Tom Waits
Town With No Cheer (2023 Remaster)
Well, it's hotter than blazes and all the long faces
There'll be no oasis for a dry local grazier
There'll be no refreshment for a thirsty jackaroo
From Melbourne to Adelaide on the overlander
With newfangled buffet cars and faster locomotives
The train stopped in Serviceton less and less often
No, there's nothing sadder than a town with no cheer
Vic Rail decided the canteen was no longer necеssary there
No spirits, no bilgewatеr and eighty dry locals
And the high noon sun beats a hundred-and-four
There's a hummingbird trapped in a closed-down shoe store
This tiny Victorian rhubarb
Kept the watering hole open for sixty-five years
Now it's boilin' in a miserable March 21st
Wrapped the hills in a blanket of Paterson's curse
The train smokes down the xylophone
There'll be no stopping here
All you can be is thirsty in a town with no cheer
No Bourbon, no Branchwater
Though the townspeople here
Fought her Vic Rail decree tooth and nail
Now it's boilin' in a miserable March 21st
Wrapped the hills in a blanket of Paterson's curse
The train smokes down the xylophone
There'll be no stopping here
All you can be is thirsty in a town with no cheer