From the recording Marisa Quigley
Addiction, suicide, rage, shame, despondency.... no-one is immune.
This song made me a Semi-finalist in the 2012 International Songwriting Competition (of which Tom Waits is a judge).
Lyrics
SING ME A LULLABY
A grocery store and a bar room floor is all she's ever seen
Dead drunk poor and out the door is all he ever seems to be
If I had my time again no holding back no bitter end
If I knew now what I knew then guess I'd do it all again
A photograph of an empty dream hangs halfway down the hall
A broken frame in the mirror he never knew at all
If I wake before I die don't hold me close no don't ask me why
I've had my time seen better days just another bad cliché
So sing me a lullaby and send me home
How did I get to be so alone
Gone is the line dividing right and wrong
So sing me a lullaby, sing me a lullaby, sing me a lullaby
A fisted hole in the bedroom wall speaks angry repartee
Tobacco stains through a knocked out haze is all she ever needs to see
Don't think that I don't hear my lies don't think that I don't wonder why
I've seen my face through your eyes yes I see what you despise
A record player keeping watch downstairs gives a melancholy growl
A Waitsian tune sings of hope and doom somewhere, someway, somehow
So take me now my soul to keep don’t leave me here my soul to reap
Life’s just a game I’ve heard them say no-one told me how to play
So sing me a lullaby and take me there
Only the good die with room to spare
I'm just a broken soul with hell to bear
So sing me a lullaby, sing me a lullaby, sing me a lullaby
So sing me a lullaby, sing me a lullaby, sing me a lullaby
Sing me a lullaby, sing me a lullaby, sing me a lullaby