Artist: Tom Waits Album: Real Gone {2004}

Stop and get me on the ride up, uh huh
Stop and get

Can I have a little more on my voice

Stop and get me on the ride up, uh huh
Goin' the top of the hill
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill

New corn yellow and slaughterhouse red
The birds keep singin', baby, after you're dead
I'm gonna miss you plenty, big old world
With our abalone earrings and your mother of pearl, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up, ho
Stop and get me on the ride up
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill

I need your moon to be the sky against
Don't get your trouser button stuck on the fence
Diego red and bedlam money are fine
Why don't you come up here and see me sometime
Stop and get me on the ride up, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill
I'm only goin', only goin'
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill

There's very little leeway
I seen a mattress on the freeway
The moon rises over Dog Street
Jefferson said, now, everything's reet
Have all the lights burned out in heaven again
I'll never roll the number seven again
I'm made of bread and I'm on an ocean of wine
I hear all the birdies on the phone just fine, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up
I'm only goin', I'm only goin'
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill

Black joke and the bean soup
Big sky and the Ford Coupe
Old maid and the dry bones
Red Rover and the Skinny Bones Jones
Forty seven mules to pull this train
We're getting married in the pourin' rain
You need your differential, plenty of oil
You load the wagon till the end of the world, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up, hey
Stop and get me on the ride up
I'm only goin', I'm only goin'
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill, hey

What's your throttle made of, is it money or bone
Don't doddle or you'll never get home
Opium, fireworks, vodka and meat
Scoot over and save me a seat
Stop and get me on the ride up, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up
I'm only goin', I'm only goin'
Only goin' to the top of the hill

If I had it all to do all over again
I'd try to rise above the laws of man
Why don't you gimme another sip of your cup
Turn a Rolls Royce into a chicken coup, uh huh 
Stop and get me on the ride up
Stop and get me on the ride up, hey
Stop and get me on the ride up
I'm only goin', I'm only goin'
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill, hey
Stop and get me on the ride up, uh huh
Stop and get me on the ride up
I'm only goin' to the top of the hill

Well, I learned the trade from Piggy Knowles
And Sing Sing Tommy Shay, boys
God used me as a hammerb boys
To beat his weary drum today
Hoist that rag, hoist that rag, hoist that rag

The sun is up, the world is flat
Damn good address for a rat
The smell of blood, the drone of flies
You know what to do if the baby cries
Hoist that rag, hoist that rag
Hoist that rag - hoist that rag
Hoist that rag - hoist that rag
Hoist that rag

Well, we stick our fingers in the ground
Heave and turn the world around
Smoke is blacking out the sun
At night I pray and clean my gun
The cracked bell rings as the ghost bird sings
The gods go begging here
So, just open fire when you hit the shore
All is fair in love and war
Hoist that rag, hoist that rag, hoist that rag
Hoist that rag - hoist that rag
Hoist that rag - hoist that rag
Hoist that rag - hoist that rag
Hoist that rag - hoist that rag

God said, "Don't give me your tin horn prayers
Don't buy roses off the street down there."
Took it all and took the dirt road home
Dreaming of Jenny with the light brown hair
Night is falling like a bloody axe
Lies and rumors and the wind at my back
Hand on the wheel and gravel on the road
Will the pawn shop sell me back what I sold

I'm gonna take the sins of my father
I'm gonna take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond

Birds cry a warning from a hidden branch
Carving out a future with a gun and an axe
Way beyond the gavel and the laws of man
Still living in the palm of the grace of your hand
"World's not easy," the blind man said
"Turns on nothing but money and dread."
Dogs been scratching at the door all night
Long neck birds flying out of the moon light

I'm gonna take the sins of my father
I'm gonna take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond, down to the pond

Smack dab in the middle of a dirty lie
Star splangled glitter of his one good eye
Everybody knows that the game was rigged
Justice wears suspenders and a powdered wig
Dark town alley been hidin' you
Long bell tollin' is your Waterloo
Oh baby, what can you do
Does the light of God blind you or lead the way home for you

