Tom Waits — $29.00

Little black girl in a red dress on a hot night with a broken shoe Little black girl, you should've never left home There's probably someone still waitin' up for you It's cold back in Chicago, but the Los Angeles street is worse All you got is twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse See that vulture in the Fleetwood with the chartreuse hood He can see you're tryin' to get your bearings Say hey baby, which way's the main stem? Wherever you say you're from, he'll say he grew up there himself He gonna come on and make you feel like you grew up right next door to him Take a left on Central, gonna throw it in reverse All you got is twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse He gonna come on just like a gentleman And oh baby, you're gonna be a little shy You say your ex-old man was a sax player He says, "Baby, I used to play bass with Sly" And you say you like his Cadillac Says "Honey, I got two or three Sweetheart, you're sure fortunate that you ran into me" You've done a dime in the joint, you figure nothin' could be worse Than twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse Got Pharoah on 8-track, you start smokin' a little boo Thinkin' gettin' out of Chicago was just about the best thing that's ever happened to you You startin' to like it already, this cat seems to be cool He says, "Baby, I know a good old jailhouse in West-Hollywood Be just right for you" He ain't no good Samaritan, he gonna make sure he's reimbursed A lot more than twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse And when the streets get hungry, baby, and you almost hear 'em growl Someone's savin' a place for you when the dogs begin to howl When the streets are dead, they creep up and take whatever's left on the bone And remember suckers always make mistakes when they're far away from home Chicken in the pot, whoever gets there first is gonna get themselves Twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse And the siren's just an epilogue, the cops here always get there too late They always stop for coffee on their way to the scene of the crime They always try so hard to look just like movie stars But they couldn't catch a cold, baby, don't waste your dime "She's lucky to be alive," the doctor whispered to the nurse She only lost half a pint of blood Twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse