Song for Halloween - What's He Building in There?

What's he building in there? - Tom Waits

I'm a big fan of Tom Waits; just ask my Dad. A work colleague called Steve Johnson got me into him in the late eighties. My Dad can't understand my appreciation of Mr Waits. He thinks he can't sing and I think my Dad has missed the point. I think an appreciation of Tom Waits cannot be simplified into whether or not you like his voice. It's his whole personae that you have to dig. Tom started out as a Beat Poet in the 60's and was a contemporary of Jack Kerouac. I like to think of him as an alternative troubadour rather than as a Singer.

I think this song reinforces my argument about Tom being a Poet. It's more a recital of a story set to some weird background music than a song. Although this song is quite scary, it makes me laugh so much. There are some very funny lines in here delivered in typical deadpan fashion. I mean, how can you get the following lines into a 'song', "There's poison under the sink, of course. There's also enough formaldehyde to choke a horse". Pure brilliant!

I remember playing this song to my mates when we were on holiday together in Morrocco a few years ago. Nobody got it apart from Mike and he couldn't stop laughing either. Mike and I have the same sense of humour.

Anyway, this goes down as my best Halloween song of all time. Tomorrow, it's my best Halloween film scene. Can you guess what it is?