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Blue Valentine (Remastered)

by Tom Waits

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1.
There's a place for us Somewhere a place for us Peace and quiet and open air Wait for us Somewhere There's a time for us Someday there'll be a time for us Time together with time to spare Time to learn Time to care Someday, somewhere We'll find a new way of living We'll find there's a way of forgiving Somewhere There's a place for us A time and a place for us Hold my hand and we're half way there Hold my hand And I'll take you there Somehow Someday, somewhere
2.
she wore red shoes by the newsstand as the rain splashed the nickle spilled like chablis along the midway there’s a little bluejay in a red dress, on a sad night one straw in a rootbeer a compact with a cracked mirror and a bottle of evening in paris perfume whats this sad tune he told her to wait by the magazines he had to take care of some business it seems bring a raincoat and a suitcase and your dark eyes and wear those red shoes there’s a dark huddle at the bus stop unbrellas arranged in a sad bouquet li’l caesar got caught he was goin down to second he was cooled changing stations on the chamber to steal a diamond from a jewelry store for his baby he loved the way she looked in those red shoes she waited by the drugstore caesar had never been this late before and the dogs bayed the moon and rattled their chains and the cold jingle of taps in a puddle was the burgler alarm snitchin on caesar now the rain washes memories from the sidewalks and the hounds splash down the nickle full of soldiers and santa claus is drunk in the ski room and it’s christmas eve in a sad cafe when the moon gels this way there’s a little blue jay by the newsstand wearing red shoes so meet me tonight by the drugstore we’re goin out tonight wear your red shoes
3.
hey charley i’m pregnant and living on 9th street right above a dirty bookstore off euclid avenue and i stopped takin dope and i quit drinkin whiskey and my old man plays the trombone and works out at the track and he says that he loves me even though its not his baby and he says that he’ll raise him up like he would his own son and he gave me a ring that was worn by his mother and he takes me out dancin every saturday nite and hey charley i think about you everytime i pass a fill in station on account of all the grease you used to wear in your hair and i still have that record of little anthony & the imperials but someone stole my record playa now how do you like that? hey charley i almost went crazy after mario got busted so i went back to omaha to live with my folks but everyone i used to know was either dead or in prison so i came back to minneapolis this time i think i’m gonna slay hey charley i think i’m happy for the first time since my accident and i wish i had all the money that we used to spend on dope i’d buy me a used car lot and i wouldn’t sell any of em i’d just drive a different car every day, dependin on how i feel hey charley for chrissakes do you want to know the truth of it? i don’t have a husband he don’t play the trombone and i need to borrow money to pay this lawyer and charley, hey i’ll be eligible for parole come valentines day.
4.
romeo is bleeding but not so as you’d notice he’s over on 18th street as usual lookin so hard against the hood of his car and puttin out a cigarette in his hand and for all the pachucos at the pumps at romeros paint and body they all seein how far they can spit well it was just another night but now they’re huddled in the brake lights of a 58 belair and listenin to how romeo killed a sherrif with his knife and they all jump when they hear the sirens but romeo just laughs and says all the racket in the world ain’t never gonna save that coppers ass he’ll never see another summertime for gunnin down my brother and leavin him like a dog beneath a car without his knife and romeo says hey man gimme a cigarette and they all reach for their pack and frankie lights it for him and pats him on the back and throws a bottle at a milk truck and as it breaks he grabs his nuts and they all know they could be just like romeo if they only had the guts but romeo is bleeding but nobody can tell and he sings along with the radio with a bullet in his chest and he combs back his fenders and they all agree its clear that every thing is cool now that romeos here but romeo is bleeding and he winces now and then and he leans against the car door and feels the blood in his shoes and someones crying in the phone booth at the 5 points by the store romeo starts his engine and wipes the blood off of the door and he brodys through the signal with the radio full blast leavin the boys there hikin up their chinos and they all try to stand like romeo beneath the moon cut like a sickle and they’re talkin now in spanish about their hero but romeo is bleeding as he gives the man his ticket and he climbs to the balcony at the movies and he’ll die without a wimper like every heros dream just an angel with a bullet and cagney on the screen
5.
$29.00 08:15
little black girl in a red dress on a hot night with a broken shoe little black girl you shoulda never left home there’s probly someone that’s still waitin up for you it’s cold back in chicago but in los angeles it’s worse when all you got is $29.00 and an alligator purse i see already that vulture in the fleetwood with the shartruse hood can see you’re trying to get your bearings and you say hey which ways the main stem and where ever you say you’re from and he’ll come on and make you feel like you grew up right next door to him and you say take a left on central and he throws it in reverse cause you only got $29.00 and an alligator purse and he’ll come on like a gentleman and you’ll be a little shy you say jour ex old man was a sax player he’ll say baby i used to play bass for sly and you say you like his cadillac, say honey i got 2 or 3 he’ll say sweetheart you’re sure fortunate that you ran into me when you’ve done a dime in the joint you figure nothin could be worse and you got $29.00 in an alligator purse well he got pharaoh on the 8 track you start smokin a little boo you thinkin gettin out of chicago was the best thing that ever happened to you startin to like it already this cat seems to be cool and he says honey i know a good hotel out in west hollywood that’d be just right for you but he ain’t no good samaritan he’ll make sure he’s reimbursed lot more than $29.00 and an alligator purse now the sirens just an epilog the cops here always gel there too late they always stop for coffee on the way to the scene of the crime then they always try so hard to look just like movie stars they couldn’t catch a cold you only wasting your dime and she’s lucky to be alive the doctor whispered to the nurse she only lost a 1/2 pint of blood $29.00 and an alligator purse.
6.
