submissions
| Tom Waits – Town with No Cheer Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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When I first heard this song I was staggered by the way it captures the Australian bush. I think it is one of the best poetic descriptions of a small Australian country town - the quietness, where nothing happens, the heat. "A blanket of pattersons curse" - think about this on the next hot January day. the clank of the rail metal. and yes I do think he riffs on the "pub with no beer" but in a way that such a place is lonely, empty of life that once was there. like his song "the house where nobody lives". TW is truly deeply poetic. Kenneth Slessor or Les Murray would be proud of this song. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Come on Up to the House Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Yes he's riffing on the genre of the old style gospel preacher. He's having some fun with it and what a riot ! Playing at being the secular preacher, saying stuff the real preacher can't say. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Blue Valentines Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Awesome song, awesome artist. I think it's a ghost story. That is, his guilt is real , but the blue valentine cards are imagined. He has killed his girlfriend and the ghosts which appear are not the person, but the blue valentines. He pauses for effect before he sings the word "blood stains" to emphasise it- these are metaphoric lady macbeth type blood stains, ie guilt for an actual murder, not just guilt for infidelity or some other reason for a relationship breakdown. Nightmares are not normally a feature of a (mere) relationship breakdown- they signify something far more sinister. Tom Waits loved ghost stories, and he uses the word ghost in the song- "the ghost of your memory". He mimics the sound of her (ghostly) voice in the last stanza. |
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