I've been reading this book, and it's got me on my annual Tom Waits kick

Tom is one of the rare artists to start off well, and go through a metamorphosis midway through his career.

In the beginning, after a fairly nondescript debut, he adopted the persona of the smokey lounge jazz poet, borrowing heavily from those who came before, yet putting his own spin on things. He is simultaneously tragic and comedic. Beautiful and ugly. The filmmaker Jim Jarmusch said he goes between the extremes and doesn't spend much time in the middle.

then in the 80's, finding himself being typecast by his record label and perhaps by himself, he somehow fashioned an altogether new sound that was revolutionary, yet organic. Using unusual intstumentation, he slipped his drunkard character into a dreamy new world.

He's not for everyone, but those who get it love this guy. Always challenging, hilarious, profound, creative, and musical underneath the thick crust. Who loves Tom Waits?

The ONE way he's similar to Prince

He always has you wondering how much of what he does is real, how much is a character, how much is serious, how much is a joke.

Clearly they both have great senses of humor. One that maybe only one in ten people understand.

Actually his movie Big Time is similar to Sign of the Times in some ways. It has some staged scened mixed in with the performances. They were done around the same time, perhaps that accounts for some of the similarities in FILM style (not musical style, obviously)

His later style has taken on a more bluesy edge, and he seems more interested in nature than the sidewalk

Letterman has really supported this guy, too, when he gets virtually zero radio airtime.

music starts around 5:20 but I love his interviews almost as much as his songs.

[Edited 10/5/11 16:47pm]

...

Saw him do this live somewhere.
The lyrical imagery had me hooked.

One of those artists whose uncoventional voice is integral to his stories.


Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

^^^yes the imagery and the voice are key to what he does. Later, the bizarre instrumentation was another aspect.

His voice is clearly influenced by a few guys such as Louis Armstrong, Captain Beefheart, but overall his image is quite original.

NDRU said:

^^^yes the imagery and the voice are key to what he does. Later, the bizarre instrumentation was another aspect.

His voice is clearly influenced by a few guys such as Louis Armstrong, Captain Beefheart, but overall his image is quite original.

I'm pretty sure that was the first thing I heard by him.
I thought to myself, "They must've just drug this guy in off the street."
He looked and sounded exactly like what he was singing about.


Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

theAudience said:

NDRU said:

^^^yes the imagery and the voice are key to what he does. Later, the bizarre instrumentation was another aspect.

His voice is clearly influenced by a few guys such as Louis Armstrong, Captain Beefheart, but overall his image is quite original.

I'm pretty sure that was the first thing I heard by him.
I thought to myself, "They must've just drug this guy in off the street."
He looked and sounded exactly like what he was singing about.

I do think some of that was a character. He lived in a state of "self-imposed poverty"

but he was a guy who had a recording contract from a young age who chose to live in a seedy hollywood hotel for years surrounded by pimps and pushers

Part of the reason he changed his image, not surprisingly, was that it was killing him!

The piano has been drinking!

theAudience said:

NDRU said:

^^^yes the imagery and the voice are key to what he does. Later, the bizarre instrumentation was another aspect.

His voice is clearly influenced by a few guys such as Louis Armstrong, Captain Beefheart, but overall his image is quite original.

I'm pretty sure that was the first thing I heard by him.
I thought to myself, "They must've just drug this guy in off the street."
He looked and sounded exactly like what he was singing about.

You might appreciate this story.

Apparently Waits had the same manager as Frank Zappa, and in the early days of his career, he was sent out on tour as Frank's support act. It was just him and a stand up bass player.

He could not even use his own piano, but had to sit at George Duke's (actually Duke would play on one of Waits' albums years later) electric piano, an instrument which he'd never even played, and be booed as he sang jazzy ballads to a bunch of hippies.

Strange that a manager would do something so clearly wrong to one of his own artists. I like both artists a lot but that is a terrible match!

It was thought by some that Zappa took some comfort in Waits' DIScomfort, asking with a smile every night "how were they?"

[Edited 10/5/11 22:47pm]

Actually, Prince and Tom Waits share one more thing.

Early in Waits' career, his piano player was one Mike Melvoin, whose daughter is, of course, Wendy!

The man is a fuckin talent, but his voice grates me to no end.

There was a lot about his background that was completely wrong. The only book that was out was the one Pat Humphreys wrote. The first one that started to get it right was the one Jay Jacobs wrote, and part of the reason is Pieter had put together the Tom Waits Library website (see the back of Barney's book, he mentions it) .

