PROPUESTA DE MANUALES DE MANTENIMIENTO DE LAS MÁQUINAS

I guess things were always kinda quiet around Putnam County Kinda shy and sleepy as it clung to the skirts of the 2-lane That was stretched out just like an asphalt dance floor Where all the old-timers in bib jeans and store bought boots Were hunkerin‘(2) down in the dirt

To lie about their lives and the places that they‘d been

And they‘d suck on Coca Colas, yeah, and be spittin‘ Day's Work Until the moon was a stray dog on the ridge and...

And the taverns would be swollen until the naked eye of 2 a.m.

And the Stratocasters slung over the Burgermeister beer guts

And swizzle stick legs(3) jackknifed over naugahyde(4) stools... yeah And the witch hazel spread out over the linoleum floors

And pedal pushers(5) stretched out over a midriff bulge And the coiffed brunette curls over Maybelline eyes Wearing Prince Machiavelli, or something... yeah Estee Lauder, smells so sweet

And I elbowed up(6) at the counter with mixed feelings over mixed drinks As Bubba and the Roadmasters moaned in pool hall concentration and...

And knit their brows(7) to cover the entire Hank Williams(8) songbook Whether you like it or not

And the old National register was singin‘ to the tune of $57.57... yeah And then it‘s last call, one more game of eightball

Berniece‘d be puttin‘ the chairs on the tables

And someone come in and say, ‗Hey man, anyone got any jumper cables?‘

‗Is that a 6 or a 12 volt, man? I don‘t know...‘

Yeah, and all the studs in town would toss ‗em down And claim to fame as they stomped their feet

Yeah, boastin‘ about bein‘ able to get more ass than a toilet seat(9) And the GMC‘s(10) and the Straight-8 Fords were coughin‘ and wheezin‘

And they percolated(11) as they tossed the gravel underneath the fenders To weave home a wet slick anaconda of a 2-lane

With tire irons and crowbars a-rattlin‘

With a tool box and a pony saddle

You‘re grindin‘ gears and you‘re shiftin‘ into first

Yeah, and that goddam Tranny‘s just gettin‘ worse, man

With the melody of see-ya-later‘s and screwdrivers on carburetors

Talkin‘ shop about money to loan

And Palominos and strawberry roans(12)... yeah See ya tomorrow, hello to the Missus!

With money to borrow and goodnight kisses As the radio spit out Charlie Rich(13), man, and he sure can sing that son of a bitch And you weave home, yeah, weavin‘ home

Leavin‘ the little joint winkin‘ in the dark warm narcotic American night Beneath a pin cushion sky

And it‘s home to toast and honey, gotta start up the Ford, man Yeah, and your lunch money‘s right over there on the drainin‘ board And the toilet‘s runnin‘! Christ, shake the handle!

And the telephone‘s ringin‘, it‘s Mrs. Randal And where the hell are my goddam sandals?

What you mean, the dog chewed up my left foot?

With the porcelain poodles and the glass swans Staring down from the knickknack shelf... yeah

And the parent permission slips for the kids‘ field trips

Yeah, and a pair of Muckalucks(14) scraping across the shag carpet...

yeah

And the impending squint of first light

And it lurked behind a weepin‘ marquee in downtown Putnam Yeah, and it‘d be pullin‘ up any minute now

Just like a bastard amber Velveta yellow cab on a rainy corner And be blowin‘ its horn in every window in town

Written by: Tom Waits

Published by: Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP), ©1975

Official release: Nighthawks At The Diner, Elektra/ Asylum Records, 1975 (1) Intro from "Nighthawks At The Diner":I wanna tell you a story here.

It‘s about a place called Putnam County. Yeah... How‘s the service here?

Yeah, it‘s all right? I mean, I gave you a beer and everything. Don‘t gotta pay or nothin‘. Well, they hit you up at the door on your way out...

