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

I like a lot of Blood Money and Alice has great moments (as well as horrible moments too)

There is a whole set of the Alice demos floating around. They're the tracks he cut as guides for the actors and musicians when it was first performed in 1992.

I probably would like the Alice album more if I hadn't had the demos for half a decade before it came out. He recast them for the modern Waits sound and they lost most of their creepy magic. And what he did to poor "Tabletop Joe" is unforgivable.

I'll need to check them out

I didn't see the "Table Top Joe" demo on youtube so I stuck it on my tumblr.

Whoa I didn't vote for it because I'm not a fan but I thought ILM liked Downtown Train enough to at least be in the top 10. I am not dissapointed.

Alice was my number one vote and Temptation my #9. I don't know who else voted for it in first place but I salute you.

happy to see "Picture In A Frame" this high, didn't know how well regarded it was! i put it on the playlist at my wedding, one of my fav Waits ballads.

i think Rod Stewart should be forced to record all of these songs. especially "What's He Building In There."

Aw, I hate to think how he'd deal with the pathos of "Soldier's Things."

How many Waits songs has Rod sung? He's done three from our list so far - Downtown Train, Tom Traubert's Blues, Picture in a Frame.

Alice was my number one vote and Temptation my #9. I don't know who else voted for it in first place but I salute you.

I think Temptation was my number one

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

Surprised Traubert so low

I voted for it, but it is like my 5th or 6th favorite tune on Small Change so it was skewed low.

It's the first Tom Waits song I ever heard - played on KZON while I was driving around Phoenix. Sentimentality totally influenced me ranking it #1.

Mine was the #1 vote for "Picture in a Frame."

I used to sing it every night to my daughter as a lullaby. That clinched the ranking.

Where would you daughter rank it?

Except!! I just looked back at my ballot and I cut off like the top 6 songs when I sent it ;_; massive fail

Oh shit, I thought you were only voting for fourteen songs!

What were your top six out of interest?

tom traubert's blues
Step Right Up
Jockey Full of Bourbon
Kentucky Avenue
All the world is green
9th & Hennepin

Ah well

Blue Valentine is my #1 album so i'm glad to finally see a song from it on here, although "Kentucky Avenue" is the song i have the most mixed feelings about. sometimes i love it, sometimes i hate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dxhwG3jPPY

20. Martha (Closing Time, 1973)
71 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Mse62NFl4

19. Blue Valentines (Blue Valentine, 1978)
73 points, 6 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyjHqXlVn1U

(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night (The Heart of Saturday Night,1974)
78 points, 6 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7UHd7NVegE

Sorry, that's number 18.

17. Goin' Out West (Bone Machine, 1992)
78 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27LLPANAgzw

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