Menu Chords

Gun street girl*

Tom Waits

 

d

 Falling James, in the Tahoe mud,

                                A7

Stick around to tell us all the tale.

         d

Well, he fell in love with a Gun Street girl,

A7                          d

And now he's dancing in the Birmingham jail;

A7                        d

Dancing in the Birmingham jail.

 

He took a hundred dollars off a, Slaughterhouse Joe,

Brought a brand new Michigan twenty-gauge.

He got all liquored up on that road house corn,

Blew a hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette,

A hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette.

 

He bought a second-hand Nova from a Cuban Chinese,

And dyed his hair in the bathroom of a Texaco.

With a pawnshop radio, quarter past four,

He left for Waukegan at the slamming of the door,

Left for Waukegan at the slamming of the door.

 

       Dm

I said John, John; he's long gone,

A7               Dm

Gone to Indiana; ain't never coming home.

I said John, John; he's long gone,

Gone to Indiana; ain't never coming home.

 

He's sitting in a sycamore, in St. John's wood,

Soaking day-old bread in kero-sene.

Well, he was blue as a robin's egg and brown as a hog,

He's staying out of circulation, 'till the dogs get tired,

Out of circulation, 'ti'l the dogs get tired.

 

Shadow fixed the toilet with an old trombone,

He never get up in the morning on a Saturday.

Sitting by the Erie with a bull-whipped dog,

Telling everyone he saw; "they went that-a-way, boys",

Telling everyone he saw; "they went that-a-way, boys".

 

Now the rain's like gravel on an old tin roof,

Burlington Northern pulling out of the world.

Now a head full of bourbon and a dream in the straw,

And a Gun Street girl was the cause of it all,

A Gun Street girl was the cause of it all.

 

Well he's riding in the shadow by the St. Joe ridge,

Hearing the click-clack tapping of a blind man's cane.

He was pulling into Baker on a New Year's Eve,

One eye on a pistol and the other on the door,

One eye on a pistol and the other on the door.

Miss Charlotte took her satchel down to King Fish Row,

Smuggled in a brand new pair of alligator shoes,

With her fireman's raincoat and her long yellow hair,

Well, they tied her to a tree with a skinny millionaire,

They tied her to a tree with a skinny millionaire.

 

       Dm

I said John, John; he's long gone,

Gone to Indiana; ain't never coming home.

I said John, John; he's long gone,

Gone to Indiana; ain't never coming home.

 

Dm

Banging on the table with an old tin cup,

Sing; I'll never kiss a Gun Street girl again.

Never kiss a Gun Street girl again,

I'll never kiss a Gun Street girl again.