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Tom Waits - Tom Traubert's Blues (Waltzing Matilda)

"Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)" (commonly known as "Tom Traubert's Blues" and sometimes incorrectly "Waltzing Matilda") is a song by American musician Tom Waits.

It is the opening track on Waits' third studio album Small Change, released in September 1976 on Asylum Records.

Written by Waits and produced by Bones Howe, the song's chorus is derived from the Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda" and its lyrics narrate alcohol abuse, inspired by Waits' own experiences in Los Angeles and Copenhagen.

The song is considered one of Waits' signature songs and has been described as "the work of an extremely talented lyricist" by Bones Howe.

It has since been covered by a number of artists, most notably Rod Stewart, who released a version of the song on the compilation album Lead Vocalist (1993). Stewart's version was released as a single in 1992 and charted in eight countries upon its release, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and Sweden.

"Tom Traubert's Blues" was written solely by Waits and produced by Bones Howe. The song is piano-based and led by Waits but also features Jim Hughart performing bass.

The song's lyrics narrate the story of Tom Traubert, "a man who finds himself stranded and penniless in a foreign land."

Biographer Jay S. Jacobs has described Traubert as "etched as a sympathetic character, but it's clear that he inhabits a hell of his own making. He'll never make his way home again because any cash he gets his hands on he squanders on drink."

The lyrics to the song's chorus incorporates elements of the Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda." Waits explained the reason for choosing to incorporate parts of "Waltzing Matilda" saying "when you're 'waltzing matilda', you're on the road. You're not with your girlfriend, you're on the bum. For me, I was in Europe for the first time, and I felt like a soldier far away from home and drunk on the corner with no money, lost."

Bones Howe considers the song's lyrics to be "brilliant" and "the work of an extremely talented lyricist."

Speaking of the lyrics, Howe has said: "occasionally I'll do something for songwriters. They all say the same thing to me. 'All the great lyrics are done.' And I say, 'I'm going to give you a lyric that you never heard before.' 'A battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace / And a wound that will never heal.'.".

The lyrics:

Wasted and wounded, it ain't what the moon did

I got what I paid for now

See ya tomorrow, hey Frank can I borrow

a couple of bucks from you, to go

Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, you'll go waltzing

Matilda with me

I'm an innocent victim of a blinded alley

and I'm tired of all these soldiers here

no one speaks English, and everything's broken

and my Stacys are soaking wet

to go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, you'll go waltzing

Matilda with me

now the dogs are barking

and the taxi cabs parking

a lot they can do for me

I begged you to stab me

you tore my shirt open

and I'm down on my knees tonight

Old Bushmills I staggered,

you buried the dagger in

your silhouette window light to go

waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, you'll go waltzing

Matilda with me

now I've lost my St. Christopher

now that I've kissed her and the

one-armed bandit knows, and the

maverick Chinaman, and the cold-blooded signs

and the girls down by the strip tease shows go

waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, you'll go waltzing

Matilda with me

no I don't want your sympathy

the fugitives say that the streets aren't for dreaming now

manslaughter dragnets and the ghosts that sell memories

They want a piece of the action anyhow go

waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, you'll go waltzing

Matilda with me

and you can ask any sailor

and the keys from the jailer

and the old men in wheelchairs know

that Matilda's the defendant, she killed about a hundred

and she follows wherever you may go

waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, you'll go waltzing

Matilda with me

and it's a battered old suitcase

to a hotel someplace

and a wound that will never heal

no prima donna, the perfume is on

an old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey

and goodnight to the street sweepers

the night watchman flame keepers

and goodnight Matilda, too