Hello everyone!
I was translating lyrics from 1st album of Tom Waits (Closing Time) and I have 3 little problems, I hope that someone can help me :
1 .
"Every town I go to is like a lock without a key
Those I leave behind are catching up on me" - What does red expression mean?
I found this explanation : have effect eventually: to have a delayed effect on somebody
(f.ex. Three nights without sleep is beginning to catch up on me.)
But it's still not very clear - it means that these towns he leaves just slow him down/or slow down his life?
2.
Well, I'm walking on down Virginia Avenue
Trying to find somebody to tell my troubles to.
Harold's club is closing,
and everybody's going on home:
What's a poor boy to do?
"I'll just get on back into my short,
make it back to the fort
Sleep off all the crazy lizards inside of my brain.
There's got to be some place
that's better than this
This life I'm leading's driving me insane"
I don't understand the meaning of two red verses - all the words are clear I think (short - trousers, fort - military compound) but their sense isn't sure - is it maybe a metaphor which means "I just go back home" or something in this sense?
3.
"See me coming, you ain't got no change
Don't worry baby, it can be arranged:
Show me you can smile, baby just for me
Fix you with a drumstick, I'll do it for free"
To fix - a) transitive verb prepare something as food: to prepare something, especially a meal or a drink
b) hold somebody's attention: to hold or capture the attention or interest of somebody
fixed us with a baleful smile
c) transitive verb fasten something: to fasten something in place
("She fixed the notice to the door with a thumbtack.")
Drumstick - stick for drum of course, but also "lower half of poultry leg: the lower half of the leg of a bird such as a chicken when prepared for eating, so called because of its shape"
So, how to understand expression in the song? Will he give her a chicken ( in that case "with" isn't necessary I think) or will he capture her attention just by playing ordinary drumstick? To fasten a girl with drumstick isn't too logical...Or maybe there's competely different meaning?
Please help me if you can, thanks ;-)