# Need some Tom Waits...Suggestions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2006, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535 "2006-04-13T16:00:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bat312](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c77e96/32.png) [@bat312](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bat312)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/1 "2006-04-13T16:00:51Z")
Need some more Tom Waits. I already have Closing Time and Night Hawks at the Diner. What might you suggest? ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/2 "2006-04-13T16:07:10Z")
_Frank’s Wild Years_ It’s loosely based around a plot, and has some of the best jazz-influenced Tom Waits songs, including “Temptation,” the dirtiest song I know. ---
**Author:** ![MsMitey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@MsMitey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsMitey)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/3 "2006-04-13T16:07:12Z")
> [@bat312](#): > > Need some more Tom Waits. I already have Closing Time and Night Hawks at the Diner. > > What might you suggest? I like Mule Variations a whole lot. It’s bluesy, but with a nice rough edge on it. Hold On is a beautiful song. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/4 "2006-04-13T16:26:08Z")
Closing Time is the best album of the early years (the paino bar years). It has some of my favorite songs ever “Grapefruit Moon”, “Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love with You” (the song that got me into Tom Waits after I accidentally heard Hootie and the Blowfish do a cover of it) and “Little Trip to Heaven” Mule Variations is very good. I also liked Alice (Blood Money, its companion album was just ok in my opinion). You might want to pick up “Beautiful Maladies” which is a compilation of a lot of his 80s stuff. It has some of his great “clang boom clang” darkside songs. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/5 "2006-04-13T16:31:03Z")
Nighthawks is probably my fave, but I also find myself reaching for Heart Attack and Vine quite often. Of course, I pretty much consider just about everything after that his “new stuff” which I don’t care for as much… If you like what you have, I doubt you’ll be disappointed with Small Change, Blue Valentine, or Foreign Affairs. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/6 "2006-04-13T16:32:17Z")
Foreign Affairs is really underrated in my opinion. It’s a short record (wht is it 7 or 8 songs?) but some really great stuff is on there. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/7 "2006-04-13T16:33:24Z")
Seconding _Frank’s Wild Years_. Also _Swordfishtrombones_. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/8 "2006-04-13T16:38:26Z")
It’s pretty raw, lots of guitar and heavy drums. _Goin’ Out West_, probably the closest Tom eveer came to writing a pop song. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/9 "2006-04-13T17:01:30Z")
What?! No love for _The Early Years_? I like Vol. 1 the best. The Doctor ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/10 "2006-04-13T17:24:54Z")
You’ve mostly got his early stuff so I would say pick up \*Heart Attack and Vine \* to round out the early years, then pick up _Swordfishtrombones_ to see if you like his “new” sound (I think it is the most accessible of his new sound records). If you dig _Swordfishtrombones_ run right out and pick up _Franks Wild Years_, _Rain Dogs_, and _Mule Variations_. From there pick up _Bone Machine_, _Alice_, _Real Gone_, and \*Blood Money \* (in that order.) Then go back and pick up the early years compellations to get the songs that you missed on his other early albums. Also if you happen to see it (and if you like live albums) grab _Big Time_, a really great live record which plays a little bit of everything from his catalogue (up to that point). But you already have his best album, the horribly underrated and mostly forgotten _Nighthawks at the Diner_. Unlike anything he has done before or since. This was the album that changed me from being a Tom Waits appreciator into a crazy Tom Waits zealot. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/11 "2006-04-13T17:33:22Z")
I gotta vote for Rain Dogs and Bone Machine and of course every other album, but “Going out West” is worth the price of Bone Machine alone. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/12 "2006-04-13T17:48:46Z")
The true gem on _Bone Machine_ for me will always be “Murder in the Red Barn.” “Cause there’s nothing strange about an axe with bloodstains in the barn. There’s always some killin’ you got to do around the farm…” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/13 "2006-04-13T17:56:14Z")
> [@MsMitey](#): > > Hold On is a beautiful song. Oh god, isn’t it though? I swear, he spied into my soul for that one. I don’t have nearly all of Waits’ albums, but _Swordfishtrombones_ is my favorite. And I’m a _big_ fan of the latest one, _Real Gone_. Funny, I just got _Small Change_ yesterday. Time to trot out my Tom Waits story: I saw him live before he was well known, as an unadvertised support act for Frank Zappa at a gig in San Diego in 1974. (I had seen Waits on Chip Monck’s TV show, so I was probably one of the few people in the hall who knew who he was.) Zappa’s band was having trouble with their equipment, and were still soundchecking when the audience was let into the hall. After a while, with the starting time of the concert having passed, Zappa decided to have the band play a few songs while the roadies struggled with the equipment. After three or four songs, Zappa declared that the situation was as good as it was going to get, and _then_ introduced the opening act. Having already had a taste of the main attraction, the audience quickly grew actively hostile to Waits, who performed solo with an electric piano. Some cretin near me kept yelling “Somebody _shoot_ that fucker!” This was the nastiest audience reaction I ever saw, until years later when I saw a Richard Thompson audience drive Victoria Williams off the stage in tears at the Fillmore. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/14 "2006-04-13T17:57:37Z")