I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond, down to the pond

I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
And take the sins of my brother down to the pond, down to the pond

God all mighty, for righteousness sake
Humiliation of our fallen state
Written in the book of Tubold Cain
Long black overcoat will show no stain
Feel the heat and the burn on your back
Rip and the moan, the stretch of the rack
All my belongings in a flour sack
Will the place I come from take me back

I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
And take the sins of my brother down to the pond, down to the pond

Hang me in the morning on a scaffold, yea big
Dance upon nothing to the Tyborn jig
Treat you like a puppet when you're under his spell
Oh, heart is heaven, but the mind is hell
Jesus of Nazareth told Mike of the weeds
I's born at this time for a reason you see
When I'm dead I'll be dead a long time
The wine's so pleasing and so sublime

I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond, down to the pond

Kissed my sweetheart by the chinaball tree
Everything I done is between God and me
Only he will judge how my time was spent
Twenty nine days of sinnin' and forty to repent
The horse is steady but the horse is blind
Wicked are the branches on the tree of mankind
Roots grow upward and the branches grow down
It's much too late to throw the dice again, I've found

I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
Gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond

I'm gonna wash them, I'm gonna wash them
I'm gonna wash the sins of my father
I'm gonna wash the sins of my mother
Wash the sins of my brother till the water runs clear
Till the water runs clear, till the water runs clear

Strip Poker Motel
Got a small blue tail
Hot ice, cold cash
I never been no good at staying out of jail
Wheel spin, roulette
Who's giving, don't get
Ripped shirt, black eye
Tuxedo, bow tie
Dark sound, staight road
Get lost, get loaded
Enlisted men off duty
Stolen clouds, dark beauty
Cold gun, wild rose
Night clerk, door closed
Lie down, baby
Your love is a faucet, oh
Called China, cell phone
Chun King, not home
You know I feel like a preacher waving a gun around
Shake it, shake it, shake it, baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it, now
Shake it, shake it, shake it, baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it, now
Shake it, shake it, shake it, baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it, now

Outside it's damp
Put a towel on that lamp
You look hot in this light
I can love you all night
Shoes off, hair down
Got a pink nightgown
Mike Tyson, KO'ed
On the wild blue road
Small town, staight road
That rooster done crowed
Flat tire, homemade cross
You know I feel like a preacher waving a gun around
Shake it, shake it, shake it, baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it, now
Shake it, shake it, shake it, baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it, now

Don't go into that barn, yeah
I said, don't go into that barn, yeah

Black cellophane sky at midnight
A big blue moon with three gold rings
I called Champion to the window
I pointed up above the trees
That's when I heard my name in a scream
Coming from the woods out there
I let my dog off of the chain
I locked my door real good with a chair

Don't go into that barn, yeah
I said, don't go into that barn, yeah

Everett Lee broke loose again
It's worse than the time before
A-cos he's high on potato and tulip wine
Fermented in the muddy rain, of course
A drunken wail, a drunken train
Blew through the birdless trees
Oh, you're alone alright, you're alone alright
How did I know, how did I know

Don't go into that barn, yeah
I said, don't go into that barn, yeah

Old black tree is scratching up the sky
With boney claw like fingers
A rusty black rake digging up the turnips
Of a muddy cold grey sky
Shiny tooth talons coiled for grabbin'
A stranger happenin' by
And the day went home early and the sun sunk down
Into the muck of a deep dead sky

Don't go into that barn, yeah
I said, don't go into that barn, yeah

Back since Saginaw Calinda was born
It's been cotton and soybeans, tobacco and corn
Behind the porticoed house of a long dead farm
They found the falling down timbers of a spooky old barn
Out there like a slave ship upside down
Wrecked beneath the waves of grain
When the river is low they find old bones
And when they plough they always dig up chains

