Album: On the Border (1974)

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Songfacts®:

• This song was originally written and recorded in 1973 by Tom Waits, the American singer-songwriter, composer and actor. It was released on his debut album, Closing Time. The Eagles covered "Ol' '55" in 1974, with lead vocals by Glenn Frey and Don Henley, and pedal steel guitar by Al Perkins. Waits himself said that he didn't care for the Eagles cover of his song, calling it "antiseptic." But Tom Waits isn't an easy person to please. While he maintains more of a cult following, he stays for the most part in the background of the mainstream music scene. He is aggressively anti-commercialism, and detests the practice of using popular songs in advertising. This has led to a number of lawsuits he has brought against corporations for using his work without permission. He has won cases against Frito Lay, Levi Strauss & Co., Audi, Adam Opel AG, and - in an incident unrelated to his career - the Los Angeles Police Department. Don't mess with Tom Waits!
• Other famous covers of "Ol' '55" include singer-songwriter Eric Andersen in the 1970s, and Sarah McLachlan on her 1994 album The Freedom Sessions. It is McLachlan's version that is used on the soundtrack of the 1995 film Boys on the Side.

Comments: 9

• Klee from New YorkOne of my all time favorite songs. Tom Wait is an idiot thinking this version doesnt do it justice. I can’t even listen to his version. Love Glenn and makes me tear up thinking of his passion when I hear this one. RIP and thanks for the memories.
• Rob from UkFor me personally, it's about death having lived a full and happy life. Heading home. I have left explicit instructions that this will be my funeral song.
• L From The Stl from St LouisI have always taken the song to mean the exhilaration and invincible feeling of a guy the morning after sex with a new woman. Creeps back out to freedom and off he rides in the only thing he will ever truly love for a slow ride home as the sun rises.
• Me from InI cannot and will not even think about this song and DEATH! Without being mean or judgmental I have to ask Humberto from Brazil- - Whatcha smoking there buddy? This “holy feeling guy” just got laid!!!
• Mikeyt from VaI disagree about the "death" interpretation. 1) Funerals aren't held at sunup
  2) Why would a person on way to his funeral be "feeling so alive"?
  3) How is Lady Luck riding with a dead man?
  4) Trucks don't pass a funeral procession, and I have never seen lights flashing at a funeral
• Joseph Troise from Sonoma, CaliforniaI actually asked Tom Waits about this song many years ago when he was playing small clubs in Denver, CO. He said the car was not a '55 Chevy but rather a '55 Buick.
• Humberto Veras from Recife - BrazilThis song is about the death, certainly. The time already last, in the current time he leading the friends' list still alive and coming the other acquaintances behind in a line where all head for the death. It is a parable of Tom Wait doing that comparison, of a man that passed you finish hours with her lover and now returning home, he makes the relationship of the years already last and the ones that he still has for the front.
• Randy from Houghton Lake, MiI think I equally like this cover and the original by Tom Waits. It just depends on what kind of mood I'm in.
• Oldpink from New Castle, InI actually quite like this song, especially Al Perkins' wonderful pedal steel.
  Also, very nice to hear Henley and Frey sharing vocals so well.

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