[Real Gone]

Tom Waits:
Real gone


2004 ANTI Records


Top Of The Hill

New corn yellow and slaughterhouse red
The birds keep singing
Baby after your dead
I’m gonna miss you plenty
Big old world
With our abalone earrings
And your mother of pearl

Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
I’m only goin
I’m, only goin
I’m only goin to the top
Of the hill

I need your moon to be the sky
Sky against
Don’t get your trouser button
Stuck on the fence
Diego red and bedlam money are fine
Why don’t you come up here
And see me sometime

Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
I’m only goin
I’m, only goin
I’m only goin to the top
Of the hill

There’s very little leeway
I seen a mattress on the freeway
The moon rises over Dog Street
Jefferson said every things reet
Have all the lights burned
Out on heaven again
I’ll never roll the number 7 again

I’m made of bread and I’m on an
Ocean of wine
I hear all the birdies
On the phone just fine

Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
I’m only goin
I’m, only goin
I’m only goin to the top
Of the hill

Black joke and the bean soup
Big sky and the Ford Coupe
Old maid and the dry bones
Red Rover and the Skinny Bones Jones
47 mules to pull this train
We’re getting married
In the pouring rain
You need your differential and
Plenty of oil
You load the wagon till
The end of the world

Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
I’m only goin
I’m only goin
I’m only goin to the top
Of the hill

What’s your throttle made of
Is it money or bone
Don’t doddle or you’ll
Never get home
Opium, fireworks, vodka and meat
Scoot over and save me a seat

Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
I’m only goin
I’m, only goin
I’m only goin to the top
Of the hill

If I had it all to do all
Over again
I’d try to rise above the land of man
Why don’ cha gimme nother
Sip of your cup
Turn a Rolls Royce into a
Chicken coup, uh huh

Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
I’m only goin
I’m, only goin
I’m only goin to the top
Of the hill

Hoist That Rag

Well I learned the trade
From Piggy Knowles and
Sing Sing Tommy Shay Boys
god used me as hammer boys
To beat his weary drum today

Hoist that rag
Hoist that rag

The sun is up the world is flat
Damn good address for a rat
The smell of blood
The drone of flies
You know what to do if
The baby cries

Hoist that rag
Hoist that rag

Well we stick our fingers in
The ground, heave and
Turn the world around
Smoke is blacking out the sun
At night I pray and clean my gun
The cracked bell rings as
The ghost bird sings and the gods
Go begging here
So just open fire
As you hit the shore
All is fair in love
And war

Hoist that rag
Hoist that rag
Hoist that rag
Hoist that rag

Sins Of My Father

God said don’t give me your
Tin horn prayers
Don’t buy roses off the street down there
Took it all and took the dirt road home
Dreaming of Jenny with the light brown hair
Night is falling like a bloody axe
Lies and rumors and the wind at my back
Hand on the wheel gravel on the road
Will the pawn shop sell me back what I sold

I’m gonna take the sins of my father
I’m gonna take the sins of my mother
I’m gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond

Birds cry warning from a hidden branch
Carving out a future with a gun and an axe
I’m way beyond the gavel and the laws of man
Still living in the palm of the grace of your hand
The worlds not easy the blind man said
Turns on nothing but money and dread
Dogs been scratching at the door all nite
Long neck birds flying out of the moon light

I’m gonna take the sins of my father
I’m gonna take the sins of my mother
I’m gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond

Smack dab in the middle of a dirty lie
The star spangled glitter of his one good eye
Everybody knows that the game was rigged
Justice wears suspenders and a powdered wig
Dark town alleys been hiding you
Long bell tolling is your waterloo
Oh baby what can you do
Does the light of god blind you
Or lead the way home for you?

