Whistlin Past the Graveyard, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits [062]

More lyrical density and ambiguity on this week's Song by Song, as this track flirts both with a life on the railroad as well as the bad luck omens. Sam, Dave, Jen and Martin find multiple interpretations of this track (in Martin's case, a physical interpretation!) as Waits goes further than ever before into vocal experimentation. Groundbreaking! 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: Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Trouble, King Creole, Elvis Presley (1958) 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 - Whistling’ Past the Graveyard I come in on a night train with an arm full of boxcars on the wings of a magpie cross a hooligan night and I busted up a chifferobe way out by the kokomo cooked up a mess of mulligan and got into a fight whistlin' past the graveyard steppin' on a crack me and mother hubbard papa one-eyed Jack you probably seen me sleepin out by the railroad tracks go on and ask the prince of darkness what about all that smoke come from the stack sometimes I kill myself a jackal suck out all the blood steal myself a station wagon drivin' through the mud I'm gonna be whistlin' past the graveyard steppin' on a crack me and mother hubbard papa one-eyed Jack I know you seen my headlights and the honkin of my horn I'm callin out my bloodhounds chase the devil through the corn last night I chugged the Mississippi now that suckers dry as a bone I was born in a taxi cab I'm never goin home Whistlin' past the graveyard steppin' on a crack me and mother hubbard Papa one-eyed Jack my eyes have seen the glory of the draining of the ditch I only come to Baton Rouge I gotta find myself a witch I'm gonna snatch me up a couple of em every time it rains you'll see a locomotive probably thinkin its a train whistlin' past the graveyard steppin' on a crack me and mother hubbard Papa one-eyed Jack what you think is the sunshine is just a twinkle in my eye that ring around my fingers called the fourth of July when I get a little bit lonesome and a tear falls from my cheek there's gonna be an ocean in the middle of the week whistlin' past the graveyard steppin' on a crack me and mother hubbard Papa one-eyed Jack I come into town on a night train with an arm full of boxcars on the wings of a magpie cross a hooligan night I'm gonna tear me off a rainbow and wear it for a tie I never told the truth so I can never tell a lie whistlin' past the graveyard steppin' on a crack me and mother hubbard Papa one-eyed Jack