# Tom Waits is the coolest man on Earth.



## adamthemute (Jun 18, 2007)

See:

Figure 1:









Figure 2:









He makes pretty good music too.


----------



## Guest (Jul 7, 2007)

I downloaded his whole discography a few months ago... Going through it I think I found 2 maybe 3 songs that I kinda liked.... the rest left me pretty cold.


----------



## Soupbone (May 17, 2007)

*aquired but tired taste*

COLD??Thats great Clint, You're the man.



I have 9 ds by him and there are actually about 5 or 6 songs I play on acoustic and sing.
They are: Coldwater, Chocolate Jesus, Come on Up to the house, picture in a frame, Dirt in the ground, and a cool one he does with Keith Richard called That Feel along with 1 or 2 others I cant think of right now.
I like his compositional style and his sound qualities. 
He reminds me a lot of early Zappa or Beefhart mixed with a kind of gospel blues thing.

The album Big Time is one of my favs. Along with Bone Machine.

I was getting by the repetivness of it and Latley I find myself a little tired of that light hearted depressing style so Ive took to reading.

Currently Im reading the works of Dylan Thomas.


----------



## Guest (Jul 7, 2007)

Got to see him at the Hummingbird Center a few years ago when he was touring on the Mule Variations CD. Recorded he's amazing but live is just...transcendental. Deconstruct the instrumentation in most of his songs and it won't make any sense. It's the amazingly layered approach to creating something coherent.

Definitely Bone Machine is my favourite Waits album. With Black Wings being my favourite Waits tune. Followed very closely by Nighthawks At The Diner which was my introduction to Waits.


----------



## Soupbone (May 17, 2007)

iaresee said:


> Got to see him at the Hummingbird Center a few years ago when he was touring on the Mule Variations CD. Recorded he's amazing but live is just...transcendental. Deconstruct the instrumentation in most of his songs and it won't make any sense. It's the amazingly layered approach to creating something coherent.
> 
> Definitely Bone Machine is my favourite Waits album. With Black Wings being my favourite Waits tune. Followed very closely by Nighthawks At The Diner which was my introduction to Waits.


Yes Bone Machine is great, some of it hard to play
the Mule Variations I chose to learn first as a sort of compositional study. Wonderfully simple stuff.
Never have seen him-- but ...some say he once killed a man with a guitar string...others claim he once saved a baby from droundin'...
Maybe one day Ill catch him alive unless he quits waitin'


----------



## Hamm Guitars (Jan 12, 2007)

I saw him on Conan O'Brian (or some other late night talk show) on Friday night between sets. 

Quite frankly, I didn't get it. It was actually funny to watch him dancing around with baby powder in his shoes, but maybe that was the point..?...?..

I have heard of him over the years, but never really heard him. If he was at his best on friday night, I would chalk it up to a case of the Emporer's New Clothes phenomenon.


----------



## Guest (Jul 8, 2007)

Hamm Guitars said:


> If he was at his best on friday night, I would chalk it up to a case of the Emporer's New Clothes phenomenon.


What's that exactly?


----------



## Hamm Guitars (Jan 12, 2007)

That's when someone says something is good and others agree without even listening to it. Or something gets endorsed by someone like Keith Richards, which gives it a stamp of approval and you are expected to like it. If you don't get it, your just not savy. 

In some cases, there is nothing there to get - The Emporer's New Clothes (Aesop's Fables I believe)


----------



## Guest (Jul 8, 2007)

Hamm Guitars said:


> That's when someone says something is good and others agree without even listening to it. Or something gets endorsed by someone like Keith Richards, which gives it a stamp of approval and you are expected to like it. If you don't get it, your just not savy.
> 
> In some cases, there is nothing there to get - The Emporer's New Clothes (Aesop's Fables I believe)


Maybe I'm misreading what you're saying here. I can appreciate it if you don't like something I do. That's fine. I find there are three people out there: people who love Tom Waits, people who hate Tom Waits and people who've no idea who he is. But are you telling Adam and I that we only like the guy because someone else endorsed him to us?


----------



## Hamm Guitars (Jan 12, 2007)

iaresee said:


> Maybe I'm misreading what you're saying here. I can appreciate it if you don't like something I do. That's fine. I find there are three people out there: people who love Tom Waits, people who hate Tom Waits and people who've no idea who he is. But are you telling Adam and I that we only like the guy because someone else endorsed him to us?


No, that's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is if what I saw on Friday night is Tom Waits in a nutshell, I think he has been over-hyped. As far as I know, that is the only time I've ever actually seen or heard him.

Anyone that has ever suggested that I give him a listen, held his music in high regard. They couldn't have been refering to the voo-doo snake oil I saw on that late night TV show, as that was pretty thin and the people that were raving about him have better taste than that.

I found this on youtube, it looks like it might be the same performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cYMd51-1JA

No offence, but other than the humorous aspect of it, I don't get the appeal of this at all. I could see something like this working in a play or something, but I think he trumps Capitan Kirk for over acting.


----------



## adamthemute (Jun 18, 2007)

He's eccentric, that's for sure. I like him because he's different. If you listen to his catalog from the start, he does anything from blues, to jazz, to circus music. He made pretty much any music he wanted to, managed to stay 'underground', and yet still has a huge following for over 30 years. You can't put Tom Waits in a nutshell from one song, just like Frank Zappa.

I'm also a sucker for those hats.

But hey, to each is own. I've not liked a lot of critically acclaimed stuff.


----------



## Guest (Jul 9, 2007)

jroberts said:


> It seems a lot of people have been fooled into thinking Tom Waits is actually good. Among the artists that have been tricked into covering his songs are Bruce Springsteen (had a minor hit with it), the Eagles (huge hit), John Hammond (who recorded a whole album of Tom Waits songs), Holly Cole (who also recorded a whole album of Tom Waits songs), Rod Stewart (another huge hit), the Ramones, Frank Black, Norah Jones, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and literally hundreds of others. If he's fooling people, he's doing a great job.


Nice. :smile: I often forget about the ton of hits other people have had with his songs when trying to convince people he's amazing. _Downtown Train_ alone probably set him up for life in the annals of pop-rock writing history.


----------



## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

*Amen*



Hamm Guitars said:


> What I'm saying is if what I saw on Friday night is Tom Waits in a nutshell, I think he has been over-hyped. As far as I know, that is the only time I've ever actually seen or heard him.
> 
> 
> 
> I don't get it either and I'm VERY liberable musically speaking I love nearly everything from Metal to Folk. But then I don't "get" Leonard Cohen either... But then taste is relative...


----------

