The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Wasted and wounded
And it ain't what the moon did
I got what I paid for now
See you tomorrow
Hey, Frank, can I borrow
A couple of bucks from you
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go waltzing Matilda with me
I'm an innocent victim of a blinded alley
And I'm tired of all these soldiers here
No-one speaks English and everything's broken
And my strength is soaking away
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me
Now I've lost my St. Christopher
Now that I kissed her
And the one-arm bandit knows
And the maverick Chinaman
With the cold-blooded sigh
And the girls down by the striptease shows go
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me
No I don't want your sympathy, fugitives say
That the streets aren't for dreaming now
Manslaughter dragnet
And the ghost that sells memories
Want a piece of the action anyhow
Go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go waltzing Matilda with me
And it's a battered old suitcase in a hotel someplace
And a wound that would never heal
No prima donnas the perfume is on
And old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey
And it's goodnight to the street-sweepers
The night watchmen flame-keepers
And goodnight Matilda too
Goodnight Matilda too
And it ain't what the moon did
I got what I paid for now
See you tomorrow
Hey, Frank, can I borrow
A couple of bucks from you
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go waltzing Matilda with me
I'm an innocent victim of a blinded alley
And I'm tired of all these soldiers here
No-one speaks English and everything's broken
And my strength is soaking away
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me
Now I've lost my St. Christopher
Now that I kissed her
And the one-arm bandit knows
And the maverick Chinaman
With the cold-blooded sigh
And the girls down by the striptease shows go
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me
No I don't want your sympathy, fugitives say
That the streets aren't for dreaming now
Manslaughter dragnet
And the ghost that sells memories
Want a piece of the action anyhow
Go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go waltzing Matilda with me
And it's a battered old suitcase in a hotel someplace
And a wound that would never heal
No prima donnas the perfume is on
And old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey
And it's goodnight to the street-sweepers
The night watchmen flame-keepers
And goodnight Matilda too
Goodnight Matilda too
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar
Tom Traubert's Blues Lyrics as written by Tom Waits
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, JALMA MUSIC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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Go look at the original by Tom Waits:
songmeanings.net/lyric.php
Don't know the meaning, but I do know that "Waltzing Mathilda" is quite a famous folk song in Australia.
WIKIPEDIA: "The refrain is based (almost word by word) on an old Australian folk hymn, "Waltzing Matilda", but has little in common with this song apart from this. In the Australian version, the term "Waltzing Matilda" means to roam the roads, to go walk-about. In Waits' version it seems to mean the hapless drinking and roaming of the modern small-time nomadic musician.
The origin of the song is somewhat ambiguous. The most plausible version, the sub-title of the track "Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen", seems to be that it is about a time that Waits spent in Copenhagen in 1976 while on a tour. There, he apparently met Danish singer Mathilde Bondo. In a 1998 radio interview, she confirmed that she met Waits and that they spent a night on the town together. This is also confirmed by Peter Sander. This version of the origin of the song is thus supported by the subtitle, the use of the name "Mathilda" (though spelt differently from the potential real-world inspiration) and the fact that Waits has on occasion introduced the song as "a song about throwing up in another country".
In an interview on NPR's World Cafe, aired December 15th 2006, Tom Waits states that Tom Traubert was a 'friend of a friend' that died in prison"
Can someone explain the meaning of this song??
I heard from an aussie once that "Waltzing Matilda" is their cops way of saying "lets take a little walk to the police station" this has become a little in-joke in my family.
I love this song. I remember also my mum and dad telling me that there were Thunder tanks in WW" that were called "Waltzing Matildas" They were big and cumbersome, so they "waltzed a bit when they were driven." Kind of makes you think that the line "Matilda's a defendant, she killed about a hundred, that it could mean the "Waltzing Matilda Tank killing soldiers.