Tom Waits: classic or dud/search & destroy

"The Ramones cover" is probably "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" - on Bone Machine.

According to Johnny Ramone, “It took the Ramones 30 years to be eventually nominated for a Grammy. Thanks to Tom Waits for finally getting us there.”

Tom Waits recorded the track for the tribute album with his son Casey Waits on drums and Les Claypool of Primus on bass, while Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion and Epitaph Records founder co-produced and played guitar. “The only honor possibly greater than producing and playing on a Tom Waits track would be to do it for The Ramones,” said Gurewitz. “The fact that it’s nominated for a Grammy makes it all the more surreal.”"

(Les Claypool is on the new record again, I know at least one ILXer will be delighted at this. *hint* it's not ME)

Of what I've heard, I enjoy the Swordfishtrombones and later material more than pre-SFT. On the Swordfishtrombones vs. Rain Dogs point, somebody previously said they favored Rain Dogs on the basis that by then he had more time to grow into the new sound he was crafting and that Rain Dogs was less patchy (which I'm not sure if they meant in terms of consistancy of sound or just consistancy of performance), the lesser consistancy of sound of Swordfish is what is so great about that album to me [Holy run on sentence, sorry folks]. He pulls out the mush balladry of In The Neighborhood right next to the smoky storytelling of Frank's Wild Years right next to the xylophone jazz of Swordfishtrombones, I love it. Alice vs. Blood Money, the extreme theatrics of Alice (not to say that most Waits isn't big) win me over (and like someone said earlier, 'Alice' is just such an amazing track).

'Alice' = a rewrite of (or at least v. v. similar to) 'You Don't Know What Love Is'

Interesting! I haven't listened to Alice in awhile, but you might be OTM. There are lots of Waits songs that I've wanted to do jazz versions of since the changes are so standard-y.

It features genuinely fantastic versions of Big Black Mariah, 13 Shells.., Time & others. Marc Ribot's guitar playing and Michael Blair's drunken junkyard percussion are especially enjoyable.

I'm posting this because, for some reason, I haven't listened to his music since talking to him. I still admire him tremendously in the abstract, but I haven't been in a mood to actually hear his music since about a week after turning that piece in.

"Real Gone - Tom Waits
Ever since Tom Waits had his musical re-awakening on Swordfishtrombones he's made it very easy for everyone - you either love him or hate him. If you fall into the latter category and bemoan his wasted-cabaret / singer-songwriter talent gone out the window then DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT LISTENING TO THIS ALBUM. If you, however, 'get' his crazy sounds and draino voice then you will need no more encouragement other than this is EVEN MORE difficult to sit through than the Blood Money / Alice set. Get comfortable - you'll need some time to let this monstrosity sink right in. Enjoy the ride..."

Does this annoy the absolute crap out of anyone else? I don't think Waits "tries" to do anything but challenge himself and anyone else with the stones to listen. I think I like Tom Waits because he (and Brennan) are good contemporary poets/musicians that provide a retreat from all the manufactured crap that is released at "default factory settings". His records have content that is more accessible to not-so-strong readers like myself who enjoy the more eclectic, rootsie things (but not for sake of it) in life but don't have the time or know where to find them. Somebody name someone notable who doesn't like the work of Tom Waits.

Now I haven't yet heard all of his stuff, but most of it. At the moment, The Early Years vol I&II are tiding me over until Real Gone comes out in my neck of the woods.

I'm off to bed - gotta get my make-sense-sleep.

I like some of his stuff, but the trouble is that between every nice ballad once in a while he tends to put some of those absolutely unlistenable Captain Beefheart influenced, well, dunno what I'd call them but songs they aren't, that is for certain.

Now that would be cool. My two favourites working together for the force of mint-ox.

Way Down In The Hole - top "evil preacher" style hellfire-isms with groovy sax breaks.

Big In Japan - again, it's the brassy breaks that do this for me, plus the beatboxing rules.

Such A Scream - I think all three of these songs are quite similar in a way. I like this one too.

With such a vast oeuvre, I had to make painful choices, but I like this list.

Agree on Bone Machine being a peak. Add "Murder in the Red Barn" and "Dirt in the Ground" to the great songs from this record.

(Psst... it's "Hoist That Rag," not "Flag")

typo!

good list! I'd need these somewhere in there too (I'm a sucker for even the schmaltziest Waits material apparently)

Time
Anywhere I Lay My Head
Take It With Me
Falling Down
Yesterday Is Here
Ruby's Arms
Tom Traubert's Blues
God's Away On Business
Another Man's Vine
Gun Street Girl
On the Nickel
Ol' 55

oh, and "Cold, Cold Ground"!

I don't know if "Bone Machine" is a peak, but it did follow a long gap and not only restored his profile but reinvented him as an alternative era hipster (as opposed to net-beatnik weirdo hipster). By "Mule Variations" and that tour he was a full fledged alternative era icon, where he's remained ever since. One of the few short of Leonard Cohen probably even cooler in their late career than during their earlier peaks.

Mule Variations is certified gold! I remember the hosannas at the time but does anyone love it now?

I wore it out but it has a lot of gems. It's a great gateway album and one of the few records my dad and I can agree on.

I think of everything he's done since Bone Machine as one long album (that I rarely listen to, tbh).

Mule Variations felt to me at the time like a schtick-ier sequel to Bone Machine - like that album had hit a pop culture nerve ("Goin' Out West" was in Fight Club!) and he felt internal/external pressure to give people more of the same. The only tracks that really hold up for me are "Cold Water" and "What's He Building?"

Alice and Blood Money were the new ones at the time I interviewed Waits in 2002. I like both of them better than Mule, especially Alice.

Mule Variations feels the point where the Swordfishtrombones career re-invention with Brennan goes on autopilot and the Beefheart spasms start to sound like retreads. It's his only album that lapses in to self-parody, and thankfully he got beyond those cliches he'd established in the 1980s. He hasn't been as consistent since, but that last album shows his peaks are as good as ever. Rain Dogs is tops. There's plenty of fantastic work before Brennan too, and it's not as different as it sometimes seem, just less dissonant.

My favorite of his L.A. balladier early work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo3ilqhf1tE

It's missing some of my favorite songs of him:

Green Grass, Red Shoes by the Drugstore and Cold Cold Ground.

Also we all agreed here on ILM that Jockey Full of Bourbon is his number one song. How can that one be missing?

I think of Waits a little like a personal anti-Steely Dan figure...I turned 30 and I dunno, just lost interest. It was hard to imagine, suddenly, growing up/old with his music.

The affectations and the schtick got tiresome. I find it hard to imagine listening to him again like I did 10, 15 years ago (possibly go back to the ballads?)

Oh shit it's also missing Alice!