Tynan's Anger

SONGS OF THE DECADE #56

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Tom Waits - Road To Peace (2006)




The bleakest, most depressing, so-sad-you-don't-even-want-to-talk-about-it political crisis in the world has known has never had one thing it truly needs: a great blues song to match. Tom Waits, whose greatest strength is his informed unpredictability, took a risk in an unprecedentedly one-sided American debate to start with the perspective of the Palestinians, working his way to the middle ground.

People who have a political stance will inevitably take sides on this track, and those that have none will ignore it. Yet there was no better musician to take on a politically dangerous, dirty truth with the Weep to match the Reap than Waits, the rock star who had an old soul in his 20s. So long as there's still a crisis in Israel, this song will never get old, and if the crisis is ever resolved, well, there are worst fates than one song losing its vitality.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, road to peace, songs of the decade, tom waits