16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought-Six Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Stevenp68 

Cover art for 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought-Six lyrics by Tom Waits

At first I was thinking wtf.Now I think this song is either about learning guitar or how to make music.The crow being the devil, a muse, or the ego he has to capture it. The 30 ought 6 might be a guitar and the knuckles of the skinnybone tree are the frets. When he finally catches it he keeps it prisoner in a Washburn jail and bangs on the strings just to drive him crazy and strums it loud just to rattle his cage.

cool interpretation i think its my favourite the washburn jail could be a washburn guitar

@Stevenp68 giant-impact hypothesis