Tom Waits
Born Dec. 7, 1949 in Pomona, Calif.
Excerpt from MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (Visible Ink Press, 1999)
With a voice that sounds like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car a few times, Waits is something of an acquired taste. Yet it’s his songs that are the real selling point, and Waits’ detailed accounts of losers with hearts of gold have won over the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Bette Midler, the Eagles, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, the Ramones, Johnny Cash, Bob Seger and Dion, all of whom have recorded his material. Starting out as the embodiment of dissipated hipster slackness, Waits reached a creative dead-end with that persona and proceeded to reinvent himself as a ravaged-voice Howlin’ Wolf acolyte backed by a combination of avant-rock and traffic noise. Not only did the change reinvigorate his music, it expanded his horizons; Waits has since performed in a stage production he wrote with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, and a filmed cabaret-style concert. He has also acted in a number of films, including “Short Cuts,” “Ironweed,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “Mystery Train” and “Rumblefish.” Considering the risks he takes in all facets of his career, it’s to Waits’ credit that nearly every move he makes is worth paying attention to.
What to buy: The first two installments of a loose trilogy that also includes Franks Wild Years, Swordfishtrombones (Island, 1983, prod. Tom Waits) ****½ and Rain Dogs (Island, 1985, prod. Tom Waits) ***** finds Waits writing the strongest material of his career. The sound is unsettling, to say the least, yet even through the odd instrumental textures, sprung rhythms and barked vocals, Waits’ songs (including the Stewart hit “Downtown Train”) come through loud and clear. Bone Machine (Island, 1992, prod. Tom Waits) **** ups the clatter quotient even further, and the material is Waits’ most harrowing ever – including “Earth Died Screaming,” “Dirt in the Ground” and “Jesus Gonna Be Here.” On his debut album, Tom Waits (Asylum, 1973, prod. Jerry Yester) ***½ the singer may be sentimental in the way people are after a few too many cocktails, and his voice slightly ravaged (though not so much as it would get on later albums), yet songs such as “Ol’ 55,” “Midnight Lullaby” and “Martha” are so good they transcend his shortcomings.
What to buy next: Many find Waits’ monologue-laden live album Nighthawks at the Diner (Asylum, 1975, prod. Bones Howe) ***½ hopelessly shticky, but it’s the album on which his early beatnik persona came into full flower, for good or ill. Waits tells hilarious tall tales and one-liners, cranks out some sidewalk sociology in verse form and even performs a few songs – notably a memorable version of Red Sovine’s trucker epic “Big Joe and Phantom 309.” Small Change (Asylum, 1976, prod. Bones Howe) kicks off with the syrupy yet effective “Tom Traubert’s Blues,” but things pick up fast with “Step Right Up,” which finds Waits improvising a huckster’s jive at a mile a minute. Anthology of Tom Waits (Asylum, 1985, prod. Jerry Yester and Bones Howe) ***½ offers a serviceable selection of Waits’ years on Asylum, but there are too many omissions to make it essential.
What to avoid: The Early Years (Bizarre/Straight, 1991, prod. Bob Duffey) ** includes four songs that Waits re-recorded for Closing Time, but it’s ultimately for curiosity seekers and diehard fans only – as is The Early Years Volume 2 (Bizarre/Straight, 1992, prod. Bob Duffey) *½
The Rest: The Heart of Saturday Night (Asylum, 1974) *** Foreign Affairs (Asylum, 1977) *** Blue Valentine (Asylum, 1978) *** Heart Attack and Vine (Asylum, 1980) ***½ Franks Wild Years (Island, 1987) ***½ Big Time (Island, 1988) *** ½ Night on Earth soundtrack (Island, 1992) *** The Black Rider (Island, 1993) ***
Worth searching for: The soundtrack from Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart (Columbia, 1982, prod. Bones Howe) ***½ pairs Waits’ gutter growl against the honeyed crooning of country-music chanteuse Crystal Gayle – a terrible idea on paper, perhaps, but magic on disc.
--> Rickie Lee Jones, Beck, Soul Coughing
<-- Chet Baker, Charles Bukowski, Captain Beefheart, Howlin’ Wolf
Born Dec. 7, 1949 in Pomona, Calif.
