(http://themusicandmythof.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/tom-waits1.jpg?w=974)
I was long aware of Tom Waits as that guy with the gruff voice and the hobo persona. I also knew that he worked with some high-class people like Gavin Bryars and Robert Wilson, and had seen him in a couple of films. However, only this year did I start exploring his music in a serious way.
So far I've been listening to the following albums:
Rain Dogs
Franks Wild Years
Swordfishtrombones
Closing Time
...while also YouTubing various individual songs, some in the original Waits versions, some covered by other performers.
My verdict: the guy is is a genius. No qualification necessary - he's one of the greatest singer-songwriters I've ever come across, up there with Dylan, Lennon/McCartney, and a few others. And he can assimilate a wider range of styles and inhabit more personas convincingly than any other "pop" musician I know. (I hesitate to use the term "pop" for him, it just doesn't seem to fit.) He's a true Great American Artist.
Credit for his songwriting genius also belongs to his wife Kathleen Brennan, who has been his collaborator since the 1980s. As I understand it, she got him sober and helped him re-invent himself musically, which is why he's had such a long run of success.
I know we have some Waits fans here, and I'm surprised he doesn't yet have his own thread. So I'm creating one, and I hope you'll join in. Meanwhile, I'm starting a musical love affair like the ones I've had with my favorite composers. Thoughts, suggestions, experiences - all welcome here.
I have a list of three performers on my bucket list to see live...Bjork, Philip Glass and Tom Waits. Unfortunately Waits is the only name not crossed off, I missed a show in Dallas years ago by three days.
But yes, Waits is a unique talent, with a style and voice that has ranged, and transformed, over several decades.
All the albums mentioned above are incredible, unlike anything out there. I've long cited Frank's Wild Years as his overall best. I would like to add Bone Machine and Blood Money to the list as some of Waits more recent albums that have struck a chord with me.
Thanks for starting a thread, I'll frequent this one for sure.
Let's put a new coat of paint on this lonesome old town...
I envy you the joy of discovery. I'm a longtime fan of his.
I love Waits, and especially the period that you've been listening to, the 80s.
Wait's 70s albums, and there's been a few, have a number of great songs but his then straight balladeering with the piano/strings style is not something that I'm particularly interested most of the time.
His 80s sharp shift into some sort of grotesque cabaret style ( Kurt Weill + blues + some latin influences + folk + east European stuff) with experimental orchestrations and vocal delivery was what made me go wow, where did this come from (his wife most likely)! Incredible! That started with Swordfishtrombones (my favorite Waits album), then Rain Dogs, Frank's Wild Years, The Black Rider. All fantastic albums.
Haven't heard all of 90s and post 90s stuff, but I liked Bone Machine and Mule Variations even though I find them bit over-produced. His last album was also very good.
Sobriety is the key!
Big fan of Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones.
May I also suggest:
[asin]B000002GYG[/asin]
This is a favourute of mine. The guy is a genius.
Quote from: Sef on March 25, 2015, 06:17:20 AM
May I also suggest:
[asin]B000002GYG[/asin]
This is a favourute of mine. The guy is a genius.
And if you have Amazon Prime, this album is a free MP3 download. Check that....not free, unless you play it in your library.
After I digest these first 4 albums, I'm planning to get others. Right now, these are the ones I'm looking at:
Small Change
Alice
Mule Variations
Blue Valentine
That should give me a good representation of both Waits Mark I (pre-Brennan) and Waits Mark II. So far I love both of them, but I can see how Mark I was becoming a dead end for him.
Alice, is my favourite Tom Waites album. Humour, happiness, melancholy & madness. It really has everything. A really beautiful album.
"Tell me, who puts flowers on a flowers grave"?, always brings a tear.
Fish and Bird, another beauty.... No duds on this album.
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on March 25, 2015, 07:22:06 AM
Small Change
Small Change includes one of my favorite Waits' songs in his maudlin, barfly mode: "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)" ...it makes brilliant use of "Waltzing Matilda" (the song's about a night he spent with a woman actually named Matilda).
