“Green Grass” By Tom Waits

Tom Waits is a genre all his own. He’s a theatrical storyteller, often humorous, sometimes absurd, and always as original as it gets. With a career spanning five decades and more than 16 studio albums, his sound is as varied as the instruments he experiments with. However, it’s his gruff, growling and guttural voice that most cannot forget. That voice and a strolling, subtle guitar are the major features of his song “Green Grass” from the 2004 album “Real Gone.”

Tom Waits
Credit: Consequenceofsound.net

The story is told from the standpoint of a character dead in his grave, inviting his loved one to stay with him awhile and remember him. The opening line is fantastic:

“Lay your head where my heart used to be

Hold the earth above me

Lay down on the green grass

Remember when you loved me”

Waits urges the griever to remember him, saying that his memory will live within them, that “there is a now a bubble of me/and it’s floating in thee.” I particularly like this reminder to keep the memory of the dead alive. Remembering not only comforts the person who is grieving but also serves to comfort the dead. He doesn’t want to be forgotten. Do any of us? 

“Stand in the shade of me

Things are now made of me

The weather vane will say

It smells like rain today.

 

God took the stars and he tossed ’em

Can’t tell the birds from the blossoms

You’ll never be free of me

He’ll make a tree from me.”

I love how this song speaks to both sides of grief. To those of us thinking of our own mortality, it touches on a deep desire to not be forgotten. And for those who are grieving, it touches on the desire to still be connected with those who have died, even if it’s just through a memory.