then shaved off the skin and turned into felt; this was later immersed in a boiling acid solution to thicken and harden it. Finishing processes included steaming the hat to shape and ironing it. In all these steps, hatters working in poorly ventilated workshops would breathe in the mercury compounds and accumulate the metal in their bodies. We now know that mercury is a cumulative poison that causes kidney and brain damage. Physical symptoms include trembling (known at the time as hatter's shakes), loosening of teeth, loss of co-ordination, and slurred speech; mental ones include irritability, loss of memory, depression, anxiety, and other personality changes. This was called mad hatter syndrome. It's been a very long time since mercury was used in making hats, and now all that remains is a relic phrase that links to a nasty period in manufacturing history. But mad hatter syndrome remains common as a description of the symptoms of mercury poisoning." (Source: World Wide Words is copyright � Michael Quinion, 1996-2004)

⁽³⁾ Nod, the land of

- To go to the land of Nod is to go to bed. There are many similar puns and more in French than in English. Of course, the reference is to Gen. iv. 16, "Cain went ... and dwelt in the land of Nod;" but where the land of Nod is or was nobody knows. In fact, "Nod" means a vagrant or vagabond, and when Cain was driven out he lived "a vagrant life," with no fixed abode, till he built his "city." (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. � 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd) 

- Jonathan Swift turned the phrase into a pun when he wrote that he was "going into the Land of Nod" meaning that he was going to sleep. (Submitted by Cheryl Dillis, Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist. October, 2000. From "2,107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings and Expressions" by Charles Earle).

- Could be inspired by: "The Land Of Nod." Children's song. Written by: Robert Louis Stevenson. Copyright: unknown: "From breakfast on all through the day At home among my friends I stay; But every night I go abroad Afar into the land of Nod All by myself I have to go, With none to tell me what to do. All alone beside the streams And up the mountainsides of dreams The strangest things are there for me, Both things to eat and things to see, And many frightening sights abroad Till morning in the land of Nod Try as I like to find the way, I never can get back by day, Nor can remember plain and clear The curious music that I hear."

⁽⁴⁾ Walked the sewers of Paris

- Might refer to the club that used to be behind the Ivar Theatre in L.A. It was later called "The Gaslight" and it has been remodeled and renamed "The Opium Den" in 1996. 1605 1/2 N. Ivar Hollywood, CA USA

- Ross MacLean (2004): "The T. Waits quote, "Andr� is at the piano behind the Ivar in the sewers" (The One That Got Away, 1976) probably refers to a piano player at a gay bar, located down the alley by the stage door, called "The Sewer of Paris." There was a garbage dumpster in the corner between the two doorways, and girls could go from the theater straight to the bar. The bar held 70's glitter queens, lots of ageing closet cases, servicemen (the U.S.O. was half block down the street from the Ivar), runaways fresh from the Greyhound bus station who had come to Hollywood to become famous, thugs fresh out of jail, and drag queens of any race. I had a couple pretty scarey nights there." (Source: email message by Ross MacLean to Tom Waits Library. February, 2004. Copyright 1994 from "The Ivar Memoirs" by Ross MacLean, produced & published playwright. Ross has written a memoir on the Ivar, and is completing a play on the same subject)

- Tom Waits in 1981 on the Ivar Theatre: "A burlesque house in Hollywood, right next door to the library. It was originally a legitimate theatre. Lord Buckley and Lenny Bruce played there. Now it's just a strip joint, full of transsexuals. Behind the Ivar is another nightclub called The Gaslight(9). Used to be called the Sewers Of Paris." (Source: "Tom Waits: Waits And Double Measures" Smash Hits magazine by Johnny Black. March 18, 1981)

⁽⁵⁾ Making feet for children shoes: To have sex. (Source: Tom Waits Digest, Seth Nielssen)

⁽⁶⁾ In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King: Attributed to Desiderius Gerhard Erasmus, Dutch scholar, philosopher and writer (1465 - 1536). [Lat., In regione caecorum rex est luscus.] - Adagia (III, IV, 96)

Sins Of The Father

God said: don't give me your tin horn⁽²⁾ prayers

Don't buy roses off the street down there

Took it all and took the dirt road home

Dreaming of Jenny with the light brown hair⁽³⁾

Night is falling like a bloody axe

Lies and rumors and the wind at my back

Hand on the wheel and gravel on the road⁽⁴⁾

Will the pawn shop sell me back what I sold

I'm gonna take the sins of my father

I'm gonna take the sins of my mother

I'm gonna take the sins of my brother

Down to the pond

Birds cry warning from a hidden branch

Carving out a future with a gun and an axe

I'm way beyond the gavel⁽⁵⁾ and the laws of man

Still living in the palm of the grace of your hand

The world's not easy, the blind man said

Turns on nothing but money and dread

Dog's been scratching at the door all nite

Long neck birds flying out of the moonlight

I'm gonna take the sins of my father

I'm gonna take the sins of my mother

I'm gonna take the sins of my brother

Down to the pond

Down to the pond

Smack dab ⁽⁶⁾ in the middle of a dirty lie

The star spangled glitter of his one good eye

Everybody knows that the game was rigged⁽⁷⁾ 

Justice wears suspenders and a powdered wig

Dark town alley's been hiding you

Long bell tolling is your Waterloo

Oh baby, what can you do

Does the light of god blind you

Or lead the way home for you?

I'm gonna take the sins of my father

Take the sins of my mother

I'm gonna take the sins of my brother

Down to the pond

Down to the pond

I'm gonna take the sins of my father

Take the sins of my mother

And take the sins of my brother

Down to the pond

Down to the pond

God all mighty for righteousness sake

Humiliation of our fallen state

Written in the book of tubold Cain⁽⁸⁾

A long black overcoat will show no stain

Feel the heat and the burn on your back

The rip and the moan the stretch of the rack

All my belongings in a flour sack

Will the place I come from take me back

I'm gonna take the sins of my father

Take the sins of my mother

And take the sins of my brother

Down to the pond

Down to the pond

They'll hang me in the morning on a scaffold⁽⁹⁾ yea big

To dance upon nothing to the Tyborn Jig⁽¹⁰⁾

Treats you like a puppet when you're under his spell

Oh the heart is heaven but the mind is hell

Jesus of Nazareth told Mike of the weeds⁽¹¹⁾

I's born at this time for a reason you see

When I'm dead I'll be dead a long time

But the wine's so pleasing and so sublime⁽¹²⁾

I'm gonna take the sins of my father

Take the sins of my mother

I'm gonna take the sins of my brother

Down to the pond

Down to the pond

Kissed my sweetheart by the China ball tree

Everything I done is between god and me

Only he will judge how my time was spent

29 days of sinning and 40 to repent

The horse is steady but the horse is blind

wicked are the branches on the tree of mankind

The roots grow upward and the branches grow down

it's much too late to throw the dice again I've found

I'm gonna take the sins of my father

Take the sins of my mother

Take the sins of my brother

Down to the pond

I'm gonna wash them

I'm gonna wash them

I'm gonna wash the sins of my father

I'm gonna wash the sins of my mother

Wash the sins of my brother

Till the water runs clear

Till the water runs clear

Till the water runs clear

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 2004

Official release: Real Gone, (P) & � 2004 Anti Inc.

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Sins Of The Father:

- Tom Waits (2004): "We started with a rock-steady beat on "Sins of My Father," and Larry Taylor said: "I won't play that reggae s--t. I don't play that (rock-steady style)." He's played with Jerry Lee Lewis, Canned Heat - he's played with everybody - and he said: "I won't do it, man!" (laughing) I said: "Come on, Larry!"" (Source: "Tom Waits Interview". San Diego Union Tribune (USA). October 3, 2004. By George Varga) 

- Tom Waits (2004): "Well, "Sins Of My Father" is political. "Hoist That Rag" is. There's a bunch of soldier songs. JV: "Sins Of My Father': Are you talking about George W. Bush? TW: I'm talking about my father, I'm talking about your father, I'm talking about his father. The sins of the father will be visited upon the son. Everybody knows that." (Source: "Magnet Interview With Tom Waits", by Jonathan Valania. Magnet magazine (UK). October 5, 2004)

⁽²⁾ Tin horn: tinhorn adj. [late 19C+] second-rate, inferior, superficially, flashy., [abbr. gambling use tinhorn gambler, a second-rate class gambler. (Source: "Cassel's Dictionary Of Slang. Jonathan Green. Cassel & Co, 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

⁽³⁾ Dreaming of Jenny with the light brown hair: In the late 1970s Waits often used to perform "I Wish I Was In New Orleans" as a medley with the Foster classic "I Dream Of Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair" (Written by Stephen Foster, 1854) "I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair Borne like a vapor on the summer air I see her tripping where the bright streams play Happy as the daisies that dance on her way. Many were the wild notes her merry voice would pour, Many were the blithe birds that warbled them o'er I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair Floating like a vapor on the soft, summer air. I sigh for Jeannie, but her light form strayed Far from the fond parts round her native glade; Her smiles have vanished and her sweet songs flown Flitting like the dreams that have cheered us and gone."

⁽⁴⁾ Gravel on the road: Notice same phrase being used in Day After Tomorrow (Real Gone, 2004): "I just do what I've been told. We're just the gravel on the road."

⁽⁵⁾ Gavel: The mallet of the presiding officer in a legislative body, public assembly, court, masonic body, etc. (Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, � 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.)

⁽⁶⁾ Smack dab: Smack-dab adv. [late 19C+] (US) exactly, precisely. [echoic] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998)

⁽⁷⁾ Everybody knows that the game was rigged:  

- Rigged: To manipulate dishonestly for personal gain: rig a prizefight; rig stock prices. (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company) 

- Could be hinting at accusations against G.W. Bush not actually having had enough votes for being elected president (2000). Or accusations against the US government for spreading false justifications for invading Afghanistan (October, 2001) and Iraq (March, 2003). Note: "God all mighty for righteousness sake, Humiliation of our fallen state."

⁽⁸⁾ Written in the book of tubold Cain: 

- Refering biblical Cain: According to Genesis 4: 1-16. '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). 

- Notice other references to Cain and Abel: Dirt In The Ground, 1992 ("Now Cain slew Abel, he killed him with a stone"), Walk Away, 1995 ("Dot King was whittled from the bone of Cain") and Make It Rain, 2004 ("I'm not Able, I'm just Cain")

- Also transcribed as "Tubol Cain, Tubal Cain": Tubal-cain/ Tubalcaine the son of Lamech and Zillah, "an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron" (Gen. 4:22; R.V., "the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron").(Source: WebBible Encyclopedia. Eden Communications. Copyright 2000-2003, Eden Communications)

⁽⁹⁾ Scaffold: n. 1. A temporary structure of timber, boards, etc., for various purposes, as for supporting workmen and materials in building, for exhibiting a spectacle upon, for holding the spectators at a show, etc. 2. Specifically, a stage or elevated platform for the execution of a criminal; as, to die on the scaffold. (Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, � 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.)

⁽¹⁰⁾ To dance upon nothing to the tyborn jig:

- Tom Waits (2004): "When someone was being hung, the dance they would do at the end of the rope was called the Tyburn Jig. It was also called "the dance upon nothing"; that kind of explains itself. The reason theaters traditionally have no performances on Monday night is because Monday night was Hanging Night, and nobody could compete with Hanging Night. To this day, theaters are dark on Mondays ." (Source: "Magnet Interview With Tom Waits", by Jonathan Valania. Magnet magazine (UK). October 5, 2004) 

- Tyburn was the principal location in London for public executions by hanging. It was an extreme western suburb of London, and executions took place there for many centuries. Tyburn gallows, as depicted by William Hogarth in his print, The Idle 'Prentice executed at Tyburn (1747), was a triangle in plan, having three legs to stand upon. It came first into existence in 1571 at the execution of Dr. John Story. It was fixed in the open space at the end of Edgware Road, formed by the junction of the roads near where the Marble Arch now stands. The location was well known, appearing in many cant phrases and folk songs: "Tyburn Tree" being the scaffold; "To dance the Tyburn Jig" meaning to be hanged, etc. In 1759, the old Triple Tree was removed, and a new movable gallows, set up near the union of Bryanston Street and Edgware Road, superseded it. The last person executed at Tyburn was John Austin on November 3, 1783.

⁽¹¹⁾ Jesus of Nazareth told Mike of the weeds:

- Jonathan Valania (2004): What about some of these characters on the new album? There's the line "Jesus of Nazareth told Mike of the weeds." TW: Well, if there is a Jesus of Nazareth, there had to be a Mike of the weeds and a Bob of the parking lot, Jim of the river, Steve of the backyard. JV: Was Weeds the next town over from Nazareth? TW: No, Mike lived in the weeds. Jesus lived in Nazareth. They corresponded. JV: There was a guy back in Jesus' time named Mike? TW: I don't know if they pronounced it like that. (Source: "Magnet Interview With Tom Waits", by Jonathan Valania. Magnet magazine (UK). October 5, 2004)

⁽¹²⁾ Jesus of ... so sublime: On the RaindogsToo Listserv discussionlist (October 6, 2004) Gary Tausch (Tom Waits Miscellania) pointed out that this verse was already used during the Mule Variations tour (as an extra verse to Get Behind The Mule. Hummingbird Centre. Toronto/ Canada. August 23/24, 1999). It could be Sins Of The Father is actually a Mule Variations outtake.

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

Small Change

(Got Rained On With His Own .38)

Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And nobody flinched down by the arcade

And the marquees weren't weeping, they went stark raving mad

And the cabbies⁽²⁾ were the only ones that really had it made

And his cold trousers were twisted, and the sirens high and shrill

And crumpled in his fist was a five-dollar bill

And the naked mannequins with their Cheshire grins⁽³⁾

And the raconteurs and roustabouts said, Buddy, come on in, cause...

Cause the dreams ain't broken down here now, they're walking with a limp

Now that Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And nobody flinched down by the arcade

And the burglar alarm's been disconnected and the newsmen start to rattle

And the cops are telling jokes about some whorehouse in Seattle

And the fire hydrants plead the Fifth Amendment⁽⁵⁾

And the furniture is bargains galore

But the blood is by the jukebox on an old linoleum floor

And what a hot rain on 42nd Street, and now the umbrellas ain't got a chance

And the newsboy's a lunatic with stains on his pants, cause...

Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And no one's gone over to close his eyes

And there's a racing form in his pocket, circled 'Blue Boots' in the third

And the cashier at the clothing store didn't say a word

As the siren tears the night in half, and someone lost his wallet

Well, it's surveillance of assailants, if that's what you wanna call it

And the whores hike up their skirts⁽⁶⁾ and fish for drugstore prophylactics⁽⁷⁾

With their mouths cut just like razor blades and their eyes are like

stilettos

And her radiator's steaming and her teeth are in a wreck

Nah, she won't let you kiss her, but what the hell did you expect?

And the Gypsies are tragic and if you want to buy perfume

Well, they'll bark you down like carneys, sell you Christmas cards in June,

but...

But Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And his headstone's a gumball machine

No more chewing gum or baseball cards or overcoats or dreams

Someone's hosing down the sidewalk, and he's only in his teens, cause...

Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And a fistful of dollars can't change that

And someone copped his watch fob, and someone got his ring

And the newsboy got his pork-pie Stetson hat⁽⁸⁾

And the tuberculosis old men at the Nelson wheeze and cough

And someone will head south until this whole thing cools off, cause...

Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight, yeah

Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music (ASCAP), � 1976 & Warner Bros. Music Ltd, 1986

Official release: "Small Change", Elektra/ Asylum Records, 1976 &

"Anthology Of Tom Waits", WEA/ Elektra, 1984 &

"Asylum Years", WEA International Inc., 1986

Known covers:

Vox Poppin'. Stormy Weather. 1993. Street Gold. "Small Change/ The One That Got Away" (a cappella medley). Re-released on "Looking For An Echo", 1999

Looking For An Echo. Stormy Weather. July 13, 1999. Street Gold. Songs covered: "Small Change/ The One That Got Away" (a cappella medley). Same version as on "Vox Poppin'", 1993

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Small Change: n. [1970s+] (US) an insignificant, weak person [monetary imagery] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

- Tom Waits (1976): "It was the first time I ever covered a homocide, and the incident is a true one. I was in New York City, stayin' at the Chelsea Hotel, and a young cat was shot and killed across the street from the restaurant where I was goin' to eat - just as I walked in the door. It happened two years before I wrote anything about it. I just didn't know how to deal with it, y'know" "I was just trying to deal with the whole murder thing in New York, the whole ambience... It's all just like 'so what?, somebody got shot and killed, I don't care.' By the time you read it in the newspapers, it's gone. I mean, a newspaper doesn't weep, it's not wet, it doesn't bleed, doesn't croak. It's just facts, no ideas, no mess, no funeral, no phone calls in the middle of the night explaining it to somebody, no tears, no nothing. "The night I saw this cat blown away, the cops were sittin' around sayin', 'Hey, Charley, where you goin' on your vacation?' And there's this little cat oozin' life, lyin' in his own blood. I don't know it was just... sssshhhheeewwww," Waits said, shaking his head, unable to find the words to describe it further. (Source: "For Waits City Life Is Small Change" by Bob Claypool. The Houston Post. December 12, 1976)

- Barney Hoskyns (2009): "It was during this brief stay in New York [Sep. 16-20 1975] that Waits and [writer David] McGee witnessed a singularly shocking scene one night, just along 23rd Street from the Chelsea. The two men had left the hotel to eat at a nearby pizza parlour, only to find it blocked off with police tape. Inside, with his head at the foot of a gumball machine, was a black teenager, a puddle of blood fanning out from him as he lay dead on the floor. "Some guy had just shot him," Waits recalled. "He was sprawled right there against the wall. I was scared shitless." The two men speculated as to what had happened. "Tom said something like, 'Maybe he got rained on by the pizza man's 38 "' says McGee. Born in the conjecture of that conversation was the spoken word masterpiece "Small Change". (Source: David McGee email interview April 1, 2008 as quoted in “Lowside Of The Road: A Life Of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns. Faber/ Broadway, 2009)

- Live intro from State Theatre, Sydney, Australia. May 2, 1979:"This is a story that takes place on 23rd street in New York City On a hot summer night A place called the Chelsea Hotel On this particular night, there was an incident that never made the papers No one squandered over this thing Kojak wasn't there this night Some little guy with bovine perspiration on the upper lip area walked over and said 'Bag 'im and tag 'im' It's about a guy named Small Change On this particular night he got rained on with his own thirty-eight..." (Transcribed by Ulf Berggren. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist, 2000).

