| Tom Waits – Clap Hands Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I think this song may be telling story. There are three characters: a man, his adulterous wife or girlfriend, and the wealthy man the women has the affair with. The women left the singer via a train. But the train is not only the method of travel but associated with the motivation for travel. The train is characterized by insanity and delusion as the firemen and conductor are handicapped; This points to the irrationality of the women's decision to leave. The wealthy man the women is seeking is shoveling coal, not physically, but he is the driving force behind her transportation, her motivation for leaving. The roar is the sound of the train, the steam is produced by the train, which also produces a hundred bad dreams. I imagine the Moon in the window and a bird on the pole is the image the singer sees as he is looking out the window pondering how to respond. His decision is bold; He travels to Harlem with $50 seeking revenge. He doesn't find Mr. Knickerbocker, presumably the singers name for the wealthy man. He heads to Baltimore and upon finding them "They all went to heaven." He is alluding to the playground chant morbid moraq stated in his comment throughout the song because the singer feels the story to be pleasing and satisfying from the killers point of view because bad behavior was punished, even though the end was ripe with catastrophe. | |
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