This past February, Tom Waits appeared in the final episode of The Human Factor , a documentary about homelessness in the American South, produced by Italian public TV channel RAI3. Titled “The Last Ride,” the episode sees the reclusive Waits both reading his poem Seeds on Hard Ground and performing music.

Waits has now released a rare performance from the docuseries of his 1976 song “Tom Traubert’s Blues.” Watch it below, followed by an excerpt of Waits’ reading of Seeds on Hard Ground .

“If you’re living on the street,” the 75-year-old artist says before sitting down at a piano. “We who live in abundance, we have to think what it must be like to be down to your last dollar, your last cup of coffee, and your last pair of socks that are dry. Maybe it’s just that some condi

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