Day After Tomorrow by Tom Waits
Thursday, November 30th, 2006Those of you who watch The Daily Show will have seen Tom Waits speak/perform on Tuesday’s show (which was broadcast in Ireland and the UK a day later).
On the show he sang Day After Tomorrow from the 2004 album Real Gone, which is probably one of his most beautiful songs in recent years (if not ever).
Ignoring that it’s the best anti-war song of this generation that I’ve come across, and just like all great music around it’s completely timeless and universal - take out the scant references to American towns/cities (and perhaps the airplane) and it could apply to almost any war in history.
I hope with all my energy that this man will come to Ireland soon, or at least Europe.
And I miss you all so much here
I can’t wait to see you all
And I’m counting the days dear
I still believe that there’s gold
At the end of the world
And I’ll come home
To Illinois
On the day after tomorrow It is so hard
And it’s cold here
And I’m tired of taking orders
And I miss old Rockford town
Up by the Wisconsin border
What I miss you won’t believe
Shoveling snow and raking leaves
And my plane will touch down
On the day after tomorrow
I close my eyes
Every night
And I dream that I can hold you
They fill us full of lies
Everyone buys
About what it means to be a soldier
I still don’t know how I’m supposed to feel
‘Bout all the blood that’s been spilled
Will God on this throne
Get me back home
On the day after tomorrow
You can’t deny
The other side
Don’t want to die
Any more than we do
What I’m trying to say,
Is don’t they pray
To the same God that we do?
Tell me how does God choose?
Whose prayers does he refuse?
Who turns the wheel
Who throws the dice
On the day after tomorrow
(Humming)
I’m not fighting for justice
I am not fighting for freedom
I am fighting for my life
And another day
In the world here
I just do what I’ve been told
We’re just the gravel on the road
And only the lucky one’s come home
On the day after tomorrow And the summer
It too will fade
And with it comes the winter’s frost, dear
And I know we too are made
Of all the things that we have lost here
I’ll be twenty-one today
I’ve been saving all my pay
And my plane will touch down
On the day after tomorrow.
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November 30th, 2006 at 12:53 am
On the show he sang Day After Tomorrow from the 2004 album Real Gone, which is probably one of his most beautiful songs in recent years (if not ever).
Certainly not ever. It’s not bad, but it’s a fairly stock formula with generally unimpressive lyrics. I know too that art, rhyme and poetic technique are allowed to transcend logic, but with a war song, that rule is surely limited. With that in mind, the politics are, if not skewed and disingenuous, perhaps ignorant. I say this as a aficionado of virtually everything he did prior to and including Raindogs.
You’ll also know that I say it as someone who did at at least one point support the Iraq war; ignore that, I’m generally accepting of anti-war music despite my politics. Dylan’s Masters of War and Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction are undoubtedly the archetypes of the genre: here, I think Waits falls short.
November 30th, 2006 at 9:44 am
Not sure why that’s entirely italic.
November 30th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Certainly not ever. It’s not bad, but it’s a fairly stock formula with generally unimpressive lyrics.
The music is quite basic (which I think adds to the song), but I wouldn’t agree that the lyrics are unimpressive, I think they’re superb.
I know too that art, rhyme and poetic technique are allowed to transcend logic, but with a war song, that rule is surely limited.
I’m not sure what you mean here…
With that in mind, the politics are, if not skewed and disingenuous, perhaps ignorant. I say this as a aficionado of virtually everything he did prior to and including Raindogs.
Well it doesn’t strike me as a political song, it’s not supposed to be about who’s right or wrong as such and it’s not trying to make a point to that degree. I think it’s a microcosm on the price of war; this guy doesn’t care about (or even understand) what he’s fighting for, he just wants to get home. He’s not fighting for justice, freedom or God, perhaps because he doesn’t believe that this is what the war is about or perhaps because he just doesn’t care as long as he survives.
I think the very basic, simple music along with the way Waits delivers the song on the album is superb and the kind of denial (used to keep himself sane) where he’s telling himself he’ll be home on the day after tomorrow…
I’d be, like you, more of a fan of his earlier work although I think a lot of his more recent stuff is not without it’s charm (it’s just usually wrapped up in more surreal stuff)… Fish and Bird from Alice is another example of a beautiful song within his recent work.
December 4th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
The song is extremely trite and boring. AS part of NATO, UN and coalition operations, soldiers from Canada, Germany, France, Itlay, the US and the UK, to name just a few countries, are trying to sustain fragile democracies today in three strategically important countries — Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon — and it would be much more satisfying if Tom Waits were to dedicate a song to their bravery than to trot out the usual clichés.
December 4th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
I’m not sure what cliche’s you’re referring to, but at no point in the song do I see this questioning bravery; it’s simply highlighting the human cost of war.
It’s a very illogical concept to think that saying war is wrong, questioning a specific war or criticising a certain war means you don’t support the troops, you don’t think they’re brave etc. etc.
Songs don’t have to go out of their way to tell you how brave people are to be about bravery. The narrator in this song is far from cowardly, he just doesn’t want to die and he doesn’t understand why he was asked to fight.
Maybe you can explain what cliche’s you’re annoyed at and point out how this is in anyway a criticism of the troops (rather than the policy dictated by politicians)
December 20th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
I think you can only begin to understand if you are a vet…to go to war for stated moral reasons only to determine later that it was all political. To know you are dependant upon another to make decisions directly affecting your life and then finding out you had no chance. The meaning lies deep within these words. As a decorated vet for Southeast Asia service and then almost court martialed for insubordination the feelings are real to me…
December 21st, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Great song. Great lyrics. IMOHO the song is about Iraq.
The poor kid feels like a pawn on a chess board. (Or maybe it’s a lowly infantry man in an XBOX/PS3 title.)
I’m thankful Tom Waite chose that song. I rarely listen to him. I know some of those that are better read than myself find it trite. But it reminded me of Rudyard Kipling.
FWIW