one of my favourite songs of his

Well, he gave her a dimestore watch

And a ring made from a spoon

Everyone is looking for someone to blame

But you share my bed, you share my name

Well, go ahead and call the cops

You dont meet nice girls in coffee shops

She said, "Baby, I still love you."

Sometimes there's nothing you can do.

Edit: Hey there's a verse missing from that version!!!

"Well, God bless your crooked little heart st. louis got the best of me

I miss your broken-china voicea

How I wish you were still here with me

Well, you build it up, you wreck it down

You burn your mansion to the ground

When theres nothing left to keep you here, when

Youre falling behind in this

Big blue world"

Bops, can you confirm something to me:

In this videio of Roy Orbison performing "pretty woman", the Boss is pretty self evidentm elvis costello is there too, as well as a few others. The boss and the bloke in white have some fun jammin' off eachother, though it is nothing special, but a couple of times you get to see the inaudible pianist.

To me, it looks very much like our man.

namely at 2 minutes 34. (Correction, when posted on here the timer counts down to zero, so it occurs at 3 min 22)

What do you think?

With out a doubt in my mind! That was Waits! I know he was apart of it.

Totally correct!

One for the Boppers:

I believe this is the song that allowed a relationship to develop between Bops & Waits' music, if I'm not mistaken. (?)

(sadly, I could not locate a vdo by TW for this song)

Foreign Affairs:

when travelling abroad in the continental style

it's my belief one must attempt to be discreet

and subsequently bear in mind your transient position

allows you a perspective that's unique

though you'll find your itinerary's a blessing and a curse

your wanderlust won't let you settle down

and you'll wonder how you ever fathomed that you'd be content

to stay within the city limits of a small midwestern town

most vagabonds i knowed don't ever want to find the culprit

that remains the object of their long relentless quest

the obsession's in the chasing and not the apprehending

the pursuit you see and never the arrest

without fear of contradiction bon voyage is always hollered

in conjunction with a handkerchief from shore

by a girl that drives a rambler and furthermore

is overly concerned that she won't see him anymore

Planes and trains and boats and buses

characteristically,

evoke a common attitude of blue

unless you have a suitcase and a ticket and a passport

and the cargo that they're carrying is you

a foreign affair juxtaposed with a state-side

and domestically approved romantic fancy

is mysteriously attractive due to circumstances knowing

it will only be parlayed into a memory

...

Bops, t'is strange to have a soul brother never met.

And, here's looking at you, Bops:

This one references you, I guess, and is half my story told

Train Song:

Well I broke down in E. St. Louis

On the Kansas City line

and I drunk up all my money

that I borrowed every time

and I fell down at the derby

and now the night's black as a crow

It was a train that took me away from here

but a train can't bring me home

What made my dreams so hollow

was standing at the depot

with a steeple full of swallows

that could never ring the bell

and I come ten thousand miles away

with not one thing to show

well it was a train that took me away from here

but a train can't bring me home

I remember when I left

without bothering to pack

you know I up and left with

just the clothes I had on my back

now I'm sorry for what I've done

and I'm out here on my own

well it was a train that took me away from

here but a train can't bring me home

Oh, and nearly forgot - I promised to transcribe a story told by Waits in every post.

On the album Big Time (live), TW tells this story before going into the Train Song. The story, as is often the case, seemingly has nothing whatsoever to do with the song: (NB: as with any story, it lies more in its delivery than anything, but at least those of you reading this get an idea)

Alright... Actually I get asked - Well actually, the question I think I get asked the most... err.. Well... I mean it happens a lot, okay? Well, I mean it happens enough that I would remark on it.

A lot of people come up to me and they say, "Tom?... Is it possible for a woman to get pregnant without intercourse?"

...

And well, my answers always the same, I say, "Well Listen, we're gonna have to go all the way back to the civil war."

