Video: Tom Waits- God's Away On Business

Tom Waits is a champion squinter. Every time I see footage of him, his face is contorted in a look of either pain or passion, perhaps both, as if singing his damaged, idiosyncratic songs has a physical effect as much as an emotional one. Which kinds of makes sense due to his scratchy, whiskey soaked growl, though if you've heard him speak you know his voice isn't an affectation so much as, well, all he can really manage.

Anyway, this video is an old fashioned artsy one. Waits mugs for the camera in a desolate 20s/30s set that mirrors the old timey sound of the song. At various points he can be seen standing in a room with large birds (my best guess would be emu) and the lyrics of the song as well as the visuals imply that God has left and the animals have re-taken the Earth. Perhaps Waits is the devil or an angel letting us know that our time is coming to an end.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into that.