Bone Machine is a rough-hewn and striking album, although it verges on “scary hobo” self-parody sometimes, in my view. The gentler songs from it would be “A Little Rain,” “Whistle Down the Wind,” and “That Feel.” “Goin’ Out West” is a bit growlier but also a lot of fun.
That seems like the obvious choice, but I’m leaning toward Waits and wine.
Waits and tequila shots sounds good, but only if you’re drinking them alone, preferably from a small paper Dixie cup in a seedy motel with a buzzing neon vacancy sign, waiting for an aging hooker named Sally to show up and steal your wallet, again.
Which is how you know it’s love.
My favorite Tom Waits album is Heart of Saturday Night, his second studio album released in 1974. It was a tribute to Jack Kerouac, and it’s got a very accessible blues and folksy sound. Great for road trips and/or weeping into a glass of whiskey.
I start people off with the video for “Hell Broke Luce.” If they’re still standing and capable of speech, I recommend other stuff.
I’ve seen Threepenny Opera, and there are probably more memorable lyrics in Singapore alone. “Danced upon the colored wind/Dangled from a rope of sand … walked the sewers of Paris…” incredible stuff.
As a Brit with a fetish for Americana (the primary reason for being here) I have little complaint with any of his output. Alice and Blue Valentine are my favourites for heart-breaking beauty, but I love that cinematic seventies lounge music in a different way.
Just came in to say “welcome friend!” I’m a huge Tom fan going back to high school (mine, not his).
I’d set up a Tom Waits Pandora station and track which songs you like most and then explore those albums.
Seconded. Not my favorite Waits album but in my top three. I’m definitely more of a fan of the bluesier jazzier Waits than the later “junkyard hobo” version. (Although count me in as another who loves to crank up “Filipino Box Spring Hog” :D).
Goddamn, that’s a hell of a song.
Most of my family are Tom Waits fans.
A couple of my favourites, for what it’s worth:
Cold Cold Ground
I like that idea.
Also this, I accidentally left my LP copy of Small Change at my mum’s house when I moved. My mom picked it up, listened, and now is a big Tom Waits fan.
Yeah… maybe try the tribute album September Songs to get a nice sampling of his songs done by lots of famous artists. For example, Don’t Be Afraid sung by Mary Margaret O’Hara, which is pretty much a transcendent experience for me:
OR omgLou Reed!!!1! singing September Song:
Holly Cole does some outstanding Tom Waits covers (and some no so, IMO)
Falling Down is one of the best. Again IMO.
If you ever get a chance watch the all-star “Roy Orbison & Friends: Back and White Night”, which is outstanding EXCEPT for Waits, who appeared to be totally smashed on stage, was hitting random chords, and apparently was led off stage by Elvis Costello, who then took over the keyboards.
Íf you’ve got 80 minutes, I’m also a big fan of Gavin Bryars Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet with Tom Waits vocals. Kind of experimental, I guess, but meditative and soothing.
Some of the best versions of Waits’ songs are on Big Time, a musical play he released. The soundtrack is great.
The versions of Red Shoes and Telephone Call From Istanbul on it are the versions in my mind. Marc Ribot’s guitar just matches Waits’ songs perfectly.
With too much makeup and a broken shoe.
If you like Come On Up To The House, search out:
whistling down the wind
Tom trauberts blues (3 sheets to the wind in Copenhagen)
A little rain
Who are you
Cold water
Picture in a frame
House where nobody lives
Mr Siegel
Step right up
From Heart Attack and Vine: “Don’t you know there ain’t no Devil, that’s just God when he’s drunk.” Best line ever!
(used to be my sig here when I still had one)