Quote from: AnthonyAthletic on March 25, 2015, 07:43:27 AM
Alice, is my favourite Tom Waites album. Humour, happiness, melancholy & madness. It really has everything. A really beautiful album.
Alice is one of the few Waits' albums I don't own. I do like it's companion from 2002,
Blood Money.
Sarge
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on March 25, 2015, 07:53:34 AM
Small Change includes one of my favorite Waits' songs in his maudlin, barfly mode: "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)"
That's one of those great, heart-breaking songs from his early period, along with "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis," "Kentucky Avenue," "Martha," and "Ruby's Arms." So far that's what I love most about his early work: that luxurious melancholia and sense of loss.
O man, Kentucky Ave...
QuoteThen we'll spit on Ronnie Arnold and flip him the bird
And slash the tires on the school bus now don't say a word
I'll take a rusty nail and scratch your initials in my arm
And I'll show you how to sneak up on the roof of the drugstore
I'll take the spokes from your wheelchair and a magpie's wings
And I'll tie em to your shoulders and your feet
I'll steal a hacksaw from my dad and cut the braces off your legs
And we'll bury them tonight out in the cornfield
Quote from: sanantonio on March 25, 2015, 02:05:26 AM
Very interesting and articulate guy on other things too.
Speaking of which, this book looks interesting:
http://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/tom-waits-on-tom-waits-products-9781569763124.php
Separately, he is a wonderful on-screen element in Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King, and plays a major role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
Quote from: karlhenning on March 25, 2015, 09:01:22 AM
Separately, he is a wonderful on-screen element in Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King, and plays a major role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
I liked his performance in Jarmusch's
Down by Law. In fact, viewing that film was the proximate cause of my current exploration, as it features 2 songs from
Rain Dogs on the soundtrack.
He was also good in Altman's
Short Cuts, but he didn't provide music for that one.
I agree. I'd say Waits is my favourite living non-classical musician.
His first record is probably still my favorite:
[asin]B000002GXS[/asin]
However, there's at least one Waits album that I find unlistenable:
[asin]B0002MRKTK[/asin]
Quote from: Daverz on March 25, 2015, 02:18:40 PM
His first record is probably still my favorite:
[asin]B000002GXS[/asin]
That's his second record.
Closing Time was his first.
Sarge
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on March 25, 2015, 02:33:28 PM
That's his second record. Closing Time was his first.
Ah, OK. I really like that one, too, except that the Eagles ruined
Ol' 55 for me. I'd say my second favorite is
Small Change.
Tom Waits features on this album which is hypnotic, haunting and moving. Not to be missed:
[asin]B0000040UT[/asin]
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on March 24, 2015, 07:39:58 PM
Credit for his songwriting genius also belongs to his wife Kathleen Brennan, who has been his collaborator since the 1980s. As I understand it, she got him sober and helped him re-invent himself musically, which is why he's had such a long run of success.
Introducing him to the music of Captain Beefheart wasn't too shabby either.
Any opinions on the Orphans collection? 3 CDs of stuff he couldn't find a place for elsewhere. How does it stand up against his best work?
It's weird. I love the guy. I love his attitude, his writing, his imagery, his almost everything.. except for the music itself. There are a few songs I do enjoy but I remember going through all those classic albums and quickly losing interest every single time. Guess we're not meant for each other.. *sobs*
Quote from: Rinaldo on March 31, 2015, 08:54:01 AM
Guess we're not meant for each other.. *sobs*
Have you tried listening to other performers do his music? You might like it better that way. Some people are put off by his voice or manner of performance.
Meanwhile, I just got
Mule Variations.
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on March 31, 2015, 09:54:15 AM
Have you tried listening to other performers do his music? You might like it better that way. Some people are put off by his voice or manner of performance.
With reference to the above, here are a few examples I've enjoyed. It's particularly interesting to hear women interpret his songs, as their voices are so far away from Waits' own growly, boozy delivery. It gives a new perspective on things.
