Falling Down Lyrics

Lyric discussion by PACrivellaro 

Cover art for Falling Down lyrics by Tom Waits

To me, it seems pretty obvious that it's about a rather 'good guy' who is realizing that the girl he's after would rather have someone a little more risky and dangerous. "Go on take a swing of that poison and like it" and "she wants you to steal and get caught" implies that he needs to try and be uncharacteristic of himself to appeal to her -- but he ends up being someone who: "she loves you for all you are not".

So first he falls down to become that person who she would like, and then falls down to realize that he's not happy not being himself.