Don't go into that barn, yeah, hey
I said, don't go into that barn, yeah

Did you bury your fire - yes, sir
Did you cover your tracks - yes, sir
Did you bring your knife - yes, sir
Did they see your face - no sir
Did the moon see you - no sir
Did you go cross the river - yes, sir
Did you fix your rake - yes, sir
Did you stay down wind - yes, sir
Did you hide your gun - yes, sir
Did you smuggle your rum - yes, sir
I said, how'd I know, how'd I know, how'd I know

Don't go into that barn, yeah
I said, don't go into that barn, yeah
Don't forget that I warned you
I said, don't go into that barn, yeah
Don't go into that barn, yeah
I said, don't go into that barn, yeah

No shirt, no coat
Take me on a flat boat
Dover down to Covington
Covington to Louisville
Louisville to Henderson
Henderson to Smithland
Smithland to Memphis
Memphis down to Vicksburg
Vicksburg to Natchez
Going down to Natchez
Put me on a flat boat
Dover down to Covington
Covington to Louisville
Lousiville to Henderson
Henderson to Smithland
Smithland to Memphis
Memphis down to Vicksburg
Vicksburg to Natchez

He had three whole dollars, a worn out car
And a wife who was leaving for good
Life's made of trouble, worry, pain and struggle
She wrote goodbye in the dust on the hood
They found a map of Missouri, lipstick on the glass
They must of left in the middle of the night
And I want to know the same thing
Everyone wants to know, how's it going to end

Behind a smoke colored curtain the girl disappeared
They found out that the ring was a fake
A tree born crooked will never grow straight
She sunk like a hammer into the lake
Long lost letter and a old leaky boat
Promises are never meant to keep
And I want to know the same thing
I want to know, how's it going to end

The barn leaned over, the vultures dried their wings
The moon climbed up an empty sky
The sun sank down behind the tree on the hill
There's a killer and he's coming through the rye
But maybe he's the father of that lost little girl
It's hard to tell in this light
And I want to know the same thing
Everyone wants to know, how's it going to end

Drag your wagon and your plough over the bones of the dead
Out amoung the roses and the weeds
You can never go back and the answer is no
And wishing for it only makes it bleed

Joel Tornabene was broken on the wheel
Shane and Bum Mahoney on the lamb
The grain was as gold as Shelia's hair
All the way from Liverpool with all we could steal
He was robbed of twenty dollars, his body found stripped
Cast into the harbour there and drowned
And I want to know the same thing
We all want to know, how's it going to end

The sirens are snaking their way up the hill
It's last call somewhere in the world
The reptiles blend in with the color of the street
Life is sweet at the edge of a razor
And down in the first row of an old picture show
The old man is asleep as the credits start to roll
I want to know the same thing
We all want to know, how's it going to end
I want to know the same thing
We all want to know, how's it going to end
And I just want to know the same thing
I want to know, how's it going to end

Are you ready, are you ready, are you ready

Knocky Parker told Bowlegged Sal
They know how to kick it in Cal
They're playing this dope and this money tune
Dancing baby with a seven mile broom
Things are bulging out the rafters like hell
Down there at the Hush Hotel
They're jumping right out of their seats
Dancing to the brand new beat
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Do the Metropolitan Glide, hey

The floor is polished and you momma's gone
You can quake and roll and moan
Twenty nine gypsies in a Cadillac stone
Turn off the ringer on your cellular phone
Whip the air like a rainbow trout
Drag your tail pipe till you bottom out
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Do the Metropolitan Glide, hey, hey
Do the Metropolitan Glide

The low bottom and the China moon
The black swan and the way too soon
Ace pocket and the dog bone gone
The peacock and the mean black swan
The rain shower and the high heeled shoe
Bombay money and I know I can do it
Sink hole and the victory dance
It's in the pocket in the real tight pants
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Do the Metropolitan Glide, oh, hey
The Metropolitan, the Metropolitan, hey, hey

