Poor Old Tom

A Tennessee boy joined the US Navy
in nineteen-fifty he was seventeen
A quiet kid who'd never seen the ocean
his mama died his first trip at sea
He learned to work and he learned to whistle
he learned to gamble and he learned to fight
He learned to suck a bottle and go out whorin'
somehow he learned stagger in at night
Pool old Tom he don't know
why his teeth's gotta rattle, shiver and shake
The night wind's free to blow wherever it pleases
Tom's free to walk 'til the cold day break
Poor old Tom he's tellin' it all
his thoughts are roarin' like a waterfall
He never cared about money and there's no doubt
he never had much money to care about
Typhoon and calms on the great Pacific
proud to be serving the USA
He worked had on board and he got promoted
he got VD but it went away
Poor old Tom he ain't right
he went out in San Francisco on a Saturday night
Sunday morning his ship set sail
Tom was resting in the Oakland jail
Now it’s thirty-five years since his incarceration
on a morals charge, the words he said to me
From the brig on Treasure Island to the institution
they treated his depression with shock therapy
Poor old Tom he don’t know
he’s got trouble a callin’ his history
At the drop of a coin he’ll start to ramble
how the whole damn thing’s a mystery
Now, his eyes bulge out as we talk on the corner
he turns on the gurney they held him down
One morning they wheeled him to another building
a surgery room with doctors standing 'round
He cried Lord help me as they put him under
and he sailed away on an ether sea
Ever since that day all he does is wonder
did the surgeons perform a lobotomy?
Poor old Tom his story’s true
he’s got nothin’ to show, no one to show it to
The word for him is nevertheless
he fought for freedom, never took a free breath
Now the radios blare nusak and Musak
diseases are cured every day
The worst disease in the world is to be unwanted
to be used up and cast away
So as we make our way towards our destinations
fortunes are still made with flesh and blood
Progress and love got nothing in common
Jesus healed a blind man’s eyes with mud
Pool old Tom he don't know
why his teeth's gotta rattle, shiver and shake
The night wind's free to blow wherever it pleases
Tom's free to walk 'til the cold day break.