- Francis Thumm (1988): "When did you first see yourself as a songwriter?" TW: "Actually, even after I had made records. I didn't feel completely confident in the craft until maybe Small Change. When I first put a story to music. I fell I was learning and getting the confidence to keep doing it. "Tom Traubert's Blues" "Small Change" and "I Wish I Was in New Orleans" gave me some confidence." (Source: "Tom's Wild Years" Interview Magazine (USA), by Francis Thumm. October, 1988)

- In the late 1970s Waits often used to perform Small Change as a medley with "Big Spender" Written by Coleman and Fields. Originally performed by Helen Gallagher, Thelma Oliver and The Girls in the musical "Sweet Charity " in 1965. Originally recorded by Shirley Bassey in 1967. Big Spender: "The minute you walked in the joint. I could see you were a man of distinction. A real big spender. Good looking, so refined. Say wouldn't you like to know what's going on in my mind. So let me get right to the point. I don't pop my cork for every gal I see. Hey big spender. Spend a little time with me."

⁽²⁾ Cabbie n. A cab-driver; now specif. a taxi driver (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner) 

⁽³⁾ Cheshire grin: 

- He grins like a Cheshire cat. Cheese was formerly sold in Cheshire moulded like a cat. The allusion is to the grinning cheese-cat, but is applied to persons who show their teeth and gums when they laugh. (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. � 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd).

- Also quoted in "Nighthawk Postcards": "Lookin' for some kind of a Cheshire billboard grin."

⁽⁵⁾ Plead the fifth/a five

- To refuse to do something; to refuse to state one's opinion, reason, or objection. Derived from taking the Fifth Amendment (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

- phr. [1950s+] (US) to avoid committing oneself, to refuse to take an action or make a statement. [the Fifth Amendment (1791) to the US Constitution states that no person 'shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself'] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9) 

⁽⁶⁾ And the whores hike up their skirts: In earlier versions this goes: "But the whores still smear on Revlon and they all look like Jayne Meadows." (American actress and sex symbol. As Meadows got older she became known for using too much make-up, hence the reference). In later versions of Small Change the above line is removed for legal reasons (Revlon) and replaced with "And the whores hike/ kike up their skirts, and fish for drug-store prophylactics". The censored booklet of the Small Change album gives the incorrect and incomplete lyrics. Strangely enough the orginal lyrics are used again on the later album Asylum Years.

- Jay S. Jacobs (2000): "Here, in the details, is everything that Waits had learned about telling a story with music. Unfortunately, a couple of those details had to be edited out. Tom was forced to change the lines, "The whores all smear on Revlon / And they look just like Jayne Meadows," when the cosmetic giant threatened legal action. And Meadows - the wife of Steve Allen, who had performed on Waits's favorite Jack Kerouac album - also had a problem with this vivid image. When the LP Small Change was reissued the offending passage was replaced with, "The whores all hike up their skirts / And fish for drug-store prophylactics." On the CD version of the album Waits sings the compromise lines, but the printed lyrics read: "The whores all smear on / And they look just like." Apparently Waits wasn't willing to let Revlon and Meadows off the hook so easily after all." (Source: Wild Years, The Music and Myth of Tom Waits. Jay S. Jacobs, 2000).

- Clark Peterson (1978): "You (also) got into trouble for singing your 'Small Change' song when you said, 'And the whores still smear on Revlon and they all look like Jayne Meadows.' When you recorded it, you changed it to, 'But the whores still kike up their skirts and search for drug store prophylactics. Tom Waits "I deleted the Jayne Meadows reference from the album 'cause Steve Allen (her husband) would have been upset. You can use a personality's name in a song but not if it's slanderous. If you say that all the whores like Jayne Meadows, regardless of whether they look like her or not you can't say that ... 'cause the whores'll get pissed off." (Source: "Sleazy Rider - A man who works at being a derelict". RELIX magazine by Clark Peterson. May - June, 1978. Vol. 5 No. 2)

⁽⁷⁾ Prophylactic n.: A rubber; a condom. "A thin rubber sheath worn over the penis during sexual intercourse, usually as a contraceptive device, but legally available only 'for prevention of [veneral] disease." :-)(Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽⁸⁾ Pork-pie hat: 

- n. [1920s+] a style of men's hat. [resemblance] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

- Etymology: from its shape. Date: 1860: a hat with a low telescoped crown, flat top, and brim turned up all around or up in back and down in front (Source: Merriam-Webster online dictionary. � 2003 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated) 

- "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" was a tune written by Charles Mingus. The tune came up instinctively when at a gig Mingus learned that Lester Young (who most often was seen wearing the hat) had died. (Source: "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" on the album "Mingus"). 

- Stetson, John B. Stetson: A hat made by the John B. Stetson hat company. "My good old John B. Stetson. That was 'the' hat in those days.' L. Armstrong, Satchmo, My life in New Orleans. Any man's hat, regardless of make (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

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)

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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)

So It Goes

If I was a seagull, high and aloof

I'd sail to your house and perch on your roof

But I ain't a seagull, you know my name

And the winds blow fortune, the winds blow pain

And so it goes, nobody knows

How to get to the sky, how to get to the sky

If I was a puppy dog in the early dawn

I'd make it to your house and sleep on your lawn

But I ain't a puppy dog, you know my name

And the winds are blowin' fortune, the winds blow pain

And so it goes, nobody knows

How to get to the sky, how to get to the sky

How to get to the sky, how to get to the sky

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Warner Chappell Music Ltd., 1971-1992 & Bizarre/ Straight Records, 1992

Official release: "The Early Years 2". Issued under licence from Bizarre/ Straight Records by Edsel Records, 1992

Recorded July - December 1971, Los Angeles, CA

(Not authorized by Tom Waits)

Known covers:

None

Soldier's Things

Davenports⁽²⁾ and kettle drums⁽³⁾ and swallow-tail coats

Table cloths and patent leather shoes

Bathing suits and bowling balls and clarinets and rings

All this radio really needs is a fuse

A tinker, a tailor⁽⁴⁾, a soldier's things

His rifle, his boots full of rocks

Oh, and this one is for bravery

Oh, and this one is for me

And everything's a dollar in this box

Cufflinks⁽⁵⁾ and hubcaps and trophies and paperbacks

It's good transportation, but the brakes aren't so hot

Neckties and boxing gloves, this jackknife is rusted

You can pound that dent out on the hood

A tinker, a tailor, a soldier's things

His rifle, his boots full of rocks

Oh, and this one is for bravery

Oh, and this one is for me

And everything's a dollar in this box

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1983

Official release: Swordfishtrombones, Island Records Inc., 1983

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

Known covers:

The Secret of Association. Paul Young. 1985. Sony Music

Things Left Unsaid. Eric Leeds, February 23, 1993. Warner Brothers

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

Roll Tide Roll. Jan Johansen. October, 1997. Lionheart Records (Sweden)

R�d Pust - Sven Henriksen synger Tom Waits, Sven Henriksen. 1996. Sonet (in Norwegian: "Soldatens ting")

This 'N' That. Windmill Saxophone Quartet. May, 1998. Global Village

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

Curio. Angela McCluskey & Tryptich. March 11, 2000. The Orchard/ Random Records

Hederos & Hellberg. Martin Hederos and Mattias Hellberg. April 6, 2004. Hidden Agenda

Star Belly. Stephanie Rearick. April 12, 2005. Uvulittle Records

Expressionism. The Slow Club Quartet. September 30, 2008. Rue de la Harpe Records

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Soldier's Things

- Tom Waits (1983): "It's like the things that you have in your pocket. If you are carrying them there long enough, they take on certain atomic human characteristics. Sometimes you go to a garage sale or you go to a pawn shop or anywhere and look through other peoples things. Shoes in particular, that have walked around with somebody else inside them for a long time, seem to have...Seem to be able to almost talk. So, it's just trying to string together different items that... Instruments are always like that. After you come home from...This guy comes home from service and "everything's a dollar in that box", you know." (Source: "Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones". Island Promo interview, 1983)

- Tom Waits (1983): "Soldiers Things I imagined like a pawnshop and raining outside, a bunch of sailors, all the instruments hanging up, a guy pawning his watch. I lived in National City, every night the place was loaded with sailors so I at one point considered joining the navy but a friend of mine talked me out of it. I guess what made it most attractive was the $38.00 a month. I wanted to go to Hong Kong" (Source: Unidentified Swordfishtrombones Interview (interviewer's tape). Date: 1983/ 1984)

- Tom Waits (1983): "Soldiers? Yeah. I worked in National City in a crummy restaurant for a long time, full of soldiers most every night, tattoo parlor next door, country-and-western diner-dance type of place down the street, Chinese restaurant, Chinese laundry, pool hall all real close, walking distance. So I called up some of my memories of that time. Sit out on the sidewalk, wearing the apron, paper hat, watching the traffic go by, you know?"... "It was a rainy night at the pawn shop, and all these sailors, and I looked around, I saw all these musical instruments, picture frames, and - uh - one of the sailors pawned a watch, and the song was just there, sitting there" (Source: "Tom Waits For No Man". Melody Maker. Brian Case. October 29, 1983)

⁽²⁾ Davenport: A kind of small writing-desk with drawers each side, named after the maker (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. � 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd) 

⁽³⁾ Kettledrum: A drum in the shape of a kiddle or fish-basket (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. � 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd)

⁽⁴⁾ A tinker, a tailor: Reference to the nursery rhyme: "Tinker, tailor." (aka Rich Man Poor Man): "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich man, Poor man, Beggar man, Thief!"

⁽⁵⁾ Cufflinks: A fastening for a shirt cuff, usually consisting of two buttons or buttonlike parts connected with a chain or shank that passes through two slits in the cuff (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company)

So Long I'll See Ya

Mama's in the kitchen, Daddy's on the phone

And nobody knows what's goin' on

But I've got them "So long, I'll see you

cause my Buick's outside waiting" blues

Well, one for the money, honey, two for the show

And it's three to get ready, Tom's gotta go

He's got them "So long, I'll see you

cause my Buick's outside waiting" blues

Well bye-bye-bye, baby, bye-bye-bye

Sing bye-bye, skooby-do-bye-bye

Gotta skeet-skat outta here, skeet-skat outta here

And your Mama's in the kitchen, and your Daddy's on the phone

And nobody knows what's goin' on

But I've got them "So long, I'll see you

cause my Buick's outside waiting" blues

Well, Tommy's gotta skeet-skat, he's gotta skeet-skat outta here

Skeet-skat right outta here

And one for the money, two for the show

And three to get ready, I gotta go

Cause I've got them "So long, I'll see you

Cause my Buick's outside waiting" blues

Outside waiting blues

It's outside waiting blues

Said the Buick's outside waiting blues

And skeet-skat outta here, gonna skeet-skat outta here

Skeet-skat outta here, gonna skeet-skat

Got the "So long, I'll see you, Buick's outside waiting" blues

And skeet-skat outta here, gonna skeet-skat outta here

Gonna skeet-skat

Cause I got the "So long, I'll see you, Buick's outside waiting" blues

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music (ASCAP), 1971 & Bizarre/ Straight Records, 1991

Official release: "The Early Years 1". Issued under licence from Bizarre/ Straight Records by Edsel Records, 1991

Recorded July - December 1971, Los Angeles, CA

(Not authorized by Tom Waits)

Known covers:

Black & White and Blues All Over. Paul Zunno Band. 2002. Self-released

Somewhere

There's a place for us

Somewhere a place for us

Peace and quiet, and open air

Wait for us, somewhere

There's a time for us

Someday a time for us

Time together, a time to spare

Time to learn, and time to care

Someday, somewhere

We'll find a new way of living

We'll find a way of forgiving

Somewhere

There's a place for us

A time and a place for us

Hold my hand and we're halfway there

Hold my hand and I'll take you there

Somehow, someday, somewhere

Words by: Stephen Sondheim. Music by: Leonard Bernstein, � 1957

Originally performed by Reri Grist in the musical 'West Side Story', 1957

Recorded in 1966 by Len Barry

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), 1978 & Chapell Music Ltd, 1986

Official release: "Blue Valentine", Elektra Entertainment/ WEA International Inc., 1978 &

"Anthology Of Tom Waits", WEA/ Elektra, 1984 &

"Asylum Years", WEA International Inc., 1986⁽¹⁾

Known covers:

N.A

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Somewhere. Bob Alcivar (2007): "Tom said, 'I've always wanted to do that song'. I said, 'How are we getting to do it?' He said: 'Why don't you pretend I'm Frank Sinatra and write what Nelson Riddle would write? ' And it was perfect." (Source: Bob Alcivar interview March 14, 2007 as quoted in “Lowside Of The Road: A Life Of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns. Faber/ Broadway, 2009)

Spare Parts 1

(A Nocturnal Emission)

Well, the dawn cracked hard just like a bullwhip

Cause it wasn't takin' no lip from the night before

And it shook out the streets, as the stew bums⁽¹⁾ showed up

Like bounced checks⁽²⁾, rubbin' their necks

And the sky turned the color of Pepto-Bismol⁽³⁾

Yeah, and the parking lots growled

My old sport coat full of promissory notes

And a receipt from a late night motel

The hawk⁽⁴⁾ had his whole family out there in the wind

And he got a message for you to beware

Kickin' your ass in, in a cold-blooded fashion

And dishin' out more than a good man can bear

And I got shoes untied, my shirttail's out

Ain't got a ghost of a chance⁽⁵⁾ with this old romance

Just an apartment for rent down the block

Ivar Theater⁽⁶⁾ with live burlesque

Man, the manager's scowlin', with his feet on the desk

Boom boom against the curtain, you're still hurtin', ay-ay

And then push came to shove⁽⁷⁾, and shove came to biff

Girls like that just lay you out stiff

Maybe I'll go to Cleveland and, you know, get me a tattoo or somethin'

My brother-in-law lives there

And it's a skid mark tattoo on the asphalt blue

Was that a Malibu?

Vroooooom, vroooooom

Yeah, it's Liz Taylor⁽⁸⁾ and Montgomery Clift⁽⁹⁾

Coming on to the broads with the same ol' riff, yeah

'Hey baby, why don't you come up to my place?

We'll listen to some smooth music on the stereo' eh-he-he

'No thank you,' she said, eh-he-he, 'you got any Stan Getz⁽¹⁰ records?'

'No man, I got eh... Smothers Brothers'⁽¹¹⁾

So I combed back my Detroit⁽¹²⁾, jacked up my pegs⁽¹³⁾

I wiped my Stacy Adams⁽¹⁴⁾ and I jackknifed my legs

Yeah, I got designs on a movin' violation

Yeah baby, you put me on hold and I'm out in the wind

And it's gettin' mighty cold

It's colder than a gut-shot bitch wolf dog with nine suckin' pups

pullin' a number 4 trap up a hill in the dead of winter

in the middle of a snowstorm with a mouth full of porcupine quills

Well, I don't need you, baby

You see, it's a well known fact, you know

I'm four sheets to the wind⁽¹⁵⁾, I'm glad you're gone

I'm glad you're gone, cause I'm finally alone

Glad you're gone, but I wish you'd come home

Yeah, and I struggled out of bed

Cause the dawn was crackin' hard just like a bullwhip

And it wasn't takin' no lip from the night before

Yeah, as it shook out the streets and the stew bums showed up

Just like bounced checks, rubbin' their necks

And the sky turned the color of Pepto-Bismol⁽³⁾

And my old sport coat full of promissory notes

And the hawk had his whole family out there in the wind

He got a message for you to beware

Kickin' your ass in, in a cold blooded fashion

He'll be dishin' out more than a good man can bear

Well, let's take it to Bakersfield, get a little apartment somewhere

Written by: Tom Waits and Chuck E. Weiss

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), �1975

Official release: Nighthawks At The Diner, Elektra/ Asylum Records, 1975

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Stewbum

- n.: An unemployed, homeless street beggar, or hobo, who has reached this lowly position through alcoholism. Orig. any beggar or hobo, as one who lives on stew; but the association has changed to one who is, or has too often been, stewed (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

- Stew bum: n. [1900s-30s] a down-and-out alcoholic, the most deprived of vagrants (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

⁽²⁾ Bounced check n.: A check that is returned for lack of funds = "rubber check" (Source: New dictionary of American slang, Chapman) 

⁽³⁾ Pepto-Bismol: A bright pink medicine that helps soothe your stomach. Sickly sweet to the taste. Anyone who grew up with it never forgets it... (Submitted by Andy and Jodi, September, 2000)

⁽⁴⁾ Hawk: Person with agressive stance in life. In politics: advocate of active warfare.

