Eyeball Kid - Tom Waits

Well, Zenora Bariella and Coriander Pyle

They had sixteen children in the usual style

They had a curio museum and they had no guile

All they ever wanted was a showbiz child

The seventh of December, nineteen-forty-nine

They got what they’d been wishing for all of the time

He grew up in a trailer, by the time he was nine

Rolled off to join the circus, telling fortunes on the side

Hail, hail, the Eyeball Kid

Well, the first time I saw him was a Saigon jail

Cost me twenty-seven dollars just to go his bail

I said, «Your name will be in lights, and that’s no doubt

But you just got to have a manager, that’s what it’s all about»

Yeah, yeah, yeah

«The people would point, the people would stare

I’ll always be here to protect you and to cut down on the glare

I know you can’t speak, I know you can’t sign

So cry right here on the dotted line»

Hail, hail, the Eyeball Kid

Well, he was born without a body, not even a brow

I made the kid a promise, I made the kid a vow

He’s not conventionally handsome, he’ll never be tall

He said, «All you got to do is book me into Carnegie Hall»

Hoo

He’s just a little bitty thing, he’s just a little guy

But women go crazy for the big blue eye

«How does he dream, how does he think

When he can’t even speak and he can’t even blink?»

I said «Hail, hail, the Eyeball Kid»

Hail, hail, Eyeball Kid

Hail, hail, Eyeball Kid

Give it up and throw me down a couple of quid

Everybody wants to see the Eyeball Kid

Hoo

They say, «How does he dream, how does he think

When he can’t even speak and he can’t even blink?»

We’re all lost in the wilderness, we’re as blind as can be

He come down to teach us how to really see

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

So give it up and throw me down a couple of quid

Everybody wants to see the Eyeball Kid

Give it up and throw me down a couple of quid

Everybody wants to see the Eyeball Kid

Give it up

Give it up

Give it up and throw me down a couple of quid

Everybody will want to see the Eyeball Kid

Eyeball Kid

Eyeball Kid

Ooh, Eyeball Kid