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Invitation to the Blues Lyrics
Well she's up against the register with an apron and a spatula,
Yesterday's deliveries, tickets for the bachelors
She's a moving violation from her conk down to her shoes
Well, it's just an invitation to the blues
And you feel just like Cagney, she looks like Rita Hayworth
At the counter of the Schwab's drugstore
You wonder if she might be single, she's a loner and likes to mingle
Got to be patient, try and pick up a clue
She said How you gonna like 'em, over medium or scrambled?
You say 'anyway's the only way', be careful not to gamble
On a guy with a suitcase and a ticket getting out of here
It's a tired bus station and an old pair of shoes
This ain't nothing but an invitation to the blues
But you can't take your eyes off her, get another cup of java
It's just the way she pours it for you, joking with the customers
Mercy mercy, Mr. Percy, there ain't nothing back in Jersey
But a broken-down jalopy of a man I left behind
And the dream that I was chasing, and a battle with booze
And an open invitation to the blues
But she used to have a sugar daddy and a candy-apple Caddy
And a bank account and everything, accustomed to the finer things
He probably left her for a socialite, and he didn't love her 'cept at night
And then he's drunk and never even told her that her cared
So they took the registration, and the car-keys and her shoes
And left her with an invitation to the blues
Cause there's a Continental Trailways leaving local bus tonight, good evening
You can have my seat, I'm sticking round here for a while
Get me a room at the Squire, the filling station's hiring
And I can eat here every night, what the hell have I got to lose?
Got a crazy sensation, go or stay? now I gotta choose
And I'll accept your invitation to the blues
Yesterday's deliveries, tickets for the bachelors
She's a moving violation from her conk down to her shoes
Well, it's just an invitation to the blues
At the counter of the Schwab's drugstore
You wonder if she might be single, she's a loner and likes to mingle
Got to be patient, try and pick up a clue
You say 'anyway's the only way', be careful not to gamble
On a guy with a suitcase and a ticket getting out of here
It's a tired bus station and an old pair of shoes
This ain't nothing but an invitation to the blues
It's just the way she pours it for you, joking with the customers
Mercy mercy, Mr. Percy, there ain't nothing back in Jersey
But a broken-down jalopy of a man I left behind
And the dream that I was chasing, and a battle with booze
And an open invitation to the blues
And a bank account and everything, accustomed to the finer things
He probably left her for a socialite, and he didn't love her 'cept at night
And then he's drunk and never even told her that her cared
So they took the registration, and the car-keys and her shoes
And left her with an invitation to the blues
You can have my seat, I'm sticking round here for a while
Get me a room at the Squire, the filling station's hiring
And I can eat here every night, what the hell have I got to lose?
Got a crazy sensation, go or stay? now I gotta choose
And I'll accept your invitation to the blues
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OK, this has been one of my favorite songs for 25+ years, and I just today figured out that I might have been misinterpreting one of the lyrics. When she says, "There ain't nothing back in Jersey but a broken-down jalopy of a man I left behind" I have always assumed she was referring to an actual car. But when I heard the song today I realized it's probably a metaphor; she's referring to her ex- as a "broken-down jalopy of a man". I'm not usually so literal-minded! I can't believe this great little poetic turn of a phrase has tricked and evaded me for all these years.
@writerly I had always heard that line as the protagonist describing himself as a broken down jalopy of a man who left jersey after failing his dreams and crawling inside a bottle. He’s a drifter now and ended up at Shwab’s Drugstore with a bus ticket heading west, until he ‘fell in love’ with the waitress and decided to stay.
@writerly I had always heard that line as the protagonist describing himself as a broken down jalopy of a man who left jersey after failing his dreams and crawling inside a bottle. He’s a drifter now and ended up at Shwab’s Drugstore with a bus ticket heading west, until he ‘fell in love’ with the waitress and decided to stay.
@writerly I though it was him describing himself and therefore not having any particular motivation to go back to his life in Jersey... you could be right too of course! :)
@writerly I though it was him describing himself and therefore not having any particular motivation to go back to his life in Jersey... you could be right too of course! :)
@writerly this may help clear up a little the line Bout about a broken down jals him singing not her he left Jersey and you're right it's a metaphor of broken down man and a natyle with the booze
@writerly this may help clear up a little the line Bout about a broken down jals him singing not her he left Jersey and you're right it's a metaphor of broken down man and a natyle with the booze
A couple of Impt mistakes in the lyrics fishes I can eat here every night not not need every night
A couple of Impt mistakes in the lyrics fishes I can eat here every night not not need every night
This song opens the extraordinary movie, "Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession." Perfect song for the intro to a complex and disturbing film. Oh, and it proves that Tom Waits will always be one of--if not the--best storytellers in music history.