First up, Neko Case's understated, organ-backed version of "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgTPo4zRI2Q
Dutch singer Clara Bakker's stylish take on "Temptation" is about as far from the screechy falsetto of the original as you can get:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTUrnhK178E
Norwegian jazz singer Solveig Slettahjell does "Take It With Me" at the Oslo Jazz Festival:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q60YUnpbbHQ
The young progressive bluegrass artist Sarah Jarosz leads a rousing rendition of "Come On Up to the House":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbzASqc9Zqo
And finally, a Canadian band I'd never heard of, the Silver Hearts, and their hypnotic take on "Diamonds and Gold":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcT8Ntp_5xg
Youn Sun Nah covers Jockey Full of Bourbon
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tqzLixXp4xU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgWefgUxH2Y
And here's all 5 versions of "Way Down in the Hole," as used in The Wire, seasons 1-5 in order. The Waits original is in Season 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR9_wbTrInI
Don't forget the most famous cover, but certainly not the best, is Rod Stewert's Downtown Train.
Also for those new to Waits.....his 2002 album Blood Money is music for Büchner's play Woyzeck. This staged play was directed by Robert Wilson (who also directed Glass' opera Einstein on the Beach). Wilson and Waits also worked on The Black Rider and Alice.
Thanks for the tips, I checked a few of them and liked what I've heard. Might be the way to go.
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on April 04, 2015, 09:08:35 AM
Don't forget the most famous cover, but certainly not the best, is Rod Stewert's Downtown Train.
Eurgh...don't remind me >:D
QuoteAlso for those new to Waits.....his 2002 album Blood Money is music for Büchner's play Woyzeck. This staged play was directed by Robert Wilson (who also directed Glass' opera Einstein on the Beach). Wilson and Waits also worked on The Black Rider and Alice.
There's a certain amount of classical influence in his works, in addition to everything else. I think
The Black Rider has some relation to Weber's
Der Freischütz, though I'm not sure what. Also the above-mentioned collaboration with Gavin Bryars, and his citing of Harry Partch as an influence.
I was listening to the song "Please Wake Me Up," from
Frank's Wild Years, and thinking it sounded like something composed by Anton Webern. Really a startling little song.
Here's an interesting essay on Waits, by the distinguished historian Simon Schama:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/dec/09/popandrock
I don't agree with everything he says (why does he pick on Prokofiev of all people?), but it's a well-written inquiry into what makes Waits special and addictive.
I had a Waits phase a while back, and now this thread has me thinking about him again. The albums I enjoyed the most were...
Swordfishtrombones
Rain Dogs
Bone Machine
The Black Rider
So, yeah, sort of that middle period. After that it seemed like he was stuck on repeat but maybe I wasn't listening closely enough.
Beatniks+Louis Armstrong+Howlin' Wolf+Captain Beefheart
Quote from: MN Dave on April 24, 2015, 11:50:03 AM
Beatniks+Louis Armstrong+Howlin' Wolf+Captain Beefheart
+ the whole cabaret/ vaudeville/ Kurt Weill thing.
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on April 04, 2015, 09:08:35 AM
Don't forget the most famous cover
Around
these parts it's this: ;)
https://www.youtube.com/v/xRXhDQXhdXE
One of best songs, All The World Is Green, followed by an entertaining interview with Letterman...
https://www.youtube.com/v/33lOH7MPZQI
Speaking of covers - Scarlett Johansson of all people did a whole album of them. Reviews were scathing. However, I doubt it could be as bad as that album of Pat Boone singing heavy metal.
Here's another cute one. Canadian chanteuse Anna Atkinson accordionates her way through "Innocent When You Dream":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3cA5yCKUZg
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on April 24, 2015, 07:55:35 PM
Speaking of covers - Scarlett Johansson of all people did a whole album of them. Reviews were scathing. However, I doubt it could be as bad as that album of Pat Boone singing heavy metal.