put a dead cat on the railroad tracks when the wolf banes blooming by the tressel and gel the eyeball of a rooster and the stones from a ditch and wash em down with bilge water and say you’ll never snitch take the buttons from a yellow jacket the feather from a buzzard and the blood from a bounty hunters cold black heart catch the tears of a widow in a thimble made of glass tell your mama and your papa they can kiss your ass poison all the water in the wishin well and hang all them scarecrows from a sycamore tree burn down all those honeymoons put em in a pillow case and wait next to the switch blades at the amusement park for me strangle all the christmas carols scratch out all your prayers tie em up with barbed wire and push them down the stairs and i’ll whittle you a pistol for keepin nightmares off the blinds those sunsabitches always seem to sneak up from behind syphon all the gas from your daddys pickup truck fill up jonnys I bird i got a couple bucks put on little perfume and ribbon in your hair careful that you don’t wake up the hounds tear a bolt of lightning off the side of the sky and throw it in the cedar chest if you want me to tell you why bring the gear shift knob from a 49 merc and lay down here beside me let me hold you in the dirt and you’ll tremble as the flames tear the throat out of the night sink your teeth into my shoulder dig your nails into my back tell that little girl to let go of my sleeve you’ll be a woman when i catch you as you fall in love with me then with my double barrel shotgun and a whole box of shells we’ll celebrate the 4 of july we’ll do 100 mph spendin someone elses dough and we’ll drive all the way to reno on the wrong side of the road.
7.
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 whistlin past the graveyard steppin on a crack i’m a mean motherhubbard 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 thet smoke come from the stack sometimes i kill myself a jackal suck out all the blood steal myself a stationwagon drivin through the mud whistlin past the graveyard steppin on a crack i’m a mean motherhubbard 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 sucker’s dry as a bone born in a taxi cab i’m never comin home whistlin past the graveyard steppin on a crack i’m a mean motherhubbard papa one eyed jack my eyes have seen the glory of the drain in 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 it’s a train whistlin past the graveyard steppin on a crack i’m a mean motherhubbard papa nne eyed jack 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 there’s gonna be an ocean in the middle of the week whistlin past the graveyard steppin on a crack i’m a mean motherhubbard papa one eyed jack 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 nevn told the truth so i can never tell a lie whistlin past the graveyard steppin on a crack i’m a mean motherhubbard papa one eyed jack
8.
eddie graces buick got 4 bullet holes in the side charley 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 let’s 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 there’s 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 let’s follow that fire truck i think your house is burnin down then go down to the hobo jungle and kill some rattle snakes with a trowel we’ll break all the windows 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 sculll and crossbones ring and you can wear it round 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 spokes from your wheelchair and a magpies wings and lie 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
9.
it’s raining it’s pouring and you didn’t bring a sweater nebraska’ll never let you come back home and on hollywood and vine by the thrifty mart sign any night i’ll be willin to bet there’s a young girl with sweet little wishes and pretty blue dreams standin there and gettin all wet now there’s a place off the drag called the gilbert hotel there’s a couple letters burned out in the sign and it’s better than a bus stop and they do good business every time it rains for sweet little girls with nothing in their jeans but sweet little wishes and pretty blue dreams now it’s raining it’s pouring the old man is snoring now i lay me down to sleep i hear the sirens in the street all the dreams are made of chrome i have no way to gel back home i’d rather die before i wake like marilyn monroe and throw my dreams out in the street and the rain will make ‘em grow now the night clerk he got a club foot and he’s heard every hard luck story at least a hundred times or more he says check out time is 10 am and that’s just what he means and you go up the stairs with sweet little wishes and pretty blue dreams now it’s raining it’s pouring and hollywoods just fine swindle a little out of her dreams put a letter in the sign never trust a scarecrow wearin’ shades after dark be careful of that old bow tie he wears it takes a sweet little bullet from a pretty blue gun to put those scarlet ribbons in your hair no that ain’t no cherry bomb 4th of july’s all done just some fool playin’ that second line from the barrel of a pretty blue gun no that ain’t no cherry bomb 4th of july’s all done got some fool playin that second line from the barrel of a pretty blue gun.
10.
she sends me blue valentines all the way from philadelphia to mark the anniversary of someone that i used to be and it feels just like there’s a warrant out for my arrest got me checkin in my rearview mirror and i’m always on the run thats why i changed my name and i didn’t think you’d ever find me here to send me blue valentines like half forgotten dreams like a pebble in my shoe as i walk these streets and the ghost of your memory is the thistle in the kiss and the burgler that can break a roses neck it’s the tattooed broken promise that i hide beneath my sleeve and i see you every time i turn my back she sends me blue valentines though i try to remain at large they’re insisting that our love must have a eulogy why do i save all of this madness in the nightstand drawer there to haunt upon my shoulders baby i know i’d be luckier to walk around everywhere i go with a blind and broken heart that sleeps beneath my lapel she sends my blue valentines to remind me of my cardinal sin i can never wash the guilt or get these bloodstains off my hands and it takes a lot of whiskey to make these nightmares go away and i cut my bleedin heart out every nite and i die a little more on each st. valentines day remember that i promised i would write you... these blue valentines blue valentines blue valentines

about

Blue Valentine is a big departure from earlier Waits albums. Trading the piano for the guitar, Waits is getting rawer and bluesier and title track is a great example of this. Waits is in transition here, so you also get a stunning orchestrated rendition of Gershwin’s “Somewhere”, and the beautiful piano ballad, “Kentucky Ave.”, but you also get the juke joint swagger of “Romeo Is Bleeding” and “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard”. This is also the record that contains one of Waits’ most popular songs ever, “Christmas Card from A Hooker in Minneapolis”.

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released March 9, 2018

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