$29.00, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits [060]

Jen Adamthwaite and Dave Pickering from The Family Tree podcast (http://thefamilytreepodcast.co.uk/) join Song by Song for this fifth track from Blue Valentine, to discuss the adequate musical choices of Tom Waits and the need for clarity of storytelling. There's some differences of opinion, as well as debates over Waits's judgement of the song's protagonist (and our judgement of him for that), and the nature and associations of "white blues' in general. Nb: the Tracy Chapman track we discuss is "Behind The Wall" from the album Tracy Chapman. Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order. website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected] Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: $29.00, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Shot Gun Blues, Briefcase Full Of Blues, The Blues Brothers/Donnie Walsh (1978) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. Lyrics - $29.00 Little black girl in a red dress on a hot night with a broken shoe Little black girl you should've never left home there's probably someone still waitin' up for you It's cold back in Chicago but the Los Angeles street is worse all you got is twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse see that vulture in the Fleetwood with the chartreuse hood sees you're tryin' to get your bearings say hey baby which way's the main stem wherever you say you're from he'll say he grew up there himself he gonna come on and make you feel like you grew up right next door to him take a left on Central he gonna throw it in reverse all you got is twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse he gonna come on just like a gentleman and oh baby you're gonna be a little shy you say your ex-old man was a sax player he says Baby I used to play bass with Sly and you say you like his Cadillac says honey I got two or three sweetheart you're sure fortunate that you ran into me you've done a dime in the joint you figure nothin' could be worse than twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse Got Pharoh on 8-track you start smokin' a little boo thinkin' gettin' out of Chicago was just about the best thing that's ever happened to you you startin' to like it already this cat seems to be cool he says Baby I know a good old jailhouse in West-Hollywood be just right for you he ain't no good Samaritan he gonna make sure he's reimbursed a lot more than twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse and when the streets get hungry baby and you almost hear em growl someones savin a place for you when the dogs begin to howl and the streets are dead they creep up and take whatever's left on the bone and remember suckers always make mistakes when they're far away from home chicken in the pot whoever gets there first is gonna get themselves twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse and the siren's just an epilogue the cops here always get there too late they always stop for coffee on their way to the scene of the crime they always try so hard to look just like movie stars but they couldn't catch a cold baby don't waste your dime she's lucky to be alive the doctor whispered to the nurse she only lost half a pint of blood twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse