 Genius Lyrics
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Tom Waits – Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis
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The song reads as a letter from a prostitute to her friend/John/ex, Charlie. She updates him on how well her life is going: she has a boyfriend and stopped doing drugs, etc.
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Tom Waits – Hold On
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With lyrics written by Tom Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan, this song got Waits nominated to the Grammys for “Best Male Rock Vocal Performance”.
As Waits describes the song
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Tom Waits – Somewhere
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Theres 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
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Tom Waits – November
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No shadows, no stars / There's no moon and no cars / November / It only believes in a pile of dead leaves / And a moon that's the color of bone / No prayers for November to linger
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Tom Waits – Downtown
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[Verse 1] / Red Pants and the Sugarman in the Temple Street gloom / Drinkin' Chivas Regal in a four-dollar room / Just another dead soldier in a powder-blue light / Sugarman says
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Tom Waits – Black Wings
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Well, take an eye for an eye / A tooth for a tooth / Just like they say in the Bible / Well, never leave a trace / Or forget a face / Of any man at the table / Any man at the table
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Tom Waits – New Year's Eve
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The door was open, I was seething / Your mother burst in, it was freezing / She said it looks like it's trying to rain / I was lost, I felt seasick / You convinced me that he'd
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Tom Waits – All the World is Green
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Tom Waits wrote this song for Act 3, Scene 1 of a play called Woyzeck, and the album Blood Money contains all the music that he wrote for the play.
The main character, Franz
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Tom Waits – Martha
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The last song on the A side of Waits' first album Closing Time. It was covered the same year by Tim Buckley, who was a more established artist at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/
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Tom Waits – Lullaby
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Sun is red, moon is cracked / Daddy's never coming back / Nothing's ever yours to keep / Close your eyes, go to sleep / If I die before you wake / Don't you cry, don't you weep
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Tom Waits – Diamonds & Gold
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One two three / One two three / One / Broken glass and the rusty nails / Where the wild violets grow / Say goodbye to the railroad and the mad dogs of summer / And everything that
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Tom Waits – Chicago
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The seeds are planted here, but they won’t grow / We won’t have to say goodbye if we all go / Maybe things will be better in Chicago / To leave all we’ve ever known for a place we’
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Tom Waits – Satisfied
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When I’m gone / When I’m gone / Roll my vertebrae out like dice / Let my skull be a home for the mice / Let me bleach like the bones on a beach / I’ll be hard like a pit from a
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Tom Waits – Ol' 55
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One of Tom Waits' first songs. Initially, he was flattered when The Eagles covered it, but later he spoke derisively about their homage:
I frankly was not that particularly crazy
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Tom Waits – Rosie
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[Verse 1] / Well, I'm sitting on a windowsill, blowing my horn / Nobody's up except the moon and me / And a lazy old tomcat on a midnight spree / And all that you left me was a
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Tom Waits – Last Leaf
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I'm the last leaf on the tree / The autumn took the rest / But they won't take me / I'm the last leaf on the tree / When the autumn wind blows / They're already gone / They flutter
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Tom Waits – Down, Down, Down
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He went down down down / And the devil called him by name / He went down down down / Hangin' onto the back of a train / He went down down down / This boy went solid down / Always
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Tom Waits – What's He Building?
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Waits has spoken many times in interviews about this track:
The Man Who Howled Wolf, 1999
*Guess it’s the rat theory: There’s too many of us, and we’re going crazy because of the
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Tom Waits – Step Right Up
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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
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Tom Waits – Cemetery Polka
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Uncle Vernon, Uncle Vernon / Independent as a hog on ice / He's a big shot down there at the slaughterhouse / He plays accordion for Mr. Weiss / Uncle Biltmore and Uncle William
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Tom Waits – Who Are You
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Who Are You blends sweet melodiousness with a wry and subtly scathing message of scorn and jealousy. It’s a confrontation between two people who have a lot of shared history, and
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Tom Waits – In the Colosseum
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America likes to describe itself as the “New Rome” in terms of its glory and power, but Rome had a dark side too, and the comparison goes both ways…
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Tom Waits – Reeperbahn
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Round the curve of The Parrot Bar / A broken-down old movie star / Hustling and Easterner / Bringing out the beast in her / A high dive in a swimming pool / Filled with needles and
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Tom Waits – Downtown Train
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Tom Waits' “Downtown Train” became a Grammy-winning #3 hit for Rod Stewart in 1989, and has also been covered by the likes of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bob Seger and Everything But
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Tom Waits – All Stripped Down
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Yeah, yeah, yeah / Well, the time will come when the wind will shout / (All stripped down, all stripped down) / And all the sinners know what I'm talking about / (All stripped down
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Tom Waits – Such a Scream
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Well, pale face said to the eyeball kid / 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
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Tom Waits – ’Til the Money Runs Out
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[Verse 1] / Check this strange beverage that falls out from the sky / Splashin' Baghdad on the Hudson in Panther Martin's eyes / He's high and outside, wearin' candy apple red
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Tom Waits – Little Man
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As sure as fire will burn / There's one thing you will learn / Is things you have cherished / Are things that you have earned / Luck is when opportunity / Meets with preparation
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Tom Waits – Strange Weather [Big Time]
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Will you take me across the channel / London Bridge is falling down / Strange a woman tries to save / More than a man will try to drown / And it's the rain that they predicted / It
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