Swordfishtrombones lyrics

Rattle Big Black Bones
in the Danger zone
there's a rumblin' groan
down below
there's a big dark town
it's a place I've found
there's a world going on
UNDERGROUND
they're alive, they're awake
while the rest of the world is asleep
below the mine shaft roads
it will all unfold
there's a world going on
UNDERGROUND
all the roots hang down
swing from town to town

Well with buck shot eyes and a purple heart
I rolled down the national stroll
and with a big fat paycheck
strapped to my hip sack
and a shore leave wristwatch underneath
my sleeve
in a Hong Kong drizzle on Cuban heels
I rowed down the gutter to the Blood Bank
and I'd left all my papers on the Ticonderoga
and was in a bad need of a shave
and so I slopped at the corner on cold chow mein

[Instrumental]
...

She's my only true love
she's all that I think of
look here in my wallet
that's her
She grew up on a farm there
there's a place on my arm
where I've written her name
next to mine
you see I just can't
live without her
and I'm her only boy
and she grew up outside McHenry
in Johnsburg, Illinois

I plugged 16 shells from a thirty-ought-six
and a Black Crow snuck through
a hole in the sky
so I spent all my buttons on an
old pack mule
and I made me a ladder from
a pawn shop marimba
and I leaned it up against
a dandelion tree
And I filled me a sachel
full of old pig corn
and I beat me a billy
from an old French horn
and I kicked that mule
to the top of the tree

Well it's hotter 'n blazes and all the long faces
there'll be no oasis for a dry local grazier
there'll be no refreshment for a thirsty jackaroo
from Melbourne to Adelaide on the overlander
with newfangled buffet cars and faster locomotives
the train stopped in Serviceton less and less often
There's nothing sadder than a town with no cheer

Well the eggs chase the bacon
round the fryin' pan
and the whinin' dog pidgeons
by the steeple bell rope
and the dogs tipped the garbage pails
over last night
and there's always construction work
bothering you
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood

Friday's a funeral
and Saturday's a bride
Sey's got a pistol on the register side
and the goddamn delivery trucks

[Instrumental]
...

Well I hope that I don't fall in love with you
'Cause falling in love just makes me blue,
Well the music plays and you display
your heart for me to see,
I had a beer and now I hear you
calling out for me
And I hope that I don't fall in love with you.

Well the room is crowded, people everywhere
And I wonder, should I offer you a chair?
Well if you sit down with this old clown,

Well he came home from the war
with a party in his head
and 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
on a swordfishtrombone
he went to sleep at the bottom of
Tenkiller lake
and he said "gee, but it's
great to be home."

He went down down down
and the devil called him by name
he went down down down
hangin' onto the back of a train
he went down down down
this boy went solid down
always chewed tobacco
and the bathtub gin
always chewed tobacco
and the bathtub gin
he went down down down
this boy went solid down
he went down

Well he went down down down
and the jumped on his head
he went down down down

Davenports and kettle drums
and swallow tail coats
table cloths and patent leather shoes
bathing suits and bowling balls
and clarinets and rings
and all this radio really
needs is a fuse
a tinker, a tailor
a soldier's things
his rifle, his boots full of rocks
and this one is for bravery
and this one is for me
and everything's a dollar
in this box

Cuff links and hub caps

I got a belly full of you
and that Leavenworth stuff
now I'm gonna get out
And I'm gonna get tough
you been lying to me
How could you crawl so low
with some gin-soaked boy
that you don't know
I come home last night
full a filth of Old Crow
you said you goin' to your ma's
but where the hell did you go
you went and slipped out nights
you didn't think that I'd know
with some

Well I pulled on trouble's braids
and I hid in the briars
out by the quick mud
stayin' away from the main roads
passin' out wolf tickets
downwind from the blood hounds
and I pulled on trouble's braids
and I lay by a cypress
as quiet as a stone
'til the bleeding stopped
I blew the weather vane
off some old road house
I build a fire in the
skeleton back seat of an old Tucker

[Instrumental]