 ⁽⁵⁾ Ghost of a chance: phr. [mid-19C+] no chance whatsoever (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

 ⁽⁶⁾ Ivar Theater: Further reading: Ivar Theatre

⁽⁷⁾ Push came to shove: phr. [1950s+] (orig. US) in the final assesment, when all other alternatives have been exhausted [SE push is seen as less aggressive as shove] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

⁽⁸⁾ Taylor, Liz: Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in London, England on February 27, 1932. Her parents were art dealers from St. Louis, Missouri. She lived in London for the first seven years of her life before the family left when the dark clouds of war began brewing in 1939. Liz was a close friend of Montgomery Clift until his death in 1966. They met for the first time when Paramount decided that she had to accompany him to the premiere of "The Heiress (1949) " because they were both to star in the upcoming "A Place in the Sun (1951) ". They liked each other right away. Clift used to call her "Bessie Mae". When he had the road accident a few years later that disfigured him, he came from a party at Liz's house. And it was she that found him first, got into the wreck and removed some teeth from his throat that threatened to choke him

⁽⁹⁾ Clift, Montgomery: Edward Montgomery Clift born: 17 October 1920 Omaha, Nebraska. Died: 23 July New York. The release of "Red River" (1948) made Clift an overnight sensation and instant star. He embodied a new type of man on screen, the beautiful, sensual and vulnerable man that seemed to appeal to women and men alike. He was also by that time exclusively homosexual, though he maintained a number of close friendships with theatre women (heavily promoted by studio publicists). He was troubled with allergies and, along with pill problems he was alcoholic. After "A Place in the Sun" (1951) came out he was Hollywood's hottest male star and adored by millions. Clift's mental problems prevented him from staying at the top as his drinking and drug problem began to affect his acting and bankability. In 1956 during filming of "Raintree County" (1957) he ran his car into a tree after leaving a party at Elizabeth Taylor's; it was she who saved him from choking by pulling out two teeth lodged in his throat. What followed could be described as the longest suicide in show-business history. The accident left him with the left side of his face almost paralysed and with a small scar on his upper lip. The recurring pain in the rest of his body would remain for the rest of his life, only serving to increase his dependence on alcohol and prescription drugs. He never looked the same again and to a man who had greatly valued his looks, that was a blow. Producers and directors avoided him because of the problems he caused on set. But Elizabeth Taylor remained a loyal friend. It was Elizabeth Taylor who came to the rescue, using her position to win him a role in "Reflections in a Golden Eye" as her husband. On July 23 1966 his companion Lorenzo James found him lying nude on top of his bed, dead from what the autopsy called "occlusive coronary artery disease". Check out: The Montgomery Clift Shrine

⁽¹⁰⁾ Stan Getz: Stanley Gayetzky. Born: Philadelphia, Penns., February 2 1927. American bandleader and jazz saxofonist. Worked with Astrid Gilberto amongst others. Is regarded as representative of Cool Jazz and West Coast Jazz

⁽¹¹⁾ Smothers Brothers: In the early 60s, Dick and Tom Smothers became famous for hilarious parodies of folksongs and recorded many wide-selling albums. They used this style of comedy for cutting social satire as well. Eventually they were given a CBS TV show in 1967 and it proved popular, introducing the public to a wide range of folk musicians and comedians, but it was seen as too controversial and eventually canceled. In 1975 Tom and Dick made a come-back on NBC (this is when Spare parts was recorded). Mr. Waits appeared on on their TV show in 1982 singing "Old boyfriends ". The brothers are still doing shows. To engage them go to: The Smothers Brothers Homepage

⁽¹²⁾ Detroit n.: A type of men's haircut in which the hair on the top of the head is cut short and the hair on the sides long. Detroit cut, crew on top, normal trim on sides. (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽¹³⁾ Peg n. pl.: The legs; trousers. Jive use (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽¹⁴⁾ Adams, Stacy

- Slang expression: Born from Stacy Adams which is a fancy dress shoe. To buy your own Stacys check out this site.

- Also mentioned in Tom Traubert's Blues, 1976: "No one speaks English, and everything's broken And my Stacys are soaking wet."

- Tom Waits (1976): "Stacey Adams once were a very prestigious shoe... if you had them on then nobody messed with you and you could go anywhere. Stacey's stayed ahead of current affairs and were considered extremely hip." (Source: "Tom Waits: Would You Say This Man Was Attempting To Convey An Impression Of Sordid Bohemianism" New Musical Express (UK), by Fred Dellar. Date: June 5, 1976) 

⁽¹⁵⁾ Four sheets to the wind

- Drunk. Synonymous with the phrase "Three Sheets to the Wind" (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

- Unsteady from over-drinking, as a ship when its sheets are in the wind. The sail of a ship is fastened at one of the bottom corners by a rope called a "tack;" the other corner is left more or less free as the rope called a "sheet" is disposed; if quite free, the sheet is said to be "in the wind," and the sail flaps and flutters without restraint. If all the three sails were so loosened, the ship would "reel and stagger like a drunken man." "Captain Cuttle looking, candle in hand, at Bunsby more attentively, perceived that he was three sheets in the wind, or, in plain words, drunk."- Dickens; Dombey and Son. (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. � 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd).

- "It's a sailor's expression, from the days of sailing ships. The terminology of sailing ships is excessively complicated and every time I refer to it people write in to say I've got it wrong, usually contradicting each other. So treat what follows as a broad-brush treatment, open to dispute on fine points. We ignorant landlubbers might think that a sheet is a sail, but in traditional sailing-ship days, a sheet was actually a rope, particularly one attached to the bottom corner of a sail (it actually comes from an Old English term for the corner of a sail). The sheets were vital, since they trimmed the sail to the wind. If they ran loose, the sail would flutter about in the wind and the ship would wallow off its course out of control. Extend this idea to sailors on shore leave, staggering back to the ship after a good night on the town, well tanked up. The irregular and uncertain locomotion of these jolly tars must have reminded onlookers of the way a ship moved in which the sheets were loose. Perhaps one loose sheet might not have been enough to get the image across, so the speakers borrowed the idea of a three-masted sailing ship with three sheets loose, so the saying became three sheets in the wind. Our first written example comes from that recorder of low life, Pierce Egan, in his Real life in London of 1821. But it must surely be much older. The version you give, incidentally, is comparatively recent, since the older one (the only one given in the big Oxford English Dictionary) is three sheets in the wind. However, online searches show that your version is now about ten times as common as the one containing in, so it may be that some day soon it will be the only one around. The version with to seems to be gaining ground because so many people think a sheet is a sail" (Source: World Wide Words is copyright � Michael Quinion, 1996-2004. All rights reserved)

- Also mentioned in Tom Traubert's Blues (sub title), 1976: "Four sheets to the wind in Copenhagen"

Spare Parts 2

I wanna thank you all very much for comin' this evening. It really made my

night. It would have been real strange here if nobody would have showed up.

I'd like to introduce my group this evening and... it's been a real pressure

and... A pressure and a pliviledge to work with these gentlemen.

I'd like to introduce...

Please give a warm round of applause for Michael Melvoin⁽¹⁾ on piano!

On saxophone, Pete Christlieb!⁽²⁾

On bass, Jim Hughart!⁽³⁾

And on drums, Bill Goodwin!⁽⁴⁾

Yeah... They all come from good families, but... over the years they just

kinda individually developed some ways about them that just aren't right,

you know.

I was real pleased... I noticed everybody coming in this evening, you're all

decked out in full regalia and everything and... appreciate you gettin'

dressed up for an affair such as this. You know, I think it's something that

I've always tried to be as concerned about as possible and... Somebody said

to me one day, 'Christ, Waits! You look so goddam raggedy, why don't you get

yourself something to wear, you know?'

I said, 'Yeah well, not a bad idea'. Maybe a serious seersucker⁽⁵⁾ Saturday

evening cranberry accoutrement ensemble would be nice. So I went down to

Seider & Seider and I said, 'I want something sharp!' I said, 'I'm kinda in the

market, in the neighborhood of something like... maybe some green gabardines

with boneroo britches. And a leviticously duteronomous sort of catastrophic

lunch-box Stetson, you know. I'd like to get some Danger High Voltage

slacks, with high top, mid noon, brushed suede penny loafers, so I can be

passing out wolf tickets⁽⁶⁾ regardless of where I go.' Walk into the 20 Grand

Club... And the Soul & Inspirations are playin'. Yeah, and you're cuttin' a

rug and pullin' on a coat and emotin'. Band is kickin' into some long

version of 'Harlem Nocturne' or somethin'. You get designs on a girl in the

corner. You say, 'Say baby... live around here?'

Yeah... I think I'm gonna plant⁽⁷⁾ you now and I'm gonna dig you later. Make

like a bakery truck and haul buns. Make like a⁽⁸⁾ hockey player and get the

puck out of here. I gotta go see a man about a dog⁽⁹⁾, I'll see you later.

Thank you very much for comin' this evening!

Written by: Tom Waits and Chuck E. Weiss

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), �1975

Official release: Nighthawks At The Diner, Elektra/ Asylum Records, 1975

(Transcribed by Ulf Berggren as sent to: Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist, 2000)

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Michael Melvoin. 

- Born: Oshkosh/Wisc. May 10 1937. Orchestral arrangement and direction on: The heart of Saturday night. Piano on: Nighthawks at the diner. He is based in Los Angeles and has worked extensively in the studios. Has not yet gained the fame that he deserves for his impressive technique and strong jazz improvising talents. He began playing piano when he was three but graduated from Dartmouth in 1959 with a degree in English. However, Melvoin soon chose to become a professional musician. He moved to Los Angeles in 1961 and worked with many top West Coast players and performers including Frank Rosolino, Leroy Vinnegar, Gerald Wilson, Paul Horn, Terry Gibbs, Joe Williams, Peggy Lee, Gabor Szabo and off course Jim Hughart. Played for Phil Spector's "Wrecking Crew ". Although busy in the studios, he recorded for Concord in the mid-'70s. Has worked occasionally in L.A. area clubs and often teams up with singer Bill Henderson. He led two albums for Liberty in 1966 and one for Discwasher in 1979 

- Michael Melvoin on studio recordings with Waits in 1974: "I knew that I was dealing with an extraordinary, different kind of talent. There were a couple of things about it. First of all, the lyrics ... I would describe them as top-rank American poetry. I thought then, and I still believe, that I was dealing with a world-class poet. My degree from school was in English literature, so I felt that I was in the presence of one of the great Beat poets. Tom's work was "a counterpoint to that experience. I was amazed by the richness of it. The musical settings that he was using reminded me of certain roots jazz experiences that I thought were very, very appropriate for that." (Source: "Wild Years, The Music and Myth of Tom Waits". Jay S. Jacobs, ECW Press 2000. Telephone conversation. June 25, 1999)  

⁽²⁾ Pete Christlieb: Born: Los Angeles, CA, 16-02-1945. American jazz-clarinetist, flutist and saxophonist. He also played on the 1976 "Mainstreet" album

⁽³⁾ Jim Hughart: James David Hughart. Born: Minneapolis, MI, July 28 1936. American jazz bass player. Played together with Waits from 1975 till 1980. Also played with Ella Fitzgerald amongst others

⁽⁴⁾ Bill Goodwin: William Richard Goodwin. Born: Los Angeles, Ca., January 8 1942. American percussionist. Played on the "Mainstreet" album of 1976. In 1995 he played on the Bellingham Festival of Music

 ⁽⁵⁾ Seersucker: n. A light thin fabric, generally cotton or rayon, with a crinkled surface and a usually striped pattern (Source: "The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language", Fourth Edition Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company)

⁽⁶⁾ Wolf tickets

- Tom Waits (1988): "Another one I like is wolf tickets, which means bad news, as in someone who is bad news or generally insubordinate. In a sentence, you'd say, "Don't fuck with me, I'm passing out wolf tickets." Think it's either Baltimore Negro or turn-of-the-century railroad use." (Source: Tom Waits 20 questions. Playboy magazine: Steve Oney. -- March 1988) 

- Sell a woof/ wolf ticket, to: phr. [1960s+] (US Black) 2a. To boast, to brag. 2b. to talk nonsense, to lie [trash talk] 2c. to threaten, to intimidate (buy a woof ticket) (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

- "As early as 1985, Clarence Page of The Chicago Tribune defined selling woof tickets as "an invitation to fight." In 1996, Jane Kennedy of The San Francisco Examiner called it "telling lies." In The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Betty Parham and Gerrie Ferris wrote in 1992, "Although its origin is uncertain, 'woof ticket' is a somewhat dated phrase that refers to an outrageous or exaggerated boast meant to intimidate or impress the listener." Woof is a Black English pronunciation of "wolf." According to Geneva Smitherman's 1994 "Black Talk," a woof ticket is "a verbal threat, which one sells to somebody; may or may not be real. Often used as a strategy to make another person back down and surrender to what that person perceives as a superior power." Tom McIntyre, professor of special education at Hunter College in New York, noted nearly a decade ago: "Woofing is especially effective against those who are unfamiliar with it and don't realize that it is most often 'all show and no go.' . . . The menacing behavior can usually be defused and eliminated by informed, tactful action." He advised teachers to "look secure and self-assured while you withdraw." In the context of the basketball star Howard's remarks, woof tickets are not to be bought; on the contrary, he uses the phrase to show that performance, and not intimidating attitude, is needed to "get it together." (Source: "On Language by William Safire, Crying Woof!". Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company. Submitted by Monika Kottenhahn, eGroups Tom Waits discussionlist. October, 2000)

- Also mentioned in Trouble's Braids, 1983: "Passin' out wolf tickets, downwind from the bloodhounds."

⁽⁷⁾ Plant, to: v. [early 19C] to abandon, to leave (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

 ⁽⁸⁾ Make like a...: v. [1950s+] (US) as part of a number of phrs. all of which mean 'go away', 'get lost', e.g. make like a fart and blow away, ... dragster and lay rubber, ... drum and beat it, ... banana and splitt, ... cow pat and hit the trail, ... paper doll and cut out, ... tree and leave, ... rubber and roll on. (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

 ⁽⁹⁾ See a man about a dog, have to

- The traditional and jocular excuse to leave a person, group, or room. Thus = excuse me, I have to leave, c1920 usu. used to excuse oneself to go out and buy bootleg liquor. c1940 usu. used as an excuse to go to the bathroom(Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner) 

- phr. [mid-19C+] a euph. used to disguise one's need or desire to visit the lavatory.

