Tilda
Liner notes
This is (sort of) a response song to Tom Traubert's Blues by Tom Waits, which is full of more questions than answers. I wanted to come up with a reading of it that could have Mathilda as the protagonist. I'm not sure Tilda is a heroic woman, but it's good to have a variety. My main regret is that I couldn't get the port name, Telemünde, into the song, that's the sort of detail I like.Tilda Jansson, special agent, killed a man in Copenhagen
Offered her some information that proved he knew too much
Certain liberties were taken with the guidelines of engagement
You weren't in the situation, who are you to judge?
She had no choice, she had to risk it, trusting that the freaks and misfits
Wandering the red-light district, would look the other way
Tilda leans against the railing of the oh-four-forty sailing
She knows that there's a price of failing, she's not prepared to pay
The game is not so great, the board's in disarray
Sometimes it pays to show restraint and fight another day
Sometimes it pays to leave the bait and fight another day
She lights the dead man's cigarettes, smokes them on the ferry deck
Knows her papers won't be checked, they never bother now
Tilda charms a drunken soak and trades two crumpled dollar notes
For a Russian Army coat and melts into the crowd
Tilda Jansson, special agent, never showed at Lübeck station
Sent out no communication, never took the blame
The reports of the investigation didn't reach an explanation
For how she botched the operation, how she blew the game
The game is not so great, the board's in disarray
Sometimes the only move you have is walking clean away
Sometimes the only move you have is waltzing clean away
A simple lapse of concentration, simply lost her touch
You weren't in the situation, who are you to judge?
The game is not so great, the board's in disarray
Sometimes the only winning move is choosing not to play
Sometimes the only winning move is choosing not to play