October 30, 2006

Tom Waits Interview in the Observer "Waits talks like he sings, in a rasping drawl and with an old-timer's wealth of received wisdom. It's as if, in late middle-age, he has grown into the person he always wanted to be. His tales are often tall, and his metaphors and similes tend towards the surreal. 'Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them,' he quips. 'Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.'" via linkfilter
posted by petebest 18 years ago
  • Gotta love the guy. Nice post Pete!
  • Got to see him live in Memphis this year. A friend of my wife's warned me that seeing him live was like being blown by the Queen. I thought it was more like a handjob at a tent revival. Awesome show.
  • I found Tom Waits' music many, may years ago, before his voice went completely to hell. I have no idea how I stumbled across his work, and I always wonder how others did. He is always amazing. "If you exorcise my devils, well my angels may leave, too. And when they're gone, they're so hard to find..."
  • I hate admit that I don't think I've ever listened to Tom Waits, though I've seen his name all over the internet. The one Amazon sample I tried sounded like bad white rap. Any links to iconic songs that would make me understand?
  • If you go in with the idea that he is 'avante garde' then you are more prepared for his stuff, path.
  • Kick-ass video for "Goin' Out West." =)
  • Chocolate Jesus, path ol' pal. Tom Waits sound like a brotha. Tom Waits got soul.
  • Tom Waits got the blues bad, man. (Thanks, YouTube, for all the free bootlegs.)
  • I haven't met many women that can stand his voice, for some reason. My girlfriend tells me to wear headphones, I tell her to turn off that Diana Krall crap. A friend tells me to, "find him a woman who loves Tom Waits' music and he'll find the man who forced it on her." I'm not so sure, I think that woman's got pistol, pills and bible, milquetoast missing fingers in the german dwarf of her secret holes cut into the ice, wrestled hoarse and shuddered by leather hands. Or maybe I'm just dreaming.
  • A friend tells me to, "find him a woman who loves Tom Waits' music and he'll find the man who forced it on her." Fortunately, that's not a universal sentiment. My (female) best friend once said that, if her soul were music, it would sound like a Tom Waits song.
  • When I was so much younger, I went to a Joni Mitchell concert in Chicago, and a few in the crowd booed when she ended her solo, unplugged piano bit and the band (Tom Scott, LA Express) returned to the stage. She called the booers "purists". I guess I was one. With T. Waits, I loved and used to own all his early stuff, and was distanced by his later perfomances. I was a "purist", I guess. But, if I listened, I would find gems in his later material. "Romeo is Bleeding." "39 Dollars and an Alligator Purse", two examples. TW is not for the faint of heart, but I do wish that Path and others who can't "get" him now could hear some of his early work. It was exquisite.
  • Thanks, everyone. I understand better now, but don't think I could listen to him for a whole record, (though I liked his speaking voice.) Some Louis Armstrong in there, but it sounds so painful, even the 1977 song. The main effect was to make my throat hurt, so, InsolentChimp, do women subconsiously try to sing along, and guys don't? Or, is the range of his singing just better for guy participation? Is it the everpresent growl, which most of us females don't have? Maybe he needs a trumpet instead of a piano? Trumpet solos slice up the growly stuff.
  • Great links.
  • A friend tells me to, "find him a woman who loves Tom Waits' music and he'll find the man who forced it on her." Nonsense. I've known plenty of women who loved Tom Waits. And they're all smokin' hot, too.
  • Nighthawks at the Diner, path. My first and only necessary Tom Waits album.
  • Some people I know are in a pub in Kerry, in the south of Ireland, in the early 1990s. At some point, one of them realises Tom Waits is there. They approach him and tell him how much they like his music and so on. In the pub was a piano. Someone decides to ask Tom to play. After some cajoling, he agrees and goes to sit himself in front. Out from behind the bar comes the woman of the house. "That is Val's piano!" says she in a loud voide. Tom Waits looks a bit dubious and turns to the people who'd asked him to play. "But, but, this is Tom Waits," says one of them. "He's famous all over the world." "THAT IS VAL'S PIANO," she repeats. "Nobody plays Val's piano but Val."
  • I haven't met many women that can stand his voice I love his voice, and I'm a woman (last I checked). I've loved Tom Waits since I heard his version of "It's Alright With Me" on Red, Hot & Blue.
  • I work with a guy called Tom Waits, and he's from the US, but he's an engineer, not a singer. Nope.
  • Hey, path - you might be interested in listening to anything from his first album Closing Time (samples on that page)- not a growl in the bunch. A mellow, melodious disappointment to hardcore growl fans everywhere!
  • Nonsense. I've known plenty of women who loved Tom Waits. And they're all smokin' hot, too. My wife is one. She wanted to come down the aisle during our wedding to "Such a Scream." If it wouldn't have given her parents a heart attack, we'd have done it. My girlfriend tells me to wear headphones, I tell her to turn off that Diana Krall crap. I'm having trouble understanding both of those sentences. Nighthawks at the Diner, path. My first and only necessary Tom Waits album. And that one.
  • Like RTD, I "discovered" Tom via his early albums, Closing Time and Heart of Saturday Night (both excellent for when you bring a date back to your place, btw), and it took me a while to warm up to the growling and barking of stuff like Rain Dogs. I can now say that I'm a big fan of all his work.
