The second half of Tom Waits' 2002 simultaneous release with Alice, his fifteenth album, and it'
s even got magical abilities. Kind of. This album is a studio version of
music from Waits' version of the play Woyzcec. It is a chilling set of songs, but it is an amazing peek into Waits' mind. Track five, God'
s Away On Business, is a
happy seeming tune, disguising a horrific tale of the sinking ship we are all on.
An excerpt from Blood
Money'
s-
Misery Is the River of the World
God builds a church
The devil builds a chapel
Like the thistles that are growing
'Round the trunk of a
tree
All the good in the world
You can put inside a thimble
And still have room for you and me
If there'
s one thing you can say about Mankind
There's nothing kind about man
You can drive out nature with a pitch fork
But it always comes roaring back again