Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen) chords by Tom Waits

Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen) is one of the most famous songs of Tom Waits. It was written in 1976 and first appeared as an opening track on album “Small Change” . Tom Traubert's Blues is evidently based on the Australian hymn Waltzing Matilda (written by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson). But that doesn’t mean that they deal with the same matter, the only thing similar in both songs is the chorus. Beacase of the chorus, by the way, this song is quite often mistagged and referred to as Waltzing Matilda , which is of course wrong. The meaning of the song is very ambiguous and hard to define. Everyone seems to find his own personal explanation, but here are some of the most reasonable: Some people claim that the song is about Vietnam and American soldiers taking drugs (“No one speaks English and everything’s broken”, “I’m tired of all the soldiers here”) Others are sure, that the song is about a woman called Matilda and Tom’s love for her. It turned out that in the 70s Tom Waits had been to Copenhagen and attended a concert of a Danish folk-singer …Mathilde Bondo (surprise-surprise)! The rumor says that “after the show she somehow met Waits, and they got along so well that they went out bar-crawling through Copenhagen, and finally ended up at his hotel room, drunk as skunks”. And a few months later Tom sent her the “Small Change” album as a memory of a good night. So maybe that’s it? But there’s also the third version. The point is that “waltzing Matilda” doesn’t necessarily require a woman named Matilda and dancing skills. One of possible alternatives is…travelling. The phrase might have originated with German immigrants who settled in Australia and roughly means “to travel from place to place in search of work with all one's belongings on one's back”. That makes perfect sense in such lines as “And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace” or “Matilda's the defendant, she killed about a hundred and she follows wherever you may go”. In this song “waltzing Matilda” has become a metaphor for alcoholism, seduction and self-destruction. But still remains a mystery the title of the song, at least its first part. Who is Tom Traubert? Other than this title Waits never referred to the character. Some people claim to have known Tom Traubert, some claim to be his only legal child, some claim to be Tom Traubert himself. Only Tom could give us a clue, but he won't. When a journalist supposed that it’s the singer himself, Waits mentioned that Tom Traubert is his fellow who’s now in prison. Other than this revelation – nothing. In conclusion, Waits seems to have some special feelings towards this song, because in the 1970's and 1980's he used to close his shows with this song, giving his audience some food for thought on their way home. And unlike most of his other songs, he kept it unchanged for over 30 years. It's finished, nothing to add, it doesn't get any better. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.