Apparently a stray bullet actually pierced the testicle of a union solider and then lodged itself in the ovaries of an 18 year old girl who was actually 100 feet from him at the time.

Well, the baby was fine, very happy. Guilt Free.

And of course the soldier was a little P1ssed off.

When you think about it, it is actually a form of intercourse.

But perhaps not for everyone.

Those who love action, maybe?

Thanks, Boppers and Kayo. Nice.

One for the Boppers:

I believe this is the song that allowed a relationship to develop between Bops & Waits' music, if I'm not mistaken. (?)

This is a good one. I was first exposed to Waits through Night Hawks at The Diner ages ago, in a smoke filled room crowded with failed hippies and successful losers. Perhaps growing up in bars and rooms like this convinced me there was no point to life but yet there was a way to survive it. That I think is one thing I take away from Tom's tunes.

(sadly, I could not locate a vdo by TW for this song)

Foreign Affairs:

when travelling abroad in the continental style

it's my belief one must attempt to be discreet

and subsequently bear in mind your transient position

allows you a perspective that's unique

though you'll find your itinerary's a blessing and a curse

your wanderlust won't let you settle down

and you'll wonder how you ever fathomed that you'd be content

to stay within the city limits of a small midwestern town

most vagabonds i knowed don't ever want to find the culprit

that remains the object of their long relentless quest

the obsession's in the chasing and not the apprehending

the pursuit you see and never the arrest

without fear of contradiction bon voyage is always hollered

in conjunction with a handkerchief from shore

by a girl that drives a rambler and furthermore

is overly concerned that she won't see him anymore

Planes and trains and boats and buses

characteristically,

evoke a common attitude of blue

unless you have a suitcase and a ticket and a passport

and the cargo that they're carrying is you

a foreign affair juxtaposed with a state-side

and domestically approved romantic fancy

is mysteriously attractive due to circumstances knowing

it will only be parlayed into a memory

...

Bops, t'is strange to have a soul brother never met.

And, here's looking at you, Bops:

This one references you, I guess, and is half my story told

Thank you mate. This warms me like a good whiskey, . Maybe one day we can share that whiskey.

Yes, Train Song.....I remember listening to this and thinking that I could relate, for while I have been stuck in the same place for years it's not my home, never has been, never will be. So, I am not sure how I got here and when I left home, nor am I sure where home is and if I can get back.

Train Song:

Well I broke down in E. St. Louis

On the Kansas City line

and I drunk up all my money

that I borrowed every time

and I fell down at the derby

and now the night's black as a crow

It was a train that took me away from here

but a train can't bring me home

What made my dreams so hollow

was standing at the depot

with a steeple full of swallows

that could never ring the bell

and I come ten thousand miles away

with not one thing to show

well it was a train that took me away from here

but a train can't bring me home

I remember when I left

without bothering to pack

you know I up and left with

just the clothes I had on my back

now I'm sorry for what I've done

and I'm out here on my own

well it was a train that took me away from

here but a train can't bring me home

Oh, and nearly forgot - I promised to transcribe a story told by Waits in every post.

On the album Big Time (live), TW tells this story before going into the Train Song. The story, as is often the case, seemingly has nothing whatsoever to do with the song: (NB: as with any story, it lies more in its delivery than anything, but at least those of you reading this get an idea)

Alright... Actually I get asked - Well actually, the question I think I get asked the most... err.. Well... I mean it happens a lot, okay? Well, I mean it happens enough that I would remark on it.

A lot of people come up to me and they say, "Tom?... Is it possible for a woman to get pregnant without intercourse?"

...

And well, my answers always the same, I say, "Well Listen, we're gonna have to go all the way back to the civil war."

Apparently a stray bullet actually pierced the testicle of a union solider and then lodged itself in the ovaries of an 18 year old girl who was actually 100 feet from him at the time.

Well, the baby was fine, very happy. Guilt Free.

And of course the soldier was a little P1ssed off.

When you think about it, it is actually a form of intercourse.

