My wife thinks Tom Waits is "weird". I think he's one of our few poet/theologians. Ben Myers agrees:
I think it’s fitting to describe the American singer-songwriter Tom Waits as a 'theologian' – but we must immediately add that he’s a theologian of the dys-angelion, the 'bad news.' His songs conjure up a swirling chaos of monsters and madness, devils and despair – and on the horizon of this dark world we glimpse the startling first glow of dawn, the surprising appearance of grace 'out of the depths' (Psalm 130:1).
"Monstrous grace in the songs of Tom Waits"
The beautiful in the grotesque, the rose in the cesspool, these are the sorts of things Waits croaks about. I don't know if the man shares my faith, but his wounded singing doesn't betray the weary sinner's lament over the ways of the flesh.
ReplyDeleteTom relays his ballads from gutters, brothels, street corners, places many a pious person would do well to avoid.
But as Michelle Shocked once sang (more or less):
"I have had some of my deepest, most meaningful worship exeriences, yes, in bars."