Lyrics to
Midnight Lullaby

Released by Tom Waits in 1973
From the Album: Closing Time |

This version of Midnight Lullaby was released by Tom Waits in 1973.

Visit the Tom Waits Lyrics profile at Decade Lyrics - it has the Midnight Lullaby lyrics as well as the rest of the songs by Tom Waits.

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

Sing a song of sixpence, pocket full of rye
Hush-a bye my baby, no need to be crying.
You can burn the midnight oil with me as long as you will
Stare out at the moon upon the windowsill, and dream…

Sing a song of sixpence, pocket full of rye
Hush-a bye my baby, no need to be crying.
There’s dew drops on the window sill, gumdrops in your head
Slipping into dream land, you’re nodding your head, so dream…

Dream of West Virginia, or of the British Isles
‘Cause when you are dreaming, you see for miles and miles.
When you are much older, remember when we sat
At midnight on the windowsill, and had this little chat
And dream, come on and dream, come on and dream, and dream, and dream…


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Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides Midnight Lullaby. 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 1973 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Midnight Lullaby by Tom Waits

The lyrics to Midnight Lullaby are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Tom Waits used when the song was created in 1973. The lyrics to Midnight Lullaby have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Tom Waits and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Midnight Lullaby by Tom Waits. 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 Midnight Lullaby" means the words set to the music of Midnight Lullaby, 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 Midnight Lullaby and the lyrics to Midnight Lullaby 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 Midnight Lullaby, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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