Hell Broke Luce

New Tom Waits video of his song "Hell Broke Luce" hit the internetz today.

That is all.

"Hell Broke Luce"

by Tom Waits

I had a good home but I left
I had a good home but I left, right, left
That big fucking bomb made me deaf, deaf
A Humvee mechanic put his Kevlar on wrong
I guarantee you’ll meet up with a suicide bomb
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce

Big fucking ditches in the middle of the road
You pay a hundred dollars just for fillin’ in the hole
Listen to the general every goddamn word
How many ways can you polish up a turd
Left, right, left, left, right
Left, right
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce

How is it that the only ones responsible for making this mess
Got their sorry asses stapled to a goddamn desk
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce
Left, right, left

What did you do before the war?
I was a chef, I was a chef
What was your name?
It was Geoff, Geoff
I lost my buddy and I wept, wept
I come down from the meth
So I slept, slept
I had a good home but I left, left
Pantsed at the wind for a joke
I pranced right in with the dope
Glanced at her shin she said nope
Left, right, left

Nimrod Bodfish have you any wool
Get me another body bag the body bag’s full
My face was scorched, scorched
I miss my home I miss my porch, porch
Left, right, left

Can I go home in March? March
My stanch was a chin full of soap
That rancid dinner with the pope
Left, right, left

Kelly Presutto got his thumbs blown off
Sergio’s developing a real bad cough
Sergio’s developing a real bad cough
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce

Boom went his head away
And boom went Valerie
What the hell was it that the president said?
Give him a beautiful parade instead
Left, right, left

When I was over here I never got to vote
I left my arm in my coat
My mom she died and never wrote
We sat by the fire and ate a goat
Just before he died he had a toke
Now I’m home and I’m blind
And I’m broke
What is next

New Coat of Paint

A little Tom Waits. Just because it's Friday. Just because...

New Coat of Paint 

Tom Waits

Let's put a new coat of paint on this lonesome old town
Set 'em up, we'll be knockin' em down.
You wear a dress, baby, and I'll wear a tie.
We'll laugh at that old bloodshot moon in that burgundy sky

All your scribbled lovedreams, are lost or thrown away,
Here amidst the shuffle of an overflowing day
Our love needs a transfusion so let's shoot it full of wine
Fishin' for a good time starts with throwin' in your line.

Bad As Me

Tomskat has a new album coming out on 10/24.  "Bad As Me".  I literally can't wait.  Check out the title track down below here if the widget thing works.  Dig.


Tom Waits - Bad As Me by antirecords

And for a little Waitsian perspective on new music releases in the Internet Age, check out his Private Listening Party/teaser for the new album. Dig times two.

Small Change

Image source: Wikipedia

One of the more interesting thing I used to love about music and albums, in particular, was the album cover itself. Take the above image for Tom Waits' album "Small Change".  I think it says just as much about the man and the music as the stuff that plays on the record. And how cool is it that the nearly naked woman posing as the bored dancer in the background is most likely Cassandra Peterson.  She of Elvira fame, of course.  She's not credited on the album, nor has she ever fully verified it. But she admits that it sure does look like her, and that was a time and place in her life when she doesn't really, ahem, remember exactly everything that went down.  Cool, huh?

In honor of the lovely and talented Mistress of the Dark, here's a little Tom Scat for ya.

Pasties and a G String

by Tom Waits

Smelling like a brewery,

looking like a tramp

I ain't got a quarter

got a postage stamp

Been five o'clock shadow boxing

all around the town

Talking with the old men

sleeping on the ground

Bazanti bootin

al zootin al hoot

and Al Cohn

sharin this apartment

with a telephone pole

and it's a fish-net stockings

spike-heel shoes

Strip tease, prick tease

car kease blues

and the porno floor show

live nude girls

dreamy and creamy

and the brunette curls

Chesty Morgan and a

Watermelon Rose

raise my rent and take off

all your clothes

with the trench coats

magazines bottle full of rum

she's so good, it make

a dead man cum, with

pasties and a g-string

beer and a shot

Portland through a shot glass

and a Buffalo squeeze

wrinkles and cherry

and twinky and pinky

and FeFe live from Gay Paree

fanfares rim shots

back stage who cares

all this hot burlesque for me

cleavage, cleavage thighs and hips

from the nape of her neck

to the lip stick lips

chopped and channeled

and lowered and louvered

and a cheater slicks

and baby moons

she's hot and ready

and creamy and sugared

and the band is awful

and so are the tunes

crawlin on her belly shakin like jelly

and I'm getting harder than

Chinese algebraziers and cheers

from the compendium here

hey sweet heart they're yellin for more

squashing out your cigarette butts

on the floor

and I like Shelly

you like Jane

what was the girl with the snake skins name

it's an early bird matinee

come back any day

getcha little sompin

that cha can't get at home

getcha little sompin

that cha can't get at home

pasties and a g-string

beer and a shot

Portland through a shot glass

and a Buffalo squeeze

popcorn, front row

higher than a kite

and I'll be back tomorrow night

and I'll be back tomorrow night

Ergo

I tend to think that my taste in music is fairly eclectic.

