Tom Waits said this was a lullaby about the homeless on "the Nickel", or Fifth St, Los Angeles.
my thoughts are along that vein. it's basically saying naughty boys grow up to live on the street. i don't believe the songwriter thinks this, as many of Tom Waits' songs tend to center around being 'down & out'.
lullabies, taken for face value are atrocious (i.e. Rock-a-Bye Baby), and this is just the same. i picture a father singing this to his little boy just before bedtime, after the kid got into a fight at school and failed Math.
it's a nice way of saying "Square your ass away, or you'll end up in the gutter."
@roger wilco I sang this song tonight to my 3yo boy while I was bouncing him to sleep on a yoga ball in our nice comfy house while it was raining outside. Thinking of him growing up like the little boys who live in Guatemala City's municipal garbage dump breaks my heart. I wish that I could bring them all into my home and feed them and give them a warm, dry place to sleep. As it is, I can only afford to foster one child and my wife and I are in the process of making that happen. Human...
@roger wilco I sang this song tonight to my 3yo boy while I was bouncing him to sleep on a yoga ball in our nice comfy house while it was raining outside. Thinking of him growing up like the little boys who live in Guatemala City's municipal garbage dump breaks my heart. I wish that I could bring them all into my home and feed them and give them a warm, dry place to sleep. As it is, I can only afford to foster one child and my wife and I are in the process of making that happen. Human suffering is a big bad problem that a little man like me can't solve solo. Good thing Jeff Bezos was able to earn his 30 billion dollars this last coupla months, you know? We live in a twisted ironic world that sustains an incredible amount of suffering on the part of millions of innocent children. The only answer I can offer is to ask other people to think about doing what they can to help...
@roger wilco I sang this song tonight to my 3yo boy while I was bouncing him to sleep on a yoga ball in our nice comfy house while it was raining outside. Thinking of him growing up like the little boys who live in Guatemala City's municipal garbage dump breaks my heart. I wish that I could bring them all into my home and feed them and give them a warm, dry place to sleep. As it is, I can only afford to foster one child and my wife and I are in the process of making that happen. Human...
@roger wilco I sang this song tonight to my 3yo boy while I was bouncing him to sleep on a yoga ball in our nice comfy house while it was raining outside. Thinking of him growing up like the little boys who live in Guatemala City's municipal garbage dump breaks my heart. I wish that I could bring them all into my home and feed them and give them a warm, dry place to sleep. As it is, I can only afford to foster one child and my wife and I are in the process of making that happen. Human suffering is a big bad problem that a little man like me can't solve solo. Good thing Jeff Bezos was able to earn his 30 billion dollars this last coupla months, you know? We live in a twisted ironic world that sustains an incredible amount of suffering on the part of millions of innocent children. The only answer I can offer is to ask other people to think about doing what they can to help...
Tom Waits said this was a lullaby about the homeless on "the Nickel", or Fifth St, Los Angeles.
my thoughts are along that vein. it's basically saying naughty boys grow up to live on the street. i don't believe the songwriter thinks this, as many of Tom Waits' songs tend to center around being 'down & out'.
lullabies, taken for face value are atrocious (i.e. Rock-a-Bye Baby), and this is just the same. i picture a father singing this to his little boy just before bedtime, after the kid got into a fight at school and failed Math.
it's a nice way of saying "Square your ass away, or you'll end up in the gutter."
and what a better way to say it than this song?
@roger wilco I sang this song tonight to my 3yo boy while I was bouncing him to sleep on a yoga ball in our nice comfy house while it was raining outside. Thinking of him growing up like the little boys who live in Guatemala City's municipal garbage dump breaks my heart. I wish that I could bring them all into my home and feed them and give them a warm, dry place to sleep. As it is, I can only afford to foster one child and my wife and I are in the process of making that happen. Human...
@roger wilco I sang this song tonight to my 3yo boy while I was bouncing him to sleep on a yoga ball in our nice comfy house while it was raining outside. Thinking of him growing up like the little boys who live in Guatemala City's municipal garbage dump breaks my heart. I wish that I could bring them all into my home and feed them and give them a warm, dry place to sleep. As it is, I can only afford to foster one child and my wife and I are in the process of making that happen. Human suffering is a big bad problem that a little man like me can't solve solo. Good thing Jeff Bezos was able to earn his 30 billion dollars this last coupla months, you know? We live in a twisted ironic world that sustains an incredible amount of suffering on the part of millions of innocent children. The only answer I can offer is to ask other people to think about doing what they can to help...
@roger wilco I sang this song tonight to my 3yo boy while I was bouncing him to sleep on a yoga ball in our nice comfy house while it was raining outside. Thinking of him growing up like the little boys who live in Guatemala City's municipal garbage dump breaks my heart. I wish that I could bring them all into my home and feed them and give them a warm, dry place to sleep. As it is, I can only afford to foster one child and my wife and I are in the process of making that happen. Human...
@roger wilco I sang this song tonight to my 3yo boy while I was bouncing him to sleep on a yoga ball in our nice comfy house while it was raining outside. Thinking of him growing up like the little boys who live in Guatemala City's municipal garbage dump breaks my heart. I wish that I could bring them all into my home and feed them and give them a warm, dry place to sleep. As it is, I can only afford to foster one child and my wife and I are in the process of making that happen. Human suffering is a big bad problem that a little man like me can't solve solo. Good thing Jeff Bezos was able to earn his 30 billion dollars this last coupla months, you know? We live in a twisted ironic world that sustains an incredible amount of suffering on the part of millions of innocent children. The only answer I can offer is to ask other people to think about doing what they can to help...