[QUOTE=Mr. Svinlesha]
Perhaps one of the TW fans out there can help me out, then, I’m looking for a couple of items…
One is a song sung as if Waits was one of these crazy late-night TV salesmen. He doesn’t ever describe precisely what it is he’s trying to sell, but you’ll be glad to know that it never needs winding, never needs winding, never needs winding… it’ll get you a job, it is a job, turn into a nine-year-old Hindu boy and get rid of your wife…you don’t know the meaning of heartache, buddy… Sound familiar? Anybody know where I can find this particular jewel, and what it’s called?
Next, I saw a fantastic little clip of Waits playing live, once, at the piano, and talking about loneliness. How when you’re alone, you might sit there and talk to yourself…maybe share a drink and put your arm around yourself… yeah, sure enough, next thing you know you’re takin advantage of yourself… This ought to be on You Tube somewhere, or is connected to a song as well, but I’ve spent hours reviewing You Tube clips of Waits without finding it. Anybody have a lead?
There are too many great songs he’s written to list all my favs, but I do want to recommend Murder in the Red Barn as one of my top ten.
[/QUOTE]
The first one is “Step Right Up” from “Small Change”. That’s what I remember seeing him play on SNL all those years ago. And the second one is (I think) “Better off without a Wife” from “Nighthawks at the Diner”.
[QUOTE=Mr. Svinlesha]
One is a song sung as if Waits was one of these crazy late-night TV salesmen. He doesn’t ever describe precisely what it is he’s trying to sell, but you’ll be glad to know that it never needs winding, never needs winding, never needs winding… it’ll get you a job, it is a job, turn into a nine-year-old Hindu boy and get rid of your wife…you don’t know the meaning of heartache, buddy… Sound familiar? Anybody know where I can find this particular jewel, and what it’s called?
[/QUOTE]
Song lyrics + Google = easy results. The title is Step Right Up. It was originally on the album Small Change, and also appears on the collection Used Songs (which is how I know it).
[QUOTE=sturmhauke]
Song lyrics + Google = easy results. The title is Step Right Up. It was originally on the album Small Change, and also appears on the collection Used Songs (which is how I know it).
[/QUOTE]
While not often a fan of collections, I have to say that Used Songs is an absolutely perfect primer for those looking to get into some early to mid Tom Waits. There is not a clunker on that thing! I could (and do) listen to it over and over and over and …
[QUOTE=Push You Down]
On his last 3 disc album one of the tracks was him detailing the plot of the original King Kong in an odd (even for him) strained voice over unsettling “music”.
[/QUOTE]
That was a cover of a song by the eccentric (to put it kindly) singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston. It was also included on an album of covers of Johnston’s songs called The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered.
Back to Tom Waits: He’s definitely one of my favorites. I once heard “Blue Valentines” on the radio while driving through the northern Georgia countryside at 2 a.m. and nearly saw God.
[QUOTE=Shoeless]
John Hammond did an album of Tom Waits covers a few years ago called “Wicked Grin”. It’s on my list of stuff to buy some day when I have some extra money to spend.
[/QUOTE]
Right after the release of Wicked Grin, John performed at a friend’s club in Pittsburgh. I got to meet the Hammonds. It was cool to talk with John as one Waits fan to another. He told me that as great as TW’s music is, he is even cooler in person.
As an aside, John recounted meeting Bob Dylan early in Dylan’s career, when Hammond’s father (John Senior) “discovered” Dylan.
[QUOTE=Ogre] Frank’s Wild Years, Bone Machine, Nighthawks at the Diner, Blue Valentine, Swordfishtrombones. I think I have everything Tom Waits has ever done, and I love it all, but these are my all-time favorites.
[/QUOTE]
Hmm, you might be ripe for conversion to The Tiger Lillies. If you haven’t heard them, I recommend starting with their album The Brothel to the Cemetery.
I don’t have much to add to the praise others have heaped on Waits. All I can say is that for 20 years now it is Tom Waits’ music that I’ve returned and returned to no matter where else my muscial tastes have led me. Johnsburg, Illinois may be my favourite song.
[QUOTE=ShadowFacts]
Has anyone here seen a production of a Waits/Robert Wilson collaboration (Black Rider, Alice or Woycek)? I saw the script for Alice once and it was, perhaps not surprisingly, quite obscure. On paper, anyway. I bet visually it makes a lot more sense. But I’d really be interested in an account from someone who had actually have seen one of these bad boys.
