So, remember that Tom Waits pirate picture?

When the peerless bluesman first made the shot viral, the Internet was rife with speculation – a new Tom Waits album? A tour? A change of career?

Well, not quite: in fact, August 7 turned out to simply be the release date for the video for ‘Bad as Luce’, a stand-out track from Waits’ last album Bad As Me. So not quite as exciting as a new album then, but still pretty welcome. You can watch the Matt Mahurin-directed video below, and read Waits’ accompanying statement here:

“As most of you guessed, it’s a tour…a tour de force!

Matt Mahurin has created an apocalyptic war dream to accompany the song ‘Hell Broke Luce’.  Kathleen [Brennan, Waits’ wife] and I envisioned it as an enlightened drill sergeant yelling the hard truths of war to a brand new batch of recruits. The video grew from the gnawing image of a soldier pulling his home, through a battlefield, at the end of a rope.

I think you will agree, it’s uplifting and fun.”