Lyrics to
$29.00

This version of $29.00 was released by Tom Waits in 1978.

Our About Tom Waits page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for $29.00 from 1978 as well as all of the other lyrics from Tom Waits that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Tom Waits or about the 1970s in general.

little black girl in a red dress
on a hothight with a broken shoe
little black girl you shoulde never left home
theres probly someone thats still waitin’ up for you
its cold back in chicago
but in los angles its worse
when all you got is $29.00 and an alligator purse

i see already that vulture in the fleetwood
with the startruse hood
can see you’re trying to get you bearrings
and you say hey which ways the main stem
and where ever you say you’re from
he’ll say he grew up there himself

and he’ll comeon and make you feel
like you grew up right next door to him
and you say take a left on a central
and he trows it in reverse
cause you only got $29.00 and an alligator purse

and he’ll come on like a gentleman
and you’ll be a little shy
you say you ex old man was a sax player
he’ll say baby i used to play bass for sly
and you say you like his cadillac, say honey, i got 2 or 3
he’ll say sweetheart you’re sure fortunate
that you ran into me
when you’ve done a dime in the joint
you figure nothin’ could be worse
and you got $29.00 and an alligator purse

well he got pharoh on the 8 track
you start smokin’ a little boo
you thinkin’ gettin’ outofchicago was the
best thing that ever happend to you
startin’ to like it already
this cat seems to be cool
and he says honey i know a good hotel out in west hollywood
that’d be just right for you
but he ain’t know good samaritan
he’ll make sure he’s reimursed
lot more than $29.00 and a alligator purse

now the sirens just an epilog
the cops here always get there too late
they always stop for coffee on the way to the scene of the crime
then they always try so hard to look just like movie stars
they couldnt catch a cold
you ony wasting you dime
and she’s lucky to be alive
the doctor whispered to the nurse
she only lost a 1/2 pint of blood
$29.00 and an alligator purse

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Want more lyrics and songs by Tom Waits?

Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides $29.00. Tom Waits released songs from 1973 to 2004 spanning across albums like Closing Time, The Heart Of Saturday Night, Nighthawks At The Diner, Small Change, Foreign Affairs, Blue Valentine, Heartattack And Vine, Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, The Early Years Vol. 1, Bone Machine, The Black Rider, The Early Years Vol. 2, Mule Variations, Blood Money, Alice, and Real Gone. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Tom Waits.

If you're a fan of the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1978 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and $29.00 by Tom Waits

The lyrics for $29.00 are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1978 song by Tom Waits. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to $29.00 have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for $29.00 - Tom Waits and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to $29.00 by Tom Waits in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to $29.00" means the words set to the music of $29.00, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Tom Waits. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to $29.00 and the lyrics to $29.00 are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Tom Waits who came here looking just for the lyrics to $29.00, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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