[/QUOTE]
I know this is almost a zombie, but I have seen Woyzeck (Blood Money) and The Black Rider.
Both were very enjoyable if you like that kind of thing. But you have to like that kind of thing.
I think I wrote a post about going to see The Black Rider…let’s see…hmm looks like a single post about the play that spawned a whole other thread.
Huge Tom Waits fan checking in. When my wife and I were dating, she couldn’t stand his voice and I said something like “well you better get used to it, you’re going to be hearing a lot of his music.” Now she has grown to appreciate him. Yesterday I was on a flight I listened to Waits the whole flight, from early stuff to his most recent album, just a mish-mash of Tom for the entire flight.
I think Rain Dogs is my favorite album, with Bone Machine a close second, but it’s all good.
I’ve been a huge Waits fan for quite a few years now. Got his first album when I was in high school (probably based on a thread here on the Dope,) and loved it. I listened once to “Singapore” to sample how I might like his later years and didn’t really like it. Then when I was in college I bought all his albums and loved the hell out of them. I saw “The Black Rider” when it came to LA and thought that was awesome (that also turned me on to Mary Margaret O’Hara, who was in the play.)
I’d saw my favorite album is Swordfishtrombones, but it’s really so hard to choose.
[QUOTE=Big Bad Voodoo Lou]
On that note, I’m actually very psyched for Scarlett Johanssen’s album of Tom Waits covers. The sexiest actress in Hollywood covering my favorite musician… even if it isn’t great, it should be interesting, but I think it will be quite good.
[/QUOTE]
When I told my girlfriend about this, she recommended that they call it Boner Machine. I love that girl.
I’ve never heard a Tom Waits album where I liked all of the music but he has had some great songs. My two favorites are “Jersey Girl” and “Blind Love.”
Thanks for linking to that thread - very interesting! As far as I am aware, no Waits show has ever been in the Boston area, so I’ve never had a real chance to see one. (And like yourself, I am a director, so I think I would be into it.) But I’ve always had ludicrous dreams of getting my hands on a script and staging one these shows myself. Ahhh, foolish dreams!
You all might be interested in this fascinating piece of obscure Waitsiana FROM 1978. The director won an Oscar for the technology used in this short, but nothing else came of it and the short faded quickly into obscurity until now.
[QUOTE=madmonk28]
When my wife and I were dating, she couldn’t stand his voice and I said something like “well you better get used to it, you’re going to be hearing a lot of his music.”
[/QUOTE]
The first time I was in my gf’s house, I started looking through her CDs while she got ready to go out. I came across her Waits section. . . they were all there! That’s when I knew it was love!
Actually, I knew it a few days prior, but that cemented things.
I found out about TW in an odd way. I used to be a huge collector of sheetmusic. I still have my collection but thanks to buying and playing all that I could get my hands on, I’ve got a better ear for picking out the music. Anyways, I kept seeing the two TW books (Anthology and Beautiful Maladies) at the local music shop. Being a little obsessive, I bought them sight unseen (or sound unheard as it were). I looked through the books and played them on the guitar and always meant to hear the real music but never did. Then came the beginning of Napster and my then-partner who had a T1 connection. I had the collection of TW for about a week before I ran out and bought all of the albums myself. I started chronologically with “Closing Time” and have been a fan since.
I remember loading up the CD changer and first hearing “Jockey Full of Bourbon” while cruising the wet Minneapolis pavement. That song was repeated for the rest of the drive.
I still haven’t been able to get into some of the more “sonic” experiments that rely more on atmosphere than ground. But I have to say that his wife Kathleen Brennan is the anti-Yoko in terms of influence. His music has grown stronger with her helping at the helm.
[QUOTE=Lady Eboshi]
You all might be interested in this fascinating piece of obscure Waitsiana FROM 1978. The director won an Oscar for the technology used in this short, but nothing else came of it and the short faded quickly into obscurity until now.
[/QUOTE]
I received several CDs of Dr. Demento shows that my friend made, and one of them had a segment on Tom. There was a short interview, followed by three songs that I can recall right now (Pasties and a G-string, The Cemetary Polka, and The Piano Has Been Drinking).
