Martha is een heel ontroerend lied van de Amerikaanse singer/songwriter Tom Waits, dat komt van zijn debuutalbum Closing Time uit 1973.

Onlangs vond ik een werkelijk schitterende versie van het nummer door de Ierse singer/songwriter Lisa Hannigan uit 2012, waarbij ze begeleid wordt door pianist Cormac Curran.

Martha
Operator, number please.
It’s been so many years
She remember’s my old voice
while I fight the tears.

Hello, hello there, is this Martha?
This is old Tom Frost.
I am calling you long distance.
Don’t worry ‘bout the cost.

‘Cause it’s been 40 years or more.
Oh Martha, please recall.
Meet me out for coffee.
Where we’ll talk about it all.

And those were days of roses,
poetry and prose,
and Martha, all I had was you,
and all you had was me.
There was no tomorrows.
We’d packed away our sorrows.
And we saved them for a rainy day.

I feel so much older now.
You’re much older too.
How’s your husband
and how’s the kids?
You know that I got married too?

Lucky that you found someone,
to make you feel secure.
We were all so young and foolish,
now we are mature.

And those were days of roses,
poetry and prose,
and, Martha, all I had was you,
and all you had was me.
There was no tomorrows.
We’d packed away our sorrows.
And we saved them for a rainy day.

I was always so impulsive,
I guess that I still am.
And all that really mattered then,
was that I was a man.

I guess that our being together,
was never meant to be.
But Martha, Martha,
I love you, can’t you see?

And those were days of roses,
poetry and prose.
And Martha, all I had was you,
and all you had was me.
There was no tomorrows.
We’d packed away our sorrows.
And we saved them for a rainy day

I remember quiet evenings,
trembling close to you.