This is a diary that doesn't need a snazzy title. I'm just hear to let any Tom Waits fans know that a song from his upcoming album 'Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastard' has been leaked to the internet and it's an assault on the ongoing wars in the middle east and Bush's involvment. It's called Road to Peace and it deserves a listen.
If this has already been diaried, I will delete.
Tom Waits has never been overtly political. He started out as a bluesy lounge singer with Beat lyrics and a boozy baritone. Over the years he's evolved into a class of his own; more obsessed with anitquity and carnival maudlin than geopolitcal tirades. This song is a departure in that he pretty much hits the listener with a sledgehammer of a laundry list of the violence that goes back and forth between Israel and Palenstine. And it's Tom Waits.
According to pitchforkmedia.com
It's also quite the political scamp, going on for a good seven minutes about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and questioning the ethics of the sitting U.S. president. At times it sounds like Waits is reading straight off the CNN ticker, but we forgive him, because these are vital topics that ought to be on folks' minds.
listen to it here
If you don't know who Tom Waits, you really should, the man is an American original. Here's wikipedia and his website.
I'm pretty much just here to let Tom speak for himself.
Israel launched its latest campaign against Hamas on Tuesday/
And two days later Hamas shot back and killed 5 Israeli soldiers/
For thousand dead and wounded on both sides mostly middle eastern civilians/
They fill the children full of hate to fight an old man's war and die upon the road to peace.
He ends the song with a clarion call that cystalizes what I love about his music; his ability to find hope in the strangest of notions.
And if God is great and God is good/
Why can't he change the hearts of man/
Well maybe God himself is lost and needs help/
Maybe God himself needs He all of our help/
Well maybe God himself is lost and needs help/
He's out upon the road to Peace/
maybe God himself is lost and needs help/
Maybe God himself He needs all of our help/
and then He's Lost upon the Road to Peace/
He's Lost upon the Road to Peace/
out upon the road to Peace/
Here's another chance to listen to it
If you love Waits, I'm just trying to do you a solid on a Saturday Night. Reward your soul.