But perhaps not for everyone.

Those who love action, maybe?

I love this one!! He has since a sense of humor!!

Cold Cold Ground

Here is one I posted lyrics for, with some advice about bad days.

Jersey Girl

The Boss covered this one, but Waits does it better.

Nighthawks was my first introduction to Waits also! I was fifteen, freshly left home and moved from northern italy to England - cambridge, incidentally - and my next door neighbour at the hostel was a spanish dude called Eduardo. He had a scratchy copied MC and i think I'd been there for a bout a week when suddenly I found myself drinking beer (and smoking wacky with Eduardo and listening to Waits... Nighthawks at the diner! Brilliant!

Nighthawks was my first introduction to Waits also! I was fifteen, freshly left home and moved from northern italy to England - cambridge, incidentally - and my next door neighbour at the hostel was a spanish dude called Eduardo. He had a scratchy copied MC and i think I'd been there for a bout a week when suddenly I found myself drinking beer (and smoking wacky with Eduardo and listening to Waits... Nighthawks at the diner! Brilliant!

Emotional Wheather Report!!

When I first heard this song by Tom Waits, I was surprised.

I had known, and disliked, the famous version performed by Rod Stewart for many years already. Yet When I heard it on the "USED SONGS" album, i was struck down and stayed in my place for the duration ofthis song.

I had never heard the song as it was meant to be.

The song, of course, is the infamousm "Tom Traubert's Blues (four sheets to the wind in Copenhagen)"

Lattar day's version of Waltzing Mathilda.

Legend goes that Tom Waits - the troubadour-, aka: Tom Traubert (in this tune) was going from port to port, which, in a way, he was a newly succesful musician, and while in Copenhagen he actually fell in something more than lust with a young lady he met along the way.

The story goes that this is written for her.

Tom Waits was my age when he wrote this song.

And the power of it is tremendous, to me.

The description of how he couldn't have what he got to taste.

The descriptions of the surroundings, the characters in this tale; He doesn't need pages of descriptive, as a novelist would. In four or five, correctly used words, he describes more than Shakespear would in twenty sonnets.

I've not the talent of this man, but I've lived a semi rock'n'roll lifestyle, hosting parties across the world, being a bartender in Thailand and Amsterdam, Mediterranean France and Central America and I've - god knows - had a lot of fun with ladies.

YET every now and then I'll meet and become acquainted with some special soul that is rare and few and far between.

And when such a thing happens, for a travelling soul, it can cause an immense heart ache, and moral dilemma;

You start to think to yourself extensively.

You start to think of how your relationship with this special lady would be if only you had a more stable lifestyle.

Counter that with the idea that you wouldn't ever have met her or had her even become attracted to you if were not a fling for her.

You start to think about how much "nicer" life would be with this lady living in your home, awakening to her, asleeping with her, eating breakfast with her, and you even, sa the years progress, wonder about how she might be as a mother to your children, potentially; Would she be a good mother? would my children love and respect and admire and adore her?

But then you counter that with the rationalisation that she probably would, but that you yourself might be the weaker link, and that , "yeah, what I'm doing, drinking myself slowly to an early grave is my chosen path. I wouldn't be able, nor deserving of a love like that full-time."

And you find yourself at yet another train station or airport, saying good-night to the night-shift street sweepers and building cleaners as they go off to bed while you make your way onwards on your travels in a brand new dawn that brings only the predictability of finding a new bar, and new friends.

And hence you allow the Rock'n'Roll to envelope you for it is where you will derive the most pleasures you're likely to live in this world.

And them Moral Dilemma's? Here, have another drink.

Again, during this performance he was my age.

I do not have his talent, but i bloody well understand his emotions.

For your pleasure, (vdo will load here)

Wasted and wounded, it ain't what the moon did

Got what I paid for now

See ya tomorrow, hey Frank can I borrow

A couple of bucks from you?

