The phone's off the hook, no one knows where we are
It's a long time since I drank champagne
The ocean's blue, as blue as your eyes
I'm gonna take it with me when I go

Old long since gone, now way back when
We lived in Coney Island
There ain't no good thing ever dies
I'm gonna take it with me when I go

Far, far away a train whistle blows
Wherever you're goin', wherever you've been
Waving goodbye at the end of the day
You're up and you're over, and you're far away

Always for you, and forever yours
It felt just like the old days
We fell asleep on Beaula's porch
I'm gonna take it with me when I go

All broken down by the side of the road
I's never more alive or alone
I've worn the faces off all the cards
I'm gonna take it with me when I go

The children are playing at the end of the day
Strangers are singing on our lawn
It's got to be more than flesh and bone
All that you've loved is all you own

In a land there's a town, and in that town there's a house
And in that house there's a woman
And in that woman there's a heart I love
I'm gonna take it with me when I go

I'm gonna take it with me when I go


Lyrics submitted by jawbrokenrhymes, edited by Mellow_Harsher

Take It with Me Lyrics as written by Thomas Alan Waits Kathleen Brennan

Lyrics © JALMA MUSIC

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Take It with Me song meanings
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8 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment

    "All that you've loved is all you own" is the correct lyric.

    Also heart is spelt wrong in that last verse.

    None the less a ridiculously amazing waits' song. A reminder of his earlier ballads.

    trustpoweron June 18, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    "It's been a long time since I drank champagne" were Anton Chekov's last words. It seems likely this is intentional because the chorus of the song is about the transition into death.

    I actually came here to see if there were any other final quotes in here, did anyone else notice any?

    boyeatsguitaron October 26, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i first heard this song as a cover by patty griffin who performs it live. i love her version but i think that tom waits' version is perfect. his voice and the piano fit together in this end-of-the-day love song. i've heard that tom and his wife wrote this song together. yes yes, what indeed can we take when we go except for the love that we have given, received, and shared in.

    abhayadanaon January 25, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    One of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard...let a girl I was with listen to it, blew her away...want this to by the song I dance to at my wedding. Strange I know, but damn...

    jakeBPon March 31, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this song is hands down one of the most beautiful songs ever... "It's got to be more Than flesh and bone, All that you're loved Is all you own".
    come on, thats just brilliant . . .

    howleykidon September 15, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    A beautiful lament from the master. I want this to play at my funereal.

    Irishmonkon August 27, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    the correct lyric is 'fell asleep on Beulah's porch'.. I guess Beulah here could either be a woman's name, or a poetical reference to the land Beulah (as in the old gospel song "Beulah Land", a land from where you can see Heaven). According to Wikipedia Beulah is from the Hebrew word meaning Married. I posit that this song is the best love song, ever.

    sleepingexploreron February 02, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Buelah might also be a reference to William Blake's cosmology, wherein Buelah (in the bible it is Palestine redeemed) is a metaphysical plane between Ulro (reality in all its cold, newtonian determinism) & Paradise. Buelah is where Blake's songs of innocence take place and could be equated with the freudian subconscious & the Jungian Collective unconscious. In The Marriage of heaven & hell blake calls it a place where "contraries are equally true". Buelah, a land of imagination & dreams, would be a place where death coexists with life and love could indeed be eternal. I think it fits, & wouldn't be surprised if Waits was a Blake fan. He's been in Jarmush films & Jarmush's Dead Man is full of Blake.

    KubalahtKoalaon April 30, 2010   Link

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