I’m gonna take the sins of my father
I’m gonna take the sins of my mother
I’m gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond

God all mighty for righteousness sake
Humiliation of our fallen state
Written in the book of too bold Cain
A long black over coat will show no stain
Feel the heat and the burn on your back
The rip and the moan and the stretch of the rack
All my belongings in a flour sack
Will the place I come from
Take me back

I’m gonna take the sins of my father
I’m gonna take the sins of my mother
I’m gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond

They’ll hang me in the morning on a scaffold yea big
To dance upon nothing to the tyborn jig
Treats you like a puppet when your under its spell
Oh the heart is heaven
But the mind is hell
Jesus of Nazareth told Mike of the weeds
I’s born at this time for a reason you see
When I’m dead I’ll be dead a long time
But the wines so pleasing and so sublime

I’m gonna take the sins of my father
I’m gonna take the sins of my mother
I’m gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond

Kissed my sweetheart by the china ball tree
Everything I done is between God and me
Only he will judge how my time was spent
29 days of sinning and 40 to repent
the horse is steady but the horse is blind
wicked are the branches on the tree of mankind
the roots grow upward and the branches grow down
its much too late to throw the dice again I’ve found

I’m gonna take the sins of my father
I’m gonna take the sins of my mother
I’m gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond

I’m gonna wash them
I’m gonna wash them
I’m gonna wash the sins of my Father
I’m gonna wash the sins of my Mother
I’m gonna wash the sins of my Brother
Till the water runs clear
Till the water runs clear


Shake It

Strip Poker Motel
Got a small blue tail
Hot ice, cold cash
I never been no good at
Staying out of jail
Wheel spin, roulette
Who’s giving, don’t get
Ripped shirt, black eye
Tuxedo, bow tie
Dark sound, straight road
Get lost, get loaded
Enlisted men, off duty
Stolen clouds, dark beauty
Cold gun, wild rose
Night clerk, door closed
Lie down baby
Your love is a faucet
ahhhh
Called China, cell phone
Chun King, not home
You know I feel like a
Preacher waving a gun around

Shake it
Shake it
Shake it baby
Shake it
Shake it
Shake it now

Shake it
Shake it
Shake it baby
Shake it
Shake it
Shake it now

Outside, it’s damp
Put a towel on that lamp
You look hot in this
Light
I can love you all night
Shoes off, hair down
Got a pink night gown
Mike Tyson, KO’ed
On the wild, blue road
Small town, straight road
That rooster, done crowed
Flat tire, homemade cross
You know I feel like a
Preacher waving a gun around

Shake it
Shake it
Shake it baby
Shake it
Shake it
Shake it now

Shake it
Shake it
Shake it baby

Shake it
Shake it
Shake it now

Don’t Go Into That Barn

Don’t go into that barn, yea
Don’t go into that barn, yea

Black cellophane sky at midnite
Big blue moon with three gold rings
I called Champion to the window
And I pointed up above the trees
That’s when I heard my name in a scream
Coming from the woods, out there
I let my dog run off the chain
I locked my door real good with a chair

Don’t go into that barn, yea
Don’t go into that barn, yea

Everett Lee broke loose again
Its worse than the time before
Cause he’s high on potato and tulip wine
Fermented in the muddy rain of course
A drunken wail a drunken train
Blew through the birdless trees
Oh, you’re alone alright
Your alone alright
How did I know
How did I know

Don’t go into that barn, yea
Don’t go into that barn, yea

An old black tree
Scratching up the sky
With boney, claw like fingers
A rusty black rake
Digging up the turnips
Of a muddy cold grey sky
Shiny tooth talons
Coiled for grabbing a stranger
Happening by
And the day went home early
And the sun sank down into
The muck of a deep dead sky

Don’t go into that barn, yea
Don’t go into that barn, yea

Bank since Saginaw Calinda was born
It’s been cotton, soybeans, tobacco and corn
Behind the porticoed house of a
Long dead farm
They found the falling down timbers
Of a spooky old barn
Out there like a slave ship
Upside down
Wrecked beneath the waves of a rain
When the river is low
They find old bones and
When they plow they always
Dig up chains

