Tom Waits

[fox69]

"Underground"

"Underground"


Rattle Big Black Bones
in the Danger zone
there's a rumblin' groan
down below
there's a big dark town
it's a place I've found
there's a world going on
UNDERGROUND
they're alive, they're awake
while the rest of the world is asleep
below the mine shaft roads
it will all unfold
there's a world going on
UNDERGROUND
all the roots hang down
swing from town to town
they are marching around
down under your boots
all the trucks unload
beyond the gopher holes
there's a world going on
UNDERGROUND

 

[fox69]

"Union Square"

"Union Square"


Well time is always money
For the boys at Union Square
You can bust your ass till doomsday
But don't forget to say your prayers
Someone's got a wad on the backstreet.
Sacco got a bran' new slack
And your baby is handcuffed on the front seat
You just sit right there, boy and relax

[Chorus:]
I'm goin' down down down
I'm goin' down down down
I'm goin' down down down
I'm goin' down down down

Well they spill out of the Cinema 14
To that drag bar there on the block
Best live show by far in the whole east coast
With a bank rolled up in your sock
She stand right there for your pleasure
Half Puerto Rican Chinese
Your got to find your baby somebody to measure
I'm goin' to get me some of these baby.

[Chorus]

Four in the mornin' on a Sunday
Sacco drinkin' whiskey in church
Half pint festival brandy
That 'bout to fall right off his perch
The guy in the sweaters off duty
Out in front on the welfare hotel
The guy in the dress is a beauty
Go all the way and I swear you never can tell

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Virginia Avenue"

"Virginia Avenue"


Well, I'm walking on down Virginia Avenue
Trying to find somebody to tell my troubles to.
Harold's club is closing, and everybody's going on home:
What's a poor boy to do?

I'll just get on back into my short, make it back to the fort
Sleep off all the crazy lizards inside of my brain.
There's got to be some place that's better than this
This life I'm leading's driving me insane

And let me tell you I'm dreaming...

Let me tell you that I'm dreaming to the twilight, this town has got me down.
I've seen all the highlights, I've been walking all around
I won't make a fuss, I'll take a Greyhound bus, carry me away from here:
Tell me, what have I got to lose?

'Cause I'm walking on down Columbus Avenue
The bars are all closing, 'cause it's quarter to two
Every town I go to is like a lock without a key
Those I leave behind are catching up on me,
Let me tell you they're catching up on me, they're catching up on me
Catching up on me, catching up on me, catching up on me.

 

[fox69]

"Walk Away"

"Walk Away"


Dot King was whittled from the bone of Cain
With a little drop of poison in the red red blood
She need a way to turn around the bend
She said I want to walk away and start over again

There are things I've done I can't erase
I want to look in the mirror see another face
I said, "never", but I'm doing it again
I wanna walk away, start over again

No more rain, no more roses
On my way, shake my thirst in a cool cool pond

There's a winner in every place
There's a heart that's beating in every page
The beginning of it starts at the end
When it's time to walk away and start over again

Weather's murder at a hundred and three
William Ray shot Corabell Lee
A yellow dog knows when he has sinned
You wanna walk away and start over again

No more rain, no more roses
On my way, shaking my thirst in a cool cool pond

Cooper told Maui the whole block's gone
They're dying for jewelry, money, and clothes
I always get out of the trouble I'm in
I want to walk away, start over again

I left my bible by the side of the road
Carve my initials in an old dead tree
I'm going away but I'm going to be back when
It's time to walk away and start over again

Ho ho yeah, hmm, yeah
Gotta walk away, gotta walk away, gotta walk away
Just wanna walk away yeah, wanna walk away and start over again
Wanna walk away, wanna walk away, wanna walk away

 

[fox69]

"Walking Spanish"

"Walking Spanish"


He's got himself a homemade special
You know his glass is full of sand
And it feels just like a jaybird
The way it fits into his hand
He rolled a blade up in his trick towel
They slap their hands against the wall
You never trip, you never stumble
He's walking spanish down the hall

Slim him a picture of our Jesus
Or give him a spoon to dig a hole
What all he done ain't no one's business
But he'll need blankets for the cold
They dim the lights over on Broadway
Even the king has bowed his head
Every face looks right up at Mason
He's walking spanish down the hall

