Tom Waits - the original RAiNDoG

RAiNDoG:a term used for someone who is lost and cannot find his way.

Waits defines raindogs as "...the ones you see wanderin' around after a rain. Ones that can't find their way back home. See the rain washes off the scent off all the mail boxes and the lamposts, fire hydrants. Raindogs. ~For I am a raindog too~"

"Somewhere there's a time for us, someday a time for us. Time together with time to spare, time to learn, time to care. Someday, somewhere we'll find a new way of living, we'll find a way of forgiving." {Somewhere(from west side story) / Blue Valentine}

"Now the rain washes memories from the sidewalks and the hounds splash down the nickel, full of soldiers and santa claus is drunk in the ski room and it's christmas eve in a sad cafe when the moon gets this way" {Red shoes by the drugstore / Blue Valentine}

"I went back to Omaha to live with my folks, but everyone I used to know was either dead or in prison, so I came back to Minneapolis - this time I think I'm gonna stay." {Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis / Blue Valentine}

"What you think is the sunshine is just a twinkle in my eye, that ring around my fingers, just the 4th of July, when I get a little bit lonesome and a tear falls from my cheek there's gonna be an ocean in the middle of the week...I rode into town on a night train with an arm full of box cars, on the wings of a magpie cross a hooligan night, I'm-ona tear me off a rainbow and wear it for a tie, I never told the truth so I can never tell a lie." {Whistlin' past the graveyard / Blue Valentine}

"Now it's raining, it's pouring, the old mam is snoring. Now I lay me down to sleep, I hear the sirens in the street, all the dreams are made of chrome, I have no way to get back home. I'd rather die before I wake like Marilyn Monroe and throw my jeans out in the street and the rain will make 'em grow" {A sweet little bullet from a pretty blue gun / Blue Valentine}

"I want to know, am I the sky or a bird? 'Cause hell is boiling over and heaven is full." {Dirt in the ground / Bone Machine}

"Well I know karate, Voodoo too, I'm gonna make myself available to you. I don't need no make up, I got real scars, I got hair on my chest, I look good without a shirt." {Goin' out west / Bone Machine}

"Now they surrounded the house, they smoke him out, they took him off in chains, the sky turned black and bruised and we had months of heavy rains." {Murder in the red barn / Bone Machine}

"Well, he once killed a man with a guitar string, he's been seen at the table with kings. Well he once saved a baby from drowning. There are those who say beneath his coat there are wings. Some say they fear him. Others admire him, because he steals his promise. One look in his eye. Everyone denies ever having met him." {Black wings / Bone Machine}

"I've grown up here now all of my life, but I dreamed someday I'd go where blue eyed girls and red guitars and naked rivers flow...Do they dream only of me? There are places where they never sleep and the circus never ends. So I will take the Marley Bone Coach and whistle down the wind." {Whistle down the wind / Bone Machine}

"Cross your heart and hope to die when you hear the children cry."{Singapore / Rain Dogs}

"Fall out of the window with confetti in my hair, deal out Jacks or Better on a blanket by the stairs, I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past: Send me off to bed for evermore." {Tango 'til they're sore / Rain Dogs}

"What some men will do here for diamonds, what some men will do here for gold. They're wounded but they just keep on climbing and sleep by the side of the road." {Diamonds and gold / Rain Dogs}

"Well she said she'd stick around until the bandages came off. But these mama's boys just don't know when to quit and Mathilda asks the sailors "Are those dreams or are those prayers?", so close your eyes, son, and this won't hurt a bit." {Time / Rain Dogs}

"The rum pours strong and thin, beat out the dustman with the rain dogs. Aboard a shipwreck train, give my umbrella to the rain dogs. For, I am a rain dog, too!!! Oh, how we danced with the Rose of Tralee, her long hair black as a raven. Oh, how we danced and you whispered to me you'll never be going back home." {Rain dogs / Rain Dogs}

"Well it's Ninth and Hennepin. All the doughnuts have names that sound like prostitutes and the moon's teeth marks are on the sky like a tarp thrown all over this and the broken umbrellas like dead birds and the steam comes out of the grill like the whole goddamn town's ready to blow...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 nothing wrong with her that a hundred dollars won't fix." {9th & Hennepin / Rain Dogs}

"Falling James in the Tahoe mud, stick around to tell us all the tale. Well he fell in love with a Gun Street girl and now he's dancing in the Birmingham jail." {Gun street girl / Rain Dogs}

"Now the street's turning blue, the dogs are barking and the night has come and there's tears that are falling from your blue eyes now. I wonder where you are and I whisper your name, the only way to find you is if I close my eyes" {Blind love / Rain Dogs}

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