Don’t go into that barn, yea
Don’t go into that barn, yea

Did you bury your fire?
Yes sir
Did you cover your tracks?
Yes sir
Did you bring your knife?
Yes sir
Did they see your face?
No sir
Did the Mom see you?
No sir
Did you go cross the river?
Yes sir
Did you fix your rake?
Yes sir
Did you stay down wind?
Yes sir
Did you hide your gun?
Yes sir
Did you smuggle your rum?
Yes sir
How did I know
How did I know
How did I know

Don’t go into that barn, yea
Don’t go into that barn, yea
Don’t forget that I warned you
Don’t go into that barn, yea
Don’t go into that barn, yea
Don’t go into that barn, yea

No shirt no coat
Put me on a flat boat
Dover, down to Covington
Covington to Louisville
Louisville to Henderson
Henderson to Smithland
Smithland to Memphis
Down to Vicksburg to
Natchez put me on a
Flat boat Dover Dam
To Covington, Covington to
Louisville, Louisville to
Henderson….

How’s It Gonna End

He had 3 whole dollars
A worn out car
And a wife who was
Leaving for good
Life’s made of trouble
Worry pain and struggle
She wrote good bye in
The dust on the hood
They found a map of Missouri
Lipstick on the glass
They must of left
In the middle of the nite

And I want to know
The same thing
Everyone wants to know
How it going to end?

Behind a smoke colored
Curtain, the girl
Disappeared, they found out
The ring was a fake
A tree born crooked
Will never grow straight
She sunk like a hammer into the lake
A long lost letter and
And old leaky boat
Promises are never meant
To keep

And I want to know
The same thing
Everyone wants to know
How it going to end?

The barn leaned over
The vultures dried their wings
The moon climbed up an empty sky
The sun sank down behind the tree
On the hill
There’s a killer and he’s coming
Thru the rye
But maybe he’s the Father
Of that lost little girl
It’s hard to tell in this light

And I want to know
The same thing
Everyone wants to know
How it going to end?

Drag your wagon and your plow
Over the bones of the dead
Out among the roses and the weeds
You can never go back
And the answer is no
And wishing for it only
Makes it bleed

Joel Tornabene was broken
On the wheel
Shane and Bum Mahoney on the lamb
The grain was as gold
As Sheila’s hair
All the way from Liverpool
With all we could steal
He was robbed of twenty dollars
His body found stripped
Cast into the harbour
There and drowned

And I want to know
The same thing
Everyone wants to know
How it going to end?

The sirens are snaking their
Way up the hill
It’s last call somewhere in
The world
The reptiles blend in with the
Color of the street
Life is sweet at the edge
Of a razor
And down in the front row of
An old picture show
The old man is asleep
As the credits start to roll

And I want to know
The same thing
Everyone wants to know
How it going to end?

Metropolitan Glide

Are you ready, are you ready
Koocky Parker told Bowlegged Sal
They all know how to kick it in Cal
They’re playing this dope and this money tune
Dancing baby with a 7 mile broom
Things are bulging out the rafters
Like hell
Dddddown there at the Hush Hotel
They’re jumping right out of their
Seats, dancing to the bran’ new beat

Do……the Metropolitan Glide
Do……the Metropolitan Glide

The floor is polished and you Momma’s gone
You can quake and roll and moan
29 gypsies in a Cadillac stoned
Turn off the ringer on your cellular phone
Whip the air like a Rainbow Trout
Drag your tail pipe till you bottom out

Do……the Metropolitan Glide
Do……the Metropolitan Glide
Do……the Metropolitan Glide
Do……the Metropolitan Glide

The low bottom of the china moon
The black swan and the way too soon
Ace pocket and the dog bone gone
The peacock and the mean black swan
The rain shower and high heeled shoe
Bombay money and I know I can do it
The sink hole and the victory dance
Its in the pocket in the real tight pants

