I Beg Your Pardon


I'm just a scarecrow without you
Baby, please don't disappear
I beg your pardon, dear

I got a bottle for a trumpet
And a hatbox for a drum
And I beg your pardon, dear

I got upset, I lost my head
I didn't mean the things I said
You are the landscape of my dreams
Darling, I beg your pardon

I'd give you Boardwalk and Park Place
And all of my hotels(2)
I beg your pardon, dear

Please don't go back to St. Louis(3)
Can't you tell that I'm sincere
I beg your pardon, dear

I got upset, I lost my head
I didn't mean the things I said
You are the landscape of my dreams
Darling, I beg your pardon

Written by: Tom Waits.
Published by: Warner Chapell Music Ltd. © 1982
Official release: One From The Heart, Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (Columbia), 1982
Arrangements and lyrics published in "Tom Waits - Anthology" (Amsco Publications, 1988/ Nuova Carisch, 2000)
Read full story: One From The Heart

Known covers:
From There To Here. Kyle Eastwood. September 15, 1998. Sony/ Columbia Records
Bangin' On The Table With An Old Tin Cup. Pascal Fricke. April 12, 2007. Self-released (Germany)

Notes:

(1) Tom Waits (1985): "Your musical diet determines a lot of what comes out of you, and I was listening to Ellington at the time of 'I Beg Your Pardon'. In fact there's a quote from 'Sophisticated Lady' in that song. I've always had a real fascination with Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer and those people." (Source: "The Marlowe Of The Ivories". New Musical Express magazine. Barney Hoskyns. May 25, 1985) 

(2) I'd give you Boardwalk and Park Place and all of my hotels: refers to American board game Monopoly. The object of the game is to become the wealthiest player through buying, renting and selling property. There are different international editions. The Parker Brothers standard US version (based on Atlantic City) of the game has been produced since 1935. Boardwalk and Park Palace and hotels are the most valuable pieces of property on the Monopoly board. Standard (American Edition) property names are: Mediterranean Avenue, Baltic Avenue, Oriental Avenue, Vermont Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, Boardwalk, St. Charles Place, Park Place, States Avenue, Virginia Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, St. James Place, North Carolina Avenue, Tennessee Avenue, Pacific Avenue, New York Avenue, Marvin Gardens, Ventnor Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, Illinois Avenue, Indiana Avenue, Kentucky Avenue.

(3) St. Louis
- Also mentioned in: Time, 1985: "And you're East of East Saint Louis and the wind is making speeches.", Train Song, 1987: "Well I broke down in East St. Louis, on the Kansas City Line.", Hold On, 1999: "Well, God bless your crooked heart, St. Louis got the best of me."
- Jonathan Valania (1999): Getting back to the names of places, St. Louis seems to pop up a lot, in "Hold on" from the new record and "Time" from Rain Dogs and you've mentioned it a lot in interviews. Ever live there? TW: "No, never lived there. It's a good name to stick in a song. Every song needs to be anatomically correct: You need weather, you need the name of the town, something to eat - every song needs certain ingredients to be balanced. You're writing a song and you need a town, and you look out the window and you see "St. Louis Cardinals" on some kid's T-shirt. And you say, "Oh, we'll use that." (Source: "The Man Who Howled Wolf ". Magnet: Jonathan Valania. June/July, 1999)