- [mid-19C+] an excuse to absent oneself from home in order to visit one's mistress or to go out for a drink (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

- "This has been a useful (and usefully vague) excuse for absenting oneself from company for about 150 years, though the real reason for slipping away has not always been the same. Like a lot of such colloquial sayings, it is very badly recorded. However, an example turned up in 1940 in a book called America's Lost Plays, which proved that it was already in use in the US in 1866, in a work by a prolific Irish-born playwright of the period named Dion Boucicault, The Flying Scud or a Four-legged Fortune. This play, about an eccentric and superannuated old jockey, may have been, as a snooty reviewer of the period remarked, "a drama which in motive and story has nothing to commend it", but it does include our first known appearance of the phrase: "Excuse me Mr. Quail, I can't stop; I've got to see a man about a dog". I don't have access to the text of the play itself, so can't say why the speaker had to absent himself. From other references at the time there were three possibilities: 1) he needed to visit the loo (read WC, toilet, or bathroom if you prefer); 2) he was in urgent need of a restorative drink, presumed alcoholic; or 3) he had a similarly urgent need to visit his mistress. Of these reasons-which, you may feel, encompass a significant part of what it meant to be male in nineteenth-century America - the second became the most common sense during the Prohibition period. Now that society's conventions have shifted to the point where none of these reasons need cause much remark, the utility of the phrase is greatly diminished and it is most often used in a facetious sense, if at all." (Source: World Wide Words is copyright � Michael Quinion, 1996-2004. All rights reserved)

Spidey's Wild Ride

The smoke from the battle fish and the rain soaked through

and the wheelman left the shore

and barns tumbled and silos flew across fifteen miles bad road tar

And big Bull Trometer hung on to the side

and the pig dogs trembled on Spidey's wild ride

And big John Jizom from downtown Chizom

flew away with old mrs. Storm⁽²⁾

And they found Bird Lundy neath a keg of nails crooked as a dog's hind leg

Keeping warm after twenty-nine days on hard assed bread

he drilled to the big outside and clung like a tick to his waterfront

life mooned and clouded, blued and skied

And all the clocks blew up on Spidey's wild ride

And the hills stood up in a great big 3

and left me whipped by the forces that were inside me⁽³⁾

Loud as the ocean, cold as a desk, red as the water on the river of flesh

And he was sewing up his pants while he was shoeing a mule

And he was bucking a head wind gale

But the crooked ass beauty was trapped to the side

and he shook on Spidey's wild ride

And all the statue ass makers, and the uprooted trees

And I shouted way up to where the rabbit digs his hole

and the wheelman, the jockeys the landlords and thee

were bucking a head wind south

and with nine lives spent, he landed on his rent

composed with a steele head salmon in his mouth⁽⁴⁾

and I never did see another day outside

cause I'd had enough travel on Spidey's wild ride

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 2006

Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording studios. Cotati, CA/ USA, 2006

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

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Spidey's Wild Ride:

- Tom Waits (2006): "I had fun doing that song - just some singing and some beatboxing. It's very rudimentary yet, at the same time, very complete. "What's interesting to me about hiphop is that it doesn't have any conventional wisdom -- the form is still being defined. You can put some hot sauce in the milkshake because it's still largely a lawless territory. If you want, you could record a mariachi calypso foxtrot with a Samoan singer in a bull ring... "The production can also be very cheap -- all you need is three fingers, a drum machine and a sampler and you can record a hit song in your closet. I've done some recording in the closet myself and the washroom, in the garage and in the car too, whatever." (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)

- Greg Kot (2006): "You've got that human beat-box thing going on "Spidey's Wild Ride." Has hip-hop had an influence on how you sing?" Tom Waits: "Yeah. Hip-hop is still kind of the Old West. It's a reasonably unsettled territory and truly the cutting edge of blues. They're still trying to put hot sauce in a milkshake. No one is going to pull you over and give you a ticket for it because it's still defining itself." (Source: "Tom Waits Still In The Driver's Seat", The Chicago Tribune (USA). November 21, 2006. By Greg Kot)

⁽²⁾ Mrs. Storm

- Also mentioned in Kentucky Avenue (Blue Valentine, 1978): "Mrs. Storm will stab you with a steak knife, if you step on her lawn."

- Tom Waits (1999): "When I was a kid, I had a friend whose dad was a truck driver. His name was Gale Storm. We had moved to National City, and his dad was coming through town, and he picked me up and he took me back up to L.A., to Whittier, to stay for a weekend. And I rode in the truck all the way up there. I was just like, "I'm gonna -- I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I'm changed." (Source: "Gone North, Tom Waits, upcountry" L.A. Weekly. Robert Lloyd. April 23-29, 1999)

- Tom Waits (1976): "And there was a woman called Mrs. Storm. She lived with her sister. She used to sit in her kitchen with her window open and a twelve-gauge shotgun [sticking] out of it ... so we took the long way around." (Live at the Apollo Theatre, London, UK. March 23, 1976)

⁽³⁾ Whipped by the forces that were inside me:

- Also mentioned in Come On Up To The House (Mule Variations, 1999): "And you been whipped by the forces that are inside you Gotta come on up to the house."

- Austin Chronicle (2002): Where are you, in an office or a small room fielding calls? Tom Waits: I'm out on my own recognizance in the day room, gluing pieces of macaroni on cardboard and painting it gold. After that I get to make a belt that says, "Whipped by the forces within me" on the back." (Source: "This Business Called Show", Austin Chronicle (USA) Vol. 21, No. 26. May 10-16, 2002 by Margaret Moser)

⁽⁴⁾ Composed with a steele head salmon in his mouth:

Source: Orphans booklet, 2006. Date: unknown. Credits: unknown

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."

Starving In The Belly (Of A Whale)

(Woyzeck theatre version, 2000)⁽¹⁾

Your life is whittled

Time's a riddle; man's a fiddle

That it plays on

When the day breaks

And the earth quakes; your life's a mistake

All day long

Who gives a good god damn

You'll never get out alive

There's no meaning; don't go dreaming

A man must test his mettle

In a crooked old world

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly of a Whale

As published in the Woyzeck songbook (Betty Nansen Teatret, 2000)

Written by: Tom Waits/ Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Publishing (ASCAP), � 2000

Further reading: Woyzeck Full Story

Starving In The Belly (Of A Whale)

(Blood Money studio version, 2002)

Life is whittled

Life's a riddle;

Man's a fiddle

That life plays on

When the day breaks

And the earth quakes;

Life's a mistake

All day long

You tell me:

Who gives a good goddamn

You'll never get out alive

Don't go dreaming; don't go scheming

A man must test his mettle

In a crooked old world

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly of a Whale

Oh, you're starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly of a Whale

Don't take my word

Just look skyward

They that dance must pay the fiddler⁽²⁾

Sky is darkening

Dogs are barking

But the caravan moves on

You tell me:

Who gives a good goddamn

You'll never get out alive

Don't go dreaming; don't go scheming

A man must test his mettle

In a crooked old world

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly of a Whale

Oh, we're starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly of a Whale

As the crow flies

It's there the truth lies 

At the bottom of the well 

E-o-leven goes to heaven 

Bless the dead here as the rain falls 

Don't trust a bull's horn 

A Doberman's tooth

A runaway horse or me 

Don't be greedy, don't be needy 

If you live in hope you're 

Dancing to a terrible tune

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly of a Whale

You're starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly

Starving in the Belly of a Whale

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 2000

Official release: Blood Money, Epitaph/ Anti Inc., 2002

Arrangements and lyrics published in "Tom Waits Blood Money" (Amsco Publications, 2002)

Further reading: Woyzeck Full Story

Known covers:

Kazik Staszewski "Piosenki Toma Waitsa". Kazik Staszewski. March, 2003. VIP Production / Luna Music: LUNCD 093-2 (in Polish)

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Listen to audio excerpt of Starving In The Belly as performed in the theatre play Woyzeck.

Sung by Ole Thestrup (as Captain).

Betty Nansen theatre. Copenhagen/ Denmark. November 20, 2000.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Starving In The Belly (Early theatre version): Sung by The Captain in act 2, scene 2

⁽²⁾ They that dance must pay the fiddler: American saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Step Right Up

Step right up, step right up, step right up

Everyone's a winner, bargains galore

That's right, you too can be the proud owner

Of the quality goes in before the name goes on

One-tenth of a dollar, one-tenth of a dollar, we got service after sales

You need perfume? we got perfume, how 'bout an engagement ring?

Something for the little lady, something for the little lady

Something for the little lady, hmm

Three for a dollar

We got a year-end clearance, we got a white sale

And a smoke-damaged furniture, you can drive it away today

Act now, act now, and receive as our gift, our gift to you

They come in all colors, one size fits all

No muss, no fuss, no spills, you're tired of kitchen drudgery

Everything must go, going out of business, going out of business

Going out of business sale

Fifty percent off original retail price, skip the middle man

Don't settle for less

How do we do it? how do we do it? volume, volume, turn up the volume

Now you've heard it advertised, don't hesitate

Don't be caught with your drawers down

Don't be caught with your drawers down

You can step right up, step right up

That's right, it filets, it chops, it dices, slices

Never stops, lasts a lifetime, mows your lawn

And it mows your lawn and it picks up the kids from school

It gets rid of unwanted facial hair

it gets rid of embarrassing age spots

It delivers a pizza, and it lengthens, and it strengthens

And it finds that slipper that's been at large under the chaise lounge⁽²⁾ for several weeks

And it plays a mean Rhythm Master

It makes excuses for unwanted lipstick on your collar

And it's only a dollar, step right up, it's only a dollar, step right up

'Cause it forges your signature

If not completely satisfied, mail back unused portion of product

For complete refund of price of purchase

Step right up

Please allow thirty days for delivery, don't be fooled by cheap imitations

You can live in it, live in it, laugh in it, love in it

Swim in it, sleep in it

Live in it, swim in it, laugh in it, love in it

Removes embarrassing stains from contour sheets, that's right

And it entertains visiting relatives, it turns a sandwich into a banquet

Tired of being the life of the party?

Change your shorts, change your life, change your life

Change into a nine-year-old Hindu boy, get rid of your wife

And it walks your dog, and it doubles on sax

Doubles on sax, you can jump back Jack, see you later alligator

See you later alligator

And it steals your car

It gets rid of your gambling debts, it quits smoking

It's a friend, and it's a companion

And it's the only product you will ever need

Follow these easy assembly instructions it never needs ironing

Well it takes weights off hips, bust, thighs, chin, midriff

Gives you dandruff, and it finds you a job, it is a job

And it strips the phone company free take ten for five exchange

And it gives you denture breath

And you know it's a friend, and it's a companion

And it gets rid of your traveler's checks

It's new, it's improved, it's old-fashioned

Well it takes care of business, never needs winding

Never needs winding, never needs winding

Gets rid of blackheads, the heartbreak of Psoriasis⁽³⁾

Christ, you don't know the meaning of heartbreak, buddy

C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon

'Cause it's effective, it's defective, it creates household odors

It disinfects, it sanitizes for your protection

It gives you an erection, it wins the election

Why put up with painful corns any longer?

It's a redeemable coupon, no obligation, no salesman will visit your home

We got a jackpot, jackpot, jackpot, prizes, prizes, prizes, all work guaranteed

How do we do it, how do we do it, how do we do it, how do we do it

We need your business, we're going out of business

We'll give you the business⁽⁴⁾

Get on the business end of our going-out-of-business sale

Receive our free brochure, free brochure

Read the easy-to-follow assembly instructions, batteries not included

Send before midnight tomorrow, terms available

Step right up, step right up, step right up

You got it buddy: the large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

Step right up, you can step right up, you can step right up

C'mon step right up

(Get away from me kid, you bother me...)

Step right up, step right up, step right up, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon

Step right up, you can step right up, c'mon and step right up

C'mon and step right up

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music (ASCAP), � 1976

Official release: Small Change, Elektra/ Asylum Records, 1976⁽⁵⁾

Known covers:

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

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

Waits performing "Step Right Up". With: Frank Vicari (tenor saxophone), Fitz Jenkins (upright bass), Chip White (drums). Taken from Rockpalast, WDR television concert documentary. WDR Studio's/ Studio-L. Cologne/ Germany (aired April 18, 1977).

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Tom Waits (1977): "I'm learning about stuff, too. Through the songs I'm writing now I'm changing my attitude towards things. I'm becoming a little more shrewd, a little more ..." DG: Cynical? TW: "Yeah. I don't take things at face value like I used to. So I dispelled some things in these songs that I had substantiated before. I'm trying to show something to myself, plus get some things off my chest. 'Step Right Up' - all that jargon we hear in the music business is just like what you hear in the restaurant or casket business." (Source: "Smelling like a brewery, lookin' like a tramp". Rolling Stone: David McGee. 1977)

- Song might be inspired or referring to "Little Egypt" (The Coasters, 1961). Intro and theme certainly seem similar: "Step right up folks, and see Little Egypt do her famous dance of the pyramids, she walks, she talks, she crawls on her belly like a reptile; just one dime, one tenth of a dollar. Step right up folks! - I went and bought myself a ticket and I sat down in the very first row, wo wo. They pulled the curtain but then when they turned the spotlight way down low, wo wo, little Egypt came out strotting, wearing nothing but a button and a bow, wo wo, singing, "Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah''. She had a ruby on her tummy and a diamond big as Texas on her toe, wo wo. She let her hair down and she did the hoochie koochie real slow, wo wo, When she did her special number on a zebra skin, I thought she'd stop the show, wo wo, singing, "Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah!". She did a triple somersault and when she hit the ground, she winked at the audience and then she turned around. She had a picture of a cowboy tattooed on her spine, saying Phoenix, Arizona, nineteen forty-nine. Yeah, but let me tell you people, little Egypt doesn't dance there anymore, wo wo. She's too busy mopping and a taking care of shopping at the store, wo wo. 'Cause we got seven kids and all day long they crawl around the floor, wo wo, singing, "Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah!" (Thanks to Floris Cooman, 2005 for submitting lyrics)

⁽²⁾ Chaise lounge: "Many visitors to the US are surprised to find that the name for the article of furniture is not only still known (in Britain, for example, it is now virtually obsolete outside historical contexts), but is indeed often called a chaise lounge (though by no means all Americans describe it thus). This spelling and pronunciation appears in dictionaries of American English and is now so established that no amount of remonstration, condemnation or ridicule will affect its status one jot. The original form, chaise longue, is French, meaning "long chair". Though the chaise lounge form is a classic example of folk etymology's changing an odd foreign word into something more meaningful, in one way it's hard to criticise-it is, after all, a seat that one lounges on. And it's an old error-I've found examples in American literature back into the 1850s. In the issue of Scribners Monthly for April 1876 appears this sentence, which suggests the confusion had even by then become common enough to need noting: "This particular 'chaise longue', or lounge, is said to be the one on which George Fox slept". (Source: World Wide Words is copyright � Michael Quinion, 1996-2004) 

⁽³⁾ Heartbreak of Psoriasis: quoted from a very popular US 1970's Tegrin^� shampoo commercial

⁽⁴⁾ Business, give (someone) the: Rough treatment; murder; a beating; a bawling out; planned rudeness (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner) 

⁽⁵⁾ Linernotes to "Step Right Up": "For the lyrics to "Step Right Up" send by prepaid mail a photo of yourself, two dead creeping charlies, and a self addressed stamped envelope to: the Tropicana Motor Hotel, Hollywood, California c/o Young Tom Waits"

- Creeping Charlie: Tom Waits (1980): "Ah yeah, well it's like a houseplant that you have to murder primar to sending it. And eh, what you do is eh you commit like first degree murder on your houseplant and you put it in an envelope and eh I would like send the lyrics to that particular selection. And eh I received a lot of enthusiasm over there. The offer has been discontinued so eh.." (Source: Interview for: "Radio-Radio" on W-PIX102 FM. New York. February 17, 1980)

Story (Spoken Word)

Story

(spoken word: Glitter And Doom tour, 2008)

"(crowd yells) Okay, I love you too babe! Uhhh... oh, oh! I knew if I'd stop talking YOU would start! (laughter). That's why I... that's why I'm compelled to continue here. Uh, okay... I went on eBay. I went on eBay, I shouldn't have gone on eBay, I was warned about eBay. I didn't even know what the fuck eBay was! Uh, but I was warned about it. They said: "Stay away from eBay!" And uh..: "Especially when you have money in your pocket". And uhm I had both.

I was on eBay and I had money in my pocket and I made a big mistake. Well, I don't think it was a mistake, I was TOLD I made a big mistake. You see how easy I am? I made a purchase. Okay, so what!? I made a purchase and it was my money and I spent it. Okay? Uh, now you be the judge... I bought (I swear) the last dying breath of Henry Ford (laughter).

Wait a minute! It was trapped in a Coke bottle with a corck in it. REALLY tight in there. And uh, I probably paid more then I should have for it, but when you think about it... it's a first edition you know? I mean, there's only one of them. And uh... okay let's get to something else... Uh, what's the first thing we're gonna do here? Oh, oh.. I guess... (attempts "Lucky Day", but can't get the right note) No, I'll stick with a different one (laughter). Oh, hell they ALL start like that! (laughter)."

Written by: Tom Waits

Official release: Glitter And Doom, Anti Inc. 2009

Known covers:

N/A

Straight To The Top

Strange Weather

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)

Such A Scream

Well Pale Face⁽²⁾ said

to the Eyeball Kid⁽³⁾

She just goes clank and boom and steam

A halo, wings, horns and a tail

Shoveling coal inside my dreams

There are no laws

She's made of cream

She's such a scream

Qui bon tres bien⁽⁴⁾, nails in cement

A Donnie gal from mortal clay

The plow is red

The well is full

inside the dollhouse of her skull

A cheetah coat fills up with steam

She's such a scream

All crooked lines

Her fireplace

A milktrain so clean

Machine gun haste

You'll ride the only wall of shame

And drag that chain across the state

Her lips are red

She is the queen

She's such a scream

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), 1992

Official release: Bone Machine, Island Records Inc., 1992

Known covers:

None

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Such A Scream:

- Q (1992): "There are some horrific sounds on the record [Bone Machine]. I seem to hear choking demons on "Such a Scream." TW: "Oh, yeah --- that little field recording going through there. I wanted more of that stuff on it, and Kathleen and I had to play cards for it. I liked that stuff. Sounds like it was made in hell." (Source: Bone Machine press kit, Rip Rense. Late 1992) 

- Tom Waits (1992): "It just came real fast. The plow is red, the well is fill inside the doll house of her skull --- there's more of that bone. It's a love song. It's Kathleen. It's like when you see people write the names on the rocks when you're drivin' across country. It's the same thing." (Source: Bone Machine press kit, Rip Rense. Late 1992)

⁽²⁾ Paleface, pale-face:

- n : 1. A white person. Negro use

- A white homosexual (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner). 