I also tend to think that those people who think that their taste in music is fairly eclectic are probably a bunch of jerkface, effete, elitist snobs.

Ergo, I'm probably a jerkface, effete, elitist snob*.  I dunno what that really means. I don't even know if I'm using "ergo" or "effete" properly in that sentence.  I don't even know why I'm bringing it up. I'm just ramblin' here. All I know is that listening to the following song while staring into a fire and drinking apple pie moonshine might be good for your soul. It did wonders for mine this past weekend.

*But you already knew that.

Friday left me fumblin' with the blues...

Thanks for the feedback yesterday. My decision has been made (simple). I'm going to start doing regular weekly features right here on The Verdant Dude. Look for a schedule of upcoming events later in the month. I'm going to start/re-start the new features in September.

So until then, there's this...

Fumblin' With the Blues

Tom Waits

Friday left me fumblin' with the blues

And it's hard to win when you always lose

Because the nightspots spend your spirit

Beat your head against the wall

Two dead ends and you've still got to choose

You know the bartenders

They all know my name

And they catch me when I'm pulling up lame

And I'm a pool-shooting-shimmy-shyster shaking my head

When I should be living clean instead

You know the ladies I've been seeing off and on

Well they spend your love and then they're gone

You can't be lovin' someone who is savage and cruel

Take your love and then they leave on out of town

No they do

Well now fallin' in love is such a breeze

But its standin' up that's so hard for me

I wanna squeeze you but I'm scared to death I'd break your back

You know your perfume

Well it won't let me be

You know the bartenders all know my name

And they catch me when I'm pulling up lame

And I'm a pool-shooting-shimmy-shyster shaking my head

When I should be living clean instead

Come on baby

Let your love light shine

Gotta bury me inside of your fire

Because your eyes are 'nough to blind me

You're like a-looking at the sun

You gotta whisper tell me I'm the one

Come on and whisper tell me I'm the one

Gotta whisper tell me I'm the one

Come on and whisper tell me I'm the one

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Let your love light shine.

The Black Rider

Wikipedia synopsis:

Wilhelm, a file clerk, falls in love with a huntsman's daughter. In order to marry, Wilhelm must prove his worth as a hunter and gain her father's approval, but, as "a man of pen and ink", his shot is lousy and his hopes of marriage worsen. That is until he is offered magic bullets by the devil, Pegleg - who assures him that his bullets will always have a sure shot. However, Pegleg stipulates that, while most of the bullets will hit anything Wilhelm pleases, one of the bullets is under Pegleg's control. Foolish, naive, and overrun with desperate hope, Wilhelm accepts the Faustian pact. On the day of Wilhelm's wedding, the final bullet strikes his beloved dead. He then goes mad, and joins the previous victims of Satan's cunning in the Devil's carnival.

I'm just gonna file this under the heading of "Shit I Never Knew About". And given my recent fascination with all things Tom Waits, well...I should have heard about it before now.  Back in the late 80's Tom Waits got together with William S. Burroughs (!!!) and vanguard theater director Robert Wilson to create a Faustian musical fable based on German folktales.

Those must have been some fun times for these cats.  And given Burroughs own history of love lost at his own drug addicted hand, maybe a bit cathartic as well.

And it's something I never would have known about were it not for the Internet.  Oh sure...MAYBE someone would have told me about it eventually.  But there aren't a whole lot of Tom Waits folks in my life right now.  Pity.

This is something that I'm going to get into a little bit later on this week.  About something else that I recently found out about.  Something I should have known about years ago.  But for right now, howabout a three-part documentary on The Black Rider?  Sounds good?

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Willam S. Burroughs!

Please Call Me, Baby

 

Please Call Me, Baby

Tom Waits

(have a listen here)

The evening fell just like a star
Left a trail behind
You spit as you slammed out the door
If this is love we're crazy
As we fight like cats and dogs
But I just know there's got to be more

So please call me, baby
Wherever you are
It's too cold to be out walking in the streets
We do crazy things when we're wounded
Everyone's a bit insane
I don't want you catching your death of cold
Out walking in the rain

I admit that I ain't no angel
I admit that I ain't no saint
I'm selfish and I'm cruel, but you're blind
If I exorcise my devils
Well my angels may leave too
When they leave they're so hard to find

(Chorus)

We're always at each other's throats
It drives me up the wall
Most of the time I'm just blowing off steam
And I wish to God you'd leave me
And I wish to God you'd stay
Life's so different than it is in your dreams

(Chorus)

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. I'm selfish and I'm cruel, but you're blind.