Georgia Lee, by Tom Waits

[Ken1Nickels1]

@sclogse1 Brother (or Sister) you ain't kidding about that bridge. But you know, he's only human, and one day he'll be gone, and the rest of us will cry real tears and remember his music.

[rablofant]

Awesome song from the best artist ever born.

[1022rebelreddog]

yeah check out bone machine.....or the book the low side of the road...tom is great..................

[dennis4189]

What would Simon and Randy and Paula and that ilk do with somebody like Tom Waits?

[roobaby100]

if there is a god i don't think we can even comprehend his form, my best guess is that we are only a byproduct of a gassius nature (a fart made of hydrogen) of a higher being who occupies nowhere and has no thoughts that has gone horribly right in the case of tom waits, tears tickle cheeks, enjoy your next cry, for the record my vote is there is no god

[SuzzyStohelit]

For the little girl- child who was killed...I'm so sorry but , neither Tom nor I have the answers... little angel, "but be sure you find me, .I want you to find me and we'll play all over, we'll play all over, we'll play all over again//

[unkabub]

The first tie Tom touched my dried up cynical heart was a song called Martha. My son gave me Mule variations for my birthday and I learned to play Yo Picture in a Frame. Then one night I was riding home from my part time job put it in the CD player and Georgia Lee came on. I had to pull over. I've tried to due it. I can play it fine guitar or Piano. By the time I get to the end of the second chorus my throat is so closed up I can't go on! What a Poet, What a MAN! God bless you Tom Waits

[oyeman]

Is anyone able to play this song? I mean, I consider myself quite the cold fish, but damn... Once I made it all the way to "I want you to find me", but I'm usually to choked up to sing by the second verse.

[1byroncallas]

This song reaches down infinitely deep inside and just pulls out all your guts and spills them at your feet.

[Dubstepization]

Tom Waits shares the same birthday as me, incidentally the same date this was uploaded. My favourite artist, my favourite song and my favourite day :D

[Zekkron]

Jesus Christ. I think my soul exploded.

[ikester8]

"Somewhere there's a baby crying for his ma"

I'm a pretty reserved guy, but every time I hear that line I burst into tears.

[TheNellamaria]

our Tom ..enchanting....

[eggbert4001]

about two years ago (when i was 12) i went to an andy sheppard and joanne mcgregor concert, they played this song and i thought it was beautifull only recently i have found that it is a tom waits song. on reflection those were the two saddest years of my life

[Scinauticando]

Interesting fact about this song. Waits had a lot of material to put on Mule Variations, and after he recorded the song, he was considering to discard it. His daughter stepped in and said "how could you do this to Georgia Lee?!" And so Waits, touched by the sensibility of his little girl, decided to put it on the record...

[Mrsilenciobackgammon]

Very sad visuals. You uploaded this on Tom's birthday.

[clboyd1980]

As someone a year or more ago said, this song was actually inspired by the rape and murder of a 12 y.o. black girl at the same time that Polly Klaas was raped and murdered. Polly Klaas's disappearance dominated the news while Georgia Lee's was unnoticed. She had run away from home when she was kidnapped; Tom Waits said in an interview that most kids who run away are really hoping someone will care enough to look for them and find them, which is what that B-section is about.

[KiiiSsmYStyLe]

I just wrote my exam in English about that song. (I'm german)Didn't know it before. Haha, I almost started crying during the exam since we even listened to the music. This song is really beautiful. But I think I interpretet it differently. I wrote that It is about a girl taking drugs and dying by this course :/

[weirdunclebob]

@KiiiSsmYStyLe That's one of the beauties of music. You can interpret it however you see fit. I don't think Tom would mind your interpretation as it fits quite well and the feeling is similar. Losing someone ANY way is horrible.

My pick for the most powerful, sad song ever written and performed. Tom's voice and the piano are all that's needed.

That picture of the teddy bear in the rain on a grave put tears in my eyes. Such a powerful image. Good choice of pictures all through. Thanks. =)

[GeorgialeeTaylor]

Awe my name is Georgialee but its all one word. [=

[SuzzyStohelit]

listening to this song and thinking Tom deserves our thanks for singing about

a real big hurt, and man - you don't have to be a masochist to love the piano man, but

sometimes it helps...

