Noirsville Tune of the Week

Always room for more Tom Waits

 29 Dollars

Little black girl in a red dress on a hot night with a broken shoe

Little black girl, you should've never left home

There's probably someone still waitin' up for you

It's cold back in Chicago, but the Los Angeles street is worse

All you got is twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse

See that vulture in the Fleetwood with the chartreuse hood

He can see you're tryin' to get your bearings

Say hey baby, which way's the main stem?

Wherever you say you're from, he'll say he grew up there himself

He gonna come on and make you feel like you grew up right next door to him

Take a left on Central, gonna throw it in reverse

All you got is twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse

He gonna come on just like a gentleman

And oh baby, you're gonna be a little shy

You say your ex-old man was a sax player

He says, "Baby, I used to play bass with Sly"

And you say you like his Cadillac

Says "Honey, I got two or three

Sweetheart, you're sure fortunate that you ran into me"

You've done a dime in the joint, you figure nothin' could be worse

Than twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse

Got Pharoah on 8-track, you start smokin' a little boo

Thinkin' gettin' out of Chicago was just about the best thing that's ever happened to you

You startin' to like it already, this cat seems to be cool

He says, "Baby, I know a good old jailhouse in West-Hollywood

Be just right for you"

He ain't no good Samaritan, he gonna make sure he's reimbursed

A lot more than twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse

And when the streets get hungry, baby, and you almost hear 'em growl

Someone's savin' a place for you when the dogs begin to howl

When the streets are dead, they creep up and take whatever's left on the bone

And remember suckers always make mistakes when they're far away from home

Chicken in the pot, whoever gets there first is gonna get themselves

Twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse

And the siren's just an epilogue, the cops here always get there too late

They always stop for coffee on their way to the scene of the crime

They always try so hard to look just like movie stars

But they couldn't catch a cold, baby, don't waste your dime

"She's lucky to be alive," the doctor whispered to the nurse

She only lost half a pint of blood

Twenty-nine dollars and an alligator purse