Music / Alice (Tom Waits Album)

And I will think of this... when I'm dead in my grave (...) There's only Alice....!

Alice is the fourteenth studio album by Tom Waits, released in 2002 through ANTI-. It contains most of the songs written for the play "Alice 1992" by Robert Wilson. It was released at the same time as Blood Money (2002), which contains songs from another play by Wilson.

Tracklist

1. "Alice" (4:28)
2. "Everything You Can Think" (3:10)
3. "Flowers Grave" (3:28)
4. "No One Knows I'm Gone" (1:42)
5. "Kommienezuspadt" (3:10)
6. "Poor Edward" (3:42)
7. "Table Top Joe" (4:14)
8. "Lost in the Harbour" (3:45)
9. "We're All Mad Here" (2:31)
10. "Watch Her Disappear" (2:33)
11. "Reeperbahn" (4:02)
12. "I'm Still Here" (1:49)
13. "Fish & Bird" (3:59)
14. "Barcarolle" (3:59)
15. "Fawn" (1:43)

Kommunitropeszuspadt

• Added Alliterative Appeal: "Alice":
  Arithmetic arithmetock
• Alliterative Name and Alliterative Title: "Table Top Joe".
• Ambiguously Gay: "Reeperbahn":
  Now little Hans was always strange
  Wearing women's underthings
  His father beat him but he wouldn't change
  He ran off with a man one day
  Now his lingerie is all the rage
  In the black on every page
  His father proudly calls his name
  Down there in the Reeperbahn
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Almost none of the lyrics heard in "Kommeineszuspadt" are actually German^note the notable exception is "Sei Pünktlich", which means "Be punctual", including the song's very title. It should be noted the last song's title is misspelled (in a way that makes it literally mean "Come one too late"). Written properly makes "Komm nie zu spät", which translates to "Never be too late" or "Never come too late".
• Body Horror: "We're All Mad Here":
  And you'll die with the rose still on your lips
  And in time the heart-shaped bone that was your hips
  And the worms, they will all climb the rugged ladder of your spine
• Born Unlucky: "Poor Edward", where the titular character is not only born with another face on the back off his head, but eventually ends his life. Waits then adds he is sent off to Hell.
• Face on the Cover: Waits, apparently on the bottom of the ocean, seeing how a fish is swimming by.
• Ghost Story: "No One Knows I'm Gone" is about the ghost of a man hung upside-down out in the woods and buried in a lonely graveyard. Apparently, he's officially missing.
• Instrumental: "Fawn".
• Interspecies Romance: "Fish and Bird" tells the story of two Star-Crossed Lovers: a bird and a whale. As ridiculous as the premise sounds, it still manages to be deeply sad.
• Ocular Gushers: "Lost In The Harbour":
  And then I will fill the ocean back up with my tears
• One-Man Song: "Poor Edward" and "Table Top Joe".
• One-Woman Song: "Alice".
• One-Word Title: "Kommienezuspadt", "Reeperbahn", "Barcarolle", "Fawn".
• The Power of Love: "Alice"
  And the raindrops on my window
  And the ice in my drink'
  All I can think of is Alice
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • "Poor Edward" was inspired by the 19th century man Edward Mordake, who was born with a duplicate face on the back of his head. It couldn't eat or talk loud, but it could make facial expressions and whisper, which drove him insane. He eventually committed suicide at age 23.
  • "Table Top Joe" is about a man born "without a body", who nevertheless still has his hands, which he uses to play music. This may sound bizarre, but it's actually about Johnny Eck, a sideshow artist who was just a man with two arms and a torso. Eck also appeared on the album cover of Swordfishtrombones and was referenced on The Black Rider.
• Sanity Slippage Song: "We're All Mad Here", which even ends with crazed moans of people.
  As the devil sticks his flag into the mud
  Mrs. Carol has run off with Reverend Judd
  Hell is such a lonely place
  And your big expensive face will never last
• Scatting: "Table Top Joe" starts off with scatting.
• Shout-Out:
  • The line "the dish ran away with the spoon" in "Everything You Can Think of Is True" is a reference to the English Nursery Rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle".
  • "Table Top Joe" namedrops Igor Stravinsky.
    And I could play Stravinsky on a baby grand
• Special Guest: Stewart Copeland (The Police) plays during "Table Top Joe".
• Stock Sound Effects: "Everything You Can Think Of Is True" starts off and ends with a train whistle.

---