A Sweet Little Bullet from a Pretty Blue Gun Lyrics
You didn't bring a sweater
Nebraska'll never let you come back home
By the Thrifty Mart sign
Any night I'll be willin' to bet
With sweet little dreams and pretty blue wishes
Standin' there just gettin' all wet
Called the Gilbert Hotel
And there's a couple letters
Burned out in the sign
They do good business every time it rains
For little girls with nothing in their jeans
But pretty blue wishes and sweet little jeans
The old man is snoring
Now I lay me down to sleep
I hear the sirens in the street
All my dreams are made of chrome
I have no way to get back home
I'd rather die before I wake
Like Marilyn Monroe
And you could throw my dreams out in the street
And let the rain make 'em grow
He's heard every hard luck story
At least a hundred times or more
And that's just what it means
Go on up the stairs
With sweet little wishes and pretty blue dreams
And Hollywood's just fine
Swindle a little girl out of her dreams
Another letter in the sign
Be careful of that old bow tie he wears
It takes a sweet little bullet from a pretty blue gun
To put those scarlet ribbons in your hair
Fourth of July's all done
Just some fool playin' that second line
From the barrel of a pretty blue gun
Fourth of July's all done
Just some fool playin' that second line
From the barrel of a pretty blue gun
I like the contrast in this song between the delicacy of the key lyric—"it takes a sweet little bullet from a pretty blue gun / To put those scarlet ribbons in your hair"—and the savage reality of the act it describes. That contrast strikes me a metaphor for Hollywood itself. It's an industry that sells glamor and beauty. But scratch that thin, glitzy veneer and you'll find the grime: the sweet, pretty little girl who buys into a bankrupt dream of stardom, runs away from home, and burns her bridges, only to end up used, cast aside, and driven to the end of her rope in some roach-infested flophouse.
Waits actually said himself that this song was about a girl who committed suicide at 15 years old. She jumped out of a window with a guitar.
It's about being deceived by life, realizing how hard, cruel and ruthless it can be some times and that it often hurts naive people the most.
it's absolutely a suicide. I think the girl referenced by Waits was the inspiration for, not the subject of this song. Here, she get's shot in the head. "It take's a sweet little bullet from a pretty blue gun to put those scarlet ribbons in your hair" would seem to describe the blood soaked hair, and obviously if it's not a cherry bomb it's a gunshot. Chilling song.
I would have to agree with sideshow here. The song is lyrically morbid but in true Waits fashion, his more morbid subject matter, he makes the music upbeat and swinging