LYRICS: Blue Valentine: A Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun

A Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun

Well, it's raining it's pouring⁽²⁾
you didn't bring a sweater
Nebraska will never let you come back home

Now on Hollywood and Vine⁽³⁾
by the Thrifty Mart sign
any night I'll be willin' to bet

There's a young girl
with sweet little dreams and pretty blue wishes
standin' there just gettin' all wet

Now there's a place off the drag⁽⁴⁾
called the Gilbert Hotel⁽⁵⁾
and there's a couple letters
burned out in the sign

And it's better than a bus stop
they do good business every time it rains
for little girls with nothing in their jeans
but pretty blue wishes and sweet little jeans

And it's raining it's pouring
the old man is snoring
Now I lay me down to sleep⁽⁶⁾
I hear the sirens in the street
All my dreams are made of chrome
I have no way to get back home
I'd rather die before I wake
like Marilyn Monroe⁽⁷⁾
and you could throw my dreams out in the street
and let the rain make 'em grow

Now the night clerk he got a club foot
he's heard every hard luck story
at least a hundred times or more

He says: check out time is 10 am
and that's just what it means
Go on up the stairs
with sweet little wishes and pretty blue dreams

And it's raining it's pouring
and Hollywood's just fine
Swindle a little girl out of her dreams
another letter in the sign

Now never trust a scarecrow wearin' shades⁽⁸⁾ after dark
be careful of that old bow tie he wears
It takes a sweet little bullet from a pretty blue gun⁽⁹⁾
to put those scarlet ribbons in your hair⁽¹⁰⁾

No that ain't no cherry bomb
4th of July's all done
Just some fool playin' that second line
from the barrel of a pretty blue gun

Written by: Tom Waits⁽¹⁾
Published by: Fifth Floor Music, Inc. (ASCAP),© 1978
Official release: Blue Valentine, Elektra Entertainment/ WEA International Inc., 1978
Arrangement and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Anthology" (Amsco Publications, 1988/ Nuova Carisch, 2000)

⁽¹⁾ A Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun:
- Tom Waits (1978): "I've got a song on the album called 'Sweet Little Bullet from a Pretty Blue Gun. It's about a suicide on Hollywood Blvd. About a year ago, this 15 year old girl jumped out of a 17th floor window with a guitar. Never made Crawdaddy magazine. You never hear those stories." (Source: "Tom Waits - Little Murders" Twin Cities Reader. November 17, 1978. By Greg Linder)
- Live intro from Austin City Limits. March 24, 1979: "This is a story about Hollywood Boulevard. And uh... Now you know there's all these young girls from the mid-west. Still pick up a Modern Screen magazine, get on a Greyhound bus, come on up looking for Clark Gable. And uh... they end up down on uh Wilcox Avenue. And uhm... there's a pimp feeding icecream to a dog. You know? It's uh... "Oh How The Mighty Have Fallen". This is about any night, when it's raining and it's pouring... "

⁽²⁾ Quoting nursery rhyme: "It's raining, it's pouring":
- Version 1: "It's raining, it's pouring; The old man is snoring. He went to bed and he Bumped his head And he couldn't get up in the morning"
- Version 2: "It's raining, it's pouring; The old man is snoring Bumped his head And he went to bed And he couldn't get up in the morning Rain, rain, go away; Come again another day; Little Johnny wants to play." (Source: Zelo Nursery Rhymes ( (c) 1996-2000 C. Thomas Wright III)

⁽³⁾ Hollywood and Vine: The corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, Hollywood/ Los Angeles California

⁽⁴⁾ Drag n.: A town or city street, esp. the main street (Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

⁽⁵⁾ Gilbert Hotel: These days there's a "Gilbert Hotel" on 1550 N. Wilcox ave Hollywood/ California

⁽⁶⁾ Quoting a children's prayer: "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take." (Submitted by Ulf Berggren. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist, 2000)

⁽⁷⁾ Monroe, Marilyn: Norma Jean Mortenson. Born Los Angeles /Cal. 01-06-1926. Died Brentwood /Cal. 05-08-1962. American actress and sex-symbol. Was married to Joe Dimaggio for a while.
- Also mentioned in Jitterbug Boy, 1976: "Because I slept with the lions, and Marilyn Monroe" and Hold On, 1999: "With charcoal eyes and Monroe hips she went and took that California trip"

⁽⁸⁾ Shades n. pl.: A pair of sunglasses. Orig. bop musician use c1948-c1955; now mainly beat and student use (Dictionary Of American Slang - Supplement, Wentworth/ Flexner). Also mentioned in "Burma Shave" (And when they pulled her from the wreck You know, she still had on her shades)

⁽⁹⁾ Blue gun:
- 'Blueing' is a treatment applied to gunmetal, to keep it from rusting among other things. It leaves the metal with a characteristic lustre, more of a deep smoky charcoal than blue (Submitted by Russell Fischer. Raindogs Listserv discussionlist. September, 2000)
- Gunsmiths use a process called blueing which coats the surfaces of the gun with a very thin coat of oxidized iron compound, which prevents rust and corrosion, and which gives a blue-black color to the steel. The heat which comes from frequent use of the weapon can cause loss of the blueing, and a gun can be re-blued. This may imply that the gun in question was new. Or it had been reprocessed recently (Submitted by Gary Duncan. Raindogs Listserv discussionlist. September, 2000)

⁽¹⁰⁾ Scarlet ribbons: could be referring to the classic song Scarlet Ribbons, made famous by Harry Belafonte in 1952/ 1955. Words and Music by: Jack Segal and Evelyn Danzig (1952): "I peeked in to say good-night When I heard my child in prayer "And for me, some scarlet ribbons Scarlet ribbons for my hair" All our stores were closed and shuttered All the streets were dark and bare In our town, no scarlet ribbons Scarlet ribbons for her hair Through the night my heart was aching Just before the dawn was breaking In our town, no scarlet ribbons Scarlet ribbons for her hair I peeked in and on her bed In gay profusion lying there Lovely ribbons, scarlet ribbons Scarlet ribbons for her hair If I live to be a hundred I will never know from where Came those lovely scarlet ribbons Scarlet ribbons for her hair."