“New Year’s Eve”
Tom Waits
C G
The door was open, I was seething;
. C F
your mother burst in, it was freezing.
. C G C
She said, “It looks like it’s trying to rain.”
I was lost, I felt sea sick;
you’d convinced me that he’d left;
You said keep talking, but don’t use any names.
. F
I scolded your driver and your brother;
. C
we are all old enough to know how long you’ve been hooked.
. F
And we’ve all been through the war, and each time you score,
. C G
someone gets hauled in, handcuffed, and booked.
It felt like four in the morning.
What sounded like fire works
turned out to be just what it was.
The stars looked like diamonds,
then came the sirens,
and everyone started to cuss.
All the noise was disturbing,
and I couldn’t find Irving;
it was like two stations on at the same time.
And then I hid your car keys,
and I made black coffee,
and I dumped out the rest of the rum.
Nick and Socorro broke up,
and Candice wouldn’t shut up, and
Fin he recorded the whole thing.
Ray he said, “Damn you,”
and someone broke my camera,
and it was New Year’s Eve, and we all started to sing:
F C G
Should auld acquaintance be forgot and
C F
never brought to mind;
F C G
should auld acquaintance be forgot for
Am F C
the sake of auld lang syne.
I was leaving in the morning with Charles for Las Vegas,
and I didn’t ever plan to come back.
I had only a few things,
two hundred dollars, and my records in a brown paper sack.
I ran out on Sheila, everything’s in storage;
Calvin’s right, I should go back to driving truck.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot and
never brought to mind;
should auld acquaintance be forgot for
the sake of auld lang syne.
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