Lyrics to
Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come

Released by Tom Waits in 1977
From the Album: Foreign Affairs |

This version of Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come was released by Tom Waits in 1977.

Our About Tom Waits page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come 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.

jack was sittin poker faced with bullets backed with bitches
neal hunched at the wheel puttin everyone in stiches
braggin bout this nurse he screwed while drivin through nebraska
and when she came she honked the horn and neal just barely missed a
truck and then he asked her if she’d like to come like that to californy
see a red head in a uniform will always get you horny
with her hairnet and those white shoes and a name tag and a hat
she drove like andy granatelli and knew how to fix a flat
and jack was almost at the bottom of his md 2020 neal was yellin
out the window tryin to buy some bennies from a lincoln
full of mexicans whose left rear tire blowed and the sonsobitches
prit near almost ran off the road

well the nurse had spilled the manoshevitz all up and down her dress
then she lit the map on fire neal just had to guess
should we try and find a bootleg route or a fillin station open
the nurse was dumpin out her purse lookin for an envelope and
jack was out of cigarettes we crossed the yellow line
the gas pumps looked like tombstones from here
felt lonelier than a parking lot when the last car pulls away
and the moonlight dressed the double breasted foothills
in the mirror weaving outa negligee and a black brassiere
the mercury was runnin hot and almost out of gas
just then florence nightingale dropped her drawers and
stuck her fat ass half way out of the window with a
wilson pickett tune
and shouted get a load of this and gave the finger to the moon

countin one eyed jacks and whistling dixie in the car
neal was doin least a hundred when we saw a fallin star
florence wished that neal would hold her stead of chewin
his cigar jack was noddin out and dreamin he was in a bar
with charlie parker on the bandstand not a worry in the world
and a glass of beer in one hand and his arm around a girl
and neal was singin to the nurse
underneath a harlem moon
and somehow you could just tell we’d be in california soon


Want more lyrics and songs by Tom Waits?

Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come. 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.

See also  Living In Harmony

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come by Tom Waits

When you decide to study the lyrics to Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1977 song by Tom Waits. Some of the lyrics to Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come 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 Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come 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 Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come" means the words set to the music of Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come, 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 Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come and the lyrics to Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come 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 Medley: Jack & Neal / California, Here I Come, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

More Songs & Lyrics by Tom Waits

Show More Lyrics

Visit our Tom Waits profile for more Tom Waits songs, lyrics & info!

See also  Back Together Again

Show More

See also  Mother Earth Blues
)