Depot, Depot


Depot, depot, what am I doing here?
Depot, depot, what am I doing here?
I ain't coming, I ain't going
My confusion is showing
And outside the midnight wind is blowing Sixth Avenue(2)
I'm gonna paint myself blue(3)
At the depot

I watch the taxis pull up and idle
I can't claim title to a single memory
You offered me a key
Cause opportunity don't knock
Has no tongue as you cannot talk
You're gonna shuffle when you walk
At the depot

This peeping Tom(4) needs a peephole
And an up-tempo(5) song
To move me along
When I find this depot, baby
I'm on a roll(6) just like a pool ball, baby
I'm gonna be there at the roll call maybe
At the depot

Outside the midnight wind is blowing Sixth Avenue
Ah, tell me what a poor boy to do
At the depot

I'm on a roll just like a pool ball, baby
I'm gonna be there at the roll call maybe
At the depot
Depot

Written by: Tom Waits
Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), © 1974
Official release: The Heart Of Saturday Night, Elektra/ Asylum Records, 1974

Known covers:
None

Notes:

(1) Depot Depot:
- Intro to Depot Depot (Folkscene, 1973): "A little bluesy thing about the Greyhound Bus Depot downtown, it's funny, not many people go to downtown LA, Free Press did a big article called "Downtown LA, Who Needs It?". I've been going there since I moved here, I've been here a year, I go to hang out down there, I live in Silver Lake so I'm about 10 minutes from downtown. I go down there just to hang out - not too many people live down there, really, people work down there and hang out, that's all. I'll do a song called Depot." (Source: Folkscene 1973, with Howard and Roz Larman (KPFK-FM 90.7). Date: Los Angeles/ USA. August 12, 1973)
- Intro to Depot Depot (Folkscene, 1974): "This is a bit of local colour here, this is about 6th & Los Angeles in downtown Los Angeles, about the Greyhound Bus Depot, about going down to the depot on a Saturday night with plenty of quarters for the TV chairs and it's just a great place to take a date." (Source: Folkscene 1974, with Howard and Roz Larman (KPFK-FM 90.7) Date: Los Angeles/ USA. July 23, 1974 (June 10?))

(2) The midnight wind is blowing Sixth Avenue: This is the former LA Greyhound Bus station (depot). It was on 6th Avenue and Los Angeles. For decades this location on the edge of Skid Row was the terminus for the interstate Greyhound buses. However, in the early 1990s, Greyhound moved farther east and the building was converted to garment shops. Further reading: Don's Greyhound Bus Memories

(3) Paint the town (blue), paint oneself (blue): To go on a wild spree in a town or city; to celebrate wildly (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner). More common: "To paint the town red."

(4) Peeping Tom (of Coventry): Leofric, Earl of Mercia and Lord of Coventry, imposed some very severe imposts on the people of Coventry, which his countess, Godiva, tried to get mitigated. The earl, thinking to silence her importunity, said he would comply when she had ridden naked from one end of the town to the other. Godiva took him at his word, actually rode through the town naked, and Leofric remitted the imposts. Before Godiva started, all the inhabitants voluntarily confined themselves to their houses, and resolved that anyone who stirred abroad should be put to death. A tailor thought to have a peep, but was rewarded with the loss of his eyes, and has ever since been called Peeping Tom of Coventry. There is still a figure in a house at Coventry said to represent Peeping Tom. Matthew of Westminster (1307) is the first to record the story of Lady Godiva: the addition of Peeping Tom dates from the reign of Charles II. In Smithfield Wall is a grotesque figure of the inquisitive tailor in "flowing wig and Stuart cravat." In regard to the terms made by Leofric, it may be mentioned that Rudder, in his History of Gloucester, tells us that "the privilege of cutting wood in the Herduoles was granted to the parishioners of St. Briavel's Castle, in Gloucestershire, on precisely similar terms by the Earl of Hereford, who was at the time lord of Dean Forest. (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. © 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd) 

(5) Up-tempo: Describes a tune or song that's played faster than usual, but also implies that the performance is upbeat (a performance that's sprightly, cheerful and usually fast in tempo). Can also mean a loud, vigorous performance without an increase in tempo (Source: The Folk File, Bill Markwick)

(6) On a roll
- phr.
[1970s+] (orig. US gambling) on a winning streak, enjoying a period of success, whether lit. or fig.
- Roll
: n. [1970s+] a spell of good fortune, a winning streak, whether lit. or fig. [roll, the roll of a dice] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9).
- Also mentioned in Time, 1985: "And when they're on a roll, she pulls a razor from her boot And a thousand pigeons fall around her feet.", Empty Pockets/ Purple Avenue, 1981: "What happened to my roll, September fell right through the hole."