Tom Waits

Xxxpost: it’s been a while since I heard “hoist that rag” and that remaster is so alien to me. Where those horns added in? I don’t remember them being there before unless they were way back in the mix. I like how those horn sound but without the guitar it’s missing something primal about it. It was the heart of the song.

Is this more of a remix then? Are all Waits recent remasters like this where it’s more of a second version than a real remaster?

I think it's just Real Gone that sounds significantly different.

From Waits' Bandcamp page:

Grammy nominated and featuring an entirely new mix that better fulfills the dynamic musical soundscape Waits/Brennan envisioned from the beginning. To accomplish this they returned to the multitrack session tapes and enhanced certain instruments or a vocal arrangement to create a sound that better represents the full bodied more sonically vibrant and jagged edges that Waits and Brennan were originally going for but lost.

It's the Iggy Raw Power mix of Waits releases

damn

it sounds like a lot of elements in the mix are

real gone

The horns are definitely new.

Tom Waits: "Ima fix Hoist That Rag"

Ribot's playing on that reminds me of his Cuban band, he must have really been in that mode at the time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0IPcqI3NH8

listening to the Real Gone remaster again, tbh if you didn't know what the OG "Hoist That Rag"sounded like there would be no issues. the album sounds great.

I have the original mix (which I hated at the time FTR) on a hard drive and I'm comparing it to the new version (on Bandcamp). The horns are entirely new on "Hoist That Rag" (or excised from the mix at the time and restored later) and I think the increased Cuban-ness of it makes the new version a little better. I remember reading an interview at the time where Waits said he wanted to make the album really noisy and harsh to suit both his and the national mood, and he succeeded - it's the St. Anger of his catalog IMO, and I've never liked it. I'm gonna buy this updated version.

I could totally see them having recorded the horns at the time and then stripping it down to make it super minimal and raw, and years later thinking 'hey those horns sound pretty sweet'.

TW is sounding great to me today. Also reminding me that his records are where I really fell for Ribot.

Couldn’t they have kept that different version of Hoist That Rag as a bonus track or something at least? It’s fine, but I’d take the more minimal, gnarled up original version any day. Weird to completely replace it.

One of my favorite TW tracks tbh, annoyed he’s George Lucas-ing it.

Yeah same, his best track of the 2000s imho, really caught lightning in a bottle with it

Insane to not at least leave the old mix up somehow. I've got it on my old iTunes archive drive but I never use that anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw3mFXOwRgw

I remember when Orphans came out, a bunch of those tracks i had already been familiar with for years due to filesharing & owning the various comps and sdtks, and the orphans versions of many of them had overdubs and new parts punched in, most of which didnt help the songs imo. Obviously some of it was just due to familiarity with the previous versions, but it was still weird to hear these songs, many of which had really fantastic spare arrangements and carefully-mixed soundworlds, all of a sudeen filled with a bunch of drums and banjos and harmonica, which sounded like they were all recorded in the same session. I remember being particularly annoyed at a bunch of Charlie Musselwhite blues harp soloing all over "Heigh Ho".

I would never change a single thing about the OG Hoist That Rag and I wish he would put out an entire album that sounds like that.

Always like the demo of Alice better than released version too

Random thoughts after going back to a lot of TW:

-Both versions of Hoist That Rag are very good

-Bad As Me is also good, not bad

-I love his ballads more than I used to (although I always loved 'Green Grass' and 'Alice')

-Bone Machine is still sounds great, I love that high rasp voice he uses on say 'Jesus Gonna Be Here', wish he used that more

he has approximately 50 amazing ballads

Johnstown, Illinois is my favourite.

Good Old World, Waltz

Also fun to hear him write a song over the 'Do Whatcha Wanna' bassline ('Get Lost' on Bad As Me)

I wrote about Alice and Blood Money, and the experience of interviewing Waits (the story that got me in the door at The Wire), for Stereogum.

thanks i enjoyed that

good piece

https://tomwaits.ffm.to/alicebloodmoney

vinyl reissues + 2 live tracks

Tom Waits will be releasing limited edition vinyl of his albums “Alice” and “Blood Money” to celebrate their 20th anniversary.
Originally released on May 7, 2002, the re-issues will be available on October 7.

All The World Is Green (Live)
Fish & Bird (Live)

Leading up to the official release date, Waits is putting out previously unreleased live versions of songs from the records,
starting with “All the World is Green” from ‘Blood Money’ and “Fish and Bird” from ‘Alice.’ “All the World is Green” was
recorded at a live show in 2008 in Milan, Italy and features a dramatic faux flamenco guitar intro, while “Fish and Bird”
is taken from Waits’ celebrated return to the London stage in 2004 and is a stripped down raw piano version of the ballad
that featured a chamber orchestra arrangement in the studio recording.

(text is quoted from the mail & link is without identifying crap)

Think these were reissued/remastered in 2017 and are still available, but the live tracks will be nice to hear.

will probably pick these up but holding off on a preorder until i can confirm he hasnt fucked with the mixes or added overdubs or anything

"Digital deluxe versions of both records, featuring newly released live performances, are out today along with limited edition vinyl reissues. Unfortunately, Alice vinyl is delayed until October 21st everywhere except for Europe and the UK."

https://tomwaits.ffm.to/alicebloodmoney

the stickers say "Newly remastered with Waits/Brennan" - anyone check them out yet?

