The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House) Lyrics
Tryin' to rake in that last night's fare,
And a solitary sailor
Who spends the facts of his life like small change on strangers...
And the last bent butt from a package of Kents,
As he dreams of a waitress with Maxwell House eyes
And marmalade thighs with scrambled yellow hair.
As she wipes the wisps of dishwater blonde from her eyes
The steel-belted attendant with a 'Ring and Valve Special'...
Cryin' "Fill'er up and check that oil"
"You know it could be a distributor and it could be a coil."
And that town cryer's cryin' there with nickels in his hands.
Pigs in a blanket sixty-nine cents,
Eggs - roll 'em over and a package of Kents,
Adam and Eve on a log, you can sink 'em damn straight,
Hash browns, hash browns, you know I can't be late.
Across a cash crop car lot filled with twilight Coupe Devilles,
Leaving the town in a-keeping
Of the one who is sweeping
Up the ghost of Saturday night...
this is a beautiful song. i'm surprised there arent more comments on tom waits songs. how disappointing.
Maxwell House eyes And marmalade thighs with scrambled yellow hair
every time I see a woman who can fit this description this song pops into my head. Gives breakfast a new meaning too.
To me this is about the feeling after being out all night and still up at dawn, and if you were out all saturday night it works, because Sundays at dawn are really dead. The perfect song to end the night-owls' soundtrack.
"He dreams of a waitress with Maxwell House eyes And marmalade thighs, with scRaMBLed yellow hair."
If I had to choose one lyric which sums up the genius of Tom Waits, I often think this would have to be it.
it really is. he's the most interesting character in music history
More great lyrics in this song alone than some other artists whole albums (or careers for that matter). I particularly love the alliteration that bookends the song - 'the solitary sailor who spends the facts of his life like small change on strangers' and then the 'cracks out a carpet of diamonds across a cash crop car lot filled with twighlight Coupe Devilles'. So atmospheric.