I don't want to totally hog the bandwidth here so I'll keep it as brief as I can.
I'll stick to The album Foreign Affairs as I do have that in front of me.
To really paraphrase it every song on the CD is about:
Whisky
Bars
Cars
cigarettes
cards
drinkin
cops
dope
guns
Etc,etc.
Some of the words he uses and his style:
sittin'
braggin'
pourin'
didya
tell 'em
witcha
couldn't hep myself
Etc,etc.
Then there's Foreign Affair
When travelling abroad in the continental style
It's my belief one must attempt to be discreet
And subsequently bear in mind your transient position
Allows you a perspective that's unique
And though you'll find your itinerary's a blessing and a curse
Your wanderlust won't let you settle down
And you'll wonder how you ever fathomed that you'd be content
To stay within the city limits of a small midwestern town
Most vagabonds I knowed don't ever want to find the culprit
That remains the object of their long relentless quest
The obsession's in the chasing and not the apprehending
The pursuit you see and never the arrest
Without fear of contradiction bon voyage is always hollered
In conjunction with a handkerchief from shore
By a girl who drives a rambler and furthermore
Is overly concerned that she won't see him anymore
Planes and trains and boats and buses
Characteristically evoke a common attitude of blue
Unless you have a suitcase and a ticket and a passport
And the cargo that they're carrying is you
A foreign affair juxtaposed with a stateside
And domestically approved romantic fancy
Is mysteriously attractive due to circumstances knowing
It will only be parlayed into a memory
Besides being much deeper than anything else on the CD
Here are such words as:
juxtaposed
apprehending
transient
Characteristically
Etc.etc
That's why I'm curious about some of his other CD's.
Ken
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> <<As for Tom Waits - I always wondered if TW actually wrote Foreign Affair. The
>lyrics are so different from what he usually writes. >>
>
> I would never have thought that, Ken...can you be more specific as to which lyrics
>you're referring to? Or just the general tone of the album?
>
> FA is brilliant, and very similar in my mind to Blue Valentine & Heartattack & Vine,
>which came out around the same general period.
>
> "Potter's Field" from FA is Tom Waits' 'Paprika Plains', I think...
>
> Jack & Neal/California, Here I Come is CLASSIC Waits. NOBODY else could have written
>it. Same goes for most of the songs on it, I would say.
>
> And, also like Blue Valentine, it features Rickie Lee Jones on the cover!
>
> Bob, always up for a TW thread!
>
> NP: Steely Dan, "Cousin Dupree" 6/3/00
