This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I'm down to a roll of dimes
I'm stalking the slot that's hot
I keep hearing bells all around me
Jingling in the lucky jackpots
They keep you tantalized
They keep you reaching for your wallet
Here in fools' paradise
I talked to a cat from Des Moines
He said he ran a cleaning plant
That cat was clanking with coin
Well, he must have had a genie in a lamp
'Cause every time, I dropped a dime, I blew it
He kept ringing bells
Nothing to it
He got three oranges
Three lemons
Three cherries
Three plums
I'm losing my taste for fruit
Watching the dry cleaner do it
Like Midas in a polyester suit
It's all luck
It's just luck
You get a little lucky and you make a little money
I followed him down the strip
He picked out a booth at Circus Circus
Where the cowgirls fill the room
With their big balloons
The Cleaner was pitching with purpose
He had Dinos and Pooh Bears
And lions, pink and blue there
He couldn't lose there
It's all luck, it's just luck
Des Moines was stacking the chips
Raking off the tables
Ringing the bandit's bells
This is a story that's a drag to tell
(In some ways)
Since I lost every dime
I laid on the line
But the cleaner from Des Moines
Could put a coin
In the door of a John
And get twenty for one
It's just luck
Lucky, lucky, so lucky, real lucky
That cat's got luck, that cat's got luck
That cat's got luck, that cat's got luck
That cat's got luck
Really lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky
Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky
I'm stalking the slot that's hot
I keep hearing bells all around me
Jingling in the lucky jackpots
They keep you tantalized
They keep you reaching for your wallet
Here in fools' paradise
I talked to a cat from Des Moines
He said he ran a cleaning plant
That cat was clanking with coin
Well, he must have had a genie in a lamp
'Cause every time, I dropped a dime, I blew it
He kept ringing bells
Nothing to it
He got three oranges
Three lemons
Three cherries
Three plums
I'm losing my taste for fruit
Watching the dry cleaner do it
Like Midas in a polyester suit
It's all luck
It's just luck
You get a little lucky and you make a little money
I followed him down the strip
He picked out a booth at Circus Circus
Where the cowgirls fill the room
With their big balloons
The Cleaner was pitching with purpose
He had Dinos and Pooh Bears
And lions, pink and blue there
He couldn't lose there
It's all luck, it's just luck
Des Moines was stacking the chips
Raking off the tables
Ringing the bandit's bells
This is a story that's a drag to tell
(In some ways)
Since I lost every dime
I laid on the line
But the cleaner from Des Moines
Could put a coin
In the door of a John
And get twenty for one
It's just luck
Lucky, lucky, so lucky, real lucky
That cat's got luck, that cat's got luck
That cat's got luck, that cat's got luck
That cat's got luck
Really lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky
Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky
Lyrics submitted by LizardGirl
The Dry Cleaner from des Moines Lyrics as written by Joni Mitchell Charles Mingus
Lyrics © Reservoir Media Management, Inc., Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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wow. she just weaves everywhere with no one to back her up in the first half of the song. waits more than half way through to let the bass and sax come in. poetic
This song is such a tremendous amount of fun. I love it!