About the Song

Track: San Diego Serenade

Length: 3:30

Album: The Heart of a Saturday Night (1974)

Artist: Tom Waits

Songwriter: Tom Waits

Favorite part: 

“I never saw the morning till I stayed up all night

I never saw the sunshine till you turned out the light”

© 2009 Tom Waits & ANTI Records

Here’s Why I Love It

I really love this song. As they say, the proof is in the pudding. 

So, you know I use Spotify? I mean...by now you must have listened to the Lyrics I Love playlist (wink, wink.) Well, they reveal your listening stats at the end of each year. According to Spotify, I listened to 388 different artists in 2020. I thought that was pretty cool. They didn’t provide a songs-listened-to total. Or maybe they did and I don’t remember. Either way, I’m sure it was a good amount. I listen to a lot of music. 

More importantly, this song was my most listened to song of 2020. The sentiment of the song is easy to grasp: you don’t really know something until you experience its opposite. We all have some experience that makes us appreciate its opposite even more. And I can think of a pretty big one that we’ve all just gone through, together.

It’s interesting to see where my subconscious was during such a tumultuous year. I’m not surprised that I listened to this song as much as I did. I don’t see it as a song for the pure dreamer, although it will leave you wondering. It’s not for the people who think they know “it.” It’s for the people who know “it” through experience. I guess it’s a song for the doers, the stumblers, and the people who’ve had their teeth kicked in. It’s for the people who know the “other side.” Nobody is a better conduit for this message than Tom Waits. There’s probably no musician who was more committed to carving his own path, at least creatively. He’s someone who I just love to listen to and read about as often as I could. (For you readers, I really liked this book.) 

Listen to the song and read the lyrics for full effect.

*This article is part of the ongoing Lyrics I Love series: short interpretations of the meaning and story behind one song with lyrics that move me.