[ti:Potter's Field] [ar:Tom Waits] [al:The Asylum Years] [by:] [offset:0] [00:10.98]Artist:tom waits [00:12.79]Songs Title:potter's field [00:51.19]Well you can buy me a drink and Ill tell you what I seen [00:55.82]And Ill give you a bargain from the edge of a maniacs dream [01:00.75]That buys a black widow spider with a riddle in his yarn [01:04.62]Thats clinging to the furrow of a blindmans brow [01:08.80]Ill start talking from the brim of a thimble full of whiskey [01:14.23]On a train through the bronx that will take you just as far [01:19.79]As the empty of a bottle to the highway of a scar [01:24.59]That stretched across the blacktop of my cheek like that [01:29.21]And then ducks beneath the brim of a fugitives hat [01:33.51]And youll learn why liquor makes a stool pigeon rat on every face [01:40.25]That ever left his shadow down on saint marks place [01:45.37]Hell Id double cross my mother if it was whiskey that they payed [02:02.87]And so an early bird says nightsticks on the hit parade [02:07.24]And he ain't got a prayer and his days are numbered [02:10.80]And youll track him down like a dog [02:13.80]Well its a tough customer you're getting in this trade [02:18.16]Cause the nightsticks heart pumps lemonade [02:22.24]Well whiskey keeps a blindman talkin alright [02:25.23]And I'm the only one who knows just where he stayed last night [02:30.16]He was in a wreckin yard in a switchblade storm [02:39.40]In a wheelbarrow with nothing but revenge to keep him warm [02:44.45]And a half a million dollars in unmarked bills [02:48.45]Was the nightsticks blanket in a febuary chill [02:52.69]And as the buzzard drove a crooked sky [02:55.93]He was dealin high chicago in the mud [03:02.40]And stackin the deck against a dragnets eye [03:09.70]A shivering nightstick in a miserable heap [03:13.45]With the siren for a lullaby singing him to sleep [03:20.58]He was bleeding from a buttonhole [03:24.89]Torn by a slug fired from the barrel of a two dollar gun [03:30.69]That scorched a blister on the grip of a punk by now [03:39.55]Is learnin what you have to pay to be a hero anyhow [03:46.41]He dressed the hole in his gut with a hundred dollar bandage [03:57.90]A kings ransom for a bedspread that don't amount to nuttin [04:03.89]Just cobweb strings on a busted ukulele [04:08.38]And the nightstick leaned on a black shillelagh [04:11.56]With the poison of a junkies broken promise on his lip [04:16.43]He staggered in the shadows screaming I ain't never been afraid [04:30.28]And he shot out every street light on the promenade [04:35.72]Past the frozen ham and eggers at the penny arcade [04:39.95]Throwin out handfuls of a blood stained salary [04:44.08]They were dead in their tracks at the shootin gallery [04:48.69]And they fired off a twenty one gun salute [04:52.94]And from the corner of his eye he caught the alabaster orbs [04:59.36]And from a dime a dance hall girl and stuffed a thousand dollar bill [05:05.23]In her blouse and caught the cruel and unusual punishment of her smile [05:12.28]And the nightstick winked beneath a rainsoaked brim [05:16.02]Ain't no one seen hide nor hair of him see [05:20.52]No one but a spade on rikers island and me [05:26.01]And so if you're mad enough to listen to a full of whiskey blindman [05:41.02]Then you're mad enough to look beyond where bloodhounds dare to go [05:46.14]So if you want to know just where the nightsticks hidin out [05:49.65]You be down at the ferry landin oh lets say bout half past a nightmare [05:55.01]When its twisted on a clock you tell em nickels sentcha [06:01.44]Whiskey always makes him talk [06:04.75]And you ask for captain charon with the mud on his kicks [06:09.18]Hes the skipper of the deadline steamer [06:13.23]And she sails from the bronx across the river styx [06:17.73]And a riddles just a ticket for a dreamer [06:22.53]Cause when the weathervanes sleepin and the moon turns his back [06:37.40]You crawl on your belly long the railroad tracks [06:41.33]And cross your heart and hope to die and stick a needle in your eye [06:47.69]Cause hed cut my bleedin heart out if he found out that I squealed [06:51.75]Cause you see a scarecrows just a hoodlum [06:58.43]Who marked the cards that he dealed [07:01.05]And pulled a gypsy switch [07:04.60]Out on the edge of potters field