Lyrics to Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38)

This version of Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38) was released by Tom Waits in 1976.

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Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight,
And nobody flinched down by the arcade
And the marquees weren’t weeping, they went stark-raving mad,
And the cabbies were the only ones that really had it made
And his cold trousers were twisted, and the sirens high and shrill,
And crumpled in his fist was a five-dollar bill
And the naked mannequins with their Cheshire grins,
And the raconteurs and roustabouts said “Buddy, come on in, ’cause
‘Cause the dreams ain’t broken down here now, they’re walking with a limp
Now that Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight”

And nobody flinched down by the arcade
And the burglar alarm’s been disconnected,
And the newsmen start to rattle
And the cops are telling jokes about some whorehouse in Seattle
And the fire hydrants plead the Fifth Amendment
And the furniture is bargains galore
But the blood is by the jukebox on an old linoleum floor
And what a hot rain on Forty-Second Street,
And now the umbrellas ain’t got a chance
And the newsboy’s a lunatic with stains on his pants, ’cause
‘Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And no one’s gone over to close his eyes
And there’s a racing form in his pocket,
Circled “Blue Boots” in the third
And the cashier at the clothing store didn’t say a word
As the siren tears the night in half, and someone lost his wallet
Well, a surveillance of assailance, it that’s what you want to call it
And the whores hike up their skirts and fish for drug-store prophylactics
With their mouths cut just like razor blades and their eyes are like stilettos
And her radiator’s steaming and her teeth are in a wreck, and nah,
She won’t let you kiss her, but what the hell do you expect?
And the Gypsies are tragic and if you want to buy perfume,
Well, they’ll bark you down like carneys, sell you Christmas cards in June, but
But Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And his headstone’s a gumball machine,
No more chewing gum or baseball cards or overcoats or dreams
Someone’s hosing down the sidewalk, and he’s only in his teens, ’cause
‘Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And a fistful of dollars can’t change that,
And someone copped his watch fob, and someone got his ring
And the newsboy got his porkpie Stetson hat
And the tuberculosis old men at the Nelson wheeze and cough
And someone will head south until this whole thing cools off, ’cause
‘Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight, yeah,
Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

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Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38). 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 the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1976 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38) by Tom Waits

When you decide to study the lyrics to Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38), you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1976 song by Tom Waits. Some of the lyrics to Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38) 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 Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38) 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 Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38)" means the words set to the music of Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38), 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 Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38) and the lyrics to Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38) 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 Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38), but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.