Latella's screeching for a blind pig
Punk Sander's carved it out of wood
He never sang when he got hoodwinked
They tried it all but he never would
Tomorrow morning there'll be laundry
But he'll be somewhere else to hear the call
Don't say goodbye he's just leaving early
He's walking spanish down the hall

All St. Barthelemew said was whispered
Into the ear of Blind Jack Dawes
All Baker told the machine
Was that he never broke the law
Go on and tip your hat up to the Pilate
Take off your watch, your rings and all
Even Jesus wanted just a little more time
He's walking spanish down the hall

 

[fox69]

"Warm Beer And Cold Women"

"Warm Beer And Cold Women"


warm beer and cold women, I just don't fit in
every joint I stumbled into tonight
that's just how it's been
all these double knit strangers with
gin and vermouth and recycled stories
in the naugahyde booths

with the platinum blondes
and tobacco brunettes
I'll be drinkin' to forget you
lite another cigarette
and the band's playin' something
by Tammy Wynette
and the drinks are on me tonight

all my conversations I'll just be
talkin' about you baby
borin' some sailor as I try to get through
I just want him to listen
that's all you have to do
he said I'm better off without you
till I showed him my tattoo

now the moon's rising
ain't got no time to lose
time to get down to drinking
tell the band to play the blues
drink's are on me, I'll buy another round
at the last ditch attempt saloon

warm beer and cold women, I just don't fit in
every joint I stumbled into tonight
that's just how it's been
all these double knit strangers with
gin and vermouth and recycled stories
in the naugahyde booths

with the platinum blondes
and tobacco brunettes
I'll be drinking to forget you
lite another cigarette
and the band's playing somethin'
by Johnnie Barnett
and the drinks are on me tonight

 

[fox69]

"Watch Her Disappear"

"Watch Her Disappear"


Last night I dreamed that I was dreaming of you
And from a window across the lawn I watched you undress
Wearing your sunset of purple tightly woven around your hair
That rose in strangled ebony curls
Moving in a yellow bedroom light
The air is wet with sound
The faraway yelping of a wounded dog
And the ground is drinking a slow faucet leak
Your house is so soft and fading as it soaks the black summer heat
A light goes on and the door opens
And a yellow cat runs out on the stream of hall light and into the yard

A wooden cherry scent is faintly breathing the air
I hear your champagne laugh
You wear two lavender orchids
One in your hair and one on your hip
A string of yellow carnival lights comes on with the dusk
Circling the lake with a slowly dipping halo
And I hear a banjo tango

And you dance into the shadow of a black poplar tree
And I watched you as you disappeared
I watched you as you disappeared
I watched you as you disappeared
I watched you as you disappeared

 

[fox69]

"Way Down In The Hole"

"Way Down In The Hole"


When you walk through the garden
you gotta watch your back
well I beg your pardon
walk the straight and narrow track
if you walk with Jesus
he's gonna save your soul
you gotta keep the devil
way down in the hole
he's got the fire and the fury
at his command
well you don't have to worry
if you hold on to Jesus hand
we'll all be safe from Satan
when the thunder rolls
just gotta help me keep the devil
way down in the hole
All the angels sing about Jesus' mighty sword
and they'll shield you with their wings
and keep you close to the lord
don't pay heed to temptation
for his hands are so cold
you gotta help me keep the devil
way down in the hole

 

[fox69]

"We're All Mad Here"

"We're All Mad Here"


You can hang me in a bottle like a cat
Let the crows pick me clean but for my hat
Where the wailing of a baby
Meets the footsteps of the dead
We're all mad here

As the devil sticks his flag into the mud
Mrs Carol has run off with Reverend Judd
Hell is such a lonely place
And your big expensive face will never last

And you'll die with the rose still on your lips
And in time the heart-shaped bone that was your hips
And the worms, they will climb the rugged ladder of your spine
We're all mad here

And my eyeballs roll this terrible terrain
And we're all inside a decomposing train
And your eyes will die like fish
And the shore of your face will turn to bone

 

[fox69]

"What Keeps Mankind Alive"

"What Keeps Mankind Alive"


You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins

You lot who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn, for once, the way the world is run
However much you twist or whatever lies that you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on

So first make sure that those who are now starving
Get proper helpings when we all start carving
What keeps mankind alive?

What keeps mankind alive?
The fact that millions are daily tortured
Stifled, punished, silenced and oppressed
Mankind can keep alive thanks to its brilliance
In keeping its humanity repressed
And for once you must try not to shriek the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts