Filipino Box Spring Hog (1999 version)


I hung on to Mary’s stump
I danced with a soldier’s glee
With a rum soaked crook and a big fat laugh
I spent my last dollar on thee
I saw Bill Bones, I gave him a yell
Kehoe spiked the nog
With a chain link fence and a scrap iron jaw
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog

Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog

Spider rolled in from Hollister Burn
On a one-eyed stolen mare
Donned himself with chicken fat
Sawin’ on a jaw bone violin there
Kathleen was sittin’ down in Little Red’s Recovery Room
In her criminal underwear bra
I was naked to the waist with my fierce black hound
And I’m cooking up a Filipino Box Spring hog
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog

Dig a big pit in a dirt alley road
Fill it with madrone and bay
Stinks like hell and the neighbors complain
Don’t give a hoot what they say
You gotta slap that hog, roll him over twice
You gotta baste him with a sweeping broom
You gotta swat them flies and chain up the dogs
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog

Rattlesnake piccata with grapes and figs
Old brown Betty with a yellow wig
It ain’t the mince meat filagree
And it ain’t the turkey neck stew
And it ain’t them bruleed okra seeds
Though she made them a-special for you
Worse won a prize for her bottom black pie
The beans got thrown to the dogs
Jaheseus Christ, I can always make room
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog

Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog
Cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog


Words and music by Tom Waits
©1999 Jalma Music



Produced by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan
Recorded and mixed by Oz Fritz and Jacquire King
2nd engineer: Jeff Sloan
Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording Studios, Cotati, CA


Tom Waits: Vocals
Andrew Borger: Drums and percussion
Larry Taylor: Bass and guitar
Marc Ribot: Guitar
Chris Grady: Trumpet
Charlie Musselwhite: Harmonica
Jacquire King: Programming
M. Mark ‘The III Media’ Reitman: Turntable

‘Preacher’ Tom, ‘G-Man’ Sloan, Kathleen Brennan: Boners


Track 14 on the album ‘Mule Variations’ 1999
Time: 3.08


Click here for live versions


Tom interviewed by Michael Barclay in 1999:

BARCLAY: ‘The new song [sic] ‘Filipino Box Spring Hog’ is the first time you’ve used your wife’s name Kathleen in one of your songs, isn’t it?’

TOM WAITS: ‘Yeah. She said, ‘Gee, thanks a lot! You finally stick me in a song, and I’m sitting in a bar in my bra. And you’re there with the dog tied to the stool.’ It’s a nice family portrait. I had to do some explaining, but she got a kick out of it.’