Way down in a POLL: ILM's top 50 Tom Waits tracks

I couldn't even tell you how Goin Out West goes. Finally one of my main votes appears - Heart of Saturday Night, but I only voted it because of this wonderful rare bootleg I have with full instrumental backing. I don't know where I got it from or how but it's truly magical.

Goin' Out West is pretty bitching, you should give it a listen.

16. Train Song (Frank's Wild Years, 1987)
79 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1372DyU8H8

big time version with intro is a must

15. I Don't Wanna Grow Up (Bone Machine, 1992)
83 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqOm78Vvg3w

You guys just don't listen tot he same Waits as I do, I'm starting to think.

xpost

Although... I love this song! First ever Waits song I heard, maybe on Beavis and Butthead or something?

Oh hush, a good handful of songs from your ballot have placed already.

IDWGU is another one that makes me feel a bit sad somehow. The lyrics, again, are filled with pathos. I love Waits when he's critiquing the human condition.

"this guy can't write songs, but boy can he sing"

14. Way Down in the Hole (Frank's Wild Years,, 1987)
87 points, 9 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wZZu93VsNA

Temptation is a great one I didn't vote for - a real grower. He doesn't often do falsetto, does he? Isn't this based on an old Cole Porter song or did I imagine it?

The only bad thing about Way Down In The Hole is that the coda doesn't go on for long enough! I love the guitar solo on that one. ~Might have to learn it one day.

"I Don't Wanna Grow Up" is one of my favorite short songs.

Only just dawned on me that Way Down is a one-chord song.

I kinda dig the little false endings to Way Down.

13. Ruby's Arms (Heartattack and Vine, 1980)
88 points, 6 votes, 2 first place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmM7B-M3LVg

Compulsive Gamblers' cover of Way Down in the Hole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb_KSSYt6hA

A fine farewell to to the first phase of his career, Ruby's Arms.

The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (Small Change, 1976)
88 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPPtrqvHGEg

Not that I post here any more, but: One thing Wait's tearjerkers pull off better than anything outside of the opera is nail the point where heartache and grief -- as in bereavement from death -- intersect and become indistinguishable. And that's been the most consistent thing in his entire career, except for the phoney-baloney jazz-beatnick-bum moments that drive me nuts even when they sound great.

I'm surprised so many pre-Rain Dogs tracks have appeared!

check the radically different slurred spoken "the piano has been drinking" live that's on Spare Parts

v funny imo

Alfred, I am too.

Funniest Lyric and Saddest Lyric would have been interesting side polls.

11. Rain Dogs (Rain Dogs, 1985)
93 points, 7 votes, 1 first place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsuQj0ZGE6c

actually i meant this one live in dublin '81 which i think is on bounced checks

Funniest Lyric and Saddest Lyric would have been interesting side polls.

― cops on horse (WilliamC), Thursday, 17 October 2013

yes!

20. Martha
19. Blue Valentines
18. (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night
17. Goin' Out West
16. Train Song
15. I Don't Wanna Grow Up
14. Way Down in the Hole
13. Ruby's Arms
12. The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)
11. Rain Dogs

Rain Dogs is my first place! Yay!

Funniest Lyric and Saddest Lyric would have been interesting side polls.

― cops on horse (WilliamC), Thursday, 17 October 2013

Can we do this?

Love The Piano Has Been Drinking too.

That's a song that'll always remind me of being in my early 20s - barreling home pissed after a night out with the sun coming up. Bittersweet times - I lived to go out because life at home was so rough.

I take back what I said earlier about not feeling the choices in this poll. These last few seem to reveal I'm as populist as ever.

and she was lovely and fair as the roses of the summerrrr

http://open.spotify.com/user/joe2goo/playlist/39FGIPX9whrzf9CxzxvxnQ

i think it's great how much 70s music there's been in the poll. maybe there's stronger consensus on songs from the early albums because people might often know them from various comps, whereas most any Waits fan owns Rain Dogs etc. and has their favorites from it?

My top five are already accounted for.

Ten of the songs on my ballot are still not mentioned. I'm guessing six will wind up in the ILM top ten. I don't know why I think this.

I'm really upset that nothing from 'One From The Heart' has turned up....can't believe anything will be top 10??

I used to think Rain Dogs was my favourite album because it has such great highs, but in more recent evaluation I think Swordfish and even Franks are more consistent on the whole. RD has too many dull genre-exercises and I never liked Waits when he does, say, straight-up country, blues or rock'n'roll so there's a big stretch over the second side where I just tend to switch off or skip. Much more inclined to enjoy the Weillian bierkeller gargoyly stuff on SFT or the bad-trip Gothic Mingus stuff on FWY than load sof the stuff on RD.

10. Innocent When You Dream (78) (Frank's Wild Years, 1987)
102 points, 8 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6KkJ6-Ecxw

Speaking of gargoyly bierkellers, this was my number 6.

Something that isn't made enough of are Waits' production techniques. This is my favourite of his experiments.

9. Burma-Shave (Foreign Affairs, 1977)
105 points, 9 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug7DZG1F6bs

Chap, could we get a recap of 50-10?

Burma Shave is HIGH, especially for a track off Foreign Affairs. I guess as a Brit part of the point of that song is lost on me, but I rather like FA, it's a pretty weird (if disjointed) record.

50. Diamonds on my Windshield
49. Black Wings
48. Anywhere I Lay My Head
47. Swordfishtrombone
46. Hold On
45. Make It Rain
44. All the World is Green
43. I'll Be Gone
42. I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You
41. Trouble's Braids
40. Invitation to the Blues
39. Ol' 55
38= Hang on St Christopher
38= Shore Leave
36. In the Neighborhood
35. What's He Building in There
34. Yesterday is Here
33. Telephone Call From Instanbul
32. Kentucky Avenue
31. Hang Down Your Head
30. Dirt in the Ground
29. Johnsburg, Illinois
28. Tom Traubert's Blues
27. Temptation
26. Cemetery Polka
25. Picture in a Frame
24. Downtown Train
23. Step Right Up
22. Soldier's Things
21. Alice
20. Martha
19. Blue Valentines
18. The Heart of Saturday Night
17. Goin' Out West
16. Train Song
15. I Don't Wanna Grow Up
14. Way Down in the Hole
13. Ruby's Arms
12. The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)
11. Rain Dogs

8. Time (Rain Dogs, 1985)
110 points, 9 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAB4uGGquX4

I'm not that huge a fan of Time myself, it kind of goes on a bit.

Thanks for the recap!

I'm not a big "Time" fan, either.

Yeah, it's kind of superficially weary to my ears; like, I'm not sure I'm quite taken in by its illusion.

Is Time based on something else? It sounds like a 'reclaimed' song. So does 'In The Neighbourhood'. They both sounded immediately familiar on first hearing.

Quite a few of his songs have had that effect on me; he often uses fairly hokey structures, it's the texture and instrumentation that makes them interesting.

Then again he uses quite wacky structures at other times.