By Brian Nixon

I'M SITTING HERE in Napoleon's Pizza House in National City, California, 10 miles south of San Diego. It is a restaurant like many others: old chairs, TVs playing sports -- and, of course, pizza.

The real reason I am here, however, is to write this article. I thought if I ventured out of my house to a place where the subject of my article once worked -- I could write a better than usual article. Probably not. But I love the atmosphere.

Tom Waits worked here in the late 1960s. He was a bus boy and dishwasher. He even wrote a song about it on his second album, The Heart of Saturday Night.

As his ambitions progressed, so did his work locations: he moved up the coast to Mission Beach and worked as a doorman at the Heritage, a coffeehouse and performance spot. In the early 1970s, Waits gravitated even further north towards Los Angeles, finding his home in old hotels and dirty bars.

Now those of you who know Tom Waits' music (or the people that cover his songs: The Eagles, Rod Stewart, the Ramones, etc.) are probably scratching your head and asking, "What in the world is this guy doing -- writing about a musician who throughout his career has written more bar and prostitute songs than most people know there are bars?"

To many people Tom Waits represent the disenfranchised, the drivel of the world- late night drunken binges, postcards from prostitutes, and weird as all get-out songs, sung in a Louis Armstrong meets hobo John graveled voice.

True, Mr. Waits does have a slight propensity to accentuate the underground of barflies and sailors. But, beyond this, Tom is really not too bad of a theologian, at least to a certain extent; and hence my interest, and dare I say, my great respect for the musician and storyteller.

Growing up in the Bay Area, I first came into contact with Tom Waits in 1987, the year his album Frank's Wild Years came out. It also happened to be the year I graduated from High School. At first I was scared: his voice! The songs! But the more I listened, the more I loved it. Then I was hooked.

His songwriting transcended the conventional forays of popular music, entering the realm of Tin Pan Alley, Surrealism, Americana, and world music. To my great surprise- this Tom Waits was not some new guy, but an old guy (at least to me at the time), having a career that stretched back to the early 70s. It was then that I started on my Waits journey.

As a Christian teenager attending a Church of the Brethren, I thought that I could never bring this music to my Pastor, Jeff Neuman-Lee (Jeff was a Bruce Cockburn and Bruce Springsteen fan. Incidentally, Springsteen put out his first record the same year as Waits). I thought, "this music is too radical, too 'un-Christian.'"

However, as I began to investigate the words, I noticed that Mr. Waits did have a sense of the Spiritual -- if not slightly off kilter. In his song, Way Down in the Hole, on the album Frank's Wild Years, Waits sings:

"When you walk through the garden
you gotta watch your back.
Well I beg your pardon,
walk the straight and narrow track.
If you walk with Jesus
He's gonna save your soul.
You gotta keep the devil
way down in the hole
He's got the fire and the fury
at his command.
Well you don't have to worry
if you hold on to Jesus hand.
We'll all be safe from Satan
when the thunder rolls.
Just gotta help me keep the devil
way down in the hole.
All the angels sing about Jesus' mighty sword,
and they'll shield you with their wings
and keep you close to the Lord.
Don't pay heed to temptation,
for his hands are so cold.
You gotta help me keep the devil
way down in the hole."

You will notice that Mr. Waits deals largely with resisting temptation within this song. Yet, Waits recognizes other key theological elements: sanctification ("walk the straight and narrow"), Sotereology (salvation: "He's gonna save your soul"); Omnipotence (God's power- "He's got the fire and the fury").

Continue article >>

I asked around my Brethren church to see if there were other fans of Waits. To my surprise, I found a fiddle player who claims to have known Tom Waits from when she was growing up in the San Diego area.

She even said that he frequented the Church she went to in San Diego. Whether or not this is true, I will never know. Tom has yet to call me to let me know if my facts are straight. But, just maybe this is where he picked up his general understanding of some of the tenants of Christianity.

True, as one listens to Waits, there are many songs that offer a strange and metaphorical view of the Christian life (Chocolate Jesus) -- as well as songs and lyrics that ask God the big questions: "Why?" (Little Drop of Poison: "Did the devil make the world while God was sleeping?"); "Where were you when this happened?" (Road Map to Peace), etc.

But when you think about it, the totality of his music is quite biblical, offering songs of sin, salvation, losers, down-on-their-luck type folks, heroes, lovers, and people seeking for something larger in life: love, God's presence, and heaven. It's like Tom read the Bible, found themes, characters, and insights from it, and began using it as an outline for his corpus of songs.

On his recent album, Orphans, Mr. Waits sings one of the most beautiful songs -- from a believer's vantage point -- about trusting your family and belongings to the Lord at a time of death. The song, Take Care of All My Children, is hymn-like, with organ, brass, stand up bass, and drums carrying the majority of strength, sounding like a Salvation Army marching band.

The main character is seemingly an old or injured person (note the use of the "walking cane") who is about to die or to leave on an unknown journey. However, this character has a steadfast faith that if he or she dies, the Lord (or the person entrusted with the family) will take care of his or her children, even asking for them not to let them "roam" (away from the faith?).

"Oh, take care of all of my children,
Don't let 'em wander and roam.
Oh, take care of all of my children,
For I don't know when I'm comin' back home.
You can put all of my possessions here in Jesus' name.
Nail a sign on the door.
Bright and early Sunday morning with my walking cane,
I'm going up to see my Lord."

Then Waits turns his attention to the evil in the world, rightly describing its origin: the devil; even suggesting that a continued walk after evil will lead you to the fryin' pan (hell).

"Oh, keep them together at the sundown
Safe from the Devil's hand.
You gotta make them a pillow on the hard ground.
I'll be goin' up to Beulah land.
Oh remember you never trust the Devil.
Stay clear of Lucifer's hand.
Oh and don't let 'em wander in the meadow.
Take care of all my children,
Or you'll wind up in the fryin' pan."

Now let me say that not all of Tom Waits songs are as hymn-like or as approachable as Take Care of all of My Children. Many songs do use the occasional expletive (though very few), and many more songs are surreal characterizations of a life of less than upstanding characters; but other songs glow with marital love, longing for heaven, and the eccentricities of humanity.

But I ask myself, is this not what we all were before coming to Christ? Lost and deplorable? Seeking for life and love? Does not the Bible portray figures and characters that live lives of sin and rebellion? Is not the Bible the master book for understanding the despicable notions of humanity? Does not the bible read of lovers, haters, heroes, and troubadours? Yes, on all accounts.

Yet, the Bible is also the offering book of Salvation -- new life in Jesus Christ. The Bible is a rich compendium of life, wrapped up in inspired flirtations with man. It is God breathed, and human-ached.

And like the Bible, Tom Waits' music is a mirror on society and humanity, played out in unique and artistic ways through the themes Waits portrays in his songs. Its like Mr. Waits is saying: "Here, gaze at yourself; this is how you act and look as human beings! A mixed up group of creatures- a little lower than angels, but not much higher than devils."

Beauty and ugliness mixed in one. Yet, the Bible teaches that the Lord can make beauty out of the ugly, and Waits portrays it better than most.

Brian Nixon is a pastor, writer, musician, and family man. He currently resides in Costa Mesa, California.

- Assist News Service

February 2008