Onlangs vond ik een prachtige uitvoering van het lied Time van Tom Waits, gezongen door de Ierse zangeres Heidi Talbot. Het raakt me steeds meer hoe vaker ik het hoor. Ik kende het lied niet, maar dat komt ook omdat ik niet zo dol ben op de stem van Waits. Door zijn brommerige geluid wordt ik afgeleid van de melodie en de tekst, die me dan volledig ontgaan. Het nummer komt origineel van zijn album Rain Dogs uit 1985 en je kunt zijn versie hier horen.

Heidi Talbot zong het zelf op haar album In Love And Light (2008). Ze wordt hier begeleid door de Engelse gitarist Boo Hewerdine & haar echtgenoot, de Schotse violist John McCusker. Het zijn alle drie grote namen in de folkwereld.

Time
The smart money’s on Harlow,
and the moon is in the street.
And the shadow boys
are breakin’ all the laws.
And you’re east of East St. Louis,
and the wind is making speeches.
And the rain sounds
like a round of applause.

And Napoleon is weeping
in a carnival saloon.
His invisible fiancée
is in the mirror.
And the band is goin’ home,
it’s raining hammers,
it’s raining nails.
It’s true there’s nothing
left for her down here.

And it’s time, time, time.
And it is time, time, time.
And it’s time, time, time
that you love.
And it’s time, time, time.

And they all pretend they’re orphans,
and their memory’s like a train.
You can see it getting
smaller as it pulls away.
And the things you can’t remember,
tell the things you can’t forget
That history puts a saint
in every dream.

Oh she said she’d stick around,
untill the bandages came off.
But these mama’s boys
just don’t know when to quit.
And Matilda asks the sailors
are those dreams or are those prayers.
Close your eyes son
and this won’t hurt a bit.

And it’s time, time, time.
And it is time, time, time.
And it’s time, time, time
that you love.
And it’s time, time, time.

Oh and things are pretty lousy
for the calendar girls.
The boys just dive right off the cars
and splash into the street.
And when they’re on a roll,
she pulls a razor from her boot.
And a thousand pigeons
fall around her feet.

So put a candle in the window,
and a kiss upon his lips.
As the dish outside the window
fills with rain.
Just like a stranger
with the weeds in your heart.
Pay the fiddler off,
till I come back again.

And it’s time, time, time.
And it is time, time, time.
And it’s time, time, time
that you love.
And it’s time, time, time.