Well...
An inebriated good evening to you all. Welcome to Raphael’s Silver Cloud Lounge. Slip me a lil’ crimson, Jimson. Give me the low-down, Brown. What’s the scoop, Betty Boop? I’m on my way into town.
Christ, while we’re at it, I want to thank ???? for opening the program for us. I’m so goddam horny that the crack of dawn better be careful around me. Yeah...
I wanna pull on your coat about something here tonight. Yeah, a little news I’d like to throw in your direction. See, I... I used to know a girl. Yeah, it was a hubba-hubba and ding ding ding, I said baby you got everything. A week later it was a hubba-hubba and ding ding dong, baby it sure didn’t last too long.
I know, things are tough all over, and they ain’t getting any better. I was moved to kinda squib a little bit of kind of a weather forecast for you this evening. What I’m talking about is, well you know, I’ve been playing night clubs and staying out all night long. Comin’ home late. Gone for three months, come back and everything in your refrigerator turns into a science project. So you get designs on a waitress, you know. She got three or four kids. She’s sorting out her checks and she’s counting out her change. You say, ‘Hey baby, heat me up a bear claw on the radar range.’ Well, then it gets real cold...
What we’re talking about is late night and early morning low clouds
with a chance of fog, chance of showers into the afternoon
with variable high cloudiness and gusty winds
Gusty winds at times around the corner of Sunset and Alvorado
Yeah, I know, things are tough all over
When the thunder storms start increasing over the
Southeast and South Central portions of my apartment, I get upset
And a line of thunderstorms was developing in the early morning
ahead of a sloooooow moving coldfront, cold blooded
with tornado watches issued shortly before noon Sunday
for the areas including the western region of my mental health
and the northern portions of my ability to deal rationally
with my disconcerted precarious emotional situation
It’s cold out there
Colder than a ticket taker’s smile at the Ivar Theatre, on a Saturday night
Flash flood watches covered the southern portion of my disposition, yeah
There was no severe weather well into the afternoon
except for kind of a lone gust of wind in the bedroom
A high pressure zone covering the eastern portion of a small
suburban community with a 1034 millibar high pressure zone
and a weak pressure ridge extending from my eyes down to my cheeks
cause since you left me baby and put the vice grips on my mental health
well, the extended outlook for an indefinite period of time
until you come back to me, baby, is high tonight, low tomorrow
and precipitation is expected
That wraps up the weather for this evening.
Now back to the eleven o’clock blues.
Doctor George Fishburne got nothing on me.
Words and music by Tom Waits
©1975 Fifth Floor Music, Inc. (ASCAP)
Recorded live by Bones Howe
Assistant engineers: Rick Smith, Ron Marks, Kelly Kotera, Steve Smith and "Big Norm" Dlugatch
Recorded at the Record Plant or Wally Heider
Recording, Hollywood on July 30 or 31, 1975
Tom Waits: Vocals
Mike Melvoin: Piano
Pete Christlieb: Tenor sax
Jim Hughart: Bass
Bill Goodwin: Drums
Time (intro): 2.59
Time (song): 3.43
Tracks 1-2 on ‘Nighthawks at the Diner’ 1975
Click here for other live versions