This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Well, they're lining up to mad-dog your Tilt-a-Whirl
Three shots for a dollar, win a real live doll
All the lies that you tell, I believed them so well
Take them back, take them back to your red house
For that fearful leap into the dark
Oh well, I did my time in the jail of your arms
Now Ophelia wants to know where she should turn
Tell me, what did you do?
What did you do the last time, why don't you do that?
Well, go on ahead and take this the wrong way
Time's not your friend
Do you cry, do you pray, do you wish them away?
Are you still leaving nothing but bones in the way?
Did you bury the carnival, with the lions and all?
Excuse me while I sharpen my nails
And just who are you, who are you this time?
You look rather tired, are you pretending to love?
Well, I hear that it pays well
How do your pistol and your Bible and your sleeping pills go?
Are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes?
Well, I fell in love with your sailor's mouth and your wounded eyes
You better get down on the floor, don't you know this is war?
Tell me, who are you this time?
Tell me, who are you this time?
Three shots for a dollar, win a real live doll
All the lies that you tell, I believed them so well
Take them back, take them back to your red house
For that fearful leap into the dark
Oh well, I did my time in the jail of your arms
Now Ophelia wants to know where she should turn
Tell me, what did you do?
What did you do the last time, why don't you do that?
Well, go on ahead and take this the wrong way
Time's not your friend
Do you cry, do you pray, do you wish them away?
Are you still leaving nothing but bones in the way?
Did you bury the carnival, with the lions and all?
Excuse me while I sharpen my nails
And just who are you, who are you this time?
You look rather tired, are you pretending to love?
Well, I hear that it pays well
How do your pistol and your Bible and your sleeping pills go?
Are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes?
Well, I fell in love with your sailor's mouth and your wounded eyes
You better get down on the floor, don't you know this is war?
Tell me, who are you this time?
Tell me, who are you this time?
Lyrics submitted by yuri_sucupira, edited by brendandev
Who Are You Lyrics as written by Thomas Alan Waits Kathleen Brennan
Lyrics © JALMA MUSIC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Just A Little Lovin'
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I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
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Head > Heels
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“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
This is one of my favorite songs of all time. I can never get tired of the melody, it's frickin' beautiful. I think it's about an ex-girlfriend who he considers a whore. At least, that's how I relate to this song. Damn whore ex-girlfriends.
@toughguybambino I reckon you are right.<br />
finest goodbye to a sorry bitch ever written.
A tilt-a-whirl is a carnival ride, and I'm not sure how one might "mad dog" it, but I'm assuming it's just meant to be some twisted imagery. Does anyone else think this song is about Rickie Lee Jones? The lines "Are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes?/Well I fell in love with your sailor's mouth and your wounded eyes" make me think that it might be. She was supposedly kind of a wild child back in the days when she and Waits knew each other.
When he says that they're lining up to mad dog her tilt a whirl, he's talking about oral sex. The tilt a whirl symbolizes the movement of a twirling skirt. The whole song is about a tramp. The red house symbolizing a brothel in reference to the red light that hangs outside.
@Twoey2E At one point in my life I thought so too.
Where is the "Who drinks from your shoe" line?
I think this song is very Dylanesque. It's a similar chord progression as some of his stuff off of Blonde on Blonde (especially "Just Like a Woman").
Greatest FU song ever.
"They're lining up To mad dog your tilta-whirl Three shots for a dollar" You are easy and cheap.
"Take them back to your red house" You are a whore.
"Time's not your friend" Your ugly.
"And just who are you this time?" Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder)
"Are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes?" Rich and stupid
"You look rather tired" You have been rode hard
I could go on. Great song.
I personally think this song is about addiction, specifically alcohol addiction. I know that after Bone Machine came out, or before it was released, Tom stopped drinking. He's been sober since, so it really makes me wonder if he's speaking of his own battle with alcohol addiction.
I see the song as a metaphor; the "I did my time in the jail of your arms" is the bottle the singer is/was addicted to, "jailed" too. Like one of the posters pointed out, "mad dog" is an alcoholic drink. "Three shots for a dollar, win a real live doll", maybe the three shots are actual shots of whiskey or some other drink. Win a real live doll is what you win once you've had those shots, but the real live doll is just a delusion. It's just another lie that you believe and tell yourself when you're addicted and when you're drunk.
That "fearful leap into the dark"...God, I love that line. It speaks of the despair of the addiction. Of drinking alone and giving into your demons, and living in that darkness. "Do you cry? Do you pray? Do you wish them away?"
I seriously doubt it's about Rickie Lee Jones because I would imagine after being married for twelve years to his wife and with two kids, he would be over that whole part of his life. I think "Ruby's Arms" was his ultimate goodbye to her. The line "are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes" doesn't make me think of Rickie Lee, but of Tom and his song "Tango til They're Sore". The carnival was his life while he was drinking.
Plus, why would he be at war with Rickie Lee? The lyrics "Get down on the floor, don't you know this means war?" just hits me as a personal struggle that has to be overcome. Like getting your demon by the neck and yelling at it. He wouldn't be at war with an ex girlfriend he had in the mid '70's in the '90's.
The war is with himself, his demons, and his addiction. And he's asking himself "Who are you? Who are you this time?"
The more I listen to this song, and think of it that way, of someone overcoming their addiction and facing their demons, the more it makes since to me.
But, again, I'm not Tom so I don't know what he was thinking when he wrote this. I only know what I think and feel when I hear it.
This is not about addiction or a war with himself. It is a war with an "X" girlfriend. Greatest FU song ever.
@crynev very sensible interpretation - thank you
@crynev very sensible interpretation - thank you
In the sub-genre of "mean-spirited ode to an ex" songs - this one is #1!!! It's actually quite a poignant melody for such a nasty song. I always think of my ex fiancee when I hear this song. Brilliant!
as tom waits songs go, this one is right up there with the best. heartwrenching
Never thought, when i first heard this song years ago, that i'd ever relate to the lyrics "how do your pistol and your bible and your sleeping pills go?" Weird how things work out.
I know what you mean. I always feel like that line is pointed straight at me actually.
Can somebody please tell me what a tilta whirl is & how you mad dog it? My imagination is working overtime.
I know this is years later, but, I think the tilt-a-whirl is just imagery for that persons life. Like saying that someone lives so wild or crazy that they're living in/on a tilt-a-whirl. You mad dog your life by drinking too much alcohol, hence the lining up, three shots for a dollar line. But, that's just my thoughts on this amazing song.