- Waits might be mis-quoting from Eddie Campbell's stories about the god of wine, Bacchus (1986). The tales tell the histories of Bacchus also known as Deadface in stead of Paleface

⁽³⁾ Eyeball kid: full story here. Also featured in: Hang Me In The Bottle (Alice, 1992) and as the 1999 track from Mule Variations

⁽⁴⁾ Que bon tres bien: French for "how good, very good"

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

Swordfishtrombone

Well, he came home from the war with a party in his head

And a modified Brougham DeVille⁽²⁾

And a pair of legs that opened up like butterfly wings

And a mad dog that wouldn't sit still

He went and took up with a Salvation Army band girl

Who played 'Dirty Water'⁽³⁾ from a swordfishtrombone

He went to sleep at the bottom of Tenkiller Lake⁽⁴⁾

He said, 'Gee, but it's great to be home'

Well, he came home from the war with a party in his head

And an idea for a fireworks display

And he knew that he'd be ready with a stainless steel machete

And a half a pint of Ballantines each day

And he holed up⁽⁵⁾ in room above a hardware store

Cryin' nothin' there but Hollywood tears

And he put a spell on some poor little Crutchfield girl

And he stayed like that for twenty-seven years

He packed up all his expectations, he lit out for California

With a flyswatter banjo on his knee

With Lucky Tiger⁽⁶⁾ in his angel hair, and Benzedrine for getting there

They found him in a eucalyptus tree

Lieutenant got him a canary bird, and skanked her head with every word

And Chesterfielded moonbeams in a song

He got twenty years for lovin' her from some Oklahoma governor

Said everything this doughboy⁽⁷⁾ does is wrong

Now some say he's doin' the obituary mambo

Now some say that he's hangin' on the wall

Perhaps this yarn is the only thing that holds this man together

Some say that he was never here at all

Some say they saw him down in Birmingham⁽⁸⁾

Sleepin' in a boxcar goin' by

And if you think that you can tell a bigger tale

I swear to god you'd have to tell a lie

Written by: Tom Waits

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

Official release: Swordfishtrombones, Island Records Inc., 1983

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: "Sv�rdfisktrombon")

R�d Pust - Sven Henriksen synger Tom Waits, Sven Henriksen. 1996. Sonet (in Norwegian: "Sverdfisktrompet")

Spectors. The Spectors. June 6, 2000. The Orchard/ Rio Dinero

Saving All My Love For You (a tribute to Tom Waits). Claudia Bettinaglio. January, 2001. Taxim Records (Germany)

Ain't Your Train. The Tremors Bluesband. 2003. Self-released (live)

Kazik Staszewski "Piosenki Toma Waitsa". Kazik Staszewski. March, 2003. VIP Production / Luna Music: LUNCD 093-2 (in Polish)

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

Embarcadero Love. Clara Bellino. 2005. Self-released

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Swordfishtrombone(s): There's some confusion over the spelling of the songtitle (with or without the S). The 1983 Ariola/ Eurodisc pressing has the song title spelled as "Swordfishtrombones". Other pressings seem to have it spelled as 'Swordfishtrombone".

- Tom Waits (1983): "That's the title song. It has kind of a Cuban night club feel to it. It's a story to try and give an overview of a character. We tried it with a lot of different ways. It was arranged differently with electric guitar and drums. We had trombone on it and trumpet and ended up..we.. I had to discard most of what we had done and completely rearrange it just to get it as simple as possible. So that it just kind of rolled and allowed me to tell the story over it without any interruptions. Tenkiller Lake, that's in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So, 'He came home from the war with a party in his head and an idea for fireworks display.' " (Source: "Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones". Island Promo interview, 1983)

⁽²⁾ Brougham DeVille: Classic Cadillac model. 

- Brougham: Cadillac first used the name in 1916 to designate an enclosed 5-pass. sedan body style. In the thirties, the name was given to a formal body style with open chauffeur compartment and enclosed rear quarters, metal roof and often "razor-edged" styling; the name was revived in 1954/55 for the prototype of the future, exclusive, Eldorado 4-door sedans of 1957 through 1960; later still it was used on Fleetwood-bodied top-of-the-line sedans starting in 1965. 

- DeVille: Refers to a town car that is "cut" by a division between the passenger and driver compartments. Cadillac began using the term - erroneously - in 1949 to designate a luxuriously appointed, two-door, pillarless 5-6 seater with no division between driver and passengers. After 1965 it came to designate the mid-range Cadillac models, between the "Calais" models, at the lower end of the price range, and the "Fleetwood" models at the top end. The name is still applied to a single model in the current [1997] diminutive range of Cadillac models. Alternative spellings have been witnessed: "Coupe (or Sedan) de Ville" and "deVille" [run together] (Source: The (new) Cadillac Database�, Glossary of Cadillac Terms and Definitions. � 1996, Yann Saunders and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.)

⁽³⁾ Dirty Water: Might refer to the blues classic "Dirty Water" by The Standells (1966). "Dirty Water" is a 12-bar blues song composed by Ed Cobb and first recorded by the California rock and roll band The Standells. The song is a paean to the city of Boston and its then-famously polluted Boston Harbor and Charles River: "I'm gonna tell you a story I'm gonna tell you about my town I'm gonna tell you a big bad story, baby Aww, it's all about my town Yeah, down by the river Down by the banks of the river Charles (aw, that's what's happenin' baby) That's where you'll find me Along with lovers, fuggers, and thieves (aw, but they're cool people) Well I love that dirty water Oh, Boston, you're my home (oh, you're the Number One place) Frustrated women (I mean they're frustrated) Have to be in by twelve o'clock (oh, that's a shame) But I'm wishin' and a-hopin, oh That just once those doors weren't locked (I like to save time for my baby to walk around) Well I love that dirty water Oh, Boston, you're my home (oh, yeah) Because I love that dirty water Oh, oh, Boston, you're my home (oh, yeah) Well, I love that dirty water (I love it, baby) I love that dirty water (I love Baw-stun) I love that dirty water (Have you heard about the Strangler?) I love that dirty water (I'm the man, I'm the man) I love that dirty water (Owww!) I love that dirty water (Come on, come on)"

⁽⁴⁾ Tenkiller Lake: Lake Tenkiller is located in the Cookson Hills area of eastern Oklahoma. Further reading: Virtual Tenkiller, Lake Tenkiller Area Visitors Guide : "In 1947, the U.S. Corps of Engineers began construction of the Tenkiller Dam to create Tenkiller Lake. Several of the structures from the town were moved to higher ground. Among these were the old store and several small cabins which were relocated to their present location on Hwy. 82, next to the Post Office in Cookson. If you are passing through Cookson, you may want to stop and with the owners of what is now called the Cookson Coutry Store and Cabins. The store is still a popular gathering place and a great source of information. Several structures from the old town could not be moved, were left behind at the bottom of the lake, and are popular underwater destinations for scuba divers." (Source: Lake Tenkiller Area Visitors Guide, 2003)

⁽⁵⁾ Hole up v.: To hide out, as from the police; to hide or keep another person hidden. To secure temporary living quarters or a place to sleep, as a hotel room (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner) 

⁽⁶⁾ Lucky Tiger

- Lucky Tiger is a brand name for a line of haircare products including Butch Wax.

- Also mentioned in "Barbershop": "Bay rum, Lucky Tiger, butch wax, crackerjacks Shoe shine, jaw breaker, magazine racks."

⁽⁷⁾ Doughboy n.: U.S. army infantry soldier. Very common during WW-1. Orig. commonly supposed to be that infantrymen pound the mud of roads into dough (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽⁸⁾ Birmingham: Also mentioned in Gun Street Girl, 1985: "And now he's dancing in the Birmingham jail."

---------- T--------

Tabletop Joe

(Alice demo version, 1992)⁽¹⁾

Tabletop Joe, Tabletop Joe

Everyone knows Tabletop Joe

Well, his mama didn't want him on the day he was born

Born without a body, he got nothing but scorn⁽⁴⁾

But he always loved music, all he had was his hands

And he dreamed he'd be famous, and he'd work at The Sands

Tabletop Joe, Tabletop Joe

Everyone knows Tabletop Joe

He had trouble with the pedals, but he had a strong left hand

And he could play Stravinsky on a baby grand

Tabletop Joe, Tabletop Joe

Everyone knows Tabletop Joe

He said, 'I'm gonna join the circus cause that's where I belong'

And he went to Coney Island,⁽³⁾ singing this song

And they gave him top billing in the Dreamland show⁽³⁾

He had his own orchestra, starring Tabletop Joe

And the man without a body proved everyone wrong

He was rich and he was famous, and he was where he belonged

Singing Tabletop Joe (Tabletop Joe)

Tabletop Joe (Tabletop Joe)

Now everyone knows (Everyone knows)

Tabletop Joe (Tabletop Joe)

Now everyone knows (Everyone knows)

Tabletop Joe (Singing Tabletop Joe)

Tabletop Joe (Tabletop Joe)

Tabletop Joe (Tabletop Joe)

Tabletop Joe (Tabletop Joe) ⁽²⁾

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan, 1992

Unofficial release: "Alice, The Original Demos", 1999 and "Alice PMS", 1999

Demo recording. Recorded in Hamburg, Germany, 1992

Further reading: Alice full story

Tabletop Joe

(Alice studio version, 2002)⁽¹⁾

I knew one day...

One. One, two. One, two, three...

Well, my mama didn't want me

on the day I was born

I was born without a body⁽⁴⁾

I got nothing but scorn

But I always loved music

all I had was my hands

I dreamed I'd be famous

and I'd work at The Sands

Singing: Tabletop Joe, Tabletop Joe

Now everyone will know

That I'm Tabletop Joe

I had trouble with the pedals

but I had a strong left hand

I could play Stravinsky

on a baby grand

I said, 'I'm gonna join the circus

cause that's where I belong'

So I went to Coney Island⁽³⁾

I was singing this song

Tabletop Joe, Tabletop Joe

Now everyone knows

Yeah I'm Tabletop Joe

They gave me top billing

in the Dreamland show⁽³⁾

I had my own orchestra

starring Tabletop Joe

And the man without a body

proved everyone wrong

I was rich and I was famous

I was where I belonged

Tabletop Joe, Tabletop Joe

Now everyone knows

Tabletop Joe

Sing it old boy!⁽²⁾

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), C 1992

Official release: Alice, Epitaph/ Anti Inc., 2002

Arrangements and lyrics published in "Alice - Tom Waits" (Amsco Publications, 2002)

Further reading: Alice full story

Known covers:

Neptune Quartet. Neptune Quartet. 2003.: Self-released (with guest vocalist Wes Ivankovich)

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

"Tabletop Joe" as performed in the theatre play

Alice rehearsals at the Thalia Theater, Hamburg/ Germany. December 17, 1992

Taken from "Visions D'Alice" (1993), French/ German TV documentary by Thierry Thomas for La SEPT/ ARTE

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Table Top Joe: Sung by the Caterpillar in scene 2.

- Stage directions from the play: (scene 2: Advice From A Caterpillar): Alice sees an open door in the mushroom; she wants to go through it, but it closes. A voice calls to her, and she discovers a caterpillar seated upon the mushroom, smoking a pipe.CATERPILLAR: Say, boy! Where do you come from? ALICE: But I'm a girl... at least I thought I was - CATERPILLAR: Thinking has nothing to do with it. Either you are or you aren't. ALICE: I'm little. That's all I know. I want to grow. CATERPILLAR: Up, you mean? ALICE: What other way is there? CATERPILLAR: Oh, lots. You could grow down, like roots, You could grow long, like me. You could grow out, like a big fat pig. Grow in, like a toenail. Grow out of your clothes, grow into your shoes... You could grow boring, even. ALICE: But being so little is boring! Very boring! CATERPILLAR: On the contrary! Little is great! Listen! (Sings:)

⁽²⁾ Stage directions from the play: "The Caterpillar grows larger and larger and larger. Alice knocks frantically at the door in the mushroom, as the Caterpillar's body engulfs the stage."

⁽³⁾ Coney Island/ Dreamland:

- Coney Island: American amusement park/ vacation destination in Brooklyn/ New York. Further reading: Coney Island 1; Coney Island 2; Coney Island 3; Coney Island 4;Coney Island 5. Also mentioned in: Take it with me, 1999: "Old long since gone, now way back when we lived in Coney Island.", Table Top Joe, 1992/ 2002: "So I went to Coney Island, I was singing this song."

- Tom Waits (2002): "I think it's impossible to avoid a romantic experience in Coney Island... I went to a shooting gallery there in February - it was the only place open in the whole park. It was one of those shooting galleries where the rifle shoots a beam of light instead of an actual bullet, and all the creatures in the gallery have these light-sensitive bullseye patches on their chests, so if you hit them their head comes off, a bell goes off or you hear a loud song. And I had a camera - I was taking a photo of my buddies - and I hit the flash on my camera and every animal in the cavalry went mad. And this Puerto Rican guy ran out shaking his fist at me and chasing me away, saying I was going to ruin his business. It's an extraordinary place." (Source: "Lying in Waits". The Age (Australia) by Patrick Donovan. May 10, 2002)

- Dreamland: One of the Coney Island parks that operated from 1904-1911. It was destroyed by a fire. Further reading: Dreamland by Adam Sandy; Dreamland pictures; Also mentioned in: Coney Island Baby ("Every night she comes To take me out to dreamland"), Flower's Grave ("Someday the silver moon and I Will go to Dreamland I will close my eyes And wake up there in Dreamland"), Everything You Can Think Of Is True ("We're fighting our way up Dreamland's spine With red flamingos and expensive wine").

⁽⁴⁾ Born without a body: This is inspired by Johnny Eck (also mentioned in Lucky Day Overture, 1993: "You'll See: Johnny Eck, the man born without a body. He walks on his hands, he has his own orchestra and is an excellent pianist".)

- Johnny Eck was born John Echkardt (twenty minutes after his twin brother Robert) August 27, 1911, Baltimore, Maryland. The boys entered the sideshow circuit at the age of 12, where John was billed as "Johnny Eck, The Half-boy." Johnny went on to play a role in Tod Browning's "Freaks" before returning with his brother to Baltimore, where he became a screen painter. The only time Johnny and Rob were ever apart from each other was the time Johnny spent in Hollywood filming "Freaks". He climbed the stairs to the top of the Washington Monument, on his hands in 1938. In the late 1930's he was displayed in several Ripley's Believe It Or Not Odditoriums, where he was billed as "The Most Remarkable Man Alive!". Height 1' 6". Johnny died January 5, 1991, at the age of 79, in the house where he was born. Personal quote: "I met hundreds and thousands of people, and none finer than the midgets and the Siamese twins and the caterpillar man and the bearded woman and the human seal with the little flippers for hands. I never asked them any embarrassing questions and they never asked me, and God, it was a great adventure."

- Tom Waits (1999): "... The Ringling Brothers at one point were exhibiting Einstein's eyes, Napoleon's penis and Galileo's finger bones, all on the same bill. Different tents. 'Course I missed that. You ever hear of Johnny Eck? He was a Ringling act. The Man Born Without a Body. Johnny Eck had his own orchestra and was an excellent pianist and he'd stand on his hands and wear a tuxedo." (Source: "Gone North, Tom Waits, upcountry " L.A. Weekly: Robert Lloyd. April 23-29 1999)

- Tom Waits (2002): "The Eck brothers they were twins. One was eh normal size anatomy and the other, Johnny, was eh. his body stopped at his waist. He was called "The Man Born Without A Body". But he played the piano and eh you know he had his own orchestra. He was a big hit in Coney island. Anyway, they had an act together on stage were he would. he would saw his brother in half. And eh, of course at the end of the procedure Johnny would come out of the box and walk of stage on his hands you know? To the thrill and astonishment of the viewers. Anyway it's just like eh kind of a tip of the hat. So I nicknamed him Table Top Joe cause he used to be on a, you know, on kind of a pedestal cause he had no legs. Kind of a tribute to Johnny Eck, or anybody really who is in show business or has the dream to go into show business, always discover something about them that makes them unique. You have a big nose or no hair or a funny way of talking or standing. (Source: "Interview with Tom Waits" Triple J's 2002 (Australia) radio show hosted by Richard Kingsmill. Copyright: C 2002 ABC online. Date: Telephone interview. Aired: May 12, 2002)

- Tom Waits (2002): "Table Top Joe is a nickname that I gave a real life character. His name is Johnny Eck. He had a twin brother who was of normal height and size, they used to have a magic act on stage. His brother would saw Johnny in half. Johnny walked on his hands, he was about two feet tall, but he was an excellent pianist and he had his own orchestra. He was a sideshow attraction." (Source: "Make Mine A Double", Black + White magazine (USA). Issue 61. June/ July 2002. By Clare Barker)

'T Ain't No Sin

When you hear sweet syncopation, and the music softly moans

't ain't no sin to take off your skin, and dance around in your bones

When it gets too hot for comfort, and you can't get an ice cream cone

't ain't no sin to take off your skin, and dance around in your bones

Just like those bamboo babies, down in the South Sea tropic zone

't ain't no sin to take off your skin, and dance around in your bones

When you hear sweet syncopation, and the music softly moans

't ain't no sin to take off your skin, and dance around in your bones

When it gets too hot for comfort, and you can't get an ice cream cone

't ain't no sin to take off your skin, and dance around in your bones

Just like those bamboo babies, down in the South Sea tropic zone

't ain't no sin to take off your skin, and dance around in your bones

Words by Edgar Leslie

Music by Walter Donaldson

Published by: Edgar Leslie, Lawrence Wright Music Co. Ltd/ EMI Music Publishing Ltd., � 1992⁽¹⁾

Official release: The Black Rider, Island Records Inc., 1993

Further reading: The Black Rider Full Story

Known covers:

N/A

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Original Burroughs tape played in scene 9. 

