 Genius Meanings
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Tom Waits – Big Black Mariah
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Tom Waits himself said about this song:
A Mariah is – originally it was the woman that ran some kind of a cathouse in New Orleans I guess and every time it got popped they figured
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Tom Waits – Hell Broke Luce
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Hell Broke Luce, from the 2011 album, Bad As Me, is arguably the most raucous and visceral song in Tom Waits' discography. It’s a retelling of the military career of a soldier (
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Tom Waits – Union Square
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Well time is always money / For the boys at Union Square / Go on and bust your ass till doomsday / Don't forget to say your prayers / Someone's riding down the backstreet / Said
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Tom Waits – Rain Dogs
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Inside a broken clock / Splashing the wine / With all the rain dogs / Taxi, we'd rather walk / Huddle a doorway with the rain dogs / For I am a rain dog too / Oh, how we danced and
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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 – Blind Love
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Now you're gone / And it's hotels and whiskey and sad luck dames / And I don't care if they miss me / I never remember their names / They say if you get far enough away / You'll be
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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 – Rain Dogs (2023 Remaster)
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[Verse 1] / Inside a broken clock / Splashing the wine / With all the rain dogs / Taxi, we'd rather walk / Huddle a doorway with the rain dogs / For I am a rain dog too / [Chorus 1
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Tom Waits – Underground [Big Time]
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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
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Tom Waits – 9th & Hennepin
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A spoken word track off Waits' 80’s classic Rain Dogs. While this song’s titular location is in Minneapolis, Tom Waits has explained:
Most of the imagery is from New York. It’s
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Tom Waits – Rain Dogs [Big Time]
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Inside a broken clock / Splash the wine / With all the rain dogs / Taxi taxi taxi / We'd rather walk / Huddle a doorway / With the rain dogs / For I am a rain dog too / I know how
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Tom Waits – Jockey Full of Bourbon
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[Verse 1] / Edna Milton in a drop-dead suit / Dutch Pink on a downtown train / Two-dollar pistol but the gun won't shoot / I'm in the corner on the pouring rain / Sixteen men on a
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Tom Waits – Straight to the Top [Big Time]
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I'm going straight up to the top oh yeah / Where the air is fresh and clean / I'm going up up to the top oh yeah / You know me you know what I mean / I can't let sorrow pull me on
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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 – 9th & Hennepin (2023 Remaster)
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Well, it's 9th and Hennepin / All the donuts have names that sound like prostitutes / And the moon's teeth marks are on the sky / Like a tarp thrown all over this / And the broken
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Tom Waits – Walking Spanish
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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
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Tom Waits – Gun Street Girl [Big Time]
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Falling James in the Tahoe mud / Stick around to / Tell us all the tale / Well he fell in love / With a Gun Street girl / Blew a hole in the hood of a yellow corvette / Blew a hole
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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 – Yesterday Is Here [Big Time]
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[Verse 1] / If you want money in your pocket / And a top hat on your head / A hot meal on your table / And a blanket on your bed / Well today is grey skies / Tomorrow is tears
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Tom Waits – Clap Hands
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Sane, sane, they're all insane / The fireman's blind, the conductor's lame / A Cincinnati jacket and a sad luck dame / Hanging out the window with a bottle full of rain / Clap
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Tom Waits – Ruby's Arms [Big Time]
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[Verse 1] / I will leave behind all of my clothes I wore when I was with you / All I needs my railroad boots and my leather jacket / [Chorus] / As I say goodbye to Ruby's arms
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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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Tom Waits – Cold, Cold Ground [Big Time]
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Crest fallen sidekick in an old cafe / Never slept with a dream before he had to go away / There's a bell in the tower / Uncle Ray bought a round / Don't worry about the army / In
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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 – Red Shoes [Big Time]
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She wore red shoes by the newsstand / The rain splashed the nickel / It spilled like chablis all along the midway / There's a little bluejay / Wearing red shoes on a sad night
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Tom Waits (Ft. Keith Richards) – That Feel
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Bone Machine’s closing track is one of Waits' numerous collaborations with rock icon Keith Richards. Waits has such affection for Richards, he even wrote a poem for him.
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Tom Waits – Gun Street Girl
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Tom Waits on the Rain Dogs Island Promo Tape, 1985:
Gun Street Girl is about a guy who’s having trouble with the law and he traces all of these events back to this girl he met on
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Tom Waits – Anywhere I Lay My Head
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My head is a-spinnin' round / My heart is in my shoes / I went and set the Thames on fire / Now I must come back down / She's laughing in her sleeve, boys / I can feel it in my
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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 – Tango Till They're Sore
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[Verse 1] / Well you play that tarantella, all the hounds will start to roar / The boys all go to hell and then the Cubans hit the floor / They drive along the pipeline, they tango
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Tom Waits – Time
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[Verse 1] / Well the smart money's on Harlow / And the moon is in the street / The shadow boys are breaking all the laws / And you're east of East St. Louis / And the wind is
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Tom Waits – Singapore
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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
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Tom Waits – Keith Richards...
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Rock legend Keith Richards has collaborated with Tom Waits on many occasions, beginning with 1985’s Rain Dogs.
Waits wrote this poem in his friend’s honor for Rolling Stone
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Tom Waits – Clap Hands [Big Time]
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Wine wine / Why the goose drank wine / And the monkey chewed tobacco on a streetcar line / Now the line broke and the monkey got choked / And they all went to heaven in a little
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My Chemical Romance – Hang 'Em High
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The title of this song is a reference to the 1968 western movie of the same name starring Clint Eastwood.
https://twitter.com/gerardway/statuses/316961574046814209
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Tom Waits – Downtown Train (2023 Remaster)
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[Verse 1] / Outside another yellow moon / Has punched a hole in the nighttime, yes / I climb through the window and down to the street / I'm shining like a new dime / The downtown
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Tom Waits – Hang Down Your Head
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Hush a wild violet / Hush a band of gold / Hush you're in a story / I heard somebody told / Tear the promise from my heart / Tear my heart today / You have found another / Baby, I
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