To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

I'm an innocent victim of a blinded alley

And tired of all these soldiers here

No one speaks English and everything's broken

And my Stacys are soaking wet

To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

Now the dogs are barking and the taxi cab's parking

A lot they can do for me

I begged you to stab me, you tore my shirt open

And I'm down on my knees tonight

Old Bushmill's I staggered, you buried the dagger

Your silhouette window light

To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

Now I lost my Saint Christopher now that I've kissed her

And the one-armed bandit knows

And the maverick Chinaman and the cold-blooded signs

And the girls down by the strip-tease shows

Go, waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

No, I don't want your sympathy

The fugitives say that the streets aren't for dreaming now

Manslaughter dragnets and the ghosts that sell memories

They want a piece of the action anyhow

Go, waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

And you can ask any sailor and the keys from the jailor

And the old men in wheelchairs know

That Matilda's the defendant, she killed about a hundred

And she follows wherever you may go

Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace

And a wound that will never heal

No prima donna, the perfume is on

An old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey

And goodnight to the street sweepers

The night watchman flame keepers and goodnight to Matilda too

Make It Rain

She took all money

and my best friend

You know the story

here it comes again

I have no pride

I have no shame

You gotta make it rain

Make it rain

Since you're gone

deep inside it hurts

I am just another sad guest

on this dark earth

I want to believe in the mercy of the world again

Make it rain, make it rain

The nights too quiet

stretched out alone

I need the whip of thunder

and the winds dark moan

I'm not Able, I'm just Cain

Open up the heavens

Make it rain

I'm close to heaven

crushed at the gate

they sharpen their knives on my mistakes

What she done, you can't give it a name

you gotta make it rain

Make it rain

Without your love

without your kiss

how can he ll burn me more than this

I'm burning up with all this pain

put out the fire

Make it rain

I'm born to trouble

I'm born to fate

inside a promise

I can't escape

it's the same old world

but nothing looks the same

Make it rain

I stand alone here

Make it rain

Make it Rain (vidieo, but I don't think it's offical, fan vid)

Could not find a good video for this, so I am just posting his lyrics. One of his most touching songs I think.

Day After Tomorrow

I got you later today

and I miss you all so much, here

can't wait to see you all

and I'm counting the days, dear

I still believe that there is gold

at the end of the world

and I'll come home

to Illinois

the day after tomorrow

It is so hard

and it's cold here

and I am tried of taking orders

and I miss old Rockford town

up by the Wisconson border

but what I miss, you won't believe

shoveling snow and raking leaves

and my plane will touch down

on the day after tomorrow

I close my eyes

every night

and dream that I can hold you

they fill us full of lies

that everyone buys

about what it means to be a soldier

I still don't know, how I am suppose to feel

about all the blood that has been spilled

look out on the street

get me back home

on the day after tomorrow

You can't deny

the other side

don't want to die

anymore than we do

what I'm trying to say

is don't they pray

to the same god we do

Tell me, how does god choose

whose prayers does he refuse

who turns the wheel

who throws the dice

on the day after tomorrow

I am not fighting

for justice

I am not fighting

for freedom

I am fighting

for my life

and a another day in the world here

I just do what I've been told

You're just the gravel on the road

and only the lucky ones will come home

on the day after tomorrow

In the summer

it too will fade

and with it comes the winter's frost, dear

and I know we too are made

of all the things that we have lost here

I'll be twenty-one today

I've been saving all my pay

and my plane will touch down

on the day after tomorrow

Bops,

Funniest interview with him I've yet seen!!

This is great, I thought the interviewer handled it really well!

Bops,

Funniest interview with him I've yet seen!!

God, I love Tom!!

Alternatively, pour yourself a serving of Single Malt, light 'em if you got 'em, and sit back to this, slinky Summertime/Burma Shave medley...(1978)

part 2

and in other news...

