| Tom Waits – Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| "# TW: He is a friend of a friend of mine. DD: Really! TW: Yeah, who lives in Denver... and died in jail. DD: Oh... TW: And uh... So, he's a real guy. And uhm... so that's you know, a song that is about a lot of things. But mostly I think, you know, the idea that uh... A "Mathilda" is a backpack, you know? So it's about going on the... being on the loose. Out on the road. Chasing your dream and all the things you encounter in the process." (Source: "Tom Waits: Rock Classics, With A Gravelly Rasp", NPR's World Café from WXPN (USA) by David Dye. December 15, 2006) | |
| Tom Waits – Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Tom Waits was in an interview last year (I think) where he explained this song. Whether or not this was an actual explanation or one of those Waits "answers" I can't really know, but essentially this is what he said: a 'Matilda' is the name for a backpack, and hence 'waltzing Matilda' is backpacking. Tom Traubert is the name of (not sure if it's his actual name) one of Waits' friends who spent his time hitchiking across America. Tom Traubert was arrested for some reason (he didn't explain) and lived in jail for some years before eventually dying there. This song is, apparently, written for him. You can see it in the song if you look at it again: there are a lot of references things like "innocent victim", "fugitives", "dagger", "bandit", "I don't want your sympathy", "I got what I paid for now", seems like Waits wanted to write Tom Traubert's story from his own perspective. |
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