I've been a fan of Tom Waits since I heard "God's Away on Business", and I've sort of been struggling to consume as much of his music as I can all at once, but this one rings as my personal favorite. I'm of two minds on the content; on one hand, it seems to be a song about a sort of underlying seediness (omnipresent in Waits' work throughout, especially his newer stuff), some kind of quiet, rolling hum beneath the Ivory Tower, perhaps the working class or the underbelly of any given city or society. On the other hand, it also reminds me distinctly of my night-shift work, which, I guess, ties into the 'working class' feel. I could be wrong, but, that's the vibe I get from it. It's about the metal-fire and the chemical stink of the high industrial guts of any major metropolis.
I've been a fan of Tom Waits since I heard "God's Away on Business", and I've sort of been struggling to consume as much of his music as I can all at once, but this one rings as my personal favorite. I'm of two minds on the content; on one hand, it seems to be a song about a sort of underlying seediness (omnipresent in Waits' work throughout, especially his newer stuff), some kind of quiet, rolling hum beneath the Ivory Tower, perhaps the working class or the underbelly of any given city or society. On the other hand, it also reminds me distinctly of my night-shift work, which, I guess, ties into the 'working class' feel. I could be wrong, but, that's the vibe I get from it. It's about the metal-fire and the chemical stink of the high industrial guts of any major metropolis.