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Tom Waits – Hold On Lyrics 9 years ago
@[azkm:9526] Hoo man, long time lurker, first post because of this. Your post just seemed so brash, as if you've no experience outside of city life/ suburbia. All the man has in his life is a woman that he's fallen for and his podunk town that he will not be leaving anytime soon. His body may go somewhere, but his mind is stuck in that town, while she is ready for all intents and purposes to move onto greener pastures.

"he gave her a dime-store watch and a ring made from a spoon."
You are really overthinking this line. This is the extent of the things this man had. He's poor. He wants desperately to be enough for this woman, but cannot fulfill her expectations and wants. Thus the cognitive dissonance sets in. He starts to think to himself that she wasn't worth it anyways. But the cognitive dissonance isn't enough, he still can't let her go.

Leads us to, "You don't meet nice girls in coffee shops."

I see that this was posted in 2009 when entitled feminism and all that was beginning to get trendy, but what is it in the song that shows he treated this woman poorly? Perhaps, "go ahead and call the cops," can be misconstrued as him harassing her in some way shape or form, but the lines right after that seem to be pretty calm and collected. I don't see any wrongdoing directly from the song and thus why would we take it negatively?. She told this man she didn't want to be with him the way he wanted to and he was upset. He wants her to hold on. But she won't. No one is to blame. It's a sad song about a man coping with his inadequacies. Not about a poor woman who is being treated poorly by a womanizing man. Hopefully you've gotten out of this phase in your life, it's toxic.

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