I had a good home but I left
I had a good home but I left, right, left
That big fuckin 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 fuckin 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 ‘em all 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?

Tom explained the title of this nightmarish song in a Slate interview: Tom Waits Discusses His New Album Bad as Me.

Slate: The spelling of the new song, “Hell Broke Luce,” where’d that come from?

Waits: There was a prisoner in Alcatraz during a prison riot—this goes back to the ’40s. And during the riot, of course, everyone was nervous, and he scratched on the wall with a knife. And he wrote “hell broke luce,” and that’s how he spelled it. Alcatraz—they have an amazing bookstore. But I got separated from everyone else on the tour. After a while something happened with my headset, and I was out of step and I didn’t know where the rest of the people were, so I just sat in one of the cells for a while.

Slate: It seems like a more pointed war song than you’ve recorded previously.

Waits: Loaded. Anyway. … I’ve been hearing that line a whole lot: “You had a good home but you left.” And so I somehow … ahhh. Keith [Richards] said that officers will hate that song, but enlisted men will love it. The army’s interested in it, as an ad for, you know, their commercials. It’s an answer to “Be all you can be.” I’m having a conversation with them about it. It’s a cautionary tale. Obviously.

Obviously, indeed.

The new album by Tom Waits is a fantastic piece of work. Here he is on the Jimmy Fallon show, crooning “Raised Right Men” from Bad as Me. (He cut out a verse from this shortened TV version.)

There ain’t enough raised right men
it takes a raised right man to keep a happy hen
I said there ain’t enough raised right men

heavens to murkatroid
miners to coal
a good woman can make a diamond out of a measly lump of coal
and you need the patience of a glacier
if you can wait that long
open up his window and admit it when he’s wrong

there ain’t enough raised right men
it takes a raised right man to keep a happy hen

Mackey Debiasi
was a complicated man
he quarreled with his woman
and she quarreled with her man
his head was just too thick
so she knocked out a tooth
he’s that lonely man on the turnpike in the
toll takers booth

there ain’t enough raised right men

Gunplay Maxwell and
Flat Nose George
Ice Pick Ed Newcomb
on a slab in the morgue
Flat Nose looked at Gunplay
and they all looked at me
with a good woman’s love we
could have saved all three

and there ain’t enough raised right men
It takes a raised right man to keep a happy hen
there ain’t enough raised right men

There’s always free cheddar in a mousetrap, baby
It’s a deal, it’s a deal

— Tom Waits, “God’s Away On Business”

I just discovered that the insanely great music show Austin City Limits has a channel on Vimeo, and among the treasures they’ve uploaded is this 1978 performance by Tom Waits. I’ve only seen this in grainy low-res YouTube uploads; it’s riveting in good quality. The song is from Blue Valentine.

This is why I still love NPR — great interviews like this one from Fresh Air, with Tom Waits talking about his new album Bad As Me.

Also see:
Tom Waits | Bad As Me

I’d sell your heart to the junkman baby
For a buck, for a buck
If you’re looking for someone to pull you out of that ditch
You’re out of luck, you’re out of luck

Ship is sinking
The ship is sinking
The ship is sinking

There’s a leak, there’s a leak in the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves and lawyers

God’s away, God’s away
God’s away on business, business
God’s away, God’s away
God’s away on business, business

Digging up the dead with a shovel and a pick
It’s a job, it’s a job
Bloody moon rising with a plague and a flood
Join the mob, join the mob
It’s all over, it’s all over
It’s all over

There’s a leak, there’s a leak in the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves and lawyers

God’s away, God’s away
God’s away on business, business
God’s away, God’s away on business, business

Goddamn there’s always such a big temptation
To be good, to be good
There’s always free cheddar in a mousetrap, baby
It’s a deal, it’s a deal

God’s away, God’s away
God’s away on business, business
God’s away, God’s away
God’s away on business, business

I narrow my eyes like a coin slot baby
Let her ring, let her ring

God’s away, God’s away
God’s away on business, business
God’s away, God’s away
God’s away on business, business

(h/t: Lidane.)

For a Sunday afternoon music break, here’s another performance from the “Three Girls and Their Buddy” tour, featuring Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Buddy Miller. This is a classic Tom Waits song; Shawn Colvin introduces it by saying she’s always loved it, and so have I.

From the exceptional album Alice, Tom Waits tells the troubling tale of “Poor Edward.”

Did you hear the news about Edward?
On the back of his head
He had another face
Was it a woman’s face
Or a young girl
They said to remove it would kill him
So poor Edward was doomed

The face could laugh and cry
It was his Devil twin
And at night she spoke to him
Of things heard only in hell
They were impossible to separate
Chained together for life

Finally the bell tolled his doom
He took a suite of rooms
And hung himself and her
From the balcony irons
Some still believe he was freed from her
But I knew her too well
I say she drove him to suicide
And took poor Edward to hell

From Tom Waits’ classic album Mule Variations, a little excursion into paranoia.

Dedicated to the right wing blogosphere.

An interesting video version of a song from one of Tom Waits’ best albums, Mule Variations.