Grim Reapers and Grand Weepers Quiz

Answer: 9th and Hennepin

Found on "Rain Dogs" (1985), "9th and Hennepin" is less a song and more a fever-dream monologue, delivered over ominous piano and atmospheric sound effects. The song's title references a real intersection in Minneapolis, a notorious hub for crime and seediness in the past.

Waits' imagery is pure noir poetry - broken umbrellas like dead birds, dreams stolen from past tenants, and a girl behind the counter with a tattooed tear, marking the years of a lost love. The song's disjointed, hallucinatory style creates a world that feels both terrifying and intoxicating, like a late-night stumble through a city that never really sleeps.

"And no one brings anything small into a bar around here..."

Answer: Tom Traubert's Blues

One of Waits' most heartbreaking songs, "Tom Traubert's Blues" (from "Small Change", 1976) is a mournful ballad about a broken man, lost in a foreign land, drowning in whiskey and sorrow. The chorus borrows the melody and lyrics from "Waltzing Matilda," an iconic Australian song about a drifter, reinforcing the theme of wandering and loss.

Some believe the song was inspired by Waits' time in Copenhagen, where he reportedly spent time with a woman named Mathilda. Others speculate it references the tragic story of Tom Traubert, an American drifter who met a bitter end. Tom Waits himself said, "I met this girl named Matilda. And uh, I had a little too much to drink that night. This is about throwing up in a foreign country."

"And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace
And a wound that will never heal."

Answer: Soldier's Things

This melancholic ballad is a quiet, devastating meditation on loss and the passing of time. The soldier's possessions - once meaningful - are reduced to a list of items with price tags.

"A tinker, a tailor, a soldier's things
His rifle, his boots full of rocks
And everything's a dollar in this box."

Answer: The Fall of Troy

This haunting song from "Brawlers" paints a bleak portrait of senseless violence and the grief that follows. The lyrics suggest a cycle of tragedy - Troy is killed in a robbery, his brother descends into ruin, and his mother searches for meaning in front of the television.

"It's hard to say grace and to sit in the place
Of someone missing at the table."

Answer: Murder in the Red Barn

With its creeping, bluesy groove and eerie storytelling, "Murder in the Red Barn" feels like a ghost story told over a flickering lantern. Inspired by real-life 19th-century murder ballads, the song suggests that death and violence are an unspoken part of rural life.

"The woods will never tell what sleeps beneath the trees
Or what's buried 'neath a rock or hiding in the leaves."

The lyrics blur the line between myth and reality, as townsfolk whisper suspicions, but no one asks too many questions. After all, "there's always some killin' you got to do around the farm."

Answer: Tango Till They're Sore

"Tango Till They're Sore" is a boozy, barroom lament filled with Waits' signature mix of dark humor and weary poetry. The narrator seems to be making a raucous, drunken farewell, imagining his own send-off with a jazz funeral flair:

"Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair
Deal out Jacks or better on a blanket by the stairs
I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past
So send me off to bed for evermore."

The song oozes a New Orleans funeral march vibe, as if the narrator is half-celebrating, half-dreading his demise. Like much of "Rain Dogs", it exists in a hazy world of drifters, gamblers, and lost souls - people who dance right up to the edge before tumbling over.

Answer: House Where Nobody Lives

Appearing on "Mule Variations" (1999), "House Where Nobody Lives" is one of Waits' most poignant ballads, using the imagery of a decaying, abandoned house to symbolize loneliness, heartbreak, and the fleeting nature of human connection.

Waits contrasts the emptiness of the house with what truly makes a home: love, not material wealth. The line "If there's love in a house, it's a palace for sure" delivers the song's emotional core - without love, even the grandest house is just an empty shell.

This song is often considered one of Waits' most straightforwardly emotional works, showcasing his ability to craft deeply human stories with just a few simple, poetic details.

Answer: Shot with his own gun

Small Change is a tragic figure - possibly a young delinquent or low-level gangster - gunned down in a grim, indifferent city where violence is just another part of the scenery. In classic Tom Waits fashion, the song paints a cinematic, noir-inspired world where the neon lights don't blink twice at another lost soul. The brutal reality of his fate is summed up in the song's haunting lyric:

"The dreams ain't broken down here now, they're walking with a limp
Now that Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight."

His death is just another forgotten moment in the city's underbelly, where life moves on, and the only ones who profit are the cabbies, the thieves, and the shadows.

Answer: Two Sisters

"Two Sisters" is a traditional murder ballad with a dark twist, recounting the tale of sibling rivalry turned deadly. In the song, an older sister, consumed by jealousy, pushes her younger sister into the river to steal her lover. In the version by Tom Waits, the miller fishes her out of the water. In exchange for five golden rings from the older sister, he throws her back.

"The miller was hung in the old mill gate
Bow and balance me
The miller was hung in the old mill gate
For drowning little sister Kate
And I'll be true to my love
If my love will be true to me"

Answer: Cold Cold Ground

This song captures an eerie mix of nostalgia and nihilism. Lines like "The piano is firewood, Times Square is a dream" suggest a world where even beauty and ambition eventually burn out. The imagery of rifles, burning tires, and isolation suggests a town that has given up on redemption.

"There's a ribbon in the willow and a tire swing rope,
And a briar patch of berries takin' over the slope."

Despite its tragic tone, the melody has a lilting, almost singalong quality, making it one of Waits' most hauntingly beautiful funeral marches.