Patrick Humphries quotes an unidentified Sound Magazine interview from 1976 by Mike Flood Page: "I used to listen to a lot of records by a guy called Lou Short. He made a lotta albums in the forties and nobody knew who he was. He used to pay to have them made. But everybody in Baxter, Putnam County knew who he was. And he was the town

hypochondriac. I mean, there's a breeze coming up and he's got a little sniffle... Anyway, the town hypochondriac finally upped and died, and on his tombstone... it said 'Lou Short Died' and on the bottom it said 'I told you I was sick!'" (Source: "Small Change, A life of Tom Waits". Patrick Humphries, 1989. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-312-04582-4).

Baxter is in Putnam County Tennessee.(Merriam - Webster collegiate dictionary) It's East of Nashville, more or less near the town of

Murfreesboro (Pony: Mule Variations, 1999)

TW (introducing Putnam County, Coffee Break radio show, 1975): "Why don't I tell a story? I could do this piece called "Putnam County". This is about a place in Tennessee eh... It's a real town, a small town. It's one of those towns where... It's so small that the main drag is a transvestite...

and eh... " (Source: Coffee Break Concert Interview: The Coffee Break Concert radio show on WMMS-FM (Cleveland/ USA). Conducted by Kid Leo (Lawrence James Travagliante). December 3, 1975)

TW (1976): "Those guys [country rockers like the Eagles] grew up in L.A.

and they don't have cow-shit on their boots - they just got dog shit from Laurel Canyon. They wouldn't last two minutes in Putnam County, that's for sure. If somebody gets shot and killed there on a Saturday night, the Sunday papers say he just died of natural causes!" (Source: "Tom Waits:

Would You Say This Man Was Attempting To Convey An Impression Of Sordid Bohemianism" New Musical Express (UK), by Fred Dellar. Date: June 5, 1976)

(2) Hunker: "It sounds like the most typically American of phrases, but it seems originally to have been Scots, first recorded in the eighteenth century. Nobody seems to know exactly what its origin is, though it has been suggested it‟s linked to the Old Norse huka, to squat; that would make it a close cousin of the modern Dutch huiken and German hocken, meaning to squat or crouch, which makes sense. That‟s certainly what‟s meant by the word in American English, in phrases like hunker down or on your hunkers. The Oxford English Dictionary has a fine description of how to hunker: “squat, with the haunches, knees, and ankles acutely bent, so as to bring the hams near the heels, and throw the whole weight upon the fore part of the feet”. The advantage of this position is that

you‟re not only crouched close to the ground, so presenting a small target for whatever the universe chooses to throw at you, but you‟re also ready to move at a moment‟s notice. Hunker down has also taken on the sense of to hide, hide out, or take shelter, whatever position you choose to do it in. This was a south-western US dialect form that was popularised by President Johnson in the mid 1960s. Despite its Scots ancestry, hunker is rare in standard British English." (Source: World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–2004. All rights reserved)

(3) Swizzle stick n.: A stick used to stir mixed drinks (Merriam - Webster collegiate dictionary). Also mentioned in "Nighthawk Postcards" (And as a neon swizzle stick is stirrin‘ up the sultry night air)

(4) Naugahyde: American trademark used for vinyl-coated fabrics (Merriam - Webster collegiate dictionary)

(5) Pedal pushers: A style of pants in which the pant leg ends right at the calf; three-quarter length trousers (Submitted by Cheryl Dillis. August, 2000).

Also mentioned in "Heartattack And Vine" (See that little Jersey girl in the see-thru top. With the pedal pushers, suckin‘ on a soda pop)

(6) Elbow one's way in: To push one's way through a crowd; to get a place by hook or crook. ("The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. © 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd) (7) Knit the/one's brows: To frown; to scowl. To bend the brow

(Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.). Also mentioned in "Gin Soaked Boy": "The dogs are barking out back, and you're knittin' your brow"

(8) Williams, Hank: The father of contemporary country music. Williams was a superstar by the age of 25; he was dead at the age of 29. In those four short years, he established the rules for all the country performers that followed him. He lived a life as troubled and reckless as that depicted in his songs. Born in Mount Olive, Alabama, on September 17, 1923.