Ddddo the Metropolitan Glide
Ddddo the Metropolitan Glide

Show your teeth bray like a calf
You kill me with your machine gun laugh
You make me trouble with the floor
That’s creaking
I’ve been ready to ka boom for a week
Put on your stockings and your powder and blush
Keep it all on the hush, hush, hush

Do……the Metropolitan Glide
Do……the Metropolitan Glide

Dead And Lovely

She was a middle class girl
In over her head
She thought she would
Stand up in the deep end
He had a bullet proof smile
He had money to burn
She thought she had the moon
In her pocket…

But now she’s dead
She’s so dead forever
Dead and lovely now

I ‘ve always been told to
Remember this
Don’t let a fool kiss you
Never marry for love
He was hard to impress
He knew everyone’s secrets
He wore her on his arm
Just like jewelry
He never gave but he got
He kept her on a leash
He’s not the kind of wheel
You fall asleep at

But now she’s dead
She’s so dead
Forever dead and
Lovely now

Come closer look deep
You’ve fallen fast
Just like a plane on a
Stormy sea
She made up someone to be
She made up somewhere to
Be from
This is one business in the
World where that’s no
Problem at all
Every thing that is left
They will only plow under
Soon every one you know
Will be gone

But now she’s dead
She’s so dead

Forever dead and
Lovely now

I’ve always been told to
Remember this
Don’t let a kiss fool you
Never marry for love
Now they’re all watching
The sea
What’s lost can never be broken
Her roots were sweet
But they were shallow

But now she’s dead
She’s so dead
Forever dead and
Lovely now

Circus

We put up our tent on a dark
Green knoll, outside of town by
The train tracks and a seagull dump
Topping the bill was Horse Face Ethel
And her Marvelous Pigs in satin
We pounded our steaks in the ground
All powder brown
And the branches spread like scary
Fingers reaching – we
Were in a pasture in Kankakee
And one eyed Myra, the queen of
The galley who trained the
Ostrich and the camels
She looked at me squinty with her
One good eye in a Roy Orbison
t-shirt as she bottle fed
an Orangutan named
Tripod and then there was
Yodeling Elaine the
Queen of the air who wore a
Dollar sign medallion and she
Had a tiny bubble of spittle
Around her nostril and a
Little rusty tear, for she had
Lassoed and lost another
Tipsy sailor and over in
The burnt yellow tent
By the frozen tractor, the
Music was like electric sugar
And Zuzu Bolin played
“ Stavin’ Chain” and Mighty
Tiny on the saw and he
Threw his head back with a
Mouth full of gold teeth
And they played lopsided heart
And moon over Dog Street and
By the time they played Moanin Low
I was soakin wet and wild eyed
And Doctor Bliss slipped me a
Preparation and I fell asleep with
Livery Stable Blues in my ear
And me and Molley Hoey drank
Pruno and Koolaid she had a
Tattoo gun made out of a cassette
Motor and a guitar string and
she soaked a hanky in 3 roses
and rubbed it on the spot
and she drew a rickety heart and
a bent arrow and it hurt like
hell
and Funeral Wells spun
Poodle Murphy on the target
As he threw his hardware, only
Once in Sheboygan did he miss
At a matinee on Diamond Pier and
She’d never let him forget it
They were doing two shows and she
Had a high fever and he took
Off a piece of her ear and
Tip Little told her she should
Leave the bum but
Poodle said, “he fetched me
Last time I run” and I’d
Like to hammer this ring into
A bullet and I wish I
Had some whiskey and a gun
My dear, I wish I had some
Whiskey and a gun my dear

