driftglass: Tom Waits Friday

Friday, January 19, 2007

Tom Waits Friday

Tom Traubert's Blues

And it's a battered old suitcase
To a hotel someplace,
And a wound that will never heal

No prima donna,
the perfume is on an
Old shirt that is stained with blood and whisky

4 comments:

¡El Gato Negro! said...: To me, thees Waits piece has always been the 3rd leg of a triangle of songs regarding Waltzing Maltilda.

Primero, joo have the song "Waltzing Matilda", and eet's attendant story about a wandering hobo who steals a sheep and drowns trying to avoid capture and hanging. Eet ees the unofficial national song of Australia.

Segundo, joo have Eric Bogle's famous song about Gallipoli, "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda", wheech Shane MacGowan and the Pogues covered to great effect.

Tercero, joo have Wait's song "Tom Traubert's blues" wheech, though no about Waltzing Matilda or Galipoli directly, nonetheless conveys a sense of being far from home, perhaps een a warzone.

(I’m an innocent victim of a blinded alley
And I’m tired of all these soldiers here
No one speaks English, and everything’s broken...)

I had always felt "Tom Traubert's Blues" to be Wait's musings on the thoughts of Bogle's fictitious narrator, however, Waits heemself has said thees about the song:

"This is eh, a song here eh. I kinda borrowed your unofficial national anthem on this whole thing... I'll give it back when I'm done. Eh, well I met this girl named Matilda. And eh, I had a little too much to drink that night. This is about throwing up in a foreign country. The feeling..." (Sydney Australia, May 2, 1979)

Gracias por posting an old fave, Dreeftglass.

so.; 2:38 PM
Anonymous said...: This is one of my favorites, also. It may very well be the quintessential Waits song, for my money.

Thanks, driftglass.

Interesting take on a 'Waltzing Matilda,' trilogy, too, EGN.

I once frightened one of my younger brothers into tears by my rendition of the last verse of the original song. Just to be clear, it was the ghost part that frightened him, not my singing. ;); 2:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Thanks, DG; 4:54 PM
Anonymous said...: What a piece of work. One cannot be unmoved. Sad thing, Waits will always be treated as a "character actor" - never the star, yet he is deeper and so much more than popularity will permit.

WTF.

Thanks so much for Tom Waits Fridays.

SD; 2:48 AM