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.’