Tom Waits - Hell Broke Luce (Music Video Anaylsis)

Tom Wait is a musician who often borders on Folk Rock however he is perhaps better known as an experimental rock musician. I have chosen to analyse his video "Hell Broke Luce" for its narrative.
This video has a huge amount of symbolism.

This song is an anti war song, which talks about the real life suicide of anamerican soldier called Jeff Lucey. As such this video has a lot of anti war symbolism, it is also interesting that despite this video being clearly about the real world, the video itself is very surreal and otherworldly.

The core narrative of the video is Tom Waits pulling a house through the desert. This also makes up the performance aspect of the video as Tom is almost always seen with the rope which he is using to tow the house behind him. He travels through the video, towing the house underwater with the submarines fighting and through the desert and even through no mans land. This could be seen as Tom Waits travelling through the history of war, and how regardless of the wars changing, the story of the soldier is always the same. The story of soldiers carrying thoughts of their home (symbolised by Tom Waits pulling his home behind him) trying to make there way through the war.

Tom Waits is also represented in different ways throughout the video.

Similar to folk rock videos, the focus is very often on Tom Waits. However Waits is also telling the story of the video.  While there is no set narrative there is a lot of surreal imagery and this is an example of one of them. He is in a chefs hat with a saucepan as Jeff Lucey was a chef. Which is why Tom Waits is in this attire. Waits in this moment IS Jeff Lucey, and the song is sung from the perspective of Lucey.

Another odd way Tom Waits is represented is wearing a gas mask. This time the reference is to the London Blitz in which people would carry gas masks due to the possibility of gas bombings at any moment.

This is perhaps the boldest image within the video. The symbol on the mans hat is clearly referencing both nazi germany and america. The comparison being made here is that Tom Waits is saying there are similarities between nazi germany and america. He does this by putting the eagle of nazi germany and combining it with the eagle of america and places it on the shield of the american flag.  This is of course a very bold statement to make and it places Tom Waits as being firmly anti-war regardless of the cause.  Soon after the hat ignites. Fire is often shown as a negative image connoting pain, suffering and intense heat. Similar to that of what is felt by the soldiers in iraq which the song is dedicated too.

The general "nailed to the desk" planning a war. he is not shown as a real person instead almost like a cartoon. This dehumanises the generals and instead puts sympathy on the soldiers.

More firm anti-war imagery with a person in a skeleton costume also in an army hat. This is symbolising the death of soldiers albeit not in a grotesque way. The movement of the soldier is also quite disturbing. The way he writhes around is unusual and abstract. This adds to the almost otherworldly tone of the music video.






Tom Waits' video for "Hell Broke Luce" is a very dark surreal anti-war video making a large use of symbolism to convey its meaning. It reflects Tom Waits as an artist who is known for his metaphors and poetic style of song writing.