Show your teeth, bray like a calf
You kill me with your machine gun laugh
You make me trouble with the floor that's creakin'
I've been ready to ka-boom for a week
Put on your stockings and your powder and blush
Keep it all on the hush, hush, hush
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Do, do the Metropolitan Glide
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Do, do the Metropolitan Glide, hey
The Metropolitan
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Do

She was a middle class girl, she was in over her head
She thought she could stand up in the deep end
He had a bullet proof smile, he had money to burn
She thought she had the moon in her pocket
But now she's dead, she's so dead
Forever dead and lovely, now

I've always been told to remember this
Don't let a fool kiss you, never marry for love
He was hard to impress, he knew everyone's secrets
He wore her on his arm just like jewelry
He never gave but he got, he kept her on a leash
He's not the kind of wheel you fall asleep at
But now she's dead, forever dead
Forever dead and lovely, now

Come closer, look deeper, you're fallin' fast
Just like a plane on a stormy sea
She made up someone to be, she made up somewhere to be from
This is one business in the world where that's no problem at all
Every thing that is left they will only plough under
Soon everyone you knew will be gone
And now she's dead, forever dead
Forever dead and lovely, now

But now she's dead, forever dead
Forever dead and lovely, now

I've always been told to remember this
Don't let a kiss fool you, never marry for love
Everything has its price, everything has its place
What's more romantic than dying in the moonlight
Now, they're all watching the sea, what's lost can never be broken
Her roots were sweet but they were so shallow
And now she's dead, forever dead
Forever dead and lovely, now
And now she's dead, forever dead
And she's so dead and lovely, now 

We put up our tent on a dark green knoll outside of town by the train tracks and a seagull dump
Topping the bill was Horse Face Ethel and her marvelous pigs in satin
We pounded our steaks in the ground all powder brown
The branches spread like scary fingers reaching
We were in a pasture outside Kankakee
And one eyed Myra, queen of the galley, who trained the ostrich and the camels
She looked at me squinty with her one good eye
In a Roy Orbison t-shirt as she bottle fed an orangutan named Tripod
Then there was Yodeling Elaine, the queen of the air, who wore a dollar sign medallion
And she had a tiny bubble of spittle around her nostril and a little rusty tear
For she had lassoed and lost another tipsy sailor
And over in the burnt yellow tent, by the frozen tractor, the music was like electric sugar
Zuzu Bolin played Stavin' Chain and Mighty Tiny on the saw
And he threw his head back with a mouth full of gold teeth
And they played Lopsided Heart and Moon Over Dog Street
And by the time they finished Moanin' Low I was soakin' wet and wild-eyed
And Doctor Bliss slipped me a preparation
And I fell asleep with Livery Stable Blues in my ear

And me and Molly Hoey drank Pruno and Koolaid
And she had a tattoo gun made out of a cassette motor and a guitar string
And she soaked a hanky in three roses and rubbed it on the spot
And drew rickety heart and a bent arrow and it hurt like hell
And Funeral Wells spun Poodle Murphy on the target as he threw his hardware
Only once in Sheboygan did he miss at a matinee on Diamond Pier and she'd never let him forget it
They were doin' two shows, she had a high fever and he took off a piece of her ear
And Tip Little told her she should leave the bum
And Poodle said, "He fetched me last time I run, but I'd like to hammer this ring into a bullet
And I wish I had some whisky and a gun, my dear, I wish I had some whisky and a gun my dear."

Long way going to get my medicine
Sky's the autumn grey of a lonely wren
Piano from a window played
Gone tomorrow, gone yesterday
Found it in the street, at first I did not see
Lying at my feet a trampled rose

Passin' the hat in church
It never stops goin' round
You never pay just once
To get the job done
What I done to me I done to you
So what happened to the trampled rose

In the muddy street
With the fireworks and leaves
A blind man with a cup I asked
If he'd sing Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
I know this rose like I know my name
The one I gave my love, it was the same
Now I find it in the street, a trampled rose

Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down on the green grass
Remember when you love me
Come closer don't be shy
Stand beneath a rainy sky
The moon is over the rise
Think of me as a train goes by
Clear the thistles and brambles
Whistle, didn't he ramble
Now there's a bubble of me
And it's floating in thee
Stand in the shade of me
Things are now made of me
The weather vane will say
It smells like rain today
God took the stars and he tossed 'em
Can't tell the birds from the blossoms
You'll never be free of me
He'll make a tree from me
Don't say goodbye to me
Describe the sky to me
And if the sky falls
Mark my words, we'll catch mocking birds

Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down on the green grass
Remember when you love me

Well, I stood on the corner till my feet got wet
I stood by the faucet till the sink filled up
I stood by the window until the moon came up
Baby bought a ticket long as my clothes line
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na

My baby went and left me in a forty-nine Ford
Goin' down the highway in a forty-nine Sword
My baby ripped my heart out with every turn of the moon
Somebody told me there's never been a rose without a thorn
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na

Well, I'm just another sad guest from the dark earth
And if I was a tree I'd be a cut down tree
And if I was a bed I'd be an unmade bed
I'll get my thirty-two-twenty and it'll have to do
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na

Gone like the wind in the meadow and the rain on the hill
You even left your lipstick and your powder and your brush
Baby gonna leave me on a Greyhound bus
The stars are meltin' all across the sky
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na

I let the dog out but he didn't come back
Stood on the corner till my feet got wet
Baby leave me in a forty-nine Ford
I stood by the window until the moon came up
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na

Well, my baby's so fine
Even her car looks good from behind, oh yeah
Well, my baby's so fine
Even her car looks good from behind
But the train that took my baby
It went clang, boom and steam

She took all my money and my best friend
You know the story, here it comes again
I have no pride, I have no shame
You gotta make it rain, make it rain

Since you're gone, deep inside it hurts
I'm just another sad guest on this dark earth
I want to believe in the mercy of the world again
Make it rain, make it rain

Night's too quiet, stretched out alone
I need the whip of thunder and the winds dark moan
I'm not able, I'm just Cain
Open up the heavens, make it rain

I'm close to heaven, crushed at the gate
They sharpen their knives on my mistakes
What she done, you can't give it a name
You gotta make it rain, make it rain, yeah

Without her love, without your kiss
Hell can't burn me more than this
I'm burning with all this pain
Put out the fire, make it rain

I'm born to trouble, born to fate
Inside a promise I can't escape
It's the same old world but nothin' looks the same
Make it rain, make it rain
Gotta make it rain, make it rain
You got to make it rain, got to make it rain
You got to
I stand alone here, I stand alone here
Singing, make it rain, make it rain, make it rain

I got your letter today and I miss you all so much here
I can't wait to see you all and I'm counting the days, dear
I still believe that there's gold at the end of the world
And I'll come home to Illinois on the day after tomorrow

It is so hard and it's cold here and I'm tired of taking orders
And I miss old Rockford town up by the Wisconsin border
What I miss you won't believe, shoveling snow and raking leaves
And my plane will touch down on the day after tomorrow

I close my eyes every night and I dream that I can hold you
They fill us full of lies everyone buys about what it means to be a soldier
I still don't know how I'm supposed to feel about all the blood that's been spilled
Will God, on his throne, get me back home on the day after tomorrow

You can't deny the other side don't want to die anymore than we do
What I'm trying to say, is don't they pray to the same God that we do
And tell me, how does God choose, whose prayers does he refuse
Who turns the wheel, who throws the dice on the day after tomorrow

I am not fighting for justice, I am not fighting for freedom
I am fighting for my life and another day in the world here
I just do what I've been told, we're just the gravel on the road
And only the lucky ones come home on the day after tomorrow

And the summer, it too will fade, and with it brings the winter's frost, dear
And I know we too are made of all the things that we have lost here
I'll be twenty-one today, I've been saving all my pay
And my plane will touch down on the day after tomorrow
And my plane, it will touch down on the day after tomorrow