“Green Grass”
Tom Waits For a Loved One
Tom Waits is a genre all his own. The closest one can compare him with is Leonard Cohen. Except that Tom Waits is more absurd, more humorous, and a troubadour with his own pizazz and passion.
His voice is an instrument in itself. He growls, goes guttural, and drops his voice such that you can’t always make out if it’s in pain or passion. But whatever he sings, he makes it unforgettable.
And this song of his, ‘Green Grass’ from his 2004 album ‘Real Gone’ is simply a gorgeous thing of beauty.
He tells a story in ‘Green Grass’ of someone dead and buried, who invites his loved one to come and stay awhile where he’s buried - and to remember him just a bit.
Read the gorgeous opening of the song -
“Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down on the green grass
Remember when you loved me”
This song is then a celebration, a chuckle, an urging, a regret and a hope.
It talks with some satisfaction that even in the afterlife there are trees and blossoms and birds which have happened because of him, how his remains have come to be of some use. Maybe more than in real life? Or in the very least, enough to provide shade to a tired soul. He seems to chuckle when he says his loved one will never be free of him - but he says it gently, with an arm around the shoulder.
But more than anything else he is asking the one he loved to remember the old times when she loved him too, and maybe - maybe - still does.
The lyrics
Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down on the green grass
Remember when you loved me
Come closer don't be shy
Stand beneath a rainy sky
The moon is over the rise
Think of me as a train goes by
Clear the thistles and brambles
Whistle 'Didn't he ramble'
Now there's a bubble of me
And it's floating in thee
Stand in the shade of me
Things are now made of me
The weather vane will say
It smells like rain today
God took the stars and he tossed 'em
Can't tell the birds from the blossoms
You'll never be free of me
He'll make a tree from me
Don't say goodbye to me
Describe the sky to me
And if the sky falls, mark my words
We'll catch mockingbirds
Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down on the green grass
Remember when you loved me
The Song
The original:
Fabolous cover by Cibelle:
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Lovely!
What gorgeous lyrics!