Perennial contender for coolest guy in the universe, Tom Waits has a haunting new video to provide visual accompaniment for Hell Broke Luce from the recent release Bad as Me. Comment threads point to Jeff Lucey as the song’s likely protagonist. As profiled on Frontline, Lucey served convoy duty with the marines in Iraq, came home full of gruesome, later disproven, tales of road-side executions and such, and hit the booze hard. Briefly treated for alcohol abuse, he was released from a VA psych ward with a bag full of antidepressants and tranquilizers, a couple of weeks later he hung himself with a garden hose in his parents basement.

Hell Broke Luce

Directed By Matt Mahurin

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 with his Kevlar on wrong,
Guarantee a meetup with a suicide bomb,
And hell broke Luce,
Hell broke Luce,

Dig fucking ditches in the middle of the road,
You pay a hundred dollars just for filling in the hole,
Listen to the general every goddamn word,
How many ways can you polish up a turd,
And 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,
And hell broke Luce,
Hell broke Luce,

Left, right, left,
What did you do before the war,
I was a chef, I was a chef,
And what was the name it was Jeff, Jeff
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,

Pants at The Wynn for a joke,
I pranced right in with a goat,
Glanced at her shins she said nope, hope,
Left, right, left,
Nimrod Bobfish 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 stance was a chin full of soap,
And rancid dinner with the pope,
And left, right, left,
Kelly Prechoto got his thumbs blown off,
Sergio’s developing a real bad cough,
Sergio’s developing a real bad cough,
And hell broke Luce,
Hell broke Luce,
Hell broke Luce,

Boom went his head away and boom went Bowery,
What the hell was it that the president said?
Give them all a beautiful parade instead,
And left, right, left,
Well I was over here, America, to vote,
I left my arm in my coat,
My mum she died and never wrote,
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?

Not known particularly as a topical, let alone political songwriter, Waits seems to have had the costs of the Forever War, in all of its currencies, weighing on his mind in recent years. See also, from Real Gone (2004): Sins of the Father, Road to Peace, and Hoist that Rag – the latter a butcher’s bill with dazzling guitar.

Hoist That Rag

Well I learned the trade
From Piggy Knowles
Sing Sing Tommy Shay Boys
God used me as hammer boys
To beat his weary drum today

Hoist that rag

The sun is up the world is flat
Damn good address for a rat
The smell of blood
The drone of flies
You know what to do if
The baby cries

Hoist that rag

Well we stick our fingers in
The ground, heave and
Turn the world around
Smoke is blacking out the sun
At night I pray and clean my gun
The cracked bell rings as
The ghost bird sings and the gods
Go beggin here
So just open fire
As you hit the shore
All is fair in love
And war

Hoist that rag

Fun Fact: With two F-bombs and a turd, Hell Broke Luce has the harshest language of any Tom Waits song, or so say the Intertubes (who are never wrong). It’s Fortunate Son for the new millennium. Smedley Butler would totally dig it.

Fortunate Son