  • I'm having trouble understanding both of those sentences. That's becuse it was a single sentence. Splice! Glad to her there are women who love Waits, especially those who's soul is a Waits song. I got what I paid for now. And, path, I sing along too.
  • Thanks for your patience, folks. I think I might be on the edge of getting it.
  • The first time I stayed over at my boyfriend's house, he put on an album and said 'I really really hope you like this'. And he looked very nervous. It was Rain Dogs and I loved it. And I'm female.
  • *reaches for binaca, smoothes eyebrows*
  • Here's the Tom Waits song the my MoFi name comes from. And here is Tom Waits on Beavis and Butthead.
  • nicely youtubed Mr. K. I love that little Gibson.
  • Path: The thing (OK, one of the many things) that I love about Tom Waits is the contrast of that growly voice with some of the most tender, beautiful lyrics you'll ever hear. And his voice is capable of incredible tenderness too, when he chooses -- I've always loved his version of "Somewhere," from "West Side Story." And "Johnsburg, Illinois." As for the singing along part -- I always have, and I'm a woman (my first boyfriend introduced me to Tom Waits, and all the best men in my life since then have either already known and loved him or seen the light pretty quickly after I slipped them a mix tape...kind of a character test). But you're right, only a man can do it properly. I had a male roommate once whose favorite way to close down an evening of over-indulging was to lie on the living room floor and bellow "I Don't Wanna Grow Up." Good times.
  • I tell you all my secrets but I lie about my past So send me off to bed forevermore.
  • I've found that if I have a niece or a nephew crying in their crib, I just need to go over to them and sing A Little Rain (never hurt no one) from Bone Machine (my necessary Waits album). They go silent immediately, sit and watch me sing, and then stay silent until they fall asleep.
  • Waits is the kind of artist who often composes music that is intentionally difficult to listen to. But as noted above, he also has some of the most beautiful, tender, even sentimental songs I've heard from any songwriter. In fact I think the sentiment would often drown the music in a sea of sap, were it not for the contrast with his gravelly, world-weary voice. A master storyteller too--great narrative songs and spoken-word pieces. Alice is my favorite album by him, but I've not heard all of his work.
  • Started out with Bone Machine, took me a while to get to the other stuff. Eventually settled on Blue Valentine. Didn't find out for ages that it was Rickie Lee "Little Fluffy Clouds" Jones on the cover. Made it just that much cooler. Most beautiful verson of "Somewhere" I've ever heard. I'd think of it every time I was on the 5 train in New York...
  • I also enjoy his film appearances, particularly in Down By Law. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!! (repeat ad nauseum)
  • Salon.com's audiofile page just happens to have a couple of Tom Waits songs for free download, Road to Peace (a very unobscure political commentary on current events in the middle east, and You Can Never Hold Back Spring. Enjoy. (You may have to watch the Salon ad to get in first, but it's free, and so are the songs.)
  • Salon.com's audiofile page just happens to have a couple of Tom Waits songs for free download, Road to Peace (a very unobscure political commentary on current events in the middle east, and You Can Never Hold Back Spring. Enjoy. (You may have to watch the Salon ad to get in first, but it's free, and so are the songs.)
  • WTF? The link so nice I hit "post" twice! (sorry)
  • When "Alice" and "Blood Money" were released, both were streamed for free on Waits' (or his label's) website. It was an interesting tactic that caused me to purchase both albums. (Not that I wouldn't have picked them up eventually)
  • > I also enjoy his film appearances, particularly in Down By Law. He was about the best thing in Robert Altman's Short Cuts. He and Lily Tomlin were a limo driver and a barmaid in LA. There's a howlingly funny scene with them drunk in a trailer park, him singing, I'm gonna get you out of Downey. She makes everybody good, just being on with her. He did the great Raymond Carver bit where a guy at the bar makes a remark about the barmaid's ass to him, her boyfriend. He actually did what Mickey Rourke tried so hard to do in Barfly. He was also fine in Ironweed, though he got it early when the vigilantes attacked the hobo camp. He had to make room for Smilin' Jack and La Streep to work without crowding, I guess. I like him in the movies. I like his singing/songwriting, too. I had a friend who modeled his career on the Waits template. Worked pretty well for him too.
  • Well played roles in Rumblefish and Bram Stoker's Dracula as well (although, on that last appearance, it doesn't take much talent to look good compared to Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves). In regard to Short Cuts, I think that was a huge influence on Magnolia.
  • Some Tom Waits fans may like Man Man. I know I do.
  • Oh that last post was Flash.
  • Tom Waits Interviewed in Pitchfork "Tom Waits: I've been around. Chicago, New Orleans, New York, L.A., Portland [Oregon]. California has the public image, the land of milk and honey. It has one of those images that's completely and utterly removed from what it really is. Like all great fantasies. Where are you calling from? Pitchfork: Brooklyn. Tom Waits: Everybody's from Brooklyn! We lived in New York for a while. About 14 different places in two years. Pitchfork: Do you ever miss it? Tom Waits: I don't know. Sometimes when I go back I go, oh man, I remember this. The energy of it. It's like a big dragon. But I'm a hothead. I wasn't well-suited for the temperament of that town. I need something that's a little more-- not as volatile. I get in arguments with shop owners. And slowly, all the little businesses in our neighborhood, the lights started going out and I had to go further and further from home to get supplies. I'm better off here in the sticks where I can't hurt myself. "
  • Happy Birthday Mr. Waits!