- Tom Waits (2000): ... That's an old song from the Twenties. "T'ain't no sin to take off your skin and dance around in your bones." That was his reference point for the whole play. He was looking rather skeletal himself and singing that tune was a Halloween moment. So we just integrated it, wove that into the score. (Source: "Another Night at the Opera for Waits". Andrew Dansby. November 4, 2000. � 2001, RollingStone.com)

^- Copyright: There's some confusion over the copyright. The American version of the CD has this copyright: "�1992 Edgar Leslie and Walter Donaldson", but the European version only says "�1992 Edgar Leslie". This could mean that they later realized they'd changed the tune around so much that Donaldson's music is no longer there. It really doesn't sound like an old show tune. (That 1992 copyright is renewed, by the way. They both did most of their work in the 20's and 30's.) Walter Donaldson is best known for 'Makin' Whopee!', 'My Baby Just Cares for Me', and 'Yes Sir, That's My Baby'. Lyricist Edgar Leslie's biggest moment seems to be 'Moon Over Miami', a No. 1 hit in 1935 for Eddy Duchin and his Orchestra. (Submitted by Ulf Berggren. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist, 2000)

- Original lyrics: "(verse): Dancing may do this and that, and help you take off lots of fat. But I'm no friend of dancing when it's hot. So if you are a dancing fool, who loves to dance but can't keep cool, Bear in mind the idea that I've got. (chorus): When it gets too hot for comfort, and you can't get ice cream cones, Tain't no sin to take off your skin and dance around in your bones. When the lazy syncopation of the music softly moans, Tain't no sin to take off your skin and dance around in your bones. The polar bears aren't green up in Greenland, they've got the right idea. They think it's great to refrigerate while we all cremate down here. Just be like those Bamboo Babies, in the South Sea tropic zones, Tain't no sin to take off your skin and dance around in your bones.(verse): Dancing may do this and that, and help you take off excess fat. But I'm no friend of dancing when it's hot. No I'm not. So if you are a dancing fool, who loves to dance but can't keep cool, Bear in mind this idea that I've got. (chorus): When you're calling up your sweetie in those hot house telephones, Tain't no sin to take off your skin and dance around in your bones. When you're on a crowded dance floor, near those red hot saxophones, Tain't no sin to take off your skin and dance around in your bones. Just take a look at the girls while they're dancing. Notice the way that they're dressed. They wear silken clothes without any hose and nobody knows the rest. If a gal wears X-ray dresses, and shows everything she owns, Tain't no sin to take off your skin. Tain't no sin to take off your skin and dance around in your bones."

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)

Take It With Me

The phone's off the hook, no one knows where we are

It's a long time since I drank champagne⁽²⁾

The ocean is blue, as blue as your eyes

I'm gonna take it with me when I go

Old long since gone, now way back when

We lived in Coney Island⁽³⁾

There ain't no good thing ever dies

I'm gonna take it with me when I go

Far, far away a train whistle blows

Wherever you're goin', wherever you've been

Waving good bye at the end of the day

You're up and you're over, and you're far away

Always for you, and forever yours

It felt just like the old days

We fell asleep on Beaula's porch⁽⁴⁾

I'm gonna take it with me when I go

All broken down by the side of the road

I was never more alive or alone

I've worn the faces off all the cards

I'm gonna take it with me when I go

The children are playing at the end of the day

Strangers are singing on our lawn

It's got to be more than flesh and bone

All that you've loved is all you own

In a land there's a town, and in that town there's a house

And in that house there's a woman

And in that woman there's a heart I love

I'm gonna take it with me when I go

I'm gonna take it with me when I go

Written by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1999

Official release: Mule Variations, Anti Inc., 1999

Arrangements and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Mule Variations" (Amsco Publications, 2000)

Known covers:

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

For the Stars. Anne Sofie Von Otter, Elvis Costello. April 10, 2001. Uni/ Deutsche Grammophon

Wait For Me. Jubilant Sykes. June 26, 2001 Label: Sony Classical

Left Coast Life. Kitty Margolis. October 16, 2001. Mad Kat

Big As A Berry. Megan Mullally. September 17, 2002. Varese Records

The Spirit Store. Roesy. 2003. Blue Cloak Records

Now. Birgitte Damberg Trio. December, 2003. Self-released (Norway)

Silver. Solveig Slettahjell/ Slow Motion Quintet. March, 2004. Curling Legs (Norway)

Clear. Steve Butler. April 29, 2004. Sticky Music

Unarmed And Dazed. Efrat Alony. September 29, 2006. Enja Records (Germany)

Svevest�v EP. Svevest�v. October 16, 2006. Square Records (Norway)

Take It With Me. Ilmiliekki Quartet. November 29, 2006. Tum Records (Finland)

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

Slow Down. Liane Carroll. September 24, 2007. Splashpoint Records

From A Wooden House. Eddie Nünning & Lara Schallenberg. December, 2007. Acoustic Music Records

Moss. Moss. April 8, 2008. Sunnyside Records

Notes From The Edge. Notes Fron The Edge. June 15, 2008. CitySound Music 

Standing On Chairs. Allen Savedoff. December 20, 2009. Big Round Records

Peaceful Wordl. Steve Gellman. May 15, 2010. Hidden Poet Music

Silhoutte. Georgia Mancio. May 18, 2010. Self-released

Come On Up. Dieter Weslowski. March 1, 2010. Self-released

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Take It With Me

- Tom Waits (1999): "... the old cliche, you can't take it with you, isn't true. Listening to this, I realized that you take a lot of stuff with you... We wanted to take the old expression `you can't take it with you' and turn it on its ear. We figure there's lots of things to take with you when you go. We checked into a hotel room and moved a piano in there and wrote it. We both like Elmer Bernstein a lot. My favorite line is Kathleen's. She said `all that you've loved is all that you own.' It's like an old Tin-Pan Alley song." (Source: A Q&A about Mule Variations. MSO: Rip Rense, early 1999)

- Karen Schoemer (1999): I tell Waits there's a piano ballad on his new album, "Take It With Me," that makes me cry, mostly because of the last verse. In a land there's a town And in that town there's a house And in that house there's a woman And in that woman there's a heart I love I'm gonna take it with me when I go. He droops his head bashfully. "That's a very vulnerable song," he says. "We wrote that together, Kathleen and I, and that felt good. Two people who are in love writing a song about being in love." Then he puts two triangles of toast in front of his eyes, because I'm crying just thinking about it, and maybe behind the toast he's tearing up, too. (Source: "More Dylan than Dylan". Newsweek: Karen Schoemer. May 10 1999) 

⁽²⁾ It's a long time since I drank champagne: attributed to Russian author Anton Chekhov 1860-1904 (last words)

⁽³⁾ Coney Island: American amusement park/ vacation destination in Brooklyn/ New York. Further reading: Coney Island 1; Coney Island 2; Coney Island 3; Coney Island 4; Also mentioned in: Table Top Joe, 1992/ 2002: "So I went to Coney Island, I was singing this song.", Coney Island Baby, 2000/ 2002: "She's my Coney Island Baby, She's my Coney Island Girl."

- Tom Waits (2002): "I think it's impossible to avoid a romantic experience in Coney Island... I went to a shooting gallery there in February - it was the only place open in the whole park. It was one of those shooting galleries where the rifle shoots a beam of light instead of an actual bullet, and all the creatures in the gallery have these light-sensitive bullseye patches on their chests, so if you hit them their head comes off, a bell goes off or you hear a loud song. And I had a camera - I was taking a photo of my buddies - and I hit the flash on my camera and every animal in the cavalry went mad. And this Puerto Rican guy ran out shaking his fist at me and chasing me away, saying I was going to ruin his business. It's an extraordinary place." (Source: "Lying in Waits". The Age (Australia) by Patrick Donovan. May 10, 2002)

⁽⁴⁾ 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 Care Of All Of My Children" (I'll be goin' up to Beulah land)

Take Me Home

Take me home, you silly boy

Put your arms around me

Take me home, you silly boy

All the world's not round without you

I'm so sorry that I broke your heart

Please don't leave my side

Take me home, you silly boy

Cause I'm still in love with you

Written by: Tom Waits.

Published by: Warner Chapell Music Ltd. � 1982

Official release: One From The Heart, Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (Columbia), 1982

Alternate version (demo) released on the 2004 DVD re-issue of One From The Heart

Read full story: One From The Heart

Known covers:

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

Point of Departure. Mary Ellen Bernard. March, 1995. Original Cast Record/ Triple Z

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

Undercovers. Maria & Laginh Joao. March, 2003. Emarcy Rec (Universal)

Reprieve. The Blake Wilner Quartet. January, 2004. Ant Records

Collage. Luba Mason. October 5, 2004. P.S. Classics

Take Me Home. Kaz Simmons. March 28, 2005. 33 Jazz Records

Oud En Wijs Genoeg. Dorine Bijl. March 7, 2008. Bridgadoon

Take Me Home. Laura Hull. May 8, 2009. Hullarious Records

Saal 3. Fraucontrabass. August 21, 2009. Klangraum (Pool Music & Media)

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

Waits performing "Take Me Home" in the studio with Greg Cohen on upright bass 

Taken from "One From The Heart: Reportage" (1982) 

French TV documentary for TF1. Directed by Jean-Claude Arie. Date: Los Angeles. January 5, 1982

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Take Me Home:

^- Jay S. Jacobs (2002): "The last session Waits and Gayle had together was, in Howe's estimation, the most incredible one of all. They posed for the album-cover photos, and then they performed two duets, the centerpieces of the score: one was the angry lover's spat, "Picking Up After You"; and the other was "This One's from the Heart." Yet the perfect session came very close to being scuttled. While in L.A., Crystal learned that her mother had become gravely ill. She called Howe to say that she was too upset to come to the studio. "The rap on Crystal Gayle in those days was she had this beautiful voice but no soul," Howe recalls. "I thought she sounded really vulnerable and figured if I could get her to the studio now, I might really get something." He urged her to reconsider, saying that working might prove therapeutic for her - at the very least it would keep her mind off her mother's condition, a situation she couldn't control. "She came into the studio, and she and Tom sang those duets together that day. They sat at the piano together and sang those duets. It was such a wonderful, wonderful day in the studio." During that final session, Crystal also recorded the redemption piece of the score, a beam of sunlight that penetrates the dark, smoky atmosphere. Said Waits, "Toward the end of shooting, Francis said, Everything's so sad, we need something with hope in it.' That's when 'Take Me Home' came about. The musical idea came early on, but the words were some of the last ones I wrote. I tried to sing it and it sounded real soppy, so I gave it to Crystal. I sat down at the piano, played it three or four times for her, then she cut it. I liked the way she did it. " (Source: Wild Years, The Music and Myth of Tom Waits. Jay S. Jacobs, 2000)

Tom Waits (1982): "Is there Any Way Out of This Dream?" and "Take Me Home" were written for Crystal to sing. "Old Boyfriends" was originally for me, then for her, then it turned into a duet. "Picking Up After You" and "This One's From the Heart" were written as duets. I found that it was hard writing for a woman. There are certain words they're uncomfortable with. I can get away with a certain vernacular, while a woman singing it would have trouble. I had to change things around, put everything into her words. It was tough. I felt like I was writing lines for an actress (Source: "Tom Waits: Hollywood Confidential" BAM magazine (US). Date: Travelers' Cafe/ Echo Park. February 26, 1982)

Q (1982): Do you feel your personal idea of romance is reflected in the songs in One From the Heart? Tom Waits: "The cynicism comes out, I think. There's not a lot of hope in the score. In fact, towards the end of the shooting Francis said, "Everything's so sad, we need something with some hope in it." That's when "Take Me Home" came about... The musical idea came early on, but the words were some of the last ones I wrote. I tried to sing it and it sounded real soppy, so I gave it to Crystal. She was in town for just this one day. I sat down at the piano, played it three or four times for her, then she cut it. I liked the way she did it." (Source: "Tom Waits: Hollywood Confidential" BAM magazine (US). Date: Travelers' Cafe/ Echo Park. February 26, 1982)

Tango Till They're Sore

Well, you play that Tarantella⁽²⁾, all the hounds they start to roar

The boys all go to hell, and then the Cubans hit the floor

They drive along the pipeline, they tango till they're sore

They take apart their nightmares and they leave 'em by the door

Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair

Deal out jacks or better⁽³⁾ on a blanket by the stairs

I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past

Send me off to bed forever more

Make sure they play my theme song, I guess Daisies'll have to do⁽⁴⁾

Just get me to New Orleans and paint shadows on the pews

Turn the spit on that pig, kick the drum and let me down

Put my clarinet beneath your bed till I get back in town

Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair

Deal out jacks or better on a blanket by the stairs

I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past

So send me off to bed forever more

Just make sure she's all in calico⁽⁵⁾ and the color of a doll

Wave the flag on Cadillac Day and a skillet on the wall

Cut me a switch, or hold your breath till the sun goes down

Write my name on the hood, send me off to another town

And just let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair

Deal out jacks or better on a blanket by the stairs

Tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past

Will you send me off to bed forever more

Fall out of the window with confetti in my hair

Deal out jacks or better on a blanket by the stairs

I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past

Send me off to bed forever more

Send me off to bed forever more

Send me off to bed forever more

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music (ASCAP), � 1985

Official release: Rain Dogs, Island Records Inc., 1985

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

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: "Camping i Kuopio")

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

It Happened One Night. Holly Cole. June, 1995. Blue Note Records. Japan: 1995, USA/ EMD: 1996 (live version)

Into Temptation - Astrid Seriese sings Waits, Weill & more. Astrid Seriese. October, 1996 (September, 2003). Brigadoon

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

Incarnation Blues. Seth Augustus. 2004. Self-released

Liking You Liking Me. Grace Chung. 2005. Owlsong Productions

Fast Grass. Britta Rex Quartett. January 11, 2005. Cattitude Records

Annamateur. Anna Maria Scholz. August, 2005. Self-released

Tango Scandale. Ulrich Kodjo Wendt Band. October 1, 2005. Liekedeler (New Music)

The Silverhearts Play Raindogs. The Silverhearts. October 5, 2005. Banbury Park Records

Cowboy Gypsy Party Music. Brook Adams. July 13, 2007. Self-released

Passione E Veleno (Tango di Capodanno) . Stefano Tessadri. March 28, 2008. Novunque/ Universal

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

Colorama. The Hofners. March 9, 2009. LongMan Records

The Zeitgeist Beckons. Vagabond Opera. May 9, 2009. Self-released 

Stereo Bang Bang. Children Of Celebrities. January 1, 2010. Self-released

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

Waits performing "Tango Till They're Sore"

Live performance from Late Night With David Letterman (1985)

NBC television talkshow with David Letterman. New York/ USA.

(broadcast November 21, 1985. Also lists as December 1985 and February 6, 1986)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Tango Till They're Sore:

- Tom Waits (1983) (from a 'Rain Dogs' promo clip, as presented in 'Egos and Icons'): "I had this friend who fell out of the window on New Year's Eve. 12 storeys, not a scratch. His hat blew off. The only thing that broke his fall was the fact that he had a little confetti in his hair."

- Tom Waits (1985): "That's kind of a New Orleans thing with trombone - I had a friend of mine who'd fallen out of a window - he sent me a card later that said "May you always have confetti in your hair" - that's kind of sums that up." (Source: "Rain Dogs Island Promo Tape" (taped comments on songs as sent to radio stations). Date: late 1985)

- Tom Waits (introducing Tango Till They're Sore, 1985): "Thank you eh. This is about a guy that eh fell out of a window on New Year's Eve. And eh, the only thing that broke his fall, was the fact that he had a little eh confetti in his hair. Needless to say he doesn't go anywhere without a little... confetti in his hair." (Source: "Late Night With David Letterman" (NBC TV show) Date: New York. December, 1985)

- Tom Waits (introducing Tango Till They're Sore, Healdsburg, 1996): "This is a song about suicide. But it's a FUN song. So don't go gettin' depressed"

⁽²⁾ Tarantella: "The tarantella (tarentule, tarentella, tarantelle, tarentelle, tarantel) is a traditional, southern Italian dance of 6/8 or 4/4 time, characterised by the rapid whirling of couples. There are several local variations of this dance, including the Neapolitan, Sicilian, Apulian and Calabrian tarantellas. It is led by a central singer/speaker. A tarantella is also a song that can be played by instrumentalists. Sometimes the word used for the song is taranta ("tarantella" is in fact a diminutive dialectal form for "tarantula", a common kind of spider). The time signature, the fact that it is led by a caller, and several of the figures suggest that the tarantella may be related to contra dance. It is named after Taranto in southern Italy, and is popularly associated with the large local wolf spider or "tarantula" spider (Lycosa tarantula) whose bite was allegedly deadly and could be cured only by frenetic dancing (see tarantism). One variation of the legend said the dancer must dance the most joyous dance of her life or she would die, another says the dancer will go in to the most joyous dance of her life before she dies. In actual fact the spider's venom is not dangerous enough to cause any severe effects. The spiders, far from being aggressive, avoid human contact." (Source: Wikipedia/ GNU Free Documentation License, 2007)

⁽³⁾ Jacks or better: A version of 5 card draw (poker) that requires a pair of Jacks or better to open the betting. If no one has at least this, the hand is thrown in, everyone puts money into the pot again, and the hand is re-dealt. (Source: Tom Waits Digest, Seth Nielssen)

⁽⁴⁾ Dasies: Might refer to one of these titles: "The Garden of Daisies", "Pushing Daisies", "When Daisies Pied", "Sweet Bunch of Daisies"

⁽⁵⁾ Calico: n. 1. A coarse, brightly printed cloth. Chiefly British. 2. A plain white cotton cloth, heavier than muslin (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition) In the US the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric.

