Invitation to the Blues Lyrics

Lyric discussion by masterjack 

Cover art for Invitation to the Blues lyrics by Tom Waits

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.

@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...