1 Meaning
Add Yours
Share
Living It Up Lyrics
Eddie’s got one crazy eye
that turns him into a cartoon
when a pretty girl comes by
and there’s nothin’ here to do anymore
he sits on the stoop all day
like there’s something he’s waiting for
Cunt-finger Louie picks up Eddie in the alley
he’s got all those guys with him
from that town where they all look like
Frankie Valli
they speak fluently blonde
from her legs to her cigarette
and Louie told Eddie that he’d fix him up
but he ain’t come back yet...
well, you know
it’s more trouble than it’s worth
it’s more trouble than it’s worth
Oh Wild
and the Only ones
Tell him where you are—
Oh Wild
and the Only ones
Tell him where you are
Tell him where you are...
Zero quit school
and she lost her job again
and her boyfriend beat her up
and now he won’t let her in
so she’s walking by this joint
in a black and blue dress
she looks at Louie who elbows Eddie who says
“don’t tell me, lemme guess.”
it’s more trouble than it’s worth
he’s more trouble than he’s worth
Oh Wild
and the Only ones
Tell her where you are—
Oh Wild
and the Only ones
Tell her where you are...
well at first when it was this way
when they’re the only ones
and you’ve got all these ideas
you never tell to anyone
there are always magnets
pulling each of you there
living every story you’d dare
to be the only ones
the only ones...
oh, who are living it up
oh yeah, we’re living it up
oh, we’ll be living it up
oh yeah, we’re living it up
gonta be living it up
oh yeah, we’re living it up
oh, we’ll be living it up
oh yeah, we’re living it up
oh yeah, we’re living it up
oh yeah, we’re living it up
oh yeah, we’re living it up
oh yeah, we’re living it up
Louie and Eddie found a reason then and there
carried her over the bridges like fluttering pages
they didn’t care
in the terminal where dreams
let so many tickets through
when strangers look in faces
and see somebody there they knew
you might meet me tomorrow
as all the lights are blooming green
and you’re feeling a little lonely,
a little sad, a little mean
remember a place
inside of that hotel
where you could do anything you want to do
you couldn’t tell
if it’s more trouble than it’s worth
ah, this is more trouble than it’s worth
Oh Wild
and the Only ones
Tell me where you are—
Oh Wild
and the Only ones
I’m waiting; you could
Tell me where you are—
Oh Wild
and the Only ones
why don’t you tell me where you are?
Nobody seems to know the meaning here. Please let me know if you have any ideas at all. Here's all I can think of (and it's very incomplete).
We all know that, whilst writing this incredible album, she was going through a lot of hurt as the result of Tom Waits' sudden split to New York. She, and he, Chuck E., and so on, were all part of a gang of musicians and drinkers who hung out at The Troubadour (amongst other joints) and had a lot of fun and a lot of original ideas. Each character was probably pretty unique. Perhaps they may collectively have been "Wild and the Only ones"; a group of artists, undamming those crazy "ideas you never tell to anyone"; that hive of creativity (and love of life and liquor) the "magnets pulling each of you there" if not the attraction which drew Waits and Jones into a brief, and ultimately painful, relationship.
Rickie Lee Jones told DJ and music-journo Simon Barnett about "Cunt-Finger Louie" in an interview which the BBC never ultimately broadcast. It's in the archives somewhere and deserves to be heard.
According to RLJ, elsewhere, he was one of many funny stories told by her friend and sometime collaborator, Sal Bernadi.
As for Eddie and his crazy eye — who knows?