Slave2daGroove said:

Great thread NDRU! Thx for the links to the interviews...

Thanks, I love the interviews! Tom could have been a comedian if he'd wanted to be.

NDRU said:

And a new album coming this month!!

and they are streaming the new song, sounds like classic tom. I was not wild about Real Gone, but I am really looking forward to this album.

http://soundcloud.com/ant...-bad-as-me

New album out today!!!

I've been a Waits fan since '87. I love singer / songwriters, and he has a unique career arc...

I've also been lucky enough to see him live a couple times...he doesn't tour much. I think there were only a couple of US stops for Real Real Gone - I just happened to live in one of those 2 cities.

But who I'm really curious about - more than Tom Waits - who's on my list of fantasy interviews?

Kathleen Brennan.

If your book gives some enlightenment into their artistic process, I'm all in.

Apparently, the new album is classic Tom. I'm hoping there's a few more melodic songs on this one. Waits is one of the all-time greats but I'm definitely selective in what songs of his I listen to. There's a barrier to entry with Tom's music. The faint-hearted will hear the junkyard instruments, weird persona and run a mile; never realizing the gems waiting for those who venture inside. This is probably a good thing.

[Edited 10/31/11 4:55am]

NDRU said:

Who loves Tom Waits?

Been a big fan since the mid-'80s. Met him in '99. "Love" might be too strong a word (I do have problems with some of his shtick and haven't followed him as closely over the past few years). But I'm usually interested in what he's up to.

MarkThrust said:

But who I'm really curious about - more than Tom Waits - who's on my list of fantasy interviews?

Kathleen Brennan.

Don't hold yer breath. Her avoidance of the spotlight borders on obsession. The most revealing info on her (and Tom) is in the Hoskyns book.

Ace said:

MarkThrust said:

But who I'm really curious about - more than Tom Waits - who's on my list of fantasy interviews?

Kathleen Brennan.

Don't hold yer breath. Her avoidance of the spotlight borders on obsession. The most revealing info on her (and Tom) is in the Hoskyns book.

Yes, the book definitely talks about her, but there just is not much to go on.

I half expected the book to speak negatively about her, as a controlling force in his life (like Yoko, I suppose) but actually there really is not a single negative thing except with regard to the author's attempts to write his book and meeting resistance

midnightmover said:

Apparently, the new album is classic Tom. I'm hoping there's a few more melodic songs on this one. Waits is one of the all-time greats but I'm definitely selective in what songs of his I listen to. There's a barrier to entry with Tom's music. The faint-hearted will hear the junkyard instruments, weird persona and run a mile; never realizing the gems that lay in his catalogue and the rewards given to those who venture inside. This is probably a good thing.

the new album is really good based on my first few listens.

I was not crazy about Real Gone, but this one is strangely instantly likeable--strange because, as you say there is a natural barrier to his music.

It kind of makes me wonder if I've either gotten totally used to his style or that it is somehow watered down on this album.

NDRU said:

Ace said:

Don't hold yer breath. Her avoidance of the spotlight borders on obsession. The most revealing info on her (and Tom) is in the Hoskyns book.

Yes, the book definitely talks about her, but there just is not much to go on.

I half expected the book to speak negatively about her, as a controlling force in his life (like Yoko, I suppose) but actually there really is not a single negative thing except with regard to the author's attempts to write his book and meeting resistance

I didn't read the whole book (skimmed it in the store), but I seem to recall some references to her controlling access to him. Weren't there comments from old cronies (including Rickie Lee Jones) about that?

Ace said:

NDRU said:

Yes, the book definitely talks about her, but there just is not much to go on.

I half expected the book to speak negatively about her, as a controlling force in his life (like Yoko, I suppose) but actually there really is not a single negative thing except with regard to the author's attempts to write his book and meeting resistance

I didn't read the whole book (skimmed it in the store), but I seem to recall some references to her controlling access to him. Weren't there comments from old cronies (including Rickie Lee Jones) about that?

well yeah, but the author himself complained most about the limited access.

He compared Waits to Prince in several ways, one in that they are very private and don't really want to go in depth about their personal lives. But also about how he cut people out of his life, esp pre-kathleen people.

But all specific references to her personality were incredibly positive, how she was a great influence on him and that she was a good person, not a manipulative person but someone who helped Waits be a better person and a better artist.

NDRU said:

Ace said:

I didn't read the whole book (skimmed it in the store), but I seem to recall some references to her controlling access to him. Weren't there comments from old cronies (including Rickie Lee Jones) about that?

well yeah, but the author himself complained most about the limited access.

