| Tom Waits – Who Are You Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| 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. | |
| Tom Waits – Who Are You Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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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. |
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