Lyrics to
Virginia Avenue

This version of Virginia Avenue was released by Tom Waits in 1973.

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Well, I’m walking on down Virginia Avenue
Trying to find somebody to tell my troubles to.
Harold’s club is closing, and everybody’s going on home:
What’s a poor boy to do?

I’ll just get on back into my short, make it back to the fort
Sleep off all the crazy lizards inside of my brain.
There’s got to be some place that’s better than this
This life I’m leading’s driving me insane

And let me tell you I’m dreaming…

Let me tell you that I’m dreaming to the twilight, this town has got me down.
I’ve seen all the highlights, I’ve been walking all around
I won’t make a fuss, I’ll take a Greyhound bus, carry me away from here:
Tell me, what have I got to lose?

‘Cause I’m walking on down Columbus Avenue
The bars are all closing, ’cause it’s quarter to two
Every town I go to is like a lock without a key
Those I leave behind are catching up on me,
Let me tell you they’re catching up on me, they’re catching up on me
Catching up on me, catching up on me, catching up on me.

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Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides Virginia Avenue. 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 Virginia Avenue by Tom Waits

The lyrics for Virginia Avenue are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1973 song by Tom Waits. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Virginia Avenue 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 Virginia Avenue - 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 Virginia Avenue 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 Virginia Avenue" means the words set to the music of Virginia Avenue, 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 Virginia Avenue and the lyrics to Virginia Avenue 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 Virginia Avenue, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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