Tom Waits - Whistlin' Past the Graveyard

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl, his incorporation of pre-rock music styles such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films, including Down By Law and Bram Stoker's Dracula. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on One from the Heart.

Lyrically, Waits' songs frequently present atmospheric portrayals of grotesque, often seedy characters and places -- although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads. He has a cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters despite having little radio or music video support. His songs are best-known to the general public in the form of cover versions by more visible artists: "Jersey Girl", performed by Bruce Springsteen and "Downtown Train", performed by Rod Stewart. Although Waits' albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries. He has been nominated for a number of major music awards and has won Grammy Awards for two albums, Bone Machine and Mule Variations.
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well i come in on a night train
with an arm full of box cars
on the wings of a magpie
cross a hooligan night
and i busted up a chifforobe
way out by the cocomo
cooked up a mess a mulligan
and got into a fight

CHORUS: whistlin past the graveyard
steppin on a crack
i'm a mean motherhubbard
papa one eyed jack

you propably seen me sleepin
out by the railroad tracks
go on and ask the prince of darkness
what about all thet smoke
come from the stack
sometimes i kill myself a jacket
suck out all the blood
steal myself a stationwagon
drivin through the mud

CHORUS

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
born in a taxi cab
i'm never comin home

CHORUS

my eyes have seen the glory
of the draining of the ditch
i only come to baton rouge
to find myself a witch
i'm-ona snatch me up a
couple of em every time it rains
you see a locomotive
probably thinkin its a train

CHORUS

what you think is the sunshine
is just a twinkle in my eye
that ring around my fingers
just the 4th of july
when i get a little bit lonesome
and a tear falls from my cheek
theres gonna be an ocean in
the middle of the week

CHORUS

i rode into town on a night train
with an arm full of box cars
on the wings of a magpie
cross a hooligan night
i'm-ona tear me off a rainbow
and wear it for a tie
i never told the truth
so i can never tell a lie

CHORUS

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Tom
• Waits
• Whistlin'
• Past
• the
• Graveyard
• Blue
• Valentine
• original
• studio
• version
• with
• lyrics
• high
• quality

[AugustineMeaulnes]

Perfect!

[Virgilivs87]

lovely

[theoriginal72]

Stop putting bumpers before the song.

[parpagnaccu]

ah born in a taxicab

ah never goin' home

fantastic shuffle.

Thanks pal