Trampled Rose

Long way going to
Get my medicine
Sky’s the autumn grey of
A lonely wren
Piano from a window played
Gone tomorrow, gone
Yesterday
I found it in the street
At first I did not see
Lying at my feet a
Trampled rose
Passing the hat in church
It never stops going round
You never pay just once
To get the job done
What I done to me, I done
To you,
What happened to
The trampled rose?
In the muddy street, with
The fireworks and leaves
A blind man with a cup I asked
Would he play “Kisses Sweeter
Than Wine”
I know that rose like I
Know my name, the
One I gave my love
It was the same, now
I find it in the street
A trampled rose

Green Grass

Lay your head where
My heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down in the green grass
Remember when you loved me

Come closer don’t be shy
Stand beneath a rainy sky
The moon is over the rise
Think of me as a train goes by
Clear the thistles and brambles
Whistle didn’t he ramble
Now there’s a bubble of me
And its floating in thee
Stand in the shade of me
Things are now made of me
The weather vane will say
It smells like rain today
God took the stars and he
Tossed ‘em can’t tell
The birds from the blossoms
You’ll never be free of me
He’ll make a tree from me
Don’t say good bye to me
Describe the sky to me
And if the sky falls mark
My words – we’ll catch mocking birds

Lay your head where
My heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down in the green grass
Remember when you loved me

Baby Gonna Leave Me

Well I stood on the corner
Til my feet got wet
I stood by the faucet
Till the sink filled up
I stood by the window
Till the moon came up
My baby bought a ticket
Long as my clothes line
Na na na na na
My baby went and left me
In a ’49 Ford
Going down the highway in a
49 sword
my baby ripped my heart out
with every turn of the moon
somebody told me there’s
never been a rose without a thorn
na na na na na na
na na na na na na


And if I was a tree
I’d be a cut down tree
And if I was a bed
I’d be an unmade bed
I’ll get my 32/20 and it’ll
Have to do
Na na na na na na
Gone like the wind in
The meadow
And the rain on the hill
You even left your lipstick
And your powder and your blush
Baby gonna leave me
On a Grey Hound Bus
The stars are meeting
All across the sky
Na na na na na
I let the dog out
But he didn’t come back
Stood on the corner till
My feet got wet
Baby gonna leave me in a 49 Ford
I stood by the window
Till the moon came up
Na na na na na
Na na na na na

Clang Boom Steam

Well my baby’s so fine
Even her car looks good
From behind
Well my baby’s so fine
Even her car looks good
From behind
But the train that took
My baby…
It went clang, boom and steam

Make It Rain

She took all my 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
Since you gone
Deep inside it hurts
I’m 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 nite’s 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
Just make it rain
With out her love
With our your kiss
Hell can’t burn me
More than this
I’m burning up all this pain
Open up the heavens
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
Make it rain
Make it rain

Day After Tomorrow

I got your letter today
And I miss you all so much here
I can’t wait to see you all
And I’m counting the days dear
I still believe that there’s gold
At the end of the world and I’ll
Come home to Illinois on the
Day after tomorrow
Its so hard and
Its cold here
And I’m tired of taking orders
And I miss old Rockford town
Up by the Wisconsin border
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 nite
And I dream that I can
Hold you
They fill us full of lies, everyone buys
Bout what it means to
Be a soldier, I still don’t
Know how I’m supposed to feel bout
All the blood that’s been spilled
Will God on this throne
Get me back home
On the day after tomorrow
You can’t deny, the other side
Don’t want to die anymore
Then we do, what I’m
Trying to say is don’t they pray
To the same God that we do?
And Tell me how does God
Choose, who’s prayers does he
Refuse? who turns the wheel
Who rolls the dice, on the
Day after tomorrow
I’m not fighting for justice
I am not fighting for freedom
I am fighting for my life and
Another day in the world here
I just do what I’ve been told
We’re just the gravel on the road
And only the lucky ones come
Home, on the day after tomorrow
And the summer it too
Will fade and with it
Brings the winter’s frost dear
And I know we too are made
Of all the things that we have
Lost here, I’ll be 21 today
I been saving all my pay
And my plane will touch down
On the day after tomorrow

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