I just had a moment when all of a sudden I wanted to listen to music I didn't listen to before. Like Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and stuff.
Any recommendations about Tom Waits?

It depends on whether you want the really weird stuff or not.

I prefer the weird stuff:
Swordfish Trombones
Rain Dogs
Frank's Wild Years

For the more normal stuff:
The Early Years
Small Change
Blue Valentine

My recommendation is to get Small Change & Swordfish Trombones

The ones I like are probably not fan recommendations, because I really don't consider myself a Tom Waits fan, but I like these albums of his:

Night on Earth soundtrack
Bone Machine
The Black Rider
Blood Money

I think there's a decent anthology of his songs that came out a few years back, too. Maybe that one as well?

I've been listening to "Time" a lot lately. Tune!

I don't know him.

but I like Tom Waite who sang "I Ain't Missin' You"

Closing Time

calldapplwondery83 said:

Raindogs
Swordfishtrombones
Frank's Wild Years
Heartattack & Vine
Blue Valentine
Bone Machine
Alice
Blood Money
Real Gone

huge fan over here.

I think an excellent place to start which gives you a great taster for what Waits is about, is "Beautiful Maladies" - which is a compilation from his Island years.

After that, you'll probably have an idea of whether or not (a) you're even vaguely interested in Waits, and (b) you would prefer to get in to his more melodic stuff, or his more experimental stuff.

Pretty much every album since Swordfishtrombones has been a blend of the experimental and the beautiful. Before that, you're really looking at a more folk-sy Tom Waits in the traditional singer/songwriter, acoustic guitar/piano mold.

Small Change, and the early years vol 2 are two of my favourite albums pre-Swordfish. Post-Swordfish, I think Alice is probably the masterpiece, though you could pick up almost any album and it'll be full of gems.

Seems like there isn't much to do wrong, right? Gotta check eBay...

I'd recommend one of his earlier (live in studio) recordings that hasn't been mentioned yet,...



...Nighthawks at the Diner

Which contains one of my favorite Tom Waits tune.

Eggs & Sausage
(In a Cadillac With Susan Michelson)

nighthawks at the diner
of Emma's 49er, there's a rendezvous
of strangers around the coffee urn tonight
all the gypsy hacks, the insomniacs
now the paper's been read
now the waitress said

Chorus:
eggs and sausage and a side of toast
coffee and a roll, hash browns over easy
chile in a bowl with burgers and fries
what kind of pie?

In a graveyard charade, a late shift masquerade
2 for a quarter, dime for a dance
with Woolworth rhinestone diamond
earrings, and a sideway's glance
and now the register rings
and now the waitress sings

(chorus)

the classified section offered no direction
it's a cold caffeine in a nicotine cloud
now the touch of your fingers
lingers burning in my memory
I've been 86ed from your scheme
I'm in a melodramatic nocturnal scene
I'm a refugee from a disconcerted affair
as the lead pipe morning falls
and the waitress calls


Musique noir at its best.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

SynthiaRose said:

I think that's John Wait? Very different.

andyman91 said:

Verrrrry different.



...John Waite

vs



...Tom Waits


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

theAudience said:

one of my favourite LPs too.

the intro to eggs & sausage is totally hilarious.

"I was always...uh... kinda want to like consider myself kind of a pioneer of the palette - a restaurateur, if you will. I've wined, dined, sipped and supped in some of the most demonstrably beamer epitomable bistros in the Los Angeles metropolitan region. Yeah...I've had strange looking patty melts at Norms..."

and so on.



though if i'm getting picky - 'nobody' on the early years vol. 2 is my favourite version of that song.


[Edited 4/22/05 16:30pm]

Love the man, deeply.


Tom can make you laugh, and Tom can make you cry. Tom can also throw a flaming Jack O'Lantern at your head that'll knock your ass right down a dark flight of stairs that lead straight to the haunted basement of a leaky old funhouse in an abandoned amusement park--with spooky hallways carefully dusted with the ashes from a wax museum fire.

Or something like that.

And if nobody's yet recommended it to you, definitely try out the truly lovely, Oscar-nominated ''ONE FROM THE HEART' soundtrack. A none-too-scary Tom at his most seductive and accessible. The underrated Crystal Gayle participates in the romantic proceedings, countering Tom's world-weary rasp with a golden sweetness that goes down smooth as clover honey.

You'll love it.
[Edited 4/25/05 15:36pm]

What about the "A few sins in Odeon" DVD? Worth it?