Tom Traubert’s Blues – The Wild Reeds (originally by Tom Waits)
By
Wasted and wounded, it ain’t what the moon did I’ve got what I paid for now See ya tomorrow, hey Frank, can I borrow A couple of bucks from you?
To go Waltzing Mathilda, Waltzing Mathilda You’ll go Waltzing Mathilda with me
I’m an innocent victim of a blinded alley And I’m tired of all these soldiers here
No one speaks English, and every thing’s broken And my Stacys are soaking wet To go Waltzing Mathilda, Waltzing Mathilda You’ll go Waltzing Mathilda with me
Now the dogs are barking and the taxi cab’s parking And a lot they can do for me I begged you to stab me, you tore my shirt open And I’m down on my knees tonight
Old Bushmills I staggered, you buried the dagger in Your silhouette window light
To go Waltzing Mathilda, Waltzing Mathilda You’ll go Waltzing Mathilda with me
Now I lost my Saint Christopher now that I’ve kissed her And the one-armed bandit knows And the Maverick Chinamen, and the cold-blooded signs And the girls down by the strip-tease shows go
Waltzing Mathilda, Waltzing Mathilda You’ll go Waltzing Mathilda with me
No, I don’t want your sympathy, the fugitives say That the streets aren’t for dreaming now Manslaughter dragnets and the ghosts that sell memories They want a piece of the action anyhow go
Waltzing Mathilda, Waltzing Mathilda You’ll go Waltzing Mathilda with me
And you can ask any sailor, and the keys from the jailer And the old men in wheelchairs know That Mathilda’s the defendant, she killed about a hundred And she follows wherever you may go
Waltzing Mathilda, Waltzing Mathilda You’ll go Waltzing Mathilda with me
And it’s a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace And a wound that will never heal No Prima Donna, the perfume is on An old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey
And goodnight to the street sweepers The night watchman flame keepers and goodnight to Mathilda too