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

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.

7. Singapore (Rain Dogs, 1985)
119 points, 12 votes, 1 first place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxB4GqYM0T4

xpost hokey's the word - I think it's pretty deliberate most of the time, like when he uses a Christmas or Disney motif it can be quite affecting and nostalgic.

Singapore is so much fun. I love the way he pronounces 'we're all as mad as HATTERS HERE'. My Waits-obsessed friend Mike does a great cover of it.

I love Singapore so much, as I do the next song.

6. Tango Til They're Sore (Rain Dogs, 1985)
123 points, 11 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Tn8w1w2_Y

another surprise. i do like this one though.

Amazing piano playing on it.

The next one is not from the trilogy, repeat, not from the trilogy.

5. Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis (Blue Valentine, 1978)
133 points, 11 votes, 2 first place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxVo5mjK4eg

Some mad Blue Valentines love in this poll. It's the only one I have on vinyl, but I find the whole thing a bit corny to be honest.

I'm not being a very good Waits fan am I?

He's had such a variation of styles over the decades that I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who loves everything. I find a lot of his earlier work a bit schmaltzy myself too.

I always feel unfashionable for preferring sad drunk Tom to barking junkyard Tom.

I like Time but I'm never always sure of its position beside Hang Down Your Head, the latter is incredible IMO

Sometimes it makes perfect sense right behind it, sometimes not

I love the live boots of sad drunk Tom but often find the albums a bit too fussy. The tunes, though, are killer. He could write a barroom weeper like nobody else.

4. Cold Cold Ground (Frank's Wild Years, 1987)
156 points, 13 votes, 1 first place

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

The success of Cold Cold Ground has been the surprise of the poll for me. I like it fine, but it's never struck me as a massive standout. It was frontrunner for some time.

Cold Cold Ground was #3 on my ballot. I especially love the arrangement on Big Time. It's my dream to rework it into a tuff reggae rockers track at some point.

The Big Time version is on that Island Best-Of (my intro to Tom) and it's a highlight too.

3. 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six (Swordfishtrombones, 1983)
172 points, 13 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XLdxxJEB80

My first place coming up at number 2...