Lyrics to Barber Shop - Decade Lyrics

This version of Barber Shop was released by Tom Waits in 1977.

Our About Tom Waits page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Barber Shop from 1977 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.

good mornin mr. snip snip snip witchur haircut jus as short as mine
bay rum lucky tiger butch wax cracker jacks shoe shine jaw breaker
magazine racks hangin round the barber shop a side burnin close crop
mornin mr. furgeson what’s the good word witcha been
stayin outa trouble like a good boy should i see you’re still cuttin hair
well i’m still cuttin classes i just couldn’t hep myself
i got a couple of passes to the ringle bros. barn bail circus afternoon
i see you lost a little round the middle and your lookin reel good
sittin on the wagon stead of under the hood
what’s the low down mr. brown heard you boy’s leavin town
i just bought myself a struggle buggy suckers powder blue
throw me over sports page cincinnati’s lookin’ good
always been for pittsburgh lay you 10 to 1
that the pirates get the pennant and the series for their done
you know the hair’s gettin longer and the skirts gettin shorter
you can get a cheaper haircut if you wanna cross the border
now if your mama saw you smokin why she’d kick your ass
put it out you little juvenile and put it out fast
oh if i had a million dollars well what would i do
probly be a barber not a bum like you
still gotchur paper route now that’s just fine
now you can pay me double cause you gypped me last time
you be keepin little circus money and spend it on a girl
know i give the best haircuts in the whole wide world

Want more lyrics and songs by Tom Waits?

Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides Barber Shop. 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 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Barber Shop by Tom Waits

When you decide to study the lyrics to Barber Shop, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1977 song by Tom Waits. Some of the lyrics to Barber Shop have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Tom Waits and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Barber Shop if you take apart the structure of the words. 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 Barber Shop" means the words set to the music of Barber Shop, 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 Barber Shop and the lyrics to Barber Shop 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 Barber Shop, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.