Telephone Call from Istanbul Lyrics

Lyric discussion by KubalahtKoala 

Cover art for Telephone Call from Istanbul lyrics by Tom Waits

Buelah is a reference to the bible & perhaps William Blake's cosmic mythology. In the bible, Buelah is the name for Palestine redeemed: "and they land shall be called Buelah, for the lord deligteth in thee, and thy land shall be married (Buelah is hebrew for married)." Isiah:lxii:4. For Blake, Buelah was inbetween Eternity (Heaven) & Ulro (eality in its most materialistic, newtonian, soulless form). Buelah is the wellspring our Freudian subconscious and Jungian collective unconscious where "contraries are equally True" (Marriage of Heaven & Hell). It is the spiritual location of Blake's "Innocence" poems. In short, it is certainly a place where you could "drive a car when your dead", cut holes in time, where fireballs (like burning bushes)talk & where you might find your long lost love returning from halfway around the world.

Song Meaning