I was stunned to listen to Tom Waits’s new single “The Road to Peace”, which I download from KCRW’s Today’s Top Tune Podcast (Which rocks, FYI). The single, from Waits’s upcoming album Orphans: Brawler, Bawlers, and Bastards, was the first track I’ve heard, maybe ever, that struck me as being deeply honest, sincere, and objective regarding a topic that is usually observed without those qualities: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Read further for Commentary, Lyrics, and Download.

A casual listener of Waits could characterize his music as folk, or at least coming from folk roots, but he has always avoided classification. This is for no other reason then the content of his songs. I’m certainly not an aficionado of his, but I have been a casual fan for some time. I have maintained an interest in his music, because you can count on him to sing about things that no one else will sing about. Most of the times these subjects are painful, sad, and uncomfortable. I imagine that his lyrics are harder to write and sing then they are to listen to, which is probably why not many people do what he does. This makes him a perfect candidate to give us a back-to-basics perspective on what will probably be our generation’s One Hundered Years War.

From the beginning of the song Waits begins to tell us a story, a story with several acts (Jump to the Lyrics). In the first act we meet a young Arab man on a bus, disguised as an Orthodox Jew. We eventually learn that he’s a suicide bomber who blows up the vehicle. In the next act, the Israeli’s attack a suspected Hamas militant and kill his wife and children. In the third act, he steps back to observe the constant and repetitive nature of these events. Finally he reviews our role in all of this, visa vi President Bush and the Administration’s foreign policy. The song ends in a mantra like way, lamenting on the fact that essentially we are lost On the Road to Peace.

The average listener may not find anything remarkable about the event mentioned in the song. They are daily occurrences, and we are constantly subjected to them on the News. What’s so interesting about this, is that the events described in the songs are real, and actually happened. It’s as if we are listening to Tom Waits singing the CNN news ticker to us and trying to make sense of it. Isn’t that what we all do everyday? We read our blogs, listen to our radios, and watch our televisions and ask “What the hell is going on?”

The Return of the Political Ballad

There has been one thing conspicuously lacking throughout the Iraq War, or even the Post 9/11 era, and that is the presence of the artist in the role as social commentator. I’m not saying that it has been completely missing, in fact those who pay attention to such things could say that the major wars of our era, those being the War Against Terrorism and the Culture Wars, have been a central theme in recent years. In fact, the proprietor of this website is himself an artist dealing with social commentary (Check out his portfolio, if you haven’t already) The issue is that this is all completely underground, being played out in obscure art gallery’s and coffee houses in America’s urban centers, and therefore completely inaccessible to the common citizen.

In times past society relied on the folk singer as a political aggregator. His role for the people was to say “This is what the politicians are telling you, and this what the banks and businesses are telling you, but I’m gonna tell you what all of this really has to do with you.” Think Woody Gulthry, or Bob Dylan. Those are two very over used examples, but there were also other countless musicians who played a civic role in translating to the people the importance of workers rights, the corruption, and inherent self interest of government, and that fighting in ill-conceived/motivated wars are not in the interest of the common man.

I ask you who plays these roles today? Kanye West? Barbera Streisand? George Clooney? I listen to Kanye West (arrogant, and out of touch though he may be), and I think George Clooney is awesome, but these people are about as good of a representative of the average American as any one of the millionaires that sit in the President’s cabinet.

Who then is to blame for the absence of these individuals? It would be difficult to blame the artists themselves. Several incidents of the past few years have shown that there presence was probably not welcome. The Dixie Chicks come to mind, but maybe if they put their political views in their music, instead of talking about them in between sets, they would have been more successful in getting their message out. I would put forth that it is the recording industry itself that may be responsible. With increased pressure to attract the widest possible audience, and music being tested with focus groups prior to album launches, it should be no surprise that the most popular music artists of our time might not even be able to address these issues at the level they would wish too.

Over the years I have been hopeful at times, and this hope is often inspired by Hip Hop. Specifically I’m thinking of artists like Mos Def, Common, Talib Kweli, or the Roots, who have at times been able to really express the angst of the people in their music. The problem is that many of these rappers are considered underground. The average youth wouldn’t be able to tell you much about these rappers, but they could tell you a whole lot about Lil’ John or Chingy! Is it because their music is that much better, or because pimps, drugs, and ho’s are easier to sell than peace, introspection, and understanding?

When I heard the Road to Peace, I really felt hope that we could be seeing the beginning of a sincere re-evaluation of our values as a society, inspired by the ideals that only an artist could espouse. After all, the role of the artist if to keep the ideals that most people lose when they become adults, then remind us of them.

Lyrics and Music

Young Abdel Mahdi (Shahmay) was only 18 years old,
He was the youngest of nine children, never spent a night away from home.
And his mother held his photograph, opening the New York Times
To see the killing has intensified along the road to peace

There was a tall, thin boy with a whispy moustache disguised as an orthodox Jew
On a crowded bus in Jerusalem, some had survived World War Two
And the thunderous explosion blew out windows 200 yards away
With more retribution and seventeen dead along the road to peace

Now at King George Ave and Jaffa Road passengers boarded bus 14a
In the aisle next to the driver Abdel Mahdi (Shahmay)
And the last thing that he said on earth is “God is great and God is good”
And he blew them all to kingdom come upon the road to peace

Now in response to this another kiss of death was visited upon
Yasser Taha, Israel says is an Hamas senior militant
And Israel sent four choppers in, flames engulfed, tears wide open
And it killed his wife and his three year old child leaving only blackened skeletons

It’s found his toddlers bottle and a pair of small shoes and they waved them in front of the cameras
But Israel says they did not know that his wife and child were in the car
There are roadblocks everywhere and only suffering on TV
Neither side will ever give up their smallest right along the road to peace

Israel launched it’s latest campaign against Hamas on Tuesday
Two days later Hamas shot back and killed five Israeli soldiers
So thousands dead and wounded on both sides most of them middle eastern civilians
They fill the children full of hate to fight an old man’s war and die upon the road to peace

“And this is our land we will fight with all our force” say the Palastinians and the Jews
Each side will cut off the hand of anyone who tries to stop the resistance
If the right eye offends thee then you must pluck it out
And Mahmoud Abbas said Sharon had been lost out along the road to peace

Once Kissinger said “we have no friends, America only has interests”
Now our president wants to be seen as a hero and he’s hungry for re-election
But Bush is reluctant to risk his future in the fear of his political failures
So he plays chess at his desk and poses for the press 10,000 miles from the road to peace

In the video that they found at the home of Abdel Mahdi (Shahmay)
He held a Kalashnikov rifle and he spoke with a voice like a boy
He was an excellent student, he studied so hard, it was as if he had a future
He told his mother that he had a test that day out along the road to peace

The fundamentalist killing on both sides is standing in the path of peace
But tell me why are we arming the Israeli army with guns and tanks and bullets?
And if God is great and God is good why can’t he change the hearts of men?
Well maybe God himself is lost and needs help
Maybe God himself he needs all of our help
Maybe God himself is lost and needs help
He’s out upon the road to peace

Well maybe God himself is lost and needs help
Maybe God himself he needs all of our help
And he’s lost upon the road to peace
And he’s lost upon the road to peace
Out upon the road to peace.

Thanks to Ali from the Tom Waits Fan Forum for the Lyrics. Check out the link for information on the events described in the song.

Download the song [MP3 | 6.8mb]