Tom Waits is always hit or miss...New "Hell Broke Luce" video is out of the park....

[Junkdrawer]

Hell Broke Luce

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

[nolabear]

1. That's one of the best videos I've ever seen.

Raw and nightmarish and amazing.

[Junkdrawer]

10. He pulls no punches....

When he connects, it's beyond great.

[digonswine]

2. He is way more hit than miss-

he is my deserted island pick by a mile.

[pepperbear]

3. +1

[Le Taz Hot]

4. Tom Wait is NEVER a miss.

The man is a genius in the truest sense of the word and I NEVER use that term.

His "Chocolate Jesus" is just priceless. Hell, all of his music is priceless.

Before I die (or he dies, whichever comes first) I so want to see him in concert.

[charlie]

5. One of the things wrong with the world

is that there's just not enough Tom Waits in it.

Staying true to his mad vibe has kept him in whisky and smokes for 40 years, no small feat. If he misses, it's because he's aiming at something else.

[madokie]

6. Powerful beyond words

[LuvNewcastle]

7. Awesome video!

Thanks for posting it.

[Junkdrawer]

8. Looking for a quote by Chomsky....

Something to the effect that 'citizen soldiers make lousy occupation troops - they bring too much of home with them'.

[Junkdrawer]

11. I found the full quote:

...

AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, speaking on Sunday in Princeton, New Jersey. Afterwards, he was asked a series of question, one of them was, would the draft be reinstated.

NOAM CHOMSKY: I think it’s extremely unlikely. I should tell you this as a word of personal background. I was very much involved in the resistance movement in the 1960’s. In fact, I was just barely — the only reason I missed a long jail sentence is because the Tet Offensive came along and the trials were called off. So I was very much involved in the resistance, but I was never against the draft. I disagreed with a lot of my friends and associates on that, for a very good reason, I think at least as nobody seems to agree. In my view, if there’s going to be an army, I think it ought to be a citizen’s army. Now, here I do agree with some people, the top brass, they don’t want a citizen’s army. They want a mercenary army, what we call a volunteer army. A mercenary army of the disadvantaged. And in fact, in the Vietnam war, the U.S. military realized, they had made a very bad mistake. I mean, for the first time I think ever in the history of European imperialism, including us, they had used a citizen’s army to fight a vicious, brutal, colonial war, and civilians just cannot do that kind of a thing. For that, you need the French foreign legion, the Gurkhas or something like that. Every predecessor has used mercenaries, often drawn from the country that they’re attacking like England ran India with Indian mercenaries. You take them from one place and send them to kill people in the other place. That’s the standard way to run imperial wars. They’re just too brutal and violent and murderous. Civilians are not going to be able to do it for very long. What happened was, the army started falling apart. One of the reasons that the army was withdrawn was because the top military wanted it out of there. They were afraid they were not going to have an army anymore. Soldiers were fragging officer. The whole thing was falling apart. They were on drugs. And that’s why I think that they’re not going to have a draft. That’s why I’m in favor of it. If there’s going to be an army that will fight brutal, colonial wars, and that’s the only likely kind of war, I’m not talking about the militarization of space and that kind of thing, I mean ground wars, it ought to be a citizen’s army so that the attitudes of the society are reflected in the military.

...

http://www.democracynow.org/2004/11/15/noam_chomsky_on_yasser_arafat_iraq

[malaise]

9. Excellent

Thanks

Rec

[Cowpunk]

12. All songwriters are "hit or miss"

I imagine you know that, though. Thanks for trying to be polite.

[Junkdrawer]

13. My expectations are so high with Tom....

that "better than average" seems like a miss to me.

Burma Shave is another Babe Ruth type homer. Hard to have every work hit that level.