Lyrics to
Semi Suite

Released by Tom Waits in 1974
From the Album: The Heart Of Saturday Night |

This version of Semi Suite was released by Tom Waits in 1974.

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Well you hate those diesels rollin’
And those Friday nights out bowlin’
When he’s off for a twelve hour lay over night

You wish you had a dollar
For every time he hollered
That he’s leavin’
And he’s never comin’ back

But the curtain-laced billow
And his hands on your pillow
And his trousers are hangin’ on the chair

You’re lyin’ through your pain, babe
But you’re gonna tell him he’s your man
And you ain’t got the courage to leave

He tells you that you’re on his mind
You’re the only one he’s ever gonna find
It’s kind-a special, understands his complicated soul…

But the only place a man can breathe
And collect his thoughts is
Midnight and flyin’ away on the road.

But you’ve packed and unpacked
So many times you’ve lost track
And the steam heat is drippin’ off the walls

But when you hear his engines
You’re lookin’ through the window in the kitchen and you know
You’re always gonna be there when he calls

‘Cause he’s a truck drivin’ man
Stoppin’ when he can
He’s a truck drivin’ man
Stoppin’ when he can


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Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides Semi Suite. 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 lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Semi Suite by Tom Waits

The lyrics for Semi Suite are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1974 song by Tom Waits. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Semi Suite 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 Semi Suite - Tom Waits and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

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If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Semi Suite 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 Semi Suite" means the words set to the music of Semi Suite, 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 Semi Suite and the lyrics to Semi Suite 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 Semi Suite, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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