One more, cos this is just an awesome performance (with Judah Bauer of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, on guitar)

Great vids Kayo!!!

I still sleep that way these days, though sometimes I use pillow substitutes.

You wouldn't be the first (Girl nor guy) to do this.

Bops, we all thought you were wierd before this thread, but we love ya all the same.

Mine would have to be, when I was about thirteen, I got my first real taste of Pu55y.

Still gets me knickers in a twist every time, some 16 years later.

Yes, I remember my first muff diving experience........aaahhhhh......like fresh fruit...only not.

Here is one you would like Kayo......Waits, Nighthawks at the Diner....can't listen to it without thinking about this wonderful girl who I loved openly for so long but would only be my friend. She was a Waits song.

Which song Bops? Warm Beer/Cold Women?

Or Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street) :

copyright Tom Waits or Asylum Records pro'lly

there's a blur drizzle down the plateglass

as a neon swizzle stick stirrin up the sultry night air

and a yellow biscuit of a buttery cue ball moon

rollin' maverick across an obsidian sky

as the busses go groanin' and wheezin',

down on the corner I'm freezin';

on a restless boulevard at a midnight road

I'm across town from EASY STREET

with the tight knots of moviegoers and out of towners

on the stroll

and the buildings towering high above

lit like dominoes or black dice

all the used car salesmen dressed up in

Purina Checkerboard slacks

and Foster Grant wrap-around,

pacing in front of EARL SCHLEIB

$39.95 merchandise

like barkers at a shootin' gallery

they throw out kind of a Texas Guinan routine

"Hello sucker, we like your money

just as well as anybody else's here"

or they give you the P.T. Barnum bit

"There's a sucker born every minute

you just happened to be comin' along at the right time"

come over here now

you know... all the harlequin sailors are on the stroll

in a search of "LIKE NEW," "NEW PAINT,"

decent factory air and AM-FM dreams

and the piss yellow gypsy cabs

stacked up in the taxi zones waitin' like

pinball machines

to be ticking off a joy ride to a magical place

waitin' in line like "truckers welcome" diners

with dirt lots full of

Peterbilts, Kenworths, Jimmy's and the like, and

they're hiballin' with bankrupt brakes, over driven

under paid, over fed, a day late and a dollar short

but Christ I got my lips around a bottle and

my foot on the throttle and I'm standin' on the corner

standin' on the corner like a "just in town"

jasper, on a street corner with a gasper lookin

' for some kind of Cheshire billboard grin

stroking a goateed chin, and using parking meters

as walking sticks on the inebriated stroll

with my eyelids propped open at half mast

but you know... over at Chubb's Pool Hall and Snooker

it was a nickle after two, yea it was a nickle after two

and in the cobalt steel blue dream smoke, it

was the radio that groaned out the hit parade

and the chalk squeaked, the floorboards creaked

and an Olympia sign winked through a torn yellow

shade, old Jack Chance himself leanin' up against

a Wurlitzer and eyeballin' out a 5 ball combination shot

impossible you say? ...hard to believe?, perhaps

out of the realm of possibility? naaaa

he be stretchin' out long tawny fingers out across a

cool green felt with a provocative golden gate

and a full table railshot that's no sweat and I leaned

up against my bannister and wandered over to the

Wurlitzer and I punched A-2 I was lookin' for

something like Wine, Wine, Wine by the Night Caps

starring Chuck E. Weiss or High Blood Pressure

by George (cryin' in the streets) Perkins - no dice

"that's life," that's what all the people say ridin' high

in April, seriously shot down in May, but I know I'm

gonna change that tune when I'm standing underneath

a buttery moon that's all melted off to one side

It was just about that time that the sun

came crawlin' yellow out of a manhole

at the foot of 23rd Street

and a dracula moon in a black disguise

was making its way back to its

pre-paid room at the St. Moritz Hotel (scat)

and the El train came tumbling across the trestles and it sounded

like the ghost of Gene Krupa

with an overhead cam and glasspacks

and the whispering brushes of wet radials

on a wet pavement and there's a

traffic jam session on Belmont tonight

and the rhapsody of the pending

evening, I leaned up against

my bannister and I've been looking

for some kind of an emotional

investment with romantic dividends

kind of a physical negociation

is underway

as I attempt to consolidate all my

missed weekly payments, into

one-low-monthly payment

through the nose

with romantic residuals and leg akimbo

but the chances are more than likely I'll probably

be held over for another smashed weekend

Love that tune.