Telephone Call From Istanbul

(Frank's Wild Years studio version, 1987)

All night long on the broken glass

Livin' in a medicine chest

Mediteromanian hotel back

Sprawled across a roll top desk

The monkey rode the blade on an overhead fan

They paint the donkey blue if you pay⁽²⁾

I got a telephone call from Istanbul

My baby's comin' home today

Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat⁽³⁾

Never drive a car when you're dead⁽⁴⁾

Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem

Dye your hair yellow and raise your hem

Follow me to Beulah's⁽⁵⁾ on Dry Creek Road

I got to wear the hat that my baby done sewed, whoo!

Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat

Never drive a car when you're dead

Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem

Dye your hair yellow and raise your hem

Follow me to Beulah on Dry Creek Road

I got to wear the hat that my baby done sewed

Well, take me down to buy a tux on Red Rose Bear

I got to cut a hole in the day

I got a telephone call from Istanbul

My baby's comin' home today

Sell me one of those if I shave my head

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat

Never drive a car when you're dead

Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem

Dye your hair yellow and raise your hem

Follow me to Beulah's on Dry Creek Road

I got to wear the hat that my baby done sewed, whoo!

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

Telephone Call From Istanbul

(Big Time live album version, 1988)

I was all night long on the broken glass

Livin' in a medicine chest

Mediteromanian hotel back

Sprawled across a roll top desk

My pet old monkey rode the blade on an overhead fan

They paint the donkey blue if you pay⁽²⁾

I got a telephone call from Istanbul

My baby's comin' home today

Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat⁽³⁾

Never drive a car when you're dead⁽⁴⁾

Saturday's a festival

Oh now, Saturday's a gem

Follow me to Beulah's⁽⁵⁾ on Dry Creek Road

I got to wear the hat that my baby done sewed, whoo!

Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat

Never drive a car when you're dead

Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem

Dye your hair yellow, baby

And follow me to Beulah's

I just got to wear the hat that my baby done, pop!

Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat

Never drive a car when you're dead

Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem

Dye your hair yellow, baby

Follow me to Beulah's

I just got to wear the hat that my baby done

Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat

Never drive a car when you're dead

Saturday's a festival

Now Friday's just a gem, sweetheart!

Follow me to Beulah's on Dry Creek Road

I got to wear the hat that my baby done

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba....

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music, Admin. by Ackee Music, Inc. (ASCAP), � 1986-1987-1988

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: Frank's Wild Years the play

Telephone Call From Istanbul

(Big Time live movie version, 1988)

Well, I was all night long on the broken glass

Livin' in a medicine chest

Mediteromanian hotel back

Sprawled across a roll top desk

My pet old monkey rode the blade on an overhead fan

They paint the donkey blue if you pay⁽²⁾

I got a telephone call from Istanbul

My baby's comin' home today

Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat⁽³⁾

Never drive a car when you're dead⁽⁴⁾

Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem

Dye my hair yellow

Oh, Chantilly lace and a pretty face⁽⁶⁾

Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat

Never drive a car when you're dead

Saturday's a festival, Friday's such a gem

I got to dye my hair yellow, baby

Oh, Chantilly lace and a pretty face

You know what I like!

Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat

Never drive a car when you're dead

Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem

Dye my hair yellow and raise my hem

Follow me to Beulah's⁽⁴⁾ on Dry Creek Road

I got to wear the hat that my baby done sewed

Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?

Get me out of town, is what Fireball said

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat

Never drive a car when you're dead

Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem

Oh, Chantilly lace and a pretty face

And a pony tail hangin' down

You know what I like!

Ba-ba-ba...

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music, Admin. by Ackee Music, Inc. (ASCAP), � 1986-1987-1988

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: Frank's Wild Years the play

Further reading: Big Time full story

Known covers:

This All Is The Rock 'n' Roll. Brigada S. 1992. Self-released

Songs Of Tom Waits. Dolphin Blue. 1995. Self-released demo (Germany)

Phondue. Bourbon Street Jazz Band. 1995. Zebralution

Belle Chase Hotel. Fossanova. August 23, 2000. Emi

Your Favorite Band Live. Red Elvises. September 12, 2000. Shoobah-Doobah

Bukowski Waits For Us - Vol. 1. Michael Kiessling. September 25, 2000. Buschfunk (Germany)

The Jive Kings With Measha Br�ggergosman. Jive Kings. October, 2000. Tidemark 02 50879, Canada

The Carnival Saloon Live. The Carnival Saloon. October, 2001. Self-released (Ireland)

Kazik Staszewski "Piosenki Toma Waitsa". Kazik Staszewski. March, 2003. VIP Production / Luna Music: LUNCD 093-2 (in Polish)

Changes. Alicia Wiley. October 11, 2007. Sakhara Records

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

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

Waits performing "Telephone Call From Istanbul" taken from the Big Time concert video.

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

and 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⁾ Telephone Call From Istanbul

- Tom Waits (1987): "Started as a title, then became just a junkyard for uh . . . one banjo and drums there. Got a little eastern slant on it. I don't know, beyond that. Frank is just started to plummet here; things are starting to fracture a bit." (Source: "From the set of Ironweed, Tom Waits talks with Rip Rense". New York Post: Rip Rense. Early 1987)

-Bill Forman (1987): "Waits' unconventional approach to recording doesn't end with his choice of instruments. "Telephone Call from Istanbul" goes rollicking along with banjo, guitar, bass, drums and the faint ghost of Waits improvising away on that cheesy Farfisa. When the track is nearly over, the Farfisa kicks in full strength, catapulting the listener into some hellish Turkish rollerskating rink. "I usually don't like to isolate the instruments," says Waits, explaining the appearance of the ghost early in the track. "On that song, I pulled out the Farfisa and then just put it in very hot at the end, just so it sounded kind of Cuban or something."(Source: "Better Waits Than Ever" Music & Sound Output (Canada/ USA), by Bill Forman. Vol. 7, No. 11. October, 1987)

⁽²⁾ Paint the town (blue), paint oneself (blue)

- To go on a wild spree in a town or city; to celebrate wildly (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner).

- Notice the same phrase being used in Depot, Depot, 1974: "And outside the midnight wind is blowing Sixth Avenue, I'm gonna paint myself blue, At the depot."

⁽³⁾ Never trust a man in a blue trench coat: 

- Q: Your line "Never trust a man in a blue trench coat," would that be a reference to Leonard Cohen and his "Famous Blue Raincoat?" TW: "No. It's just words, y'know? No deeper meaning there." (Source: "Sonicnet Full Chat Transcript" Sonicnet chat, hosted by Michael Goldberg & Gil Kaufman. Date: April, 1999)

⁽⁴⁾ Dead: adj. [19C] very drunk. [abbr. dead drunk] (Source: Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000)

⁽⁵⁾ Beula(h) (land): 

- Bible (Isa. lxii. 4). The land of Israel in the Old Testament 2a. 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 "Take Care Of All Of My Children" (I'll be goin' up to Beulah land), "Take It With Me" (We fell asleep on Beaula's porch)

⁽⁶⁾ Oh, Chantilly lace and a pretty face: Quoting: Chantilly Lace. Words and music by J. P. Richardson, �1958. Originally performed by the Big Bopper (J. P. Richardson) in 1958. Recorded in 1972 by Jerry Lee Lewis. Chantilly Lace: "Hello, Baby! Yeah, this is the Big Bopper speaking! Oh, you sweet thing! Do I what? Will I what? Oh baby, you know what I like! Chantilly lace and a pretty face, and a ponytail hangin' down A wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk Make the world go 'round There ain't nothing in the world like a big-eyed girl To make me act so funny, spend my doggone money I feel real loose, like a long necked goose, like a - Wow baby, that's what I like! Huh? Will I what? Do I what? Will I what? Can't never tell, baby Ha-ha-ha-ha, I might But honey, you know what I like Chantilly lace and a pretty face, and a ponytail a-hangin' down A wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk, Lord! They're gonna make the world go 'round There ain't nothing in the world like a big-eyed girl To make me act so funny, spend my doggone money I feel real loose, like a long necked goose, like a - Wow baby, that's what I like! Huh? Ha-ha-ha Huh? What's that? Pick you up at eight? And don't be late? You gotta be jokin', woman I thought you might pick ME up at eight and don't be late It don't make no difference, baby, you know what I really like! Chantilly lace and a pretty face, and a ponytail hangin' down A wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk, Lord! They're gonna make the world go 'round There ain't nothing in the world like a big-eyed girl To make me act so funny, spend my doggone money I feel real loose, like a long necked goose, like a - Wow baby, that's what I like! Wooo! Ha-ha-ha Honey, you're tearin' me up on this telephone I swear I don't know what I'm gonna do with you You yap and yap and yap and yap and yap But when you break it all down, you know what I like Chantilly lace and a pretty face, and a ponytail hangin' down A wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk They're gonna make the world go 'round."

Temptation

Rusted brandy in a diamond glass

Everything is made from dreams

Time made from honey, slow and sweet

Only the fools know what it means

Temptation

Temptation

Temptation

I can't resist

I just know that she's made of smoke

But I've lost my way, yeah

She knows that I am broke

But I must play, yeah

Temptation

Temptation, yeah

Temptation

I can't resist

Temptation

Temptation

Temptation

I just can't resist

Dutch pink⁽²⁾ and Italian blue

She is there waitin' for you

My will has disappeared

My confusion is oh so clear

Temptation

Temptation

Temptation

I can't resist

Temptation

Temptation

Temptation

I can't resist

Rusted brandy in a diamond glass

Everything is made from dreams

Time made from honey, slow and sweet

Only the fools know what it means

Temptation

Temptation

Temptation

Temptation

Temptation

Temptation

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music, Inc. (ASCAP), � 1986-1987-1998

Official release: "Frank's Wild Years", Island Records Inc., 1987 &

"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

Known covers:

The Bobs Sing The Songs Of... The Bobs, 1991. Rhino Records

Nachtgedanken. The Piano Has Been Drinking (Gerd K�ster). May 6, 1991. Chlodwig (Sony BMG). In German/ K�lsch ("Ich Will Dich", by Marion Radke)

Sto Megaro Mouskis. Elli Paspala. September 1, 1993. Sony Music - BMG (Greece)

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

Into Temptation - Astrid Seriese sings Waits, Weill & more. Astrid Seriese. October, 1996 (September, 2003). Brigadoon

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

Being Tom Waits. Billy`s Band. 2001. Self-released demo album (Russia)

Such A Taste. Bigfoot In Paris. 2002. Self-released

A Postcard From... Billy's Band. 2003. Self-released (Russia)

Pornoshow - Laura Fedele Interpreta Tom Waits. Laura Fedele. May, 2003.Auditorium, AUD 00902 (in Italian)

Careless Love. 2 Blue Shoes. 2004. Self-released (re-release in 2006).

Temptation/ I'll Never Be the Same. Diana Krall. March 16, 2004. Universal (CD single)

The Girl In The Other Room. Diana Krall. April 27, 2004. Verve Records

Quarter 'Til Three. Kimberly Carper. April 20, 2006. Self-released

Jazz Vocalists: Hear and Now. Various Artists. April 25, 2006. Concord Records (performed by Diana Krall)

2 Blues Shoes On 2er. 2 Blues Shoes. 2006. Self-released

Blues Travelling. Magda Piskorczyk. October 2005. Self-released (Poland)

Clara. Clara Bakker. July 10, 2006. Claraphon (Netherlands)

Now Or Never. Dave Holt Band. August 17, 2006. Lucky Lobster (USA)

Casserole. Nathan. September 27, 2006. Nettwerk (EP)

Charmed Life. Julie Mason and the Jazz Divas. December 2007 Vox (New Zealand)

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

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

NCIS - The Official TV Soundtrack. Various artists. February 10, 2009. CBS Records (performed by Cote de Pablo) 

Picnic Glamour. Las Damas Y La Orquesta Invisible. May 24, 2009. Producciones Malditas (Spain)

Distance. Ina Hagenau. August 21, 2009. Self-released (Germany) 

Le Souffle De Ma Vie. Andrea Rehm Quartett. October 24, 2009. Self-released

Blue Moon On The Bayou. Randy Heddon & Fat Tuesday. February 16, 2010. Self-released

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Listen to audio excerpt of Temptation as performed in the theatre play Frank's Wild Years.

The Briar Street Theatre (Steppenwolf Theatre Company). Chicago/ USA. June 17, 1986.

Performed by Tom Irwin (as Tony Profit).

Ripped from low resolution audience tape

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

Music video promoting: "Temptation" (Island, 1987)

Directed by Betzy Bromberg. Date: August 19, 1987

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

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Tom Waits (1987): "That one started out real tame. I added a bunch of stuff to it, and it started to swing a little bit. Now it sounds practically danceable to me. The whole thing was sung in falsetto. RR: The falsetto gives it a nasty edge --- TW: Gazzari's on the Strip. RR: Did you have something in mind for the vocal setting, or did you change it as you went along? TW: I wasn't sure. The song was there; it obviously needed an injection of some kind, so I tried to sing it in a new way. If you have enough time to live with a song, you can find it." (Source: "From the set of Ironweed, Tom Waits talks with Rip Rense". New York Post: Rip Rense. Early 1987)

⁽²⁾ Dutch Pink

- n. [19C] blood [Dutch Pink, a yellow pigment] (Source: Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000).

- Notice the same phrase being mentioned in Jockey Full Of Bourbon, 1985: "Edna Million in a drop dead suit. Dutch pink on a downtown train."

Tell It To Me

Louise

(Friends Of Mine version, 1998. Also known as "Tell It To Me")

They say you're seeing someone, you're wearing his ring

They say you laughed when you heard my name

They say he takes you dancing, he holds you so near

They say he'll buy you anything

Tell me am I foolish, I don't believe these stories

Darling, I'll be coming home soon

Louise, Louise, if it's true

Tell it, tell it to me

Well, I know you will not see me, but I hear you have a daughter

I hear she has my eyes

They say she calls him "father", and that he's proud of her

And that he believes all of your lies

But for all your faithless beauty, I give all my tomorrows

And if you're still thinking of me

Louise, Louise, if it's true

Tell it, tell it to me

Took a job in Tennessee

To build a life for us

Give a kiss to win a heart

Take a kiss to break apart

They say you're seeing someone, you're wearing his ring

They say you laughed when you heard my name

They say he takes you dancing, he holds you so near

They say he'll buy you anything

Well, tell me am I foolish, I don't believe these stories

Darling, I'll be coming home soon

Louise, Louise, if it's true

Tell it, tell it to me

Oh Louise, Louise, if it's true

Tell it, tell it to me

Oh Louise, Louise, if it's true

Tell it, tell it to me

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

Published by: Jalma Music Inc. (ASCAP), � 1998/ 2006

Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording Studios, Cotati, CA, on May 28, 1998

Official release (as "Louise"): Friends Of Mine - Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Warner Entertainment, 1998

Tell It To Me

(Orphans studio version, 2006)

They say you're seeing someone, you're wearing his ring

They say you laughed when you heard my name

They say he takes you dancing, he holds you so near

They say he'll buy you anything

Tell me am I foolish, I don't believe these stories

And I'll be coming home soon

Louise, Louise, if it's true

Tell it to me

I know, you will not see me, but I know you have a daughter

And I hear she has my eyes

They say she calls him "father", and he's proud of her

And even believes all of your lies

But for all your faithless beauty, I'd give all my tomorrows

And if you're still thinking of me

Louise, Louise, if it's true

Tell it to me

Oh Louise, Louise, if it's true

Tell it to me

Oh Louise, Louise, if it's true

Tell it to me

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

Published by: Jalma Music Inc. (ASCAP), � 1998/ 2006

Official release (as "Louise"): Friends Of Mine - Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Warner Entertainment, 1998

Re-released (as "Tell It To Me") on: Orphans (Bawlers), (P) & � 2006 Anti Inc.