"Move It On Over," released in 1947, became Hank Williams's first single for MGM. It was an immediate hit. In 1950 Williams began recording a series of spiritual records under the name Luke the Drifter. Williams continued to rack up hits in 1951, beginning with the Top Ten hit "Dear John" and its number one flip-side, "Cold Cold Heart." Hank had several other hits in 1951, including the number one "Hey, Good Lookin'" and

"Howlin' at the Moon," "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You),"

Though his professional career was soaring, Hank Williams's personal life was beginning to spin out of control, he began to drink frequently. Hank turned completely reckless in 1952, spending nearly all of his waking hours drunk and taking drugs, while he was frequently destroying

property and playing with guns. Williams continued to play a large number of concerts, but he was always drunk during the show, or he missed the gig altogether. The Grand Ole Opry fired him for that very reason. He was told that he could return once he was sober. Instead of heeding the

Opry's warning, he just sank deeper into his self-destructive behaviour.

Hank Williams was scheduled to play a concert on January 1, 1953.

Before he and his chauffeur left Ohio, Williams was injected with two shots of the vitamin B-12 and morphine by a doctor. The driver was stopped for speeding when the policeman noticed that Williams looked like a dead man. Williams was taken to a hospital and he was officially declared dead at on January 1, 1953. Hank Williams had died in the back of the Cadillac, on his way to a concert. The last single released in his lifetime was "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive."

(9) To get more ass than a toilet seat: Have more arse than a toilet seat, to phr. [1960s+] of a man, to have an active, even excessive, sex live (Cassel's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green 1998. Cassel & Co., 2000) (10) GMC: A car or engine built by GMC (General Motors Corp.). Hot-rod use since c1955 (Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

(11) Percolate v.i.: 1. To become hot and boil over, said of early

automobile engines. c1915-c1925. 2. To run smoothly and easily, said of automobiles and motors. Some use since c1920 (Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

(12) Palominos and Strawberry Roans: 1. Light golden color and auburn color horses. Roan actually means chestnut-colored. Roy

Rogers's horse was Trigger, a beautiful palimino which made that color very popular (Submitted by Gary Duncan. Raindogs Listserv discussionlist.

September, 2000) 2. They're in a parking lot in that part of the song, chatting away while leaving for home. I thought they were talking about upholstery. Palomino leather and strawberry roan leather (Submitted by Ulf Berggren. Raindogs Listserv discussionlist. September, 2000)

(13) Rich, Charlie: Born in Forrest City on December 14, 1934, to a poor Arkansas family. Rich was a multi talented artist, bridging Jazz, Blues, and Rock, in a more versatile way than many other artists. "I didn't dig country" Rich would say. As he struggled to find his musical niche, the bluesy "Don't Put No Headstone On My Grave" brought Rich

underground fame. Rich with his famous grey streak of hair, recorded

"Big Boss Man", and "Behind Closed Doors" in 1973. After making over

$2 million in 1975 alone (the time Nighthawks was recorded), Rich settled into a quiet Memphis suburb. An interesting moment came when Charlie was presenting the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award. As Rich opened the envelope, he discovered to his horror that John Denver had won. Rich set fire to the award on stage, in a rage of fury and disbelief, later attributed to a painkiller reaction. Like Jerry Lee Lewis, Rich is haunted by a deeply religious upbringing which is at odds with his Rock n' Roll profession. Charlie's son Alan is an outstanding keyboard session man for major Rock bands today. Personal quote: "I really don't like happy music. I don't think it says anything." It is said Waits has opened shows for Rich in the early 70's.

TW (1976): "I played at Max's, Kansas City and opened a show for Charlie Rich." (Source: WNEW FM: Vin Scelsa's Idiot's Delight Date:

Recorded MediaSound Studios NYC. December 14, 1976. Aired December 18, 1976 on WNEW-FM. Rebroadcast March 24, 1996 WNEW-FM.)

(14) Muckalucks: TW: "Muckalucks are carpet slippers, a Peterbilt is a truck and Stacey Adams once were a very prestigious shoe..." (Source:

"Tom Waits: Would You Say This Man Was Attempting To Convey An

Impression Of Sordid Bohemianism" New Musical Express (UK), by Fred Dellar.

Date: June 5, 1976)