>This song reminds me alot of Rickie Lee Jones' "Last Chance Texaco".
oh no, patrick's got a chance to talk about rickie lee. everyone duck! i remember in the mid-eighties working in a college bookstore where a book of greatest all-time rock lyrics was on sale, and 'last chance' was included. damn right, i thought then and still do. i even choreographed a dance in 1982 to the piece, for five women in thrift-shop dresses, still think it's one of the best things i've ever done. i think the metaphor in 'last chance' is much larger than 'electricity'. not just a relationship on the fritz, but a woman headed toward major sorrow in her whole life, and even more the song is about a way of american life dying out. brilliantly expressed and big as all getout. looking at the lyrics closer, i think it's also about her experience of needing love and a man (tom waits at the time) and not wanting to be bound to that. very similar to joni in many songs, yes. god, a typically rambling post. patrick np - ella - you're the top The Last Chance Texaco (Rickie Lee Jones) A long stretch of headlights Bends into I-9 Tiptoe into truck stops And sleepy diesel eyes Volcanoes rumble in the taxi And glow in the dark Camels in the driver's seat A slow, easy mark But you ran out of gas Down the road a piece Then the battery went dead And now the cable won't reach... It's your last chance To check under the hood Last chance She ain't soundin' too good, Your last chance To trust the man with the star You've found the last chance Texaco Well, he tried to be Standard He tried to be Mobil He tried living in a world And in a shell There was this block-busted blonde He loved her - free parts and labor But she broke down and died And threw all the rods he gave her But this one ain't fuel-injected Her plug's disconnected She gets scared and she stalls She just needs a man, that's all It's her last chance Her timing's all wrong Her last chance She can't idle this long Her last chance Turn her over and go Pullin' out of the last chance Texaco The last chance
