
Date of issue: 31.12.1982
Record label: The Island Def Jam
Song language: English
Swordfishtrombone |
Well he came home from the war |
with a party in his head |
and modified Brougham DeVille |
and a pair of legs that opened up like butterfly wings |
and a mad dog that wouldn’t |
sit still |
he went and took up with a Salvation Army |
Band girl |
who played dirty water |
on a swordfishtrombone |
he went to sleep at the bottom of Tenkiller lake |
and he said gee, but it’s |
great to be home. |
Well he came home from the war |
with a party in his head |
and an idea for a fireworks display |
and he knew that he’d be ready with |
a stainless steel machete |
and a half a pint of Ballentine’s |
each day |
and he holed up in room above a hardware store |
cryin’nothing there but Hollywood tears |
and he put a spell on some |
poor little Crutchfield girl |
and stayed like that for 27 years |
Well he packed up all his |
expectations he lit out for California |
with a flyswatter banjo on his knee |
with a lucky tiger in his angel hair |
and benzedrine for getting there |
they found him in a eucalyptus tree |
lieutenant got him a canary bird |
and shaked her head with every word |
and Chesterfielded moonbeams in a song |
and he got 20 years for lovin’her |
from some Oklahoma governor |
said everything this Doughboy |
does is wrong |
Now some say he’s doing |
the obituary mambo |
and some say he’s hanging on the wall |
perhaps this yarn’s the only thing |
that holds this man together |
some say he was never here at all |
Some say they saw him down in Birmingham, sleeping in a boxcar going by and if you think that you can tell a bigger tale |
I swear to God you’d have to tell a lie… |
Name | Year |
---|---|
Underground | 1997 |
Goin' Out West | 1992 |
Cold Cold Ground | 1986 |
Jockey Full Of Bourbon | 1997 |
Ice Cream Man | 2004 |
Yesterday Is Here | 1986 |
Clap Hands | 1997 |
Rain Dogs | 1984 |
Way Down In The Hole | 1997 |
Downtown Train | 1997 |
Singapore | 1997 |
Time | 1997 |
Cemetery Polka | 1984 |
Soldier's Things | 1982 |
Tango Till They're Sore | 1984 |
Temptation | 1997 |
Hope I Don't Fall in Love with You | 2004 |
Crossroads | 1992 |
Telephone Call From Istanbul | 1986 |
Dirt In The Ground | 1992 |