Downtown Train

ever live in a city? where you end up having one-sided 'relationships' with strangers that you see daily but know you'll never truly connect with? here our hero is idealizing one who is at least ostensibly more than he could ever ask for or has seen trudge by on the daily. and it isn't a nice, though brief escape to fantasize yourself a brand new reality-world on your commute back from work?

rod stewart is a steward of satan, whether working on maggie's farm or riding a downtown train.

Poppier, sure, but still heartbreakingly sad, like the best of Waits. About being ignored and overlooked. The metaphor of the train which simply zooms by not stopping as you watch it go, is perfect.

To me the Tom Waits song is about the very basic human need for love. It seems to be about a lonely man and his longing for a woman, this is in a broad sense as he views all the Brooklyn girls caught in the same trap of their ordinary lives, going downtown on a search of their own. To him though they're the thorns without the rose, there is just one who's captured his heart, like a fairy tale princess, out of reach. I'm not even sure if she even exists or whether she's part of the dream in the hearts of the Brooklyn girls themselves.......all those lonely people waiting to be taken out of it by love.

I've never heard Rod Stewart's cover, to my knowledge, and honestly I hope I never will.

I heard this song for the first time driving around LA one mopey afternoon, and I fell utterly in love with it. "Rain Dogs" was my first Waits album and still my favorite, and this might well be my favorite song. Heartbreaking, certainly - I love the Brooklyn girls, who "have nothing that will ever capture your heart, they're just thorns without the rose - be careful of them in the dark" - but also the wistfulness of "if I was the one you chose to be your only one" and the yellow moon punching a hole in the night-time. Just a perfect mix of grounded urban observations and wild romantic flight. One of my very favorite songs.

I would not call it stalkerish as the narrator is completely passive. Which is what makes it so utterly sad. It is about being ignored, being lonely as the world zooms by you without paying attention, like a train. It's one of the great songs about heartbreak, perhaps ever.

this is a real gut-wrenching song to me, though other hardcore Waits fans may dismiss it for its pop appeal. I like the interpretation given to the same song but Rod Stewart's cover. anyway, to me, it's about a lonely man who is in love with a girl that just does not give him the time of day. he goes a bit mad -- he does not know what to do with himself but to walk around the lonely streets, singing, and waiting, for one day, for her to appear before him. of course, she never does, and he continues to wait, for the downtown train.

Another one for that heartbreaking, hopecrushing, mendestroyer ladies, and one of her victims who stands neither a ghost of a chance of winning her, nor one of getting over her. Visually impecable. And that couple of first verses... Will Waits ever get it wrong?

It's one of his best songs - the lyrics are just so great. You'd think this is would be an impossible song to screw up, but somehow Rod Stewart sure managed it. How could the guy who sang "Stay with me" turn in such a sappy, pathetic piece of easy-listening crap? The saddest part is knowing that 99% of the world thinks Rod's version is the original. And even sadder is that those bastards would probably still prefer Mr. Do Ya Think I'm Sexy's version even if they heard both. It's all enough to make you lose faith in humanity...

One of the most beautiful songs ever written and sung in Tom's gravel voice is truly meant. It's about loneliness and dreaming of love that can't be reached. he is looking at the girl in the window, she is looking at the bright lights of the city, both searching for the same thing in different places; the same things we all look for and find at different times in different ways. I read a beautiful book on Amazon kindle called 'Why do some apples Get Rotten' that has the same searching theme and wonderful lyric style. she's a courtesan but does she want love? Of course she does.

Wonderful song! I like Rod Stewart's version, too, and I like Mr. Stewart's first name - ROD. Anyhow, Mr. Waits is truely the best lyricist in the popular music world. Even Dylan, who the babyboomers always rave about, has only a handful of songs that reach the level of Waits' sophistication.