A few people have asked me about the song Marcus sang at the game this weekend.
It’s called “A Little Rain,” and it’s on the Tom Waits album “Bone Machine.”
A Little Rain(1)
(For Clyde)(2)
Well, the ice man’s mule
is parked outside the bar
Where a man with missing fingers(3)
plays a strange guitar
And the German dwarf
dances with the butcher’s son
And tonight a little rain never hurt no one
Well, they’re dancing on the roof
and the ceiling’s coming down
And I sleep with my shovel and my leather gloves
and a little trouble makes it worth the going
And a little rain never hurt no one
Oh, the world is round
and I’ll go around
You must risk something that matters
Oh, my hands are strong
I’ll take any man here
If it’s worth the going
it’s worth the ride
She was 15 years old
and she’d never seen the ocean
She climbed into a van
with a vagabond
And the last thing she said
was “I love you mom”
And a little rain never hurt no one
And a little rain never hurt no one
Da da da da da
Da da da da
* * *
(1)A Little Rain:
Q: “A Little Rain” is so mournful. It seems like it’s about a teenaged runaway turning up dead. TW: “Around here, these smalltown newspapers, they cover a lot of murders and a lot of car accidents. I don’t know if there are more car accidents and more murders, or if they just get more upset over them. There’s something in the way they write about them…it’s like a warning. For some, you know, murder is the only door through which to enter life. That’s a rough one to think about. Maybe in the cities it seems more commonplace because it’s against a backdrop that is also violent. Here, where you see the golden fields or whatever, it’s in greater relief. Stark contrast.” (“Tom Waits at work in the fields of song”. Reflex nr. 28: Peter Orr. October 6,1992)
TW: “Oh, l love those expressions. I’m always writing those things down — a little rain never hurt no one. Kathleen had this melody, and I saved it from the fire. She has all these Irish melodies. Then we read one of those terrible articles in a newspaper about a kid in a van that went out of control and went over a cliff, and they all died. Goes through some different time periods. Starts out with the ice man’s mule, then it goes to the dancing on the roof with the ceiling coming down, and ends up in the van. So I think it comes forward in time, a little bit, with the images. But it’s a song you can add another verse to, if you want.” (Bone Machine press kit, Rip Rense. Late 1992)
(2)Clyde: Q: I notice it’s dedicated to Clyde. Who the hell is Clyde? TW: “A friend of ours who drives a dump truck. He’s bigger than most human beings.” (Bone Machine press kit, Rip Rense. Late 1992)
(3)A man with missing fingers: One tends to relate this to Django Reinhardt: “Django Reinhardt was an accomplished musician working in Paris when at the age of eighteen the caravan in which he was sleeping was ravaged by fire. Apparently his wife had filled the caravan that day with bunches of dried flowers. During the night Django got up and knocked a candle over setting the flowers ablaze. His left leg, and the third and forth digits on his left hand were terribly burnt. The doctors wanted to amputate the leg as it was so badly damaged, but Django refused. This was the end, thought by his contemporaries, to a promising career. Due to the foresight of Djangos doctor, he recommended that Django be given a guitar as therapy. Django rose to the challenge and persevered, giving rise to the style of playing that was eventually to create a storm the world over.” (Source: The Django Reinhardt Swing Page. Steve/ Michael Dregni, 2003) Further reading: The Django Reinhardt Swing Page, Django Picture Gallery, Django reinhardt at JazzImprov
(Lyrics and comments compliments of the Tom Waits Supplement)
* * *
And, as a bonus hidden track, is Tom singing “Heigh Ho!” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.