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Rating: Man's a fiddle that life plays on.
Blood Money, along with Frank's Wild Years, The Black Rider, and Alice, fits into the theatrical vein of Tom Waits' works. Theater and music is indeed a duo that has characterized an important part of this extraordinary songwriter's art.
Part of the credit certainly goes to his wife, Kathleen Brennan, who does not just play the role of the muse, but frequently participates in the writing of Waits' lyrics.
The songs of Blood Money were conceived in the early '90s as part of the collaboration with Robert Wilson for the staging of Buchner's Woyzeck. The inspiring story tells of the desperation and madness of a soldier (Woyzeck, indeed) who does not hesitate to kill his own love in the face of betrayal.
The themes of Woyzeck are, therefore, the ideal ground on which the artistic force of the Pomona singer-songwriter could unleash. Hence, unfolds the intertwining of death and love against the backdrop of a cynical and cruel society, characterized by the perversion of human existence ("There are some things I'll never believe in/ A woman when she cries / A merchant when he swears / A thief who says I'll pay / A lawyer who worries / A snake when it sleeps / A drunk when he prays / I don't believe you'll go to heaven because you're good / Everything goes to hell, anyway" from Everything Goes to Hell).
Combining, with skillful mastery, his rough voice, reminiscent of whisky and Lucky Strike, with different rhythms and sounds, through the use of the most disparate instruments (guitars, pump organs, marimbas, bells, timpani, trumpets, saxophones, and clarinets, etc.), Tom Waits leads us into a universe of hallucinations, pains, and madness that only life can create.
The album is magnificent from beginning to end and some ballads are certainly among the most beautiful ever written by Waits. Among them all, "All The World Is Green", where his voice engages in a dialogue with a clarinet while the marimba sets a rhythm similar to the roll of a ship, and the poignant "The Part You Throw Away".
In summary, Blood Money is a work of extraordinary intensity, which cannot leave anyone indifferent.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
09 Starving in the Belly of a Whale (03:41)
Life is whittled
Life's a riddle
Man's a fiddle that life plays on
When the day breaks, and the earth quakes
Life's a mistake all day long
Tell me, who gives a good gooddamn
You'll never get out alive
Don't go dreaming
Don't go scheming
A man must test his mettle
In a crooked ol' world
[Chorus:]
Starving in the Belly
Starving in the Belly
Starving in the Belly of a whale
Starving in the Belly
Starving in the Belly
Starving in the Belly of a whale
Dan't take my word
Just look skyward
They that dance must pay the fiddler
Sky is darkening
Dogs are barking
But the caravan moves on
Tell me who gives a good gooddamn
You'll never get get out alive
Don't go dreaming
Don't go scheming
A man must test his mettle
In crooked ol' world
Starving in the Belly...
[Chorus]
As the crow flies
It's there the truth lies
At the bottom of the well
E-o-leven goes to heaven
Bless the dead here as the rain falls
Don't trust a bull's horn
A doberman's tooth
A runaway horse or me
Don't be greedy, don't be needy
If you live in hope you're
Dancing to a terrible tune
Starving in the Belly
Starving in the Belly...
12 Calliope (01:59)
[Instrumental]
Music by: Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan
Official release: “Blood Money”, Epitaph/Anti Inc., © 2002
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