Lyrics to
Jitterburg Boys

This version of Jitterburg Boys was released by Tom Waits in 1976.

Our Decade Lyrics Tom Waits profile has all of the Jitterburg Boys lyrics from 1976 and many more songs from the Tom Waits discography that we have on file.

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

Well, I’m a jitterbug boy, by the shoe-shine
Resting on my laurels and my hardys too
Life of Riley on a swing shift, gears follow my drift
Once upon a time I was in show-biz too
I seen the Brooklyn Dodgers playing at Ebbets Field
Seen the Kentucky Derby too
It’s fast women, slow horses, unreliable sources,
And I’m holding up the lamp-post if you want to know
I’ve seen the Wabash Cannonball, buddy, I’ve done it all
‘Cause I slept with the lions and Marilyn Monroe,
Had breakfast in the eye of a hurricane
Fought Rocky Marciano, played Minnesota Fats,
Burned hundred-dollar bills, I’ve eaten Mulligan stew
Got drunk with Louis Armstrong, what’s that old song?
I taught Mickey Mantle everything that he knows
So you ask me what I’m doing here holding up the lamp-post,
Flipping this quarter, trying to make up my mind
And if it’s heads I go to Tennessee, and tails I buy a drink,
If it lands on the edge I keep talking to you

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Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides Jitterburg Boys. 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 popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1976 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Jitterburg Boys by Tom Waits

The lyrics for Jitterburg Boys are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1976 song by Tom Waits. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Jitterburg Boys 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 Jitterburg Boys - 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 Jitterburg Boys 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 Jitterburg Boys" means the words set to the music of Jitterburg Boys, 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 Jitterburg Boys and the lyrics to Jitterburg Boys 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 Jitterburg Boys, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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