[grrant54]

Whoever did this video did a great job. Tom is one of the greatest song writers in history and you displayed it perfectly.

[CartoonMuhammed]

What's sorta ironic about this video is that it's peppered with just the kind of beautiful, photogenic little girls that get all the headlines when they go missing. This is why Waits wrote this song about Georgia Lee, who was not so picture-perfect, and possibly because of that, her death went completely unnoticed while some other little future beauty queen who had just disappeared got all the press.

[StellaOmega]

@CartoonMuhammed Yes. I can't agree more.

[voltaire1778]

@CartoonMuhammed .... Exactly right. Thanks for saying that. I've long wished that there was another choice other than the two video versions that are up on You Tube... you state the reasons movingly.

[deathspork]

Bummer

[SithianHawk]

It's a good question that we all should really consider.

[avinkarel14]

"why wasnt god there for Georgia Lee?" wow

[Bolloticks]

Fuckin outstanding my man truly fuckin outstanding!

[bananaPLEASE]

It's kind of sad, I have friend who was brain washed and lives in buttf*ck Georgia, and her middle name is Lee... :( This song seriously reminds me of her

[5iisrv]

reflection fail in the last pic :P

great song from Tom Waits, it just slaps you in the heart.

[AhjertaTove]

I love this! Can let it go reapeting in hours ;-)

[ParlayMommie88]

yeahhhh i like this shit here.

[rexmundi2012]

Magnificent. Its Dostoevsky set to music.

[LandoftheShanks]

@cherylandtessa111 But I also see, that you are far too busy listening to Hannah Montana to appreciate real music.

[LandoftheShanks]

through*******

[LandoftheShanks]

@cherylandtessa111 "um like totally girlfriend" some people enjoy his voice and if you can't look past it being "disturbing" to you - shouldn't have bothered to listen. his voice and songs have deep meaning. he sings about things he's been threw or witnessed and if not that, he tells great stories and he does this well and if you had bothered to do more research you'd have heard his earlier work where his voice is "plain".

[superate]

This song gets to the heart of loss. That thousand year old voice, gets me every time.

[sclogse1]

That bridge on this song....

"Close your eyes, and count to ten

I will go and hide but then....

Be sure to find me

I want you to find me

And we'll play all over...

We'll play all over.....again."

Like having a truck run over me.

[DrunkHound1]

@sclogse1 Truer words have never been spoken. I'm completely imobile when that part plays. This is really the only song I've ever cried to and I'm not ashamed of that. I feel like a better person for crying. I'm only human and when I heard this song for the first time, I was at a point in my life where I needed to be reminded that. Thank you Tom Waits.

[jonesykm]

folks, your gods aside, how about the time structure in this song?

Knockout, for an American x

[sweetleo161616]

"...how about the time structure in this song?"

Okay...how about it? It is a testament to the song writing geniuses of Tom and Kathline.

It - a waltz - is a great choice for this sort of piece, with the type of thinking they intended for us to walk away from it- slowly - with. The fact that he slows the 3/4 time down so dramatically is significant to the feeling as well. It becomes a fabulous, lullaby-gone-dirge.

[blackrabbit85]

Here's a thought... stop discussing the existence of God and maybe talk about how it's a good musical piece? kthxbai

[billionear]

Oh....blackrabbit. I was discussing the musical piece! At its primal form. Tom Waits passes over the everyday mundane artist and puts you into the zone of 'infinite thought'. He does so with no effort and as though he actually resides there. God is a word I use loosely for the sake of others comfort or in some cases discomfort.

But make no mistake Waits is a phenomenon. Seemingly unmeasurable?

[GriffAtMoreton]

A sad but beautifully constructed song.

[JohnnyDelta77]

Beautifully made video. We should remember the lost,the dead and those who found themselves victims of other people`s hate and anger. Thank you.

[billionear]

Your hostility is misguided. You can not prove there is no god anymore than a jew, christian, muslim or any other religious fanatic can prove there is.

Rational thinking tells me design in the universe came about by a intelligent force. Whatever that force is it permeates through the universe. Yes even in you. Whether you like it or not.

