Tom Waits

<---see handle. *ahem*.

The man is one of our greatest living performers. If you ever get a chance to see him live, make it happen, no matter what.

Seeing someone else perform Frank's Wild Years? I dunno. I guess if they have passion for the material, it could be good.

Oh, and "Big Time" needs a DVD release. It's a criminally underseen film that's currently out of print on video.

I didn't know it was a full-on play, actually. Be interested in hearing how that turns out.

I wasn't crazy about Alice and never even bothered buying Blood Money, but love just about everything else from the 80s on. Not as well-versed on the 70s stuff, except for the Heart of Saturday Night and Closing Time.

Saw him a few years ago, and it was as good as you'd expect.

My favorite album of his is Bone Machine. He's one of the greatest songwriters alive, no contest.

Heart of Saturday Night, Nighthawks at the Diner, and Rain Dogs are all beloved parts of my collection. Mule Variations is pretty cool but overall, the guy is like Dylan or Costello in the fact that his catalog is just so huge and diverse that it can be a little bit intimidating if you don't know where to start or what's what. How about some of the bigger fans on here share which albums, and more importantly WHY, are your favorites.

As mentioned, I'm not super-familiar with the 70s material, but that stuff seems a bit more standard to me - probably easier to get into, but less rewarding, long-term.

But, of the post-Swordfishtrombones stuff (where he started getting weird), definitely start with either Rain Dogs or the slightly clankier Bone Machine. They're just solid collections of songs with little filler, and the two albums are still stylistically different enough where it's not just more of the same. Both have noisy bangers and tender piano ballads, and they're all perfectly written.

Swordfishtrombones would also be a great choice, but it's more transitional - the clankers don't clank as much, the ballads aren't as developed (though a couple are essential). Mule Variations and Frank's Wild Years also have a nice mix of his styles with high points easily as good as anything on Bone Machine or Rain Dogs, but there's slightly more mediocre stuff padding out the discs (though I hesitate to call any of it "bad").

Rain Dogs, Bone Machine, and Mule Variations are three of the greatest albums ever. If you haven't heard them, go buy them now.

If I had to make a list of the top 10 living artists that I'd like to hang out with, Tom would be high on that list. He is genius, an original, hilarious and seems so freakin' down-to-earth and genuine in his weirdom. I love every album of his that I have heard and I have heard most of them in the 10 or so years that I have been digging his music.

I never considered this, but it is real hard to pick favorite Tom Waits albums - though I can almost always pick favorites from bands/artists. I guess that is partly because he has always been such a chamaleon and an immensely talented one at that. To be honest, "The Heart of Saturday Night" and "Nighthawks At the Diner" are closest to my heart, but the albums that really take me to another place are...
"Rain Dogs"
"Swordfishtrombones"
"Bone Machine"
I really love "Mule Variations" and "Alice" but haven't listened to them enough yet to rank them at the top. "Blood Money" is good too, but as I alluded to earlier, you'd be hard-pressed to find a bad Tom Waits album.

Regarding "Big Time" being on DVD, I thought that I read somewhere that it was out or is being released. I guess I need to research that further before saying for sure.

If anyone is thinking of buying a Waits album and wants an opinion 1st, I'll offer my 10 cents. There are probably just a couple of Waits albums that I do not have on CD or cassette..."Frank's Wild Years" is one of them and I really need to get it because I have heard it and it is very good too.

I'm an absolute sucker for all the 70's stuff from Closing Time through to Heart Attack and Vine - save Foreign Affairs which never reaches the giddy heights of, say, Small Change even though it has the rollocking "Jack & Neal/California Here I Come". "Kentucky Avenue" from Blue Valentine is perhaps the most beautifully sad song I've ever heard. Just love it. And weirdly, I left Closing Time at my Ma's earlier this month and now i can't the damn thing back off her. She loves it.

The more innovative 80's stuff is just superb but never as resonant to me as the achingly lyricism of something as simple as the Randy Newman-esque Shiver Me Timbers. But I got Alice recently and that just blew me away.

Which is all quite odd that on his commentary for Keeping The Faith, Ed Norton says they had to wrestle the rights to use "Please Call Me, Baby" from Waits as he really doesn't like his older more melodic stuff...

Tom just put out a track so ridiculously awesome it's worth bumping an 8 year old thread for:

 

Hell Broke Luce

That is awesome to the power of awesome

The album is really good as well. Other than this track there are no big surprises - mostly Tom being Tom as you'd expect - but the songs are all solid and it's one of his most tight, fun albums. I don't think it's one of his most substantial but I bet a lot of people will take to it just because it's so entertaining and accessible.

