Poor Old Tom | Peter Case

🎵 Poor Old Tom | Peter Case 🎵 - Length: 0:3:57

Poor Old Tom - Written by Peter Case Recorded Live November 16, 2023 Live from Norfolk Street is an on-going concert series recorded live at McGonigel's Mucky Duck in Houston, Texas. Our live-streamed concert series is listener supported. For access to our catalog of full length shows, extras, encores, and interviews, become a contributing member at: https://livefromnorfolkstreet.com/ Lyrics: A Tennessee boy joined the US navy in 1950 he was 17 A quiet kid who never seen the ocean his mama died his first trip at sea He learned to work and he learned to whistle he learned to gamble and he learned to fight He learned to suck a bottle and go out whorin’ Somehow he learned to stagger in at night Poor old Tom he don’t know why his teeth’s gotta rattle shiver and shake The night wind’s free to blow wherever it pleases Tom’s free to walk to the cold day break Poor old Tom he’s tellin’ it all His thoughts are roarin’ like a waterfall He never cared about money and there’s no doubt he never had much money to care about Taifuns and (…) on the great Pacific proud to be serving the USA He worked hard on board and he got promoted he got VD but it went away Poor old Tom he ain’t right he went out in San Francisco on a Saturday night Sunday morning his ship set sail Tom was arrested in the Oakland jail Now it’s 35 years since his incarceration on a morals charge the words he said to me From the brig on Treasure Island to the institution they treated his depression with shock therapy Poor old Tom he don’t know he’s got trouble a callin’ he’s history At the drop of a coin he’ll start to ramble how the whole damn thing’s a mystery His eyes bulge out as we talk on the corner he turns on the gurney and They held him down one morning they wheeled him to another building a surgery room with doctors standing’ round He cried Lord help me as they put him under & he sailed away on an ether sea Ever since that day all he does is wonder Did the surgeons perform a lobotomy Poor old Tom his story is true he’s got nothin’ to show, no one to show it too The word for him is never the less He fought for freedom, never took a free breath Now the radio’s blare musak & musak diseased are cured every day The worst disease in the world is to be unwanted, to be used up and cast away So as we make our way towards our destinations fortunes are still made with flesh and blood Progress and love got nothing in common Jesus healed the blind man’s eyes with mud Poor old Tom he don’t know why his teeth’s gotta rattle, shiver and shake The night wind’s free to blow wherever it pleases Tom’s free to walk to the cold day break