He compared Waits to Prince in several ways, one in that they are very private and don't really want to go in depth about their personal lives. But also about how he cut people out of his life, esp pre-kathleen people.

But all specific references to her personality were incredibly positive, how she was a great influence on him and that she was a good person, not a manipulative person but someone who helped Waits be a better person and a better artist.

Thanks both of you, for the leads. Part of my fascination is with her avoiding the spotlight - but I'm even more curious about their collaborative artistic process.

Totally off-topic, but I just finished watching the first year of Elvis Costello's Spectacle a couple weeks ago...inspired by the interview subjects, Kathleen Brennan immediately came to mind as a unique interviewee. I don't think we'd be talking about Waits today with the changes she brought to his life...

NDRU said:

Ace said:

I didn't read the whole book (skimmed it in the store), but I seem to recall some references to her controlling access to him. Weren't there comments from old cronies (including Rickie Lee Jones) about that?

well yeah, but the author himself complained most about the limited access.

He compared Waits to Prince in several ways, one in that they are very private and don't really want to go in depth about their personal lives. But also about how he cut people out of his life, esp pre-kathleen people.

But all specific references to her personality were incredibly positive, how she was a great influence on him and that she was a good person, not a manipulative person but someone who helped Waits be a better person and a better artist.

He's said that she's the one who got him to give up smoking and drinking and, basically, remade his career when he'd been dropped from Asylum, so you could say he owes her everything.

In the interests of truth, though, it should be noted that they were separated for a time in the mid-'90s. Of course Waits never discussed it in the media, but Paul Westerberg spilled the beans in a Canadian television interview, when he was promoting Eventually (said "Hide n Seekin'" was about Tom, who'd been kicked out of the house and couldn't see his kids).

I'm a fan of him, but not of his music, if that makes any sense...

I respect him because he's a great songwriter, and has survived through 4 different decades with no clear radio support or mainstream exposure, at least outside the US...

but he just doesn't have many songs that interest me. I made some time ago a personal compilation, and that's all I need. That said, I prefer his 82-10 work, there are only like 4 or 5 of his 70 songs that I like...I certainly prefer his darker/more deranged work, Bone Machine could easily be my fav Waits album...

[Edited 10/26/11 8:39am]

MarkThrust said:

I don't think we'd be talking about Waits today with the changes she brought to his life...

Certainly not in the way we are now. He'd be another Leon Redbone - still playing his retro-ditties to a tiny cult audience (and most likely without a record deal).

By Waits' own account, she pushed him to expand his palette and incorporate more modern and avant-garde influences.

By the by, you can catch a rare glimpse of her if you watch his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction (brief shot of her while he thanks her from the stage).

Tom Waits: The Fresh Air Interview

October 31, 2011

Tom Waits recorded his new album Bad As Me, his first collection of all-new studio recordings in eight years, in his studio, which he calls "Rabbit Foot" for good luck. The space, a converted schoolhouse, still has class pictures dotting the walls of each classroom.

"I never had my own place before," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "[In a studio], you know there was a band before you and you know you have to pack up at the end of your session because there was a band behind you. You have to photograph the board so no one changes your settings. Now, this is my own rig. It's my own trailer."

Bad As Me, Waits' 20th album, references the people he normally sings about: loners, losers, drunks and eccentrics. The "poet of outcasts," as The New York Times once called Waits, romanticizes loneliness, the city of Chicago, death and love, among other topics. The album also pays homage to some of Waits' favorite singers, including James Brown, Peggy Lee and Howlin' Wolf.

"I've always looked to [Wolf] for guidance, and probably always will," Waits says. "He does have a voice that is otherworldly. It should be in a time capsule somewhere. When you're a kid and you're trying to find your own voice, it's rather daunting to hear somebody like Howlin' Wolf, because you know that you'll never achieve that. That's the Empire State Building. You can scream into a pillow for a year and never get there."

http://www.npr.org/2011/1...-interview



Music for adventurous listeners


tA

Tribal Records

^^^Cool, thanks for that.

He is always a fun interview subject. Here's another I just read

"Songs are pretty easy.
They are small, they are modular, they are about as big as a bagel."

"This whole division between genres has more to do with marketing than anything else. It's terrible for the culture of music. Like anything that is purely economic,
it ignores the most important component."

http://www.pitchfork.com/...tom-waits/

Love this guy.

The new album is amazing. I am loving it. Also playing the Orphans box to bits.