I was living in Chula Vista at the time, Tom had put Mule Variations out, and had just started getting into more of his music. All the stuff I read mentioned him living and working in the next town over, National City,but I looked through their yearbooks and found nothing. And in that part of San Diego, he could've gone to any number of schools.

It was complete dumb luck on my part. Hilltop High was 3 houses down from where I lived. I grabbed a few yearbooks from the late 60s, opened up the one from '68 and was completely stunned that I found it. Found the ones from 66 and 67, sent those off to Pieter, along with a photo of Napoleones, and he had it up, but took it down. But since then, Jay wrote his book, more news articles mentioned Hilltop High in Tom's bios.

Also figured out where Heritage was, which was tricky, but there was a bar I went to that looked likely to be it. I found the old address, but the numbers didn't match up. Turned out to be it, and is now the Sneak Joint in Mission Beach. It wouldn't be a Waits-like hangout because the girls serve beer in bikinis.

I also read La Bellas mentioned, which was a place I used to frequent, and turned out Tom worked there for a very short time. I thought it was kind of weird he'd work at Napoleones pizza 5 miles away, when there was one close to home, and didn't know why. Thought it was about getting stories for his songs.

lazycrockett said:

The man is a fuckin talent, but his voice grates me to no end.

I can't argue that it's pretty!

One thing about his voice, he uses a couple different ones, and one of them is clearly an affectation.

"Janet At the Airport" twice as popular as this thread!

NDRU said:

"Janet At the Airport" twice as popular as this thread!

You're no newbie, what'd you expect?

Now, if your thread title was something like this...

Tom Waits arrested in night club scandal.
Found in a sex orgy with Madonna, Rihanna, Lady Ga Ga, Janet Jackson & Britney Spears.
Justin Beiber was observed filming the event.

...Capiche?

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

[Edited 10/6/11 12:29pm]

Allthough i aint no real Tom Waits fan, i don't find anything grating about his vocals.

I mean: it might be an typical voice he is singing with, maybe even a 'cultified' one, but somehow he succeeds in communicating more soul and authenticity with it then the likes of Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera and Beyonce who IMO seem to mistake technical showing off and meandering up and down 5 octaves with soul.

[Edited 10/7/11 11:59am]

NDRU said:

The ONE way he's similar to Prince

He always has you wondering how much of what he does is real, how much is a character, how much is serious, how much is a joke.

Clearly they both have great senses of humor. One that maybe only one in ten people understand.

You know, I didn't really think about it until I saw his performance in this clip, but his voice kind of sounds like a real dirty sounding saxophone.

I'm a big Tom Waits fan. Nighthawks At The Diner is my favorite album, but I really love that Orphans triple album too!

rdhull said:

The piano has been drinking!

RDHULL? WTF? Where the hell have YOU been?

I love Mule Variations and just the over all place this guy comes from...the Jake Jarmoush movies always amuse me for no apparent reason as well.

Slave2daGroove said:

rdhull said:

The piano has been drinking!

RDHULL? WTF? Where the hell have YOU been?

My computer crashed. Its fixed now

theAudience said:

I thought to myself, "They must've just drug this guy in off the street."

He looked and sounded exactly like what he was singing about.

In the mid 70's I was driving a cab on Chicago's north side one night when I got flagged down by the manager of the Ivanhoe theater. He climbed in and told me he needed to go to the neighborhood police station and just like out of some old black and white movie, to "step on it."

Turns out Waits was performing there that night and between sets he stepped out back to have a smoke and was accosted by a couple of Chicago's finest boys in blue who arrested him for vagrancy as obviously, a seedy looking guy like this skulking around the stage door at such a fine establishment couldn't possibly be up to any good.

Apparently, ever the sharp PR man who knew something like this would be good for his public persona, Waits didn't tell the cops he was the headliner until after he was booked and the call didn't come in to the manager to come down and bail him out until he was already late for his second set.

I offered to wait to take them back but he declined. Good tipper though. Gave me a ten spot on a $4 ride.

Slave2daGroove said:

I love Mule Variations and just the over all place this guy comes from...the Jake Jarmoush movies always amuse me for no apparent reason as well.

I have not seen Down By Law, I am going to put that on my list. He is in Short Cuts, and i am a big fan of that movie.

I was not really into the Mule Variations until I tried listening to Real Gone, and suddenly years later I understood the Mule Variations. It's fairly downbeat, but got some great songs. Now he has a new album, maybe I will get Real Gone finally.

rdhull said:

The piano has been drinking!

indeed, but the player may have had a sip too...

rdhull said:

Slave2daGroove said:

RDHULL? WTF? Where the hell have YOU been?

My computer crashed. Its fixed now

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

I think he has one of te most unique voices in the industry

And a new album coming this month!!