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The meaning of the lyrics of the song "Drunk on the Moon" by the artist "Tom Waits"

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Tom Waits' "Drunk on the Moon" paints a picture of a nocturnal city steeped in loneliness, despair, and escapism. The lyrical hero, like many inhabitants of this nighttime reality, seeks solace in the illusions created by alcohol and music.

The imagery shifts like frames in a silent film: a woman in trousers (a symbol of gender ambiguity and marginality), Charlie the newsvendor, a gambler at the races, blinding neon lights, the ghostly saxophone – all create a sense of instability and surreality.

The moon, likened to a silver coin, and the stars like bubbles in sparkling wine, heighten the feeling of intoxication and blurred perception. Broadway, compared to a snake, is associated with vice and temptation. The image of Larimer, imbued with an uneven rhythm, hints at the bustle and chaos of nightlife. The roar of the Bonneville car and the mention of "craziness" in Bonneville add to the picture of unbridled revelry and desperation.

The mention of a "waning moon," trembling hearts, and the fates of "whores" introduces notes of fatalism and doom. The images of slot machines, strippers, and "riffraff" further enhance the sense of decay and hopelessness. The Greyhound bus speeding through the night symbolizes the fleeting nature of time and the inevitability of change.

The phrase "I got sick of the past" speaks of the hero's deep emotional pain and desire to escape from the past. The music of the saxophone becomes for him a symbol of hope and consolation in this world of vice and loneliness. "Drunk on the Moon" is a metaphor for a state of intoxication not only with alcohol but also with one's own illusions, an attempt to hide from reality in a world of dreams.

Tight-slack clad girls on the graveyard shift

'Neath the cement stroll, catch the midnight drift

Cigar chewing Charlie in that newspaper nest

Grifting hot horse tips on who's running the best

And I'm blinded by the neon

Don't try and change my tune

Cause I thought I heard a saxophone

I'm drunk on the moon

And the moon's a silver slipper, it's pouring champagne stars

And Broadway's like a serpent pulling shiny top-down cars

Laramer is teeming with that undulating beat

And some Bonneville is screaming, it's way wilder down the street

And I'm blinded by the neon

Don't try and change my tune

I thought I heard a saxophone

I'm drunk on the moon

Hearts flutter and race, the moon's on the wane

Tarts mutter their dream hopes the night will ordain

Come schemers and dancers, cherry delight

As a Cleveland-bound Greyhound, and it cuts through the night

And I've hawked all my yesterdays

Don't try and change my tune

Cause I thought I heard a saxophone

I'm drunk on the moon

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