I have _Heart of Saturday Night_ in addition to _Nighthawks_ and _Heart Attack and Vine_, and I love them all. The newer stuff, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/15 "2006-04-13T18:05:23Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > Oh god, isn’t it though? I swear, he spied into my soul for that one. > > I don’t have nearly all of Waits’ albums, but _Swordfishtrombones_ is my favorite. And I’m a _big_ fan of the latest one, _Real Gone_. Funny, I just got _Small Change_ yesterday. > > Time to trot out my Tom Waits story: I saw him live before he was well known, as an unadvertised support act for Frank Zappa at a gig in San Diego in 1974. (I had seen Waits on Chip Monck’s TV show, so I was probably one of the few people in the hall who knew who he was.) Zappa’s band was having trouble with their equipment, and were still soundchecking when the audience was let into the hall. After a while, with the starting time of the concert having passed, Zappa decided to have the band play a few songs while the roadies struggled with the equipment. After three or four songs, Zappa declared that the situation was as good as it was going to get, and _then_ introduced the opening act. Having already had a taste of the main attraction, the audience quickly grew actively hostile to Waits, who performed solo with an electric piano. Some cretin near me kept yelling “Somebody _shoot_ that fucker!” This was the nastiest audience reaction I ever saw, until years later when I saw a Richard Thompson audience drive Victoria Williams off the stage in tears at the Fillmore. Yeah, Zappa’s audiences were legendary in their hate for Tom Waits at first. Not their vibe or expectation. Zappa knew Waits was a genius, but he really, REALLY needed his own shows and venues to make a splash. Oh, and _Real Gone_. Great album, but IMO, Marc Ribot steals the whole freaking album with that twisted, awesome solo he does on “Hoist That Rag.” I love to just listen to that part over and over again for some reason, and I’m not a big fan of guitar solos. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/16 "2006-04-13T18:06:25Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Seconding _Frank’s Wild Years_. And a third - it’s just a great album. _Rain Dogs_ is just as good, too. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/17 "2006-04-13T18:30:48Z")
Another CD you might really like is [Extremely Cool](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000I04N/sr=8-2/qid=1144952760/ref=sr_1_2/102-5470274-1863358?%5Fencoding=UTF8), by Chuck E. Weiss (he of “Chuck E.'s In Love”), to which Waits makes many contributions. It’s a real treat, and a great addition to any Waits’ fan’s collection. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/18 "2006-04-13T18:48:01Z")
Not like you need it, but another vote for _Swordfishtrombones_. I’m not enough of a Waits connoisseur to have developed well-informed snobbery, so I’d say that is THE Tom Waits album to own, if you have to own just one. To be honest, I might recommend perusing iTunes if their Waits catalogue is beefy enough. I find the T.W. oeuvre to be pretty uneven, aesthetically, and I’m not afraid to say I love some of it, while some of his tunes make we pine for sounds of mechanized dental care. The ability to pick and choose would be a plus, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/19 "2006-04-13T19:44:59Z")
_The Heart of Saturday Night_ - A nice compliment to the older stuff you already have, and one of my favourite Tom albums ever. _Fumblin’ With the Blues_, _Shiver Me Timbers_, _Diamonds On My Windshield_…flawless. _Small Change_ - Still has that old, bluesy, spoken-word feeling, but really when Tom started to change his style a bit from the goateed beatnik to the maudlin piano-playing barfly. _Blue Valentine_ - One of Tom’s most underrated albums, and as I fondly refer to it, Tom’s “young-girls-meeting-horrible-fates” album. _Rain Dogs_ - If I had to pick Tom’s best album, this’d be it. Not a single song on it goes wrong, and this is often the album that gets folks **into** Tom Waits. I know it did it for me. Aw hell, just do yourself a favour and go buy everything he’s ever done, you’ll thank me later. ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535/20 "2006-04-13T20:12:42Z")
I quasi-recently bought _ **The Heart of Saturday Night** _, and have listened to it a countless number of times. I mean, I’ve set this CD into my CD/DVD player, punched the repeat button, and let it go for hours on end while I did my homework. Only to do this again and again, for about every day in the month. And I’m still listening to it. It’s without a doubt the most beautiful album I own. Do yourself a favor and check out “Drunk on the Moon”, and “Please Call me, Baby” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-tom-waits-suggestions/352535.md?page=2)