Tom Waits Hard Rain Coming Down on Me Lyrics

[spoken intro]All right now, come on kids. Hey, listen, I'm tired of this bullshit playing around the town, you know what I mean? ... And I told him, I said, 'listen!' I said, 'don't f___ with me, man! Because, you know what I mean? Like, I'm a real m_________ing cowboy, you know what I mean? Hahah! [end intro]

One, two, three, four.

hard rain coming down on me
trying to start a fire on the
muddy banks
of Mississippi, in the rain baby life is strange

Now he
reaches for a quarter
And he stands in the corner
And he screams out for
some change.
And nobody looks, but everybody sees
And everybody feels the
shame.
And the rain rolls over,
And the dog rolls over,
And he rolls his
hands to the sky.
And the nuns in numbers knock their nails in
Like a
blackbird in a blackberry pie.

Says, 'Son, it happens every day.
We call
it running from the rain.'

Well, it's a rain of thunder,
It's a rain of
fear,
It's a busted-open bottle
of Rainier beer,
It reaches from the
sky
Like a blackbird in a blackberry pie, that's why
And everybody is
runnin'
And umbrellas are poppin'
And reflections take over the
streets
And the blood is free now
And it flows to the sea now
And the man
says 'I'll see him again.'

Said, 'Son, it happens every day.
We call it
running from the rain.'

Well, she turned her back
As he s___kled the
crack
And the pain just peals away.
And she thought she knew him
but an
Autumn leaf blew in (inaudibly blew him?)
And it blew what she knew of
him away.
And she's countin' numbers
But she lost the light
So now she
calls out (cube steak? lipstick?)
With a red flashlight
Heads turning
like a doorknob,
Eyes burning like a camp log,
What do you think of that?

Said, 'Son, it happens every day.
We call it running from the rain.'

She's gone for good,
You should know by now.
She ain't coming back anyhow.
And a love to her
Is a love that's thrown away.

And it's over.