Tom Waits Shares Unreleased Live Recordings Ahead of 2002 LPs Reissue

Tom Waits marks the upcoming 20th-anniversary reissues for his Alice and Blood Money by unearthing a pair of unreleased performances of songs from those 2002 LPs.

The flamenco-flavored spin on Blood Money’s “All the World Is Green” was recorded in Milan, Italy, 2008 as part of Waits’ Glitter & Doom Tour, while the stripped-down piano rendition of Alice’s “Fish and Bird” was performed in London in 2004:

Both Alice and Blood Money were the result of Waits and co-writer Kathleen Brennan’s recent collaboration with playwright Robert Wilson, who they previously worked with for Waits’ 1989 LP The Black Rider. The music on Alice featured in Wilson’s avant-garde take on Alice in Wonderland, while the more grounded Blood Money served as the basis of Wilson’s adaptation of the German play Woyzeck.

“Blood Money is flesh and bone, earthbound,” Waits had said of the LP. “The songs are rooted in reality: jealousy, rage, the human meat wheel…They are more carnal. Kathleen and I are well suited to this material. She is hilarious, blasphemous, and ominous. I like a beautiful song that tells you terrible things.”

Waits will reissue both albums — originally released on the same day, May 7, 2002 — on limited edition vinyl on Oct. 7; both LPs are available to preorder now on exclusive translucent blue and red vinyl now via Waits’ webstore.