Watch Tom Waits’ Terrifying “Hell Broke Luce” Video

Updated:

August 8, 2012 2:12 pm

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Tom Waits released a video for “Hell Broke Luce” today, a move he teased last week by donning an eye patch. The song is one of the highlights from the critically-acclaimed 2011 album Bad As Me (read our review).

The video, directed by Matt Mahurin (Queensryche, Metallica), is visually brilliant, and features Waits dragging a house (“I miss my home, I miss my porch”) behind him, marching skeletons, vultures and a black hole sun.

“Matt Mahurin has created an apocalyptic war dream to accompany the song ‘Hell Broke Luce’,” say Waits in a statement. “Kathleen [Brennan, producer] and I envisioned it as an enlightened drill sergeant yelling the hard truths of war to a brand new batch of recruits. The video grew from the gnawing image of a soldier pulling his home, through a battlefield, at the end of a rope. I think you will agree, it’s uplifting and fun.”

In related news, it was recently theorized that Heath Ledger based his performance of The Joker in The Dark Knight around Waits’ early barfly nightclub persona. Whether it’s true or not, this 1979 video is worth watching just to see the host react to Waits’ tomfoolery.

Watch the below video .