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Lucky Day – Tom Waits

Here’s a song – with lyrics below – from Tom Waits’ 1993 album Black Rider.

The album featured as the soundtrack to the play of the same name, co-written by William S. Burroughs.

For me, this is a stand-out track, with Waits at his over-the-top best. Sometimes the track provokes laughter, sometimes tears. Enjoy.

The prettiest girl
In all the world
Is in a little Spanish town
But I left her for a Bonnie lass
And I told her
I'd see her around
But that Bonnie lass
And her heart of glass
Would not hold a candle

To bumming around
So don't cry for me
For I'm going away
And I'll be back some lucky day

Tell the boys back home
I'm doing just fine
I left my troubles and woe
So sing about me
For I can't come home
I've many more miles to go

Why, there's Miss Kelsey
You taught dance at our school
And old Johnny O'Toole
I'll still beat you at pool

So don't cry for me
For I'm going away
And I'll be back some lucky day

Now when I was a boy
My daddy sat me on his knee
And he told me
He told me many things
And he said sone
There's a lot of things in this world
You're gonna have no use for
And when you get blue
And you've lost all your dreams
There's nothin' like a campfire
And a can of beans
Why, there's Miss Kelsey
She taught dance at our school
And old Johnny O'Toole
I'll still beat you at pool

So don't cry for me
For I'm going away
And I'll be back some lucky day

Heroes – David Bowie

Here’s another song, this one from the late , great, David Bowie. This is perhaps Bowie’s most-recognised and -used song, although on its release in 1977 it did well, but was not a chart-topper. The song was inspired by an illicit affair one of Bowie’s cohorts was involved in, and of course, the The Wall […]

Fall On Me – R.E.M.

This is a song I love, almost despite myself. It’s by 1980s college-radio-band cum stadium rockers REM. The lyrics may not make prosaic sense, but the melody is gorgeous, innit? Listen up, read along in your own language, and enjoy! There’s a problem, feathers, iron Bargain buildings, weights and pulleys Feathers hit the ground before […]

Song of the Years – Dave Dobbyn

Here’s another song, this one from the prominent New Zealand singer and songwriter Dave Dobbyn. This is Dobbyn’s brilliant version of a poem by another great New Zealander, James K. Baxter . The powerful auto-biographical song touches on two themes Baxter returned to over and again – Catholicism, and alcoholism. Have a listen, read along […]

The Goal – Leonard Cohen

This is from Leonard Cohen’s posthumous album Thanks for the Dance,produced by his son, Adam Cohen. The album was released on November 22, 2019. It features tracks recorded by Leonard Cohen during the sessions for his last album before his death in 2016. First heard on Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast Broken Record. I can’t leave my […]