 Genius Meanings
|
|
Tom Waits – Georgia Lee
|
|
Tom Waits on the inspiration behind the song:
The girl’s name was Georgia Lee [Leah] Moses. It’s been over a year. They had a funeral for her. A lot of people came and spoke. I
|
|
Phoebe Bridgers Covers Tom Waits’ Song About The 1997 Murder Of “Georgia Lee”
|
|
”No one published anything about her disappearance until after her body was found.”
|
|
Phoebe Bridgers – Georgia Lee
|
|
In her indie-rock rendition of Tom Waits’ song from the 1999 album Mule Variations, Bridgers recreates the sorrow and lament Waits delivered in his story of the death and unsolved
|
|
Phoebe Bridgers Thinks Eric Clapton Makes “Extremely Mediocre Music”
|
|
She also called out the rock legend for being a “famous racist.”
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Chocolate Jesus
|
|
This is a eh a song for those of you in the audience who have trouble getting up on Sunday morning and going to church. I’ve discovered something, ehm it’s a candy item. It’s
|
|
Tom Waits – Hold On
|
|
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
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Take It with Me
|
|
Waits revealed the meaning behind the song in an interview:
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
|
|
|
Tom Waits – What's He Building?
|
|
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
|
|
Tom Waits – Downtown Train
|
|
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
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Big in Japan
|
|
The lead song on Waits' first album for six years. Waits opens with the a recording of him demolishing furniture, and laments his shortcomings with a variety of loose metaphors.
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Come on Up to the House
|
|
Featured on the TV show “Orange is the New Black”, season two, episode “40 OZ of Furlough”.
The song is about accepting your shortcomings and the grimness of the world. Instead of
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Get Behind the Mule
|
|
Waits on the inspiration for the song:
That’s what Robert Johnson’s father said about Robert, because he ran away. He said, ‘Trouble with Robert is he wouldn’t get behind the mule
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Big Face Money
|
|
When the show is over and the work is through / I want the big face money / I'll get all that cash and bring it home to you / I'll get the big face money / I'll get the big face
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Picture in a Frame
|
|
Waits explains the song:
Simple song. Sometimes I listen to Blind Lemon Jefferson or Leadbelly, and you’ll just hear a line or a passing phrase. The way they phrase something
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Cold Water
|
|
Cold Water portrays a man living a hobo existence on the fringe of society. He endures hardships most would not, because he sees homelessness and poverty as the price of true
|
|
Tom Waits – Buzz Fledderjohn
|
|
I stood on the roof of Stuart's old Dodge / To get a better look at the Fledderjohn's lodge / Bait shop pistols and ammo too / Nothing but books about World War II / Rottweiler
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Lowside of the Road
|
|
Waits talked about the song in a 1999 interview:
Leadbelly was involved in a skirmish after a dance one night on a dirt road, late. Someone pulled out a knife, someone got stabbed
|
|
Tom Waits – Time
|
|
[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
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Eyeball Kid
|
|
Waits explains the origin in an interview:
The Eyeball Kid is a comic-book character. Actually, it was Nic Cage that reintroduced me to comic books. I hadn’t thought about comic
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Pony
|
|
I've seen it all, boys, I've been all over / Been everywhere in the whole wide world / I rode the high line with old blind Darby / I danced real slow with Ida Jane / I was full of
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Filipino Box Spring Hog
|
|
Waits:
When we lived on Union Avenue in L.A., we had parties. We sawed the floorboards out of the living room, and we took the bed, the box spring, and first dug out the hole and
|
|
Leslie Odom, Jr. & Original Broadway Cast of "Hamilton" – Wait For It
|
|
This soliloquy is sung by Aaron Burr midway through the first act of the show.
The beat on the first half of the song closely resembles dancehall reggae; you can compare the
|
|
|
Tom Waits – House Where Nobody Lives
|
|
Waits:
That was the house I used to go by when I would drive my kids to school, abandoned and the weeds were literally as tall as the trees. At Christmas time, all the neighbors
|
|
Bruce Springsteen – Jersey Girl
|
|
A Springsteen cover that was originally written and performed by Tom Waits, “Jersey Girl” is the final song off of Live/1975-85.
It would become one of Springsteen’s favorite
|
|
|
Tom Waits – Black Market Baby
|
|
In a 1999 interview, Waits said:
You texture and layer them and turn the lights down inside the song…after a while, you do it by taking things away, and adding things, until you
|
|
Tom Waits – You Can Never Hold Back Spring
|
|
[Verse 1] / You can never hold back spring / You can be sure I will never stop believing / The blushing rose that will climb / Spring ahead or fall behind / Winter dreams the same
|
|
|
Courtney Marie Andrews – Downtown Train
|
|
[Verse 1] / Outside, another yellow moon / Has punched a hole in the nighttime / I climb through the window and down the street / I'm shining like a new dime / The downtown trains
|
|
Al Jolson – California Here I Come
|
|
This song was written for the 1921 Broadway musical Bombo, in which Al Jolson played a servant accompanying Christopher Columbus to the Americas. Jolson is frequently credited as a
|
|
Gavin Bryars (Ft. Jessica Walker) – A Little Drop of Poison
|
|
I like my town / With a little drop of poison / Nobody knows / They're linin' up to go insane / I'm all alone / I smoke my friends down to the filter / But I feel much cleaner
|
|
Nelly & Florida Georgia Line – Lil Bit
|
|
[Intro: Florida Georgia Line & Nelly] / What up, Nelly? / You ready to do another one, bruh? / Talk to 'em (Uh, uh, uh, uh), haha / [Verse 1: Florida Georgia Line] / Yeah, runnin
|
|
|
Rosanne Cash – Time
|
|
[Verse 1] / The smart money's on Harlow and the moon is in the street / And the shadow boys are breaking all the laws / It's east of East St. Louis / And the wind is making
|
|
Camp Cope – Footscray Station
|
|
[Verse 1] / As you kissed me under the influence / That night, it was Christmas Eve / You said to me that I was the strangest creature / That you had ever seen / We made love on
|
|
Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton – Stay Alive
|
|
Historically, this song is out of place in the timeline given by the show. It jumps back almost three years from Hamilton’s wedding (1780) to the Continental Army’s winter at
|
|
Yo La Tengo – Autumn Sweater
|
|
[Verse 1] / When I heard the knock on the door / I couldn't catch my breath / Is it too late to call this off? / [Chorus] / We could slip away / Wouldn't that be better? / Me with
|
