OK, if we're talking Waits lyrics, the first I really heard and listened to, which knocked me sideways: "9th and Hennepin", from "Heartattack and Vine". An extract below. How does this guy do it???
"And all the rooms they smell like diesel
And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept here.
And I'm lost in the window, and I hide in the stairway
And I hang in the curtain, and I sleep in your hat...
And no one brings anything small into a bar around here:
They all started out with bad directions.
And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear:
One for every year he's away, she said.
Such a crumbling beauty...
Ah, there's nothin' wrong with her that a hundred dollars won't fix.
She has that razor sadness that only gets worse
With the clang and the thunder of the Southern Pacific going by..."
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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
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