Clara Bellino: Listen/VideoFilm/Vox

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#2. Swordfishtrombone

he came back from the war with a party in his head
and a modified Brougham de Ville
he had a pair of legs that opened up like butterfly wings
he had a mad dog that wouldn't sit still

then he went and took up with a Salvation Army band girl
who played dirty water on a swordfishtrombne
he fell asleep at the bottom of Ten Killer Lake
and said gee but it's great to be home

well he came back from the war with a party in his head
and an idea for a fireworks' display
he knew that he'd be ready with a stainless steel machete
and a half a pint of Ballantine's eah day

he holed up in a room above a hardware store
cried nothing there but Hollywod tears
he put a spell on some poor little Crutchfield girl
and he stayed like that for twenty-seven years

he packed up all his expectations he lit out for California
with a fly-swatter banjo on his knee
and Lucky Tiger in his angel hair and benzedrine for getting there
they found him in a eucalyptus tree

Lieutenant Gary got him a canary bird and skanked her head with every word
with chesterfielded moonbeams in a song
he got twenty years for loving her from some Oaklahoma governor
who said everything this doughboy does is wrong

now some say he's doing the obituary mambo
some say he's hanging on a wall
perhaps this yarn is the only thing that holds this man together
some say that he was never here at all

some say they saw him down in Birmingham
sleeping in a boxcar going by
and if you think that you could tell a bigger tale
i swear to God you'd have to tell a lie


Written by Tom Waits