I can't imagine them being that radically reworked the way he did with Real Gone, but you do get five live tracks with each and they're pretty good...

https://tomwaits.bandcamp.com/album/alice-anniversary-edition

https://tomwaits.bandcamp.com/album/blood-money-anniversary-edition

The only strings that keep me here
Are tangled up around the pier
Man troll gas beany jim-jam

I was watching Richmond, VA gospel group the Legendary Ingramettes perform live and one of their vocalists said that on an Irish tour they just did, they saw a singer do Tom Waits song "Time" and it reminded them that they had a different song with that tile but a similar theme. The Singer suddenly started singing the Tom Waits song in an a cappella church powerful way and then their band joined in and the rest of the singers and they segued into their own song with that title

listened through to these anniversary editions today and the albums dont sound like theyve been fucked with, thankfully. some of the live tracks are very good but the sound quality varies widely for some reason. some sound like clean & clear soundboard recordings and some sound like rough bootlegs recorded from the back of the hall, which is... strange. not quite enough there for me to justify buying the full albums again vs just buying the individual live tracks that i like on bandcamp

https://tomwaits.ffm.to/store

Celebrate 50 years of Tom Waits’ highly influential debut album ‘Closing Time’ originally released in 1973.

The album’s 50th anniversary vinyl is available in black and clear versions as a double 180g LP cut at 45 RPM with half speed mastering by London’s Abbey Road Studios. The gatefold jacket was also specially created with thicker board and black poly-lined inner sleeves.

Called “a minor key masterpiece filled with songs of late-night loneliness” by All Music Guide, ‘Closing Time’ features the distinctly lyrical storytelling and blending of jazz, blues and folk styles that would come to be associated first with Waits.

(also for sale: door hanger & poster)

TOM WAITS’ ENTIRE METAMORPHIC AND GROUNDBREAKING MID-PERIOD ISLAND RECORDS STUDIO CATALOG NEWLY REMASTERED FROM ORIGINAL TAPES AND PREPPED FOR RELEASE ON VINYL, CD AND DIGITAL FOR FIRST TIME

ALL REMASTERED ALBUMS AVAILABLE TO STREAM TODAY

Personally overseen by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Waits spectacular middle-period albums–released on Island Records between 1983 and 1993—have been newly remastered from the original tapes and will be reissued on vinyl and CD this fall via Island/UMe.

Waits’ transformative creative breakthrough, Swordfishtrombones (1983), its sprawling and superb sequel, Rain Dogs (1985), and the trilogy-completing, tragi-comic stage musical, Franks Wild Years (1987), will kick off the series September 1, 40 years to the day that Swordfishtrombones was released into the wild, ushering in a new and critically acclaimed musical era for Waits and his longtime songwriting and production partner, Brennan. The epic song-cycle, Bone Machine (1992) and the Waits (with Robert Wilson and William S. Burroughs) musical fable, The Black Rider (1993), will follow October 6. September, incredibly, marks the 40th anniversary of Swordfishtrombones, and the 30th of The Black Rider.

Ahead of their physical releases, all of the albums are available to stream today featuring the newly remastered audio, allowing you to hear how these landmark recordings now sound better and more vivid than ever.
Stream The Albums Here. https://tomwaits.lnk.to/IslandVinylReissues

In addition to streaming and download, each album will be released on CD and in two vinyl options: 180-gram black vinyl and a limited edition color variant that will be available exclusively via TomWaits.com and UDiscover Music. Swordfishtrombones will be pressed on canary, Rain Dogs on opaque sky blue, Franks Wild Years on opaque gold, The Black Rider on opaque apple and Bone Machine on translucent milky vinyl. Pre-Order The Album Here. (EU/US links differ)

All albums were remastered from the original source tape. The new vinyl editions will come with specially made labels featuring photos of Waits from each era in addition to artwork and packaging that has been painstakingly recreated to replicate the original LPs, which have been out of print since their initial release. Surprisingly, The Black Rider and Bone Machine were never released on vinyl outside of Europe and will be making their vinyl debut in most of the world.

Waits shifted gears, or rather, deliberately ground them. New York Times music critic Stephen Holden wrote: “Miles away from the (music) he used in the ‘70s to evoke the wrong side of the tracks, his evolved style is an abrasive, lurching honky-tonk that at its most adventurous suggests a fusion of Captain Beefheart's Dadaist extensions of the delta blues with the Kurt Weill of 'Threepenny Opera.'”

These critically acclaimed works are a monument to an artist’s ability to break through into new creative territory. Waits went from ‘70’s-era “bluesy, boozy” wordsmith and melodist with seven albums behind him to sound sculptor, miner of the subconscious, abstract orchestrator, sonic cubist—while retaining his innate lyricism, melodic invention, humanity.

feels like he's kind of underrated these days

seems unlikely to ever happen but i always fantasized about vault-scraping double disc reissues of those Island albums. always got the impression they must have tracked a ton of stuff in all those sessions, would love to hear some of the experiments and outtakes. i suppose Orphans is the closest we'll get to something like that

I really want to understand why BIG TIME still doesn’t have an HD release

The soundtrack to Night On Earth (lots of cool junkyard instrumentals) isn't part of this reissue program, either...too bad.

Thrilled to be able to get Black Rider on vinyl finally! It might be my fave of his.

i've got a couple of these on LP (Rain Dogs and FWY) but really psyched for Bone Machine, which was the first Waits i ever heard.

I think about this Tom Waits story all the time. pic.twitter.com/njGUWEsdx4

— Christopher Smets (@CWSmets) July 7, 2023

hahaha

The download version of the new Swordfishtrombones remaster sounds great. NO compression either, surprisingly, which bodes well for the physical release.

Or rather no ADDITIONAL compression, at least none that's egregious.

I was listening to Rain Dogs on Tidal earlier and yeah, they sound great. No brickwalling, just more clarity and fullness (which brings sounds to the fore that I hadn't noticed before, though TBF I started listening to that album on cassette).