Amazon DE has clips.
http://www.amazon.de/Anywhere-I-Lay-My-Head/dp/B001713CMY/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1429962928&sr=1-1&keywords=Scarlett+Johansson
She can't sing...but then Tom can't either so I don't think that's necessarily a negative comment :D
Sarge
Quote from: Daverz on April 03, 2015, 12:20:57 PM
Youn Sun Nah covers Jockey Full of Bourbon
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tqzLixXp4xU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgWefgUxH2Y
Wonderful as this Jazz version is, Youtube follows it up with a more trad blues performance by Joe Bonamassa. You can actually understand the story, and I was impressed with his guitar picking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8lOSERcJFE
Now this one looks interesting. This is a Gavin Bryars project, featuring an opera singer (Jessica Walker) and a "circus band," doing a bunch of Waits and Waits/Brennan songs. There's even some Kurt Weill and Bryars himself thrown in.
http://www.amazon.com/Mercy-And-Grand-Kathleen-Brennan/dp/B007U3Q8JC/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_2
I listened to the samples. At first I thought the operatic voice was totally unidiomatic, but the more I listened, the more I liked it.
This one looks like a real curiosity.
Wolfgang Ambros is an Austrian pop singer. Here, he sings a whole album of Tom Waits songs, but they are 1) translated not just into German but specifically into Viennese dialect, and 2) apparently "localized" in terms of content. Thus for instance instead of "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" we get "Christmas Greetings from a Hooker in Floridsdorf" (a district of Vienna).
Check it out here:
http://www.amazon.de/Ambros-Singt-Waits-Nach-Mir-Sintflut/dp/B00004Z0E7
Apparently, he's done a Bob Dylan album too!
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on May 02, 2015, 06:49:59 PM
Now this one looks interesting. This is a Gavin Bryars project, featuring an opera singer (Jessica Walker) and a "circus band," doing a bunch of Waits and Waits/Brennan songs. There's even some Kurt Weill and Bryars himself thrown in.
http://www.amazon.com/Mercy-And-Grand-Kathleen-Brennan/dp/B007U3Q8JC/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_2
I listened to the samples. At first I thought the operatic voice was totally unidiomatic, but the more I listened, the more I liked it.
Curiosity got the best of me, so I gave in and acquired this disc. And I'm glad I did: it's fascinating. Not everything works, but enough does to keep it consistently interesting. It helps that several of the songs are among my favorites.
This album is reflective of a trend. Some of Waits' songs have become popular among opera and lieder singers (to cite a couple of examples, Anne-Sofie von Otter and Nathan Gunn have recorded a few). This record however may be the most extensive example of this, with the singer, Jess Walker, doing 13 of the songs, plus the Weill material and a couple of folk songs thrown in.
As a whole, the album can be deemed an example of successful crossover. That doesn't happen too often, does it? Here's a review:
http://audaud.com/2012/10/mercy-and-grand-the-music-of-tom-waits-and-kathleen-brennan-gb-record/
Quote from: Thatfabulousalien on May 12, 2017, 04:34:54 PM
but I can't listen to songs like "Who are you" or "A little rain", without starting to tear up. (Those songs and types of Waits ballads get to me so strongly on a personal level, like Mahler's 9th, Messiaen's Eclairs, Enya's Watermark, Devin Townsend's Deadhead etc.)
Thanks for bringing this up again, Alien. "A Little Rain" is a particularly fascinating song, because depending on how you interpret it, it's either very sinister and bleak, or cheerful and relaxed. Almost pointillist in character.
Quote from: Thatfabulousalien on May 12, 2017, 06:16:27 PM
That kind of message, with it's element of open-endedness makes me reflect on my own life, time, mortality and regret, which is quite powerful for me. Well not in a happy hind of powerful but I think you understand :)
As long as we're "tearing up," here's my choice of saddest / most poignant Waits songs:
"Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis": One of the most eloquent statements of life at the bottom. Comparable to Raymond Carver at his most quietly devastating.
"Whistle Down the Wind": This song is an illustration of Thoreau's dictum that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
"Soldier's Things": A tribute to those we use to fight our wars, and then throw away.