My favourite Tom Waits song. He KNOWS she's not saint, he KNOWS she's got baggage, he KNOWS it'll end in tears... and yet you get back on that horse called romance. And the imagery, man. "You feel just like Cagney, she looks like Rita Hayworth"... yet you get the feeling she probably isn't THAT good-looking in real life, she's getting on a bit, and he's just a drifter who's nothing like Jimmy Cagney. But hey, that's life.
"He probably left her for a socialite, and he didn't love her 'cept at night, And then he's drunk and never even told her that her cared"
Always brings a lump to my throat...
I'm not an American, so will someone be kind enough to tell me, when Tom waits speaks of getting a room at the Squire, what he means. Is this a well-known chain of hotels/motels. The other thing is "the counter of the Schwab's drug store", which also makes it sound like a chain of sorts, though the only mention I can find on the Net is Schwab's Pharmacy in LA. (This song - also one of my favourites, by the way, on what to me is the greatest of Waits's albums - sounds to me as if it's set in a smallish town.) I'd be grateful for any background anyone can supply.
The Squire is probably just a low rent hotel or apartment house. The counter of thr Schwab's Drug Store is said to be the place that Lana Turner was discovered by some Hollywood muckity muck.
The Squire is probably just a low rent hotel or apartment house. The counter of thr Schwab's Drug Store is said to be the place that Lana Turner was discovered by some Hollywood muckity muck.
@masterjack Scwabs is a drugstore out in LA in Hollywood...supposedly it's where one of the big Hollywood moguls found Rita Hayworth eating lunch...fell in love with her beauty and brought her in for a screen test....The Squire...lol...this is from an interview that Tom Waits did...I guess as a smallish traveling musician you stay in. A lot of different towns...TW said that in all of these small towns there was always a hotel/motel named the Squire... No matter how small or if it was the only place in town....being from another country...it will be tough to interpret a lot of...
@masterjack Scwabs is a drugstore out in LA in Hollywood...supposedly it's where one of the big Hollywood moguls found Rita Hayworth eating lunch...fell in love with her beauty and brought her in for a screen test....The Squire...lol...this is from an interview that Tom Waits did...I guess as a smallish traveling musician you stay in. A lot of different towns...TW said that in all of these small towns there was always a hotel/motel named the Squire... No matter how small or if it was the only place in town....being from another country...it will be tough to interpret a lot of his music...he dropps lot of casual references in his songs...don't feel bad...I doubt if 90 % of people under 30 would know the Rita Hayworth drop...love Tom Waits...don't think anyone out there writeclose to the imagery he use.. if you ever really want toknow something I'll throw my # out... for b texts only..I would give you my email but hardly ever check it..201...446..0280...txt only ...I don't answer calls unless I know who they are
This song tells a story, and it paints the story in a way that is much clearer than most other songs which try to do the same thing.
This is one of the most touching songs by Waits. It very well follows americana ballad tradition when the story is easy to understand and the complex emotions and ideas are explained indirectly by pointing out to the details of the scene.
The song is self-explanatory, really. There's just a few references worth exploring. Schwab's Drugstore (or Schwab's Pharmacy) is probably well-known to many Americans but not to the rest of the world. The place was an actual drug store on a Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood which also served as a cafe. It was a point where movie stars and Hollywood big shots would hang around in 30th-50th. Featured in Sunset Blvd movie, destroyed in 80th. Sunset Blvd is a noir movie, therefore reference helps to set the stage in a film noir style.
Hollywood's movies of the time are not unlike Comedy del Arte, where every mask has its meaning and its speciality. Cagney's is a complex tough guy with a deep multi-faceted personality, a kinda person every male wants to be deep inside. Rita Hayworth's moniker was "Love Goddess", there's no need to say more.
All the other names and places mentioned are circumstantial and placed by Waits to provide the feeling of realism, as he often does.
As the result, song plays very much as a beginning of the film noir. And do you really need a camera to film a noir if you are Tom Waits?
God haven\'t any of you ever travelled and wound up in a strange diner late at night and fell in love with the attractive waitress behind the counter. This can happen anywhere at any tine to anyone and does. This is what Waits is telling us and knows we should know what the heck he is saying. Any American man should have been through this by age 19. Then we fantasize because our own lives have gone drab and empty and by comparison living at the Squire and working at the gas station sounds great. Trust me there were times when I would have accepted an invitation to the blues and didjust not at the diner.
@michaelnxy she definitely has issues as does he but who cares. Go to the Squire an get a job at the gas station.
@michaelnxy she definitely has issues as does he but who cares. Go to the Squire an get a job at the gas station.
Can anyone tell me what conks are?
@Elzash As far as I know It's a Hairstyle.
@Elzash As far as I know It's a Hairstyle.
@Elzash 19th century slang for "nose".
@Elzash 19th century slang for "nose".
What does "tickets for the bachelors" mean? Is it simply tickets for the band, The Bachelors?