LYRICS: Nighthawks At The Diner: Emotional Weather Report

Emotional Weather Report

What we're talking about is late night and early morning low clouds
with a chance of fog, chance of showers into the afternoon
with variable high cloudiness and gusty winds
Gusty winds at times around the corner of Sunset and Alvorado⁽²⁾

Yeah, I know, things are tough all over
When the thunder storms start increasing over the
Southeast and South Central portions of my apartment, I get upset

And a line of thunderstorms was developing in the early morning
ahead of a slow moving coldfront, cold blooded
with tornado watches issued shortly before noon Sunday
for the areas including the western region of my mental health
and the northern portions of my ability to deal rationally
with my disconcerted precarious emotional situation
It's cold out there
Colder than a ticket taker's smile at the Ivar Theatre, on a Saturday night⁽³⁾

Flash flood watches covered the southern portion of my disposition, yeah
There was no severe weather well into the afternoon
except for kind of a lone gust of wind in the bedroom

A high pressure zone covering the eastern portion of a small
suburban community with a 1034 millibar high pressure zone
and a weak pressure ridge extending from my eyes down to my cheeks
cause since you left me baby and put the vice grips on my mental health
well, the extended outlook for an indefinite period of time
until you come back to me, baby, is high tonight, low tomorrow
and precipitation is expected

That wraps up the weather for this evening.
Now back to the eleven o'clock blues.
Doctor George Fishbeck⁽⁴⁾ ain't got nothing on me!

Written by: Tom Waits
Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), ©1975
Official release: Nighthawks At The Diner, Elektra/ Asylum Records, 1975

⁽¹⁾ Opening intro: "Well... an inebriated good evening to you all. Welcome to Raphael's Silver Cloud Lounge. Slip me a lil' crimson, Jimson. Gimme the low-down, Brown. Now what's the scoop, Betty Boop? I'm on my way into town. Christ, while we're at it, I want to thank Dawna for opening the program for us. I'm so goddam horny that the crack of dawn better be careful around me! Yeah... I wanna pull on your coat about somethin' here tonight. Yeah, a little news I'd like to throw in your direction. See, I... I used to know a girl... Yeah, and it was a hubba-hubba and ding ding ding, I said baby you got everything. A week later it was a hubba-hubba and ding ding dong, baby it sure didn't last too long. I know, things are tough all over, and they ain't getting any better. I was moved to kinda squib a little bit of kind of an emotional weather forecast for you this evening. What I'm talking about is, well you know, I've been playing night clubs and staying out all night long. Comin' home late. Gone for three months, come back and everything in your refrigerator turns into a science project. So you get designs on a waitress, you know? She got three or four kids. She's sorting out her checks and she's counting out her change. You say, 'Hey baby, heat me up a bear claw on the radar range.' Well, then it gets real cold..." (Transcript by Pieter from Holland as published on the Tom Waits Library. August, 2000)
- Raphael's Silver Cloud Lounge: Located along I-25 in New Mexico, about 45 miles north of Albuquerque and 15 miles sounth of Santa Fe. A classic road house in the 70's. Lot's of cool (non-stadium level) bands played there. About 500 miles to Phoenix/ Dallas/ Denver. A logical stopover for any band road tour. (Source: Tom Waits Digest, Seth Nielssen)
- Low-down, lowdown n.: The real truth; confidential or authentic information; relevant facts; little known intimate facts; info; dope (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner). Also mentioned in Barber shop, 1977: "What's the low down Mr. Brown heard you boy's leavin town". Notice the same phrase being mentioned in Barber Shop, 1977: "What's the low down Mr. Brown, heard you boy's leavin' town."
- Hubba-hubba: excl. [1940s+] (US teen) term of approval, esp. when directed at a passing girl [hubba! hubba!, a college cheer] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9). Also mentioned in Standing On The Corner, Cleveland version, 1976: "I'm gonna watch 'em go by. Oh, hubba hubba, man."

⁽²⁾ Sunset and Alvarado: Corner in downtown L.A. about a mile from Dodgers Stadium. "Charles Bukowski lived for quite a while in this area and wrote of the whores, drugs, numerous bars and general depravity of the area. Most notably, it’s the site of one of the two original “Burrito King” restaurants, one of the great (used to be) all-night corner stands.“West Hollywood” is now a separate city, and more critically, it’s a part of town which has a completely different feel than the “East Hollywood” /downtown/ midtown area, and certainly from the Sunset/ Alvarado area from the late 70’s. Although the neighborhoods surrounding Sunset/ Alvarado have become more “gentrified” in the thirty years since then, at the time, the area was truly working-class, and had the feel that Waits and Bukowski documented" (Submitted by Richard Gould-Saltman. July 2009)

⁽⁴⁾ Doctor George Fishbeck: A well known now retired L.A. news weather caster for ABC (KABC in the 1970s). (Submitted by Adam Jackson as sent to Tom Waits Library. July, 2002)