I plugged 16 shells from a thirty-ought-six

and a Black Crow snuck through

a hole in the sky

so I spent all my buttons on an

old pack mule

and I made me a ladder from

a pawn shop marimba

and I leaned it up against

a dandelion tree

And I filled me a sachel

full of old pig corn

and I beat me a billy

from an old French horn

and I kicked that mule

to the top of the tree

Rattle Big Black Bones
in the Danger zone
there's a rumblin' groan
down below
there's a big dark town
it's a place I've found
there's a world going on
UNDERGROUND
they're alive, they're awake
while the rest of the world is asleep
below the mine shaft roads
it will all unfold
there's a world going on
UNDERGROUND
all the roots hang down
swing from town to town

Well with buck shot eyes and a purple heart
I rolled down the national stroll
and with a big fat paycheck
strapped to my hip sack
and a shore leave wristwatch underneath
my sleeve
in a Hong Kong drizzle on Cuban heels
I rowed down the gutter to the Blood Bank
and I'd left all my papers on the Ticonderoga
and was in a bad need of a shave
and so I slopped at the corner on cold chow mein

[Instrumental]
...

She's my only true love
she's all that I think of
look here in my wallet
that's her
She grew up on a farm there
there's a place on my arm
where I've written her name
next to mine
you see I just can't
live without her
and I'm her only boy
and she grew up outside McHenry
in Johnsburg, Illinois

I plugged 16 shells from a thirty-ought-six
and a Black Crow snuck through
a hole in the sky
so I spent all my buttons on an
old pack mule
and I made me a ladder from
a pawn shop marimba
and I leaned it up against
a dandelion tree
And I filled me a sachel
full of old pig corn
and I beat me a billy
from an old French horn
and I kicked that mule
to the top of the tree

Well the eggs chase the bacon
round the fryin' pan
and the whinin' dog pidgeons
by the steeple bell rope
and the dogs tipped the garbage pails
over last night
and there's always construction work
bothering you
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood

Friday's a funeral
and Saturday's a bride
Sey's got a pistol on the register side
and the goddamn delivery trucks

[Instrumental]
...

Well I hope that I don't fall in love with you
'Cause falling in love just makes me blue,
Well the music plays and you display
your heart for me to see,
I had a beer and now I hear you
calling out for me
And I hope that I don't fall in love with you.

Well the room is crowded, people everywhere
And I wonder, should I offer you a chair?
Well if you sit down with this old clown,

He went down down down
and the devil called him by name
he went down down down
hangin' onto the back of a train
he went down down down
this boy went solid down
always chewed tobacco
and the bathtub gin
always chewed tobacco
and the bathtub gin
he went down down down
this boy went solid down
he went down

Well he went down down down
and the jumped on his head
he went down down down

Davenports and kettle drums
and swallow tail coats
table cloths and patent leather shoes
bathing suits and bowling balls
and clarinets and rings
and all this radio really
needs is a fuse
a tinker, a tailor
a soldier's things
his rifle, his boots full of rocks
and this one is for bravery
and this one is for me
and everything's a dollar
in this box

Cuff links and hub caps

I got a belly full of you
and that Leavenworth stuff
now I'm gonna get out
And I'm gonna get tough
you been lying to me
How could you crawl so low
with some gin-soaked boy
that you don't know
I come home last night
full a filth of Old Crow
you said you goin' to your ma's
but where the hell did you go
you went and slipped out nights
you didn't think that I'd know
with some

Well I pulled on trouble's braids
and I hid in the briars
out by the quick mud
stayin' away from the main roads
passin' out wolf tickets
downwind from the blood hounds
and I pulled on trouble's braids
and I lay by a cypress
as quiet as a stone
'til the bleeding stopped
I blew the weather vane
off some old road house
I build a fire in the
skeleton back seat of an old Tucker

[Instrumental]

Well he came home from the war
with a party in his head
and 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
on a swordfishtrombone
he went to sleep at the bottom of
Tenkiller lake
and he said "gee, but it's
great to be home."

Well it's hotter 'n blazes and all the long faces
there'll be no oasis for a dry local grazier
there'll be no refreshment for a thirsty jackaroo
from Melbourne to Adelaide on the overlander
with newfangled buffet cars and faster locomotives
the train stopped in Serviceton less and less often
There's nothing sadder than a town with no cheer