Excerpt from MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (Visible Ink Press, 1999)
With a voice that sounds like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car a few times, Waits is something of an acquired taste. Yet it’s his songs that are the real selling point, and Waits’ detailed accounts of losers with hearts of gold have won over the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Bette Midler, the Eagles, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, the Ramones, Johnny Cash, Bob Seger and Dion, all of whom have recorded his material. Starting out as the embodiment of dissipated hipster slackness, Waits reached a creative dead-end with that persona and proceeded to reinvent himself as a ravaged-voice Howlin’ Wolf acolyte backed by a combination of avant-rock and traffic noise. Not only did the change reinvigorate his music, it expanded his horizons; Waits has since performed in a stage production he wrote with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, and a filmed cabaret-style concert. He has also acted in a number of films, including “Short Cuts,” “Ironweed,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “Mystery Train” and “Rumblefish.” Considering the risks he takes in all facets of his career, it’s to Waits’ credit that nearly every move he makes is worth paying attention to.
What to buy: The first two installments of a loose trilogy that also includes Franks Wild Years, Swordfishtrombones (Island, 1983, prod. Tom Waits) ****½ and Rain Dogs (Island, 1985, prod. Tom Waits) ***** finds Waits writing the strongest material of his career. The sound is unsettling, to say the least, yet even through the odd instrumental textures, sprung rhythms and barked vocals, Waits’ songs (including the Stewart hit “Downtown Train”) come through loud and clear. Bone Machine (Island, 1992, prod. Tom Waits) **** ups the clatter quotient even further, and the material is Waits’ most harrowing ever – including “Earth Died Screaming,” “Dirt in the Ground” and “Jesus Gonna Be Here.” On his debut album, Tom Waits (Asylum, 1973, prod. Jerry Yester) ***½ the singer may be sentimental in the way people are after a few too many cocktails, and his voice slightly ravaged (though not so much as it would get on later albums), yet songs such as “Ol’ 55,” “Midnight Lullaby” and “Martha” are so good they transcend his shortcomings.
What to buy next: Many find Waits’ monologue-laden live album Nighthawks at the Diner (Asylum, 1975, prod. Bones Howe) ***½ hopelessly shticky, but it’s the album on which his early beatnik persona came into full flower, for good or ill. Waits tells hilarious tall tales and one-liners, cranks out some sidewalk sociology in verse form and even performs a few songs – notably a memorable version of Red Sovine’s trucker epic “Big Joe and Phantom 309.” Small Change (Asylum, 1976, prod. Bones Howe) kicks off with the syrupy yet effective “Tom Traubert’s Blues,” but things pick up fast with “Step Right Up,” which finds Waits improvising a huckster’s jive at a mile a minute. Anthology of Tom Waits (Asylum, 1985, prod. Jerry Yester and Bones Howe) ***½ offers a serviceable selection of Waits’ years on Asylum, but there are too many omissions to make it essential.
What to avoid: The Early Years (Bizarre/Straight, 1991, prod. Bob Duffey) ** includes four songs that Waits re-recorded for Closing Time, but it’s ultimately for curiosity seekers and diehard fans only – as is The Early Years Volume 2 (Bizarre/Straight, 1992, prod. Bob Duffey) *½
The Rest: The Heart of Saturday Night (Asylum, 1974) *** Foreign Affairs (Asylum, 1977) *** Blue Valentine (Asylum, 1978) *** Heart Attack and Vine (Asylum, 1980) ***½ Franks Wild Years (Island, 1987) ***½ Big Time (Island, 1988) *** ½ Night on Earth soundtrack (Island, 1992) *** The Black Rider (Island, 1993) ***
Worth searching for: The soundtrack from Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart (Columbia, 1982, prod. Bones Howe) ***½ pairs Waits’ gutter growl against the honeyed crooning of country-music chanteuse Crystal Gayle – a terrible idea on paper, perhaps, but magic on disc.
--> Rickie Lee Jones, Beck, Soul Coughing
<-- Chet Baker, Charles Bukowski, Captain Beefheart, Howlin’ Wolf