Tom Waits – Town With No Cheer

Well it’s hotter ‘n 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

There’s nothing sadder than a town with no cheer

VicRail decided the canteen was no longer necessary

there no spirits, no bilgewater and 80 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 21 st

wrapped the hills in a blanket of Patterson’s curse

the train smokes down the xylophone

there’ll be no stopping here

all ya can be is thirsty in a town with no cheer

no Bourbon, no Branchwater

though the townspeople here

fought the Vic Rail decree tooth and nail

now it’s boilin’ in a miserable March 21 st

wrapped the hills in a blanket of Patterson’s curse

the train smokes down the xylophone

there’ll be no stopping here

all ya can be is thirsty in a town with no cheer