How’s It Gonna End (2004) – Tom Waits

Here is Tom Waits at his murky, gloomy best and that suits me just fine. As an astute listener on SongMeanings put it, each of the verses in How’s It Gonna End seems like fragments of film plots, and we all want to know how each will end. He just leaves them out there, hanging like vignettes without resolution. So there’s that on one level.

Then on an existential level, we want to know how each of us, as individuals, will meet our demise – a morbid fascination, if you will. And if that wasn’t enough, because of the apocalyptic tone that pervades it, we also want to know how the world is going to end.

There are sometimes faint connections between the verses, like the father seeking revenge in the third verse for his little girl who disappeared in the second. But it’s never made clear, and some share the fate of “drowning” at the hands of miscreants and evil deeds – not that they didn’t have it coming. Also, while the song’s stories may not feel like they have a sense of closure, there is one theme that is resolute: death cannot be undone – its finality is stark.

“You can never go back, and the answer is no, and the wishing for it only makes it bleed.”

Tom is wickedly good here. You can see why Tom Waits is regarded as one of the great contemporary storytellers in song. I’ve always felt that through his music – the images he conjures – there’s a tinny, oxidised quality, like a wrecking yard where everything is worn down and left exposed. It can get pretty dirty. I love the grittiness and raw energy of it.

How’s It Gonna End is from his 16th studio album Real Gone (2004). Real Gone and Rain Dogs are often cited by fans among his best work. Real Gone was written and produced by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, his wife and long-time collaborator. The album reached No. 27 in Australia and No. 28 on the US Billboard charts.

[Verse 1]
He had three whole dollars, a worn-out car
And a wife who was leaving for good
Life’s made of trouble, worry, pain, and struggle
She wrote goodbye in the dust on the hood
They found a map of Missouri, lipstick on the glass
They must’ve left in the middle of the night

[Chorus]
And I want to know the same thing
Everyone wants to know
How’s it going to end?

[Verse 2]
Behind a smoke-colored curtain, the girl disappeared
They found out that the ring was a fake
A tree born crooked will never grow straight
She sunk like a hammer into the lake
A long lost letter and an old leaky boat
Promises are never meant to keep

[Chorus]
And I want to know the same thing
I want to know
How’s it going to end?

[Verse 3]
The barn leaned over, the vultures dried their wings
The moon climbed up an empty sky
The sun sank down behind the tree on the hill
There’s a killer and he’s coming through the rye
But maybe he’s the father of that lost little girl
It’s hard to tell in this light

[Chorus]
And I want to know the same thing
Everyone wants to know
How’s it going to end?

[Bridge]
Drag your wagon and your plow over the bones of the dead
Out among the roses and the weeds
You can never go back and the answer is no
And wishing for it only makes it bleed

[Verse 4]
Joel Tornabene was broken on the wheel
Shane and Bum Mahoney on the lam
The grain was as gold as Sheila’s hair
All the way from Liverpool with all we could steal
He was robbed of twenty dollars, his body found stripped
Cast into the harbor there and drowned

[Chorus]
And I want to know the same thing
We all want to know
How’s it going to end?

[Verse 5]
The sirens are snaking their way up the hill
It’s last call somewhere in the world
The reptiles blend in with the color of the street
Life is sweet at the edge of a razor
And down in the first row of on old picture show
The old man is asleep as the credits start to roll

[Chorus]
And I want to know the same thing
We all want to know
How’s it going to end?

[Chorus]
I want to know the same thing
We all want to know
How’s it going to end?

[Chorus]
And then I just want to know the same thing
I want to know
How’s it going to end?

References:
1. Real Gone – Wikipedia