Tom Waits - Kentucky Avenue
From Album - Asylum Years
Kentucky Avenue" contains autobiographical elements. Tom Waits grew up on a street called Kentucky Avenue in Whittier, California.In a 1979 interview, Waits recounted:
"I used to walk down Kentucky Avenue collecting cigarette butts. And I finally got me a paper route. I used to get up at 1 o' clock in the morning so I could deliver my papers and still have time to break the law..."
Many of the song's lyrics relate to real people in Waits' childhood. "Mrs. Storm" was a neighbour who would sit with a twelve-gauge shotgun protruding from her kitchen window.Perhaps the strongest autobiographical influence was Waits' childhood friend, a boy named Kipper, who suffered from polio and used a wheelchair. In 1981, Waits elaborated on these memories:
"I didn't understand what polio was. I just knew it took him longer to get to the bus stop than me... Sometimes I think kids know more than anybody. I rode a train once to Santa Barbara with this kid and it almost seemed like he lived a life somewhere before he was born and he brought what he knew with him into this world and so... it's what you don't know that's usually more interesting. Things you wonder about, things you have yet to make up your mind about. There's more to deal with than just your fundamental street wisdom. Dreams. Nightmares."
The song's closing moments include the line "we'll hop that freight train in the hall." This refers to one of Waits' earliest childhood memories, in which he would imagine that, every night, a freight train would run through the centre of his house.
Lyrics
Eddie graces buick got 4 bullet holes in the side
Charlie delisle sittin at the top of an avocado tree
Mrs stormll stab you with a steak knife if you step on her
Lawn
I got a half pack of lucky strikes man come along with me
Lets fill our pockets with macadamia nuts
Then go over to bobby goodmansons
And jump off the roof
Hilda plays strip poker
And her mamas across the street
Joey navinski says she put her tongue in his mouth
Dicky faulkners got a switchblade
And some gooseneck risers
That eucalyptus is a hunchback
Theres a wind up from the south
Let me tie you up with kite string
And i'll show you the scabs on my knee
Watch out for the broken glass, put your shoes and socks
On and come along with me
Lets follow that fire track
I think your house is burnin down
The go down to the hobo jungle and kill some rattle
Snakes with a trowel
We'll break all the windowa in the old anderson place
And steal a bunch of boysenberrys
And smear em on our face
I'll get a dollar from my mamas purse
And buy that scull and crossbones ring
And you can wear it around your neck on an old piece of
String
Then we'll spit on ronnie arnold
And flip him the bird
And slash the tires on the school bus
Now don't say a word
I'll take a rusty nail and scratch your initials on my arm
And i'll show you how to sneak up on the roof of the
Drugstore
Take the spongs from your wheelchair
And a magpies wings
And tie em to your shoulders and your feet
I'll steal a hacksaw from my dad
And cut the braces off your legs
And we'll bury them tonight in the cornfield
Put a church key in your pocket
We'll hop that freight train in the hall
And we'll slide down the drain all the way
To new orleans in the fall
Loading...
100 videos
Got half a pack of Lucky Strikes comin' along with me, Tom your the man!!!
jczother 2 weeks ago