Tom Waits — Swordfishtrombone

Well, he came home from the war with a party in his head And a modified Brougham DeVille And a pair of legs that opened up like butterfly wings And a mad dog that wouldn't sit still He went and took up with a Salvation Army band girl Who played dirty water from a swordfishtrombone He went to sleep at the bottom of Tenkiller Lake And he said "Gee, but it's great to be home" Well, he came home from the war with a party in his head And an idea for a fireworks display And he knew that he'd be ready with a stainless steel machete And a half-a-pint of Ballantine's each day And he holed up in a room above a hardware store Cryin' nothing there but Hollywood tears And he put a spell on some poor little Crutchfield girl And stayed like that for twenty-seven years He packed up all his expectations, he lit out for California With a flyswatter banjo on his knee With a lucky tiger in his angel hair And benzedrine for getting there They found him in a eucalyptus tree Lieutenant got him a canary bird And skanked her head with every word And Chesterfielded moonbeams in a song He got twenty years for lovin' her from some Oklahoma governor Said everything this Doughboy does is wrong Now some say he's doing the obituary mambo And some say that he's hanging on the wall Perhaps this yarn is the only thing that holds this man together Some say that he was never here at all Some say they saw him down in Birmingham Sleeping in a boxcar going by And if you think that you can tell a bigger tale I swear to God you'd have to tell a lie