[harshtimey]

Rational thinking tells me attributing intelligence to go is anthropomorphic. Furthermore, if the order you see in the universe seems that it must have been caused by an intelligent mind, such an intelligent mind requires an explanation in kind, so what you have is an infinite causal regress. Time to read Hume: Discourses on Natural Religion and Wittgenstein: Lecture on Ethics and maybe some Descartes for good measure.

[billionear]

Anthropomorphic?...There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter...Max Planck. Im sure Wittgenstein: Lecture on Ethics is both edifying and entertaining. But I prefer the likes of Planck, Newton and of course Einstein.

[sclogse1]

Check out Commentaries on Living...Second series...by Krishnamurti.

[billionear]

Infinite causal regress....is that such a bad thing? Multiple universes is quite acceptable in the quantum world so why not? After all we are only here for the experience not to run the show.

[harshtimey]

At least you are thoughtful: Infinite causal regress isnt a bad thing, unless you're concerned about finding an "ultimate cause" (i.e. God)

[billionear]

Perhaps 'Infinite casual regress' is god?

[Maulwurf7585]

"and we' ll play all over...we' ll play all over...we' ll play all over...again" - simple words, huge effect! i love this song.

[SegoviasServant]

Thx for posting this. It's been missing on my playlist for so long- I really like this song, yet I would abstain to call it beautiful

[mearnest2]

Something can be beautiful and sad at the same time.

[SuzzyStohelit]

I'm still here= there is a God, and He loves us.

[McRat1968]

You've been very well programmed to say those things.

Such a shame that you and rationality are foreign to each other.

Just because you're here does not mean there's a god.

(By that line of pompous reasoning, you come off as someone who feels as long as all is hunky-dory in your life there must be a god and it must be praised.)

Tell that to the unfortunate people who, as we speak, are being senslelessly murdered, raped, starving, etc; and no magic spook from the sky helped them)

Wake up

[SegoviasServant]

I'm sorry to comment on this, yet I want to point out, that TW is not talking about divine existence or not. TW's theme is alcohol in all of its variations. I call it "drunken romantic". It's a fathers helpless excuse. The true reason is not mentioned. And yes in a situation like people call out for God. But there's no evaluation on it but only helpelss drunken pain. Like it or not - it's not about God but about what mankind does to itself. It leaves you with a shudder and a burning streak alike

[SuzzyStohelit]

You wrote this with the heart of a poet, and I think you know more about this song then most of us...

Thank you for the great post

[PeacefullPhil]

You're right. Sort of. Actually, TW was deeply affected by the murder the poor, 12yo black girl (Georgia L. Moses) and by the stark disparity he saw between her case and the frenzied attention paid by the police and the media to the case of Polly Klass (a famous murder occurring close to the same time and place as Georgia's). The soul of TW's question here is (gin-soaked or not) a social one: Why weren't we, as"God" (in the Quaker sense of the word) not there for Georgia Lee, before & afterward?

[sprigofverbena]

Without a doubt one of his finest songs.Having Tom Waits is at least some consolation for not having a God.

[McRat1968]

The answer to the song's question is very simple:

...Because there is no god. That's why.

Or, if there is, then it simply doesn't care and/or is powerless to do anything to save anyone.

And that factual answer on my part is not meant to sadden or to insult people. It's a simple statement of fact in things that happen every day.

I'm not a bitter person; simply a rational one.

I deal with every day as it comes, rather than screaming to an imaginary dude on a cloud to do something.

[ao666777]

McRat--

Great post.

Couldn't have said it better. Thanks.

[billionear]

Yes I agree. God simply doesn't care. 'It' allows, the rest is up to mankind.

[McRat1968]

Actually, everything is up to mankind because there's no god. It's a fairy tale.

Never existed. Every day proves that: to us rational folks, anyway.

Almost every day I am accosted by brainless programmed christians who, like the nice well-rehearsed robots they are, quote the same things over and over again and then, when they're countered by fact and rationality, they throw in the towel, say "I'll pray for you," and leave.

PS: The best response to them would be, "I'll think for you."

[fearlessbetz]

I always picture something very stark with this song. A pathetic scene of something very simple, like a child's toy.

[kariaudar]

This is just too much for my heart to bear . . .