Is there a single person in popular music more consistent than Tom? I can't think of anyone.

I've never understood the general lack of enthusiasm among fans for ALICE and BLOOD MONEY. Not the best albums, per se, but there are individual songs on those albums that are as splendid as anything Waits has ever done.

Actually I'm adamant that Alice is easily one of, if not the best album he ever did. Very specific mood on that one, but the lyrics are incredible and the music has to be the most melodic and beautiful he's ever come up with. Alice, Fish and Bird, Barcarole... *sigh*. Though that's one album where I'd quite like to hear the songs sung by someone else. I like his versions but there's something slightly odd about him gruffly growling out those delicate tunes.

 

Blood Money I don't think is quite as good but it does have a couple of his best stompers on there. God's away on business!

 

Answering my own question re: consistently, Nick Cave's had an amazing run as well, and with hardly any missteps. Assuming he can keep it up for the long haul he should be able to give Tom a run for his money I reckon.

I've been streaming the entire album for the last couple of days.  I believe I have 5 friend codes I can give out if anybody wants to listen to the whole thing, they're allowing you to stream the album through Friday as a listening party kind of thing.

 

Hell Broke Luce is so great.  Easily my favorite part of the album, but the album itself is very strong from beginning to end.  Lots of Wait-isms that will make you smile the first time you listen through.  Songs 10-11-12 are a very strong stretch (Satisfied, Last Leaf, Hell Broke Luce) in that they have vastly different sounds but are all exceptional songs.  Bad As Me is probably the one that sounds the most like what people typically think of Waits for and seems to be where he's having the most fun lyrically.

 

But yeah...Hell Broke Luce.  I keep streaming the album but I keep coming back to that song.  So different and soooooo good.  Like, instantly in the list of my favorite Tom Waits songs ever.

Someone's picked up on this interesting/tragic probable inspiration for Hell Broke Luce:

 

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/mental/articles/2005/03/01/jeff_lucey_returned_from_iraq_a_changed_man_then_he_killed_himself/

Hell Broke Luce - So. Fucking. Good.

 

The whole album sounds really strong though, am trying to avoid listening to it too much so I don't spoil myself for next week. A new Waits album is always an event so I want to savour it. The man has never let me down.

Yeah, full of gems this one. Love the mix - sounds awesome in the cans. Apart from Hell Broke Luce I think Chicago and Raised Right Men are my favourites right now but a hundred minutes from now I may have a different answer to that one.

 

I just worked out it's twenty years this year since I became a fan of Tom Waits when my 6th form English teacher brought Romeo Is Bleeding and Heart Attack And Vine in for poetry class. Blew my tiny little mind.

For me it was the one-two punch of seeing 12 Monkeys and Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead and learning the two mind-blowing songs from those films were by the same guy.

If you don't love every single thing the guy has ever done, than you are worse than Pearl Harbor.

 

Hey, with Tom Waits it was either full on hyperbole overload or neutered praise. I choose the former. My favorite musician and the greatest songwriter of all time. And that's actually not me being hyperbolic, that's my actual opinion.

 

Never saw him live. I don't think likes Los Angeles. He's my white whale. I got my ex-girlfriend into Tom Waits and lo and behold, she happened to run into him at an art gallery in downtown Whittier and took fucking pictures with him and everything. I don't usually get all territorial and pissy about interests, but that shit still bugs me. She also met Huell Howser. Double-burn.

 

Also this:

 

 

He's literally the last artist on my list of "Have to see before I/they are dead."  Somehow I saw both The Pogues and The Police (who were both well broken up when I made my list) but not Tom.

 

Even worse, he came to Arizona not too long ago.  My family was flying to Ohio to see my Father-In-Law and we had plane tickets that conflicted with the show.  I bought tickets anyhow, kept my families tickets to Ohio and switched mine to a few days later.  I quickly found out that this may have caused a lot more marital strife than I was comfortable with, paid another change fee to get my ticket switched back to the original date and gave away my Waits ticket.  It still haunts me.

 

This is so good.  Had the deluxe edition preordered from Itunes so I could get the extra 3 songs.  They're good but not as good as the rest of the album and so far I'm not sure if I'd have felt ripped off without them.

 

As much as I love Tom Waits there's almost always a song or two on his albums I skip.  I just assume that they're awesome and I just don't get them (because he's certainly smarter than I am) but they're there.  I haven't found that yet with this album.  Beginning to end I'm just in love.