Steel guitar by Bobby Black

Known covers:

Friends Of Mine. Ramblin' Jack Elliott. 1998. HighTone Records

Monsters Of Folk. Various artists. 1998. HighTone Records promo CD (performed by Ramblin' Jack Elliott, same version as on "Friends Of Mine", 1998)

15 Years Of American Music. Various artists. 1998. HighTone Records (performed by Ramblin' Jack Elliott, same version as on "Friends Of Mine", 1998)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Tell It To Me: (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)

⁽²⁾ Ramblin' Jack Elliott version:

- Ramblin' Jack Elliott (on: Louise): "I've known Tom for over 20 years. He sent me a letter with a tape of this song. I didn't know how our voices would sound together, but we got a good take." (Source: Ramblin' Jack Elliott official site, 2006)

- Edvins Beitiks (1996): "Waits will be on Elliot's next album [Friends Of Mine" Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Warner Entertainment, 1998], along with Arlo Guthrie, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark and Bob Weir. It was a labor of love, says Waits. "We did one song with Guy Clark - 'That Old Time Feeling' - that came off pretty good, I thought. Jack brings it with him when he comes, and that's rare these days. "You could say Jack wears in his songs - they're well used and well sung," says Waits, adding with a characteristically raspy chuckle, "Some people would say he wears 'em in and wears 'em out, but he wears 'em, that's for sure. "When he's learning a song he kind of tries it on like a pair of gloves. I got a chance to watch him do that when he recorded a song my wife and I wrote. He's got a way of doing things that's uniquely his own. He makes a song his own. That's the beauty of it." Waits has been itching to record with Elliott ever since he first heard his music getting good play, in the days when he was working as a doorman at the Heritage Club in San Diego's Mission Beach. "I was about 19, and his record was one of the most-played at this little coffee house. Jack's record was on the turntable all the time the one where he's on the cover with his horse and he's roping something [Ramblin' Jack Elliott: Young Brigham", Reprise R/RS 6284, 1968]. "It had '912 Greens' on there, spoken out, the song that so moved me. It had his version of "Tennessee Stud' and some Woody Guthrie songs," says Waits. He paused, then added that Elliott "was a real hero of mine - the idea of meeting him one day and recording with him is pretty fantastic." Waits, caught up in American music, did a lot of listening to Elliott, to Blind Lemon Jefferson, to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, before stepping onstage at the Heritage Club to give the music a try himself. "I think I made more as a doorman than I did playing," he said. "Eight dollars a night on the door, $6 a night on stage. A little strange." Waits laughed at the memory of it, and the laughter was contagious. He called back easy-going roams with Elliott when both men were moving through Los Angeles in the high-water years of California folk. "We bumped into each other a couple of times," said Waits, making it matter-of-fact. "Hung with him in clubs in L.A., him and his dogs and his motorhome." After listening to the long-sleeve best of Elliott's stories, Waits is convinced "Jack should sit down somewhere with a tape recorder and talk all day and they should put it in the Library of Congress. "He's got one of those stories that is a novel unto itself, and I'd like to read it," says Waits. "Because his story is also the story of the country." (Source: "On The Road Tom Waits Talkin' About Hanging And Recording With Ramblin' Jack Elliott...". San Francisco Examiner, by Edvins Beitiks. August 4, 1996(?))

Source: Official Guy Clark website. W. Guy Clark and Ramblin' Jack Elliot.

Date: Prairie Sun Studios, Cotati. During the recording sessions for Ramblin' Jack Elliot's "Friends Of Mine".

Recorded between February 26, 1996 to October 14, 1997

That Feel

Well, there's one thing you can't lose, it's that feel

Your pants, your shirt, your shoes, but not that feel

You can throw it out in the rain, you can whip it like a dog

You can chop it down like an old dead tree

You can always see it, when you're comin' into town

Once you hang it on the wall, you can never take it down

But there's one thing you can't lose, and it's that feel

You can pawn your watch and chain, but not that feel

It always comes and finds you, it will always hear you cry

I cross my wooden leg, and I swear on my glass eye

It will never leave you high and dry, never leave you loose

It's harder to get rid of than tattoos

But there's one thing you can't lose, and it's that feel

There's one thing you can't lose, it is that feel

You can throw it off a bridge, you can lose it in a fire

You can leave it at the altar, it will make you out a liar

You can fall down in the street, you can leave it in the lurch⁽²⁾

Well, you say that it's gospel, but I know that it's only a church

But there's one thing you can't lose, and it's that feel

Yes, there's one thing you can't lose, and it's that feel

There's one thing you can't lose, and it's that feel

And there's one thing you can't lose, and it's that feel

Written by: Tom Waits and Keith Richards

Published by: Promopub B.V. (PRS) / Jalma Music Inc. (ASCAP), �1992

Official release: Bone Machine, Island Records Inc., 1992

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

Known covers:

Lil' Band O' Gold. Lil' Band O' Gold. April 25, 2000. Shanachie

The Mirrors and Uncle Sam. John Guilt. February, 2003. Munich Records

Passion, Prayer, Poison. Karen Vieno Paurus. March 15, 2008. Self-released

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ That Feel:

- Tom Waits (1992): "We wrote a bunch of songs, but that's the only one that made it on there. Yeah, he writes songs in some ways similar to the way I do. Which, you know, you kind of circle it, and you sneak up on it. It was a real joy to write with him. You can't drink with him, but you can write with him. It was really a joy. I felt like I have known him a long time, and he's made out of very strong stock, you know. He's like pirate stock. He loves those shadows in music. And he's totally mystified by music, like a kid. He finds great joy in it, and madness and abandon. And it's still there, very much, for him. He looks at the guitar, and his eyes get all big, and he starts shakin' his head. He's made out of something that music likes to be around." (Source: Bone Machine press kit, Rip Rense. Late 1992)

- Tom Waits (1992): "I love this song. We played it hundreds of times and then I made a version of it and then I took it to New York and he was there and he sang on it and played. I really have a soft spot in my heart for this song." (Source: "KCRW-FM Radio: Evening Becomes Eclectic" Date: Santa Monica/ USA. October 9, 1992 (?))

- Jim Jarmusch (1993): Did you write "That Feel" with Keith Richards or did he just play on it? Tom Waits: No, we wrote it together. JJ: You've written stuff with him before. TW: Yeah, he's all intuition. I mostly play drums, he plays guitar. He stands out in the middle of the room and does those Chuck Berry splits, y'know, and leans over and turns it up on 10 and just grungg! I mostly just play drums. He plays drums, too, he plays everything. It was good. I'm just recently starting to collaborate in writing and find it to be really thrilling. And Keith is great 'cause he's like a vulture, he circles it and then he goes in and takes the eyes out. It was great. I guess we maybe wrote enough for a record, but everything didn't get finished, so -- There was one called "Good Dogwood", about the carpenter that made the cross that Jesus hung on." (Source: "Straight No Chaser" Straight No Chaser magazine (UK), by Jim Jarmusch. Date: October, 1992 (published early 1993)

⁽²⁾ Lurch, leave in the: Left to face a great perplexity. In cribbage a lurch is when a player has scored only thirty holes, while his opponent has made sixty-one, and thus won a double. In cards it is a slam, that is, when one of the players wins the entire game before his adversary has scored a single point or won a trick (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. � 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd)

That's The Way

That's the way the stomach rumbles⁽²⁾

That's the way the bee bumbles

That's the way the needle pricks

That's the way the glue sticks

That's the way the potato mashes

That's the way the pan flashes

That's the way the market crashes

That's the way the whip lashes

That's the way the teeth gnashes

That's the way the gravy stains

That's the way the moon wanes⁽³⁾

Written by: William Burroughs

Published by: Jalma Music Inc./ Nova Lark Music (ASCAP), � 1990, 1993

Official release: The Black Rider, Island Records Inc., 1993

Further reading: The Black Rider Full Story

Known covers:

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

Bukowski Waits For You. Michael Kiessling. June 14, 2004. Buschfunk (Germany)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Original Burroughs take played in scene 3 prior to K�tchen/ Wilhelm love duet

⁽²⁾ That's the way the stomach rumbles

- Tom Waits (2004): "Burroughs is kind of like a demonic Mark Twain. He's like the real dark heart of America. Comes from the Burroughs Adding Machine family, you know, and he threw off all the shackles of his inheritance and struck out on his own. Like they say, when you're in hell, keep going. So at times he was much more in the realm of Philip K. Dick in science fiction. Anyway, very inspiring. And I was very romantic about all the Beats when I was first coming on the scene myself. And that voice. My favorite thing is [quoting from "That's the Way," which Burroughs performs on the CD] "That's the way the cookie crumbles, that's the way the stomach rumbles, that's the way the needle pricks, that's the way the glue sticks--" That stuff really killed me." (Source: "One Wild Ride" San Francisco Magazine by Pamela Feinsilber. September, 2004)

⁽³⁾ That's the way the moon wanes

- Wane: intr.v. waned, wan�ing, wanes. To decrease gradually in size, amount, intensity, or degree; decline. To exhibit a decreasing illuminated area from full moon to new moon (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company)

- Also mentioned in Drunk On The Moon, 1974: "Hearts flutter and race, the moon's on the wane"

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 Black Rider

Come on along with the Black Rider

We'll have a gay old time⁽²⁾

Lay down in the web of the black spider

I'll drink your blood like wine

So come on in

It ain't no sin

Take off your skin

And dance around in your bones⁽³⁾

So come on along with the Black Rider

We'll have a gay old time

Step right up...

Hey, hold on there, little sailor!

Have your tickets ready!

Under 12 are for free

You just come on along

Anchors away with the Black Rider

I'll drink your blood like wine

I'll drop you off in Harlem with the Black Rider

Out where the bullets shine

And when you're done

You cock your gun⁽⁴⁾

The blood will run

Like ribbons through your hair

Just come on along with the Black Rider

We'll have a gay old time

Line forms to the left

Have your tickets ready

See the dog face boy⁽⁵⁾

Hello, sailor!

Well, just come on along with the Black Rider

I've got just the thing for thee

Come on along with the Black Rider

I want your company

Well, I think I'll have the veal

A lovely meal

That's how I feel

Oh, may I use your skull for a bowl

Just come on along with the Black Rider

We'll have a gay old

We'll have a gay old

We'll have a gay old

We'll have a gay old

We'll have a gay old time

Step right up, have your tickets ready (Ha ha ha ha)

Step right up, have your tickets ready (Ha ha)

Thank you, thank you

Thank you, thank you

You're too kind

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music Inc., � 1990-1993-1998

Official release: "The Black Rider", Island Records Inc., 1993 &

"Beautiful Maladies", Island Records Inc., 1998

Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Anthology 1983-2000" (Nuova Carisch s.r.l. Milan/ Italy, 2001)

Further reading: The Black Rider Full Story

Known covers:

Gerd K�ster und... Gerd K�ster. March 22, 1999. Chlodwig (Pavement Records)

Black Letter Days and Devil's Workshop. Frank Black & The Catholics. August, 2002. spinART Records/ Cooking Vinyl

Live Sessions. Frank Black. August 20, 2007. iTunes EP

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Waits' encore at "The Black Rider" premiere

Thalia Theater, Hamburg/ Germany. March 31, 1990

Taken from German WDR television documentary "The Black Rider - Der Schwarze Reiter", 1990 (Theo Janssen and Ralph Quinke)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Sung by Pegleg as cast is introduced in the prologue. Backing vocals by full cast (theme played in scene 10 as Wilhelm is at the Crossroads).

⁽²⁾ We'll have a gay old time: this might be taken from the famous television cartoon series "The Flintstones" (William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, 1960-1966). The theme song's lyrics were written by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, with music by Hoyt Curtin: "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones They're the modern stone-age family From the town of Bedrock They're a page right out of history Let's ride with the family down the street Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet When you're with the Flintstones Have a yabba-dabba-doo time A dabba-doo time You'll have a gay old time."

⁽³⁾ And dance around in your bones: notice this quoting from "T'ain't No Sin"

⁽⁴⁾ Cock a gun: To set the hammer of (a firearm) in a position ready for firing (Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin - Third Edition)

⁽⁵⁾ Dog Face(d) Boy: That would be Jo Jo from "Lucky Day Overture". Human oddity. The 16-year-old Russian Fedor Jeftichew was contracted in 1884 by P.T. Barnum and quickly renamed Jo-Jo the dog-faced-boy. According to Barnum's flyers he was found in the woods of Kostrama (Central Russia), where he and his father lived in a cave. In reality JoJo had been travelling through Russia for years, showing himself to paying audiences. To further enhance his doglike appearance he was told to growl and bark at the audience

The Briar And The Rose

(Black Rider demo version, 1990)⁽¹⁾

Oh blood and bone, and clocks and trains

My coat will keep you from the rain

Alas our love is all in vain

The briar and the rose

I will not wait, I cannot thread 

The tenor of the things you said⁽²⁾

My love is true and we must wed

The briar and the rose

I don't know how, I don't know why

I never meant to make you cry

My love is blind and so I chose

The briar and the rose

Out in the meadow, ablaze with green

Our love was meant to be

Oh tell me have you ever seen

A briar without the rose

Our love will tear us both apart

I'll never change my father’s heart

And I will cry and you must go

The briar and the rose

And when I'm buried in my grave

And November's wind will blow

Your tears will fall

To make them grow

The briar and the rose

And when I'm buried in my grave

November's wind will blow

And your tears will fall

To make them grow

The briar and the rose

Your tears will fall

To make them grow

The briar and the rose

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music Inc., � 1990

Unofficial release: The Black Rider, Alka-Seltzer Medien GmbH: 0-51111-12042-2, 1990-1992. March, 1990

Demo recording. Recorded by Gerd Bessler in Hamburg, Germany 1990

(Thanks to Ben Rinehart for help with transcript)

Further reading: The Black Rider Full Story

The Briar And The Rose

(Black Rider studio version, 1993)

I fell asleep down by the stream

And there I had the strangest dream

And down by Brennan's Glenn there grows

A briar and a rose

There's a tree in the forest

But I don't know where

I built a nest out of your hair

And climbing up into the air

A briar and a rose

I don't know how long it has been

But I was born in Brennan's Glenn

And near the end of spring there grows

A briar and a rose

I picked the rose one early morn'

I pricked my finger on a thorn

They'd grown so close

Their winding wove

The briar around the rose

I tried to tear them both apart

I felt a bullet in my heart

And all dressed up in spring's new clothes

The briar and the rose

And when I'm buried in my grave

Tell me so I will know

Your tears will fall

To make love grow

The briar and the rose

And when I'm buried in my grave

Tell me so I will know

Your tears will fall

To make them grow

The briar and the rose

Your tears will fall

To make them grow

The briar and the rose

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Jalma Music Inc., � 1990, 1993

Official release: The Black Rider, Island Records Inc., 1993

(Transcribed by Ulf Berggren. Raindogs Listserv discussionlist. November, 1999)

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

Further reading: The Black Rider Full Story.

Known covers:

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

Third Weeks a'lightnin. Tory Voodoo/ Tammerlin. December, 1996. Binky Records 1006CD

Loosen Up. Niamh Parsons. July 1, 1997. Green Linnet (Ireland).

Her Infinite Variety. Various Artists. January 13, 1998. Green Linnet (performed by Loose Connections)

North Amerikay. Dale Russ & Finn Mac Ginty. August 24, 1999. Aniar Records

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

Strangest Dream. Popcorn Behavior (Assembly). December, 2000. The Orchard

Dolly Bird. Liane Carroll. February 5, 2001. Ronnie Scott's Jazz House

Sowing Seeds. The Granary Girls. March, 2001. Self-released

The Carnival Saloon Live. The Carnival Saloon. October, 2001. Self-released (Ireland)

Violet Sarah And Muckle John. Cloudstreet. 2002. Self-released

Ladies View. Ladies of Longford. 2002. Self-released (Ireland)

Made In Cape Breton. The Cottars. April 29, 2002. Rego Irish

After Albany. Acabella. 2003. Self-released

Milestone. Dave Donohoe. February 2, 2003. Self-released

Tramps and Hawkers. The Muses. 2004. Self-released

Bukowski Waits For You. Michael Kiessling. June 14, 2004. Buschfunk (Germany)

North Atlantic Drift. Tena Palmer. March, 2005. Self-released

Sincerely. Harry O'Donoghue. May 28, 2005. Columbine Blue Music

Standard Issue. Liane Carroll. September 18, 2005. Splash Point Records

Live at Fylde. Niamh Parsons and Graham Dunne. November, 2005. Self-released

Atlantic Standards. Various artists. May 30, 2006 (performed by The Cottars)

Fair Play To You. Bow Triplets. September 8, 2006. Self-released (Switzerland)

Tributes. The Alexander Brothers. November 6, 2006. Scotdisc

Just Before Sunrise. Nathan Gunn. August 7, 2007. Sony Classical/ BMG

Songs From The Glen. Bob O'Donnell. August 23, 2007. AngelSong Music

Northern Tide. Grace Notes. January 14, 2008. Fellside Recordings

Twentig. Knightsong. September 18, 2009. Self-released

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ The Briar And The Rose:

- Sung as a love duet in scene 3 by K�tchen and Wilhelm. 

- Might be referring to the German brothers Grimm fairytale "Dornröschen" (Kinder und Hausmärchen, 1812-1815), which translates as "Briar Rose".

⁽²⁾ The tenor of the things you said: phrase as previously used in Empty Pockets (One From The Heart, 1981): "The shadows fall, I cannot thread the tenor of the things you've said."