"Tom Traubert's Blues": It's sad, but it's also surreal, cryptic and multi-layered - a song that keeps you guessing as to its meaning, even while the anguish comes through loud and clear.
"Martha": The passage of time (I love the melodic hints of "Old Man River"), and regret over the chances we've lost.
"Kentucky Avenue": Nostalgia sure can be devastating.
"Train Song": This is what it sounds like when you just give up.
"Lullaby": Let's tell the kids some brutal truths about life.
My vote for "tearing up" Tom Waits song: "Cold, Cold Ground"
I mentioned the wonderful and wacky Big Time concert film on another thread, which is one of my favorite TW releases, and has a lovely version of that song (and a playlist taken from Swordfishtrombones/Rain Dogs/Franks Wild Years in performances that often better the already remarkable originals):
https://www.youtube.com/v/0Ow45kTJqhg
as well as classic moments such as this:
https://www.youtube.com/v/cApn8Ff2CwY
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 12, 2017, 09:28:23 PM
My vote for "tearing up" Tom Waits song: "Cold, Cold Ground"
Yeah, that's another good one. A couple more I wanted to mention:
"Blue Valentines": It's not really a weeper, but it's a fascinatingly creepy song. Supposedly about recovering from a romantic breakup, the lyrics suggest a much deeper level of trauma or crime, without explicitly stating anything.
"Poor Edward": Again, more of a creeper than a weeper. Based on the (probably legendary) case of Edward Mordake, the man with two faces (literally!).
Which leads to - what are your favorite nutty / crazy / off-the-wall Waits songs? I like in particular:
"Underground": This reminds me of the time I had to share a train compartment with a man who was obsessed with UFOs and just wouldn't shut up on the subject. Except in the song, the narrator is obsessed with telling us how "there's a world going on underground!"
"Cemetery Polka": In the way it veers between sense and nonsense, it reminds me of Louis MacNeice's poem "Bagpipe Music."
"What's He Building": OK, a spoken-word piece rather than a song, but a brilliant evocation of post-9/11 paranoia (even though it came out a couple years before that happened).
Some of Waits oldies, The Heart of Saturday Night, Martha, and I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love In Love With You always get me :'(
Some more that tug at the strings... The Briar and The Rose, Lost in the Harbour, A Little Rain, Dirt in the Ground,
Here are two amazing Waits resources I just discovered.
"Song by Song" is an ongoing podcast by a couple (sometimes trio) of Waits enthusiasts. They are analyzing, podcast by podcast, every single song in his output. As of now they are about halfway through Rain Dogs, at "Time" (song No. 115 in the series), which puts them about halfway through Waits' recorded oeuvre as a whole:
http://www.songbysongpodcast.com/
"The Tom Waits Map" was put together by a Swedish fan. It pinpoints every single geographical location mentioned in a Waits song, and links to the relevant song lyric:
http://tomwaitsmap.com/
Ah, the power of obsession!
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on December 13, 2017, 03:10:10 PM
Here are two amazing Waits resources I just discovered.
"Song by Song" is an ongoing podcast by a couple (sometimes trio) of Waits enthusiasts. They are analyzing, podcast by podcast, every single song in his output. As of now they are about halfway through Rain Dogs, at "Time" (song No. 115 in the series), which puts them about halfway through Waits' recorded oeuvre as a whole:
http://www.songbysongpodcast.com/
"The Tom Waits Map" was put together by a Swedish fan. It pinpoints every single geographical location mentioned in a Waits song, and links to the relevant song lyric:
http://tomwaitsmap.com/
Ah, the power of obsession!
I now know what my weekend plans include. Thanks for the post!
Tom Waits is one of the best musicians of the last few millennia, everyone included.
https://www.youtube.com/v/50GvkAO0OIg
"When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled "made in Germany"; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, 'Americanism'.
~ Halford E. Luccock, in "Keeping Life Out of Confusion" (11 September 1938)