To me it sounds like the melody (and rhythm) was taken from Tennessee Ernie Ford's Sixteen Tons, a very Waits-esque song.
This is especially audible during this song's refrain and during similar sounding lines (ex.: both song's first line, "Some people say a man is made outta mud"/"Falling James in the Tahoe mud," or, "I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine"/"He never get up in the morning on a Saturday").
Still, Waits makes the tune his own through his lyrics, which are great as usual, and the stripped down backwoods instrumentation on the banjo is different and works incredibly well.
To me it sounds like the melody (and rhythm) was taken from Tennessee Ernie Ford's Sixteen Tons, a very Waits-esque song.
This is especially audible during this song's refrain and during similar sounding lines (ex.: both song's first line, "Some people say a man is made outta mud"/"Falling James in the Tahoe mud," or, "I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine"/"He never get up in the morning on a Saturday").
Still, Waits makes the tune his own through his lyrics, which are great as usual, and the stripped down backwoods instrumentation on the banjo is different and works incredibly well.