ALright, Just cos I know you really really really want it Bops:

late night and early morning low clouds

with a chance of fog

chance of showers into the afternoon

with variable high cloudiness

and gusty winds, gusty winds

at times around the corner of

Sunset and Alvorado

things are tough all over

when the thunder storms start

increasing over the southeast

and south central portions

of my apartment, I get upset

and a line of thunderstorms was

developing in the early morning

ahead of a slow moving coldfront

cold blooded

with tornado watches issued shortly

before noon Sunday, for the areas

including, the western region

of my mental health

and the northern portions of my

ability to deal rationally with my

disconcerted precarious emotional

situation, it's cold out there

colder than a ticket taker's smile

at the Ivar Theatre, on a Saturday night

flash flood watches covered the

southern portion of my disposition

there was no severe weather well

into the afternoon, except for a lone gust of

wind in the bedroom

in a high pressure zone, covering the eastern

portion of a small suburban community

with a 103 and millibar high pressure zone

and a weak pressure ridge extending from

my eyes down to my cheeks cause since

you left me baby

and put the vice grips on my mental health

well the extended outlook for an

indefinite period of time until you

come back to me baby is high tonight

low tomorrow, and precipitation is

expected

And this wasn't available a while back when you posted it Bops, but it is now...

also! Check it out:

Anti- records on youtube

And this wasn't available a while back when you posted it Bops, but it is now...

also! Check it out:

Anti- records on youtube

Thanks Kayo! I love this song.

As we all know, Tom is an actor of immense quality.

This press conference is absolutely delightful.

And if you thought Usual Suspects, Se7en, The Crying Game, all had twists in the tale, well, you haven't seen anything until you've watched this vdo through to the end.

I have seen this thread, but never opened it.

After all, who would start a thread about "Beautiful ailments / sicknesses" ....... <deleted>?

Beautiful Maladies,,,,,, sheeeeeeeesh

Yeah, go call me pedantic.....LOL

I have seen this thread, but never opened it.

After all, who would start a thread about "Beautiful ailments / sicknesses" ....... <deleted>?

Beautiful Maladies,,,,,, sheeeeeeeesh

Yeah, go call me pedantic.....LOL

Beautiful Maladies is one of the albums released by Tom Waits.

As we all know, Tom is an actor of immense quality.

This press conference is absolutely delightful.

And if you thought Usual Suspects, Se7en, The Crying Game, all had twists in the tale, well, you haven't seen anything until you've watched this vdo through to the end.

Ab fab! Brill! Classic TW...

I have seen this thread, but never opened it.

After all, who would start a thread about "Beautiful ailments / sicknesses" ....... <deleted>?

Beautiful Maladies,,,,,, sheeeeeeeesh

Yeah, go call me pedantic.....LOL

Beautiful Maladies is one of the albums released by Tom Waits.

Yeah, ya big dope pete!

It is and it isn't =.

It is an official compilation of some of the best songs of the years (1980-1989) that he was with the Island Recording label

Tigs, here's one for you:

Q: Tom, you love words and their origins. For $2,000…what is the origin of the word bedlam?

A: It’s a contraction of the word Bethlehem. It comes from the hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem outside London. The hospital began admitting mental patients in the late fourteenth century. In the sixteenth century it became a lunatic asylum. The word bedlam came to be used for any madhouse- and by extension, for any scene of noisy confusion.