[00:00:10] Artist:tom waits [00:00:12] Songs Title:potter’s field [00:00:51] Well can you buy me a drink and Ill tell you what I seen [00:00:55] And Ill give you a bargain from the edge of a maniacs dream [00:01:00] That buys a black widow spider with a riddle in his yarn [00:01:04] Thats clinging to the furrow of a blindmans brow [00:01:08] Ill start talking from the brim of a thimble full of whiskey [00:01:14] On a train through the bronx that will take you just as far [00:01:19] As the empty of a bottle to the highway of a scar [00:01:24] That stretched across the blacktop of my cheek like that [00:01:29] And then ducks beneath the brim of a fugitives hat [00:01:33] And youll learn why liquor makes a stool pigeon rat on every face [00:01:40] That ever left his shadow down on saint marks place [00:01:45] Hell Id double cross my mother if it was whiskey that they payed [00:02:02] And so an early bird says nightsticks on the hit parade [00:02:07] And he ain't got a prayer and his days are numbered [00:02:10] And youll track doghim like down a [00:02:13] Well its a tough customer you're getting in this trade [00:02:18] Cause the nightsticks heart pumps lemonade [00:02:22] Well whiskey keeps a blindman talkin alright [00:02:25] And I'm the only one who knows just where he stayed last night [00:02:30] He was in a wreckin yard in a switchblade storm [00:02:39] In a wheelbarrow with nothing but revenge to keep him warm [00:02:44] And a half a million dollars in unmarked bills [00:02:48] Was the nightsticks blanket in a febuary chill [00:02:52] And as the buzzard drove a crooked sky [00:02:55] He was dealin high chicago in the mud [00:03:02] And stackin the deck against a dragnets eye [00:03:09] A shivering nightstick in a miserable heap [00:03:13] With the siren for a lullaby singing him to sleep [00:03:20] He was bleeding from a buttonhole [00:03:24] Torn by a slug fired from the barrel of a two dollar gun [00:03:30] That scorched a blister on the grip of a punk by now [00:03:39] Is learnin what you have to pay to be a hero anyhow [00:03:46] He dressed the hole in his gut with a hundred dollar bandage [00:03:57] A kings ransom for a bedspread that don't amount to nuttin [00:04:03] Just cobweb strings on a busted ukulele [00:04:08] And the nightstick leaned on a black shillelagh [00:04:11] With the poison of a junkies broken promise on his lip [00:04:16] He staggered in the shadows screaming I ain't never been afraid [00:04:30] And he shot out every street light on the promenade [00:04:35] Past the frozen ham and eggers at the penny arcade [00:04:39] Throwin out handfuls of a blood stained salary [00:04:44] They were dead in their tracks at the shootin gallery [00:04:48] And they fired off a twenty one gun salute [00:04:52] And from the corner of his eye he caught the alabaster orbs [00:04:59] And from a dime a dance hall girl and stuffed a thousand dollar bill [00:05:05] In her blouse and caught the cruel and unusual punishment of her smile [00:05:12] And the nightstick winked beneath a rainsoaked brim [00:05:16] Ain't no one seen hide nor hair of him see [00:05:20] No one but a spade on rikers island and me [00:05:26] And so if you're mad enough to listen to a full of whiskey blindman [00:05:41] Then you're mad enough to look beyond where bloodhounds dare to go [00:05:46] So if you want to know just where the nightsticks hidin out [00:05:49] You be down at the ferry landin oh lets say bout half past a nightmare [00:05:55] When its twisted on a clock you tell em nickels sentcha [00:06:01] Whiskey always makes him talk [00:06:04] And you ask for captain charon with the mud on his kicks [00:06:09] Hes the skipper of the deadline steamer [00:06:13] And she sails from the bronx across the river styx [00:06:17] And a riddles just a ticket for a dreamer [00:06:22] Cause when the weathervanes sleepin and the moon turns his back [00:06:37] You crawl on your belly long the railroad tracks [00:06:41] And cross your heart and hope to die and stick a needle in your eye [00:06:47] Cause hed cut my bleedin heart out if he found out that I squealed