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Tom Waits

AzwethinkweizAzwethinkweiz Posts: 547
edited September 2007 in Other Music
My favorite solo-artist.

This man is pure genius who haven't released one bad album.

So, what are your favorite albums by him?

I'd have to say that his "trilogy" (Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs and Frank's Wild Years) are my favorite albums by him.
They're just so perfect in the way they combine practically every musical genre out there.

Heartattack and Vine is another close favorite. And of course his grammy winning masterpiece Bone Machine.

Aaaand let's not forget the best album release of 2006 = Orphans - Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards

Ah, who am I kidding...all of his albums are masterpieces.

Share your thoughts.
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Comments

  • AnonAnon Posts: 11,175
    i have:
    Swordfishtrombones
    Rain Dogs
    Small Change
    Nighthawks at the Diner
    Orphans
    The Early Years Vol. 1
    Mule Variations

    my favorite by landslide is Swordfishtrombones
  • merkinballmerkinball Posts: 2,262
    I've been listening to Franks Wild Years quite a bit lately, especially for Innocent When You Dream. I can't get enough of that song.

    I'm curious to see what he ends up playing at the Bridge Benefit this year, wish I could make it. He's playing with the Kronos Quartet.
    "You're no help," he told the lime. This was unfair. It was only a lime; there was nothing special about it at all. It was doing the best it could.

    http://www.last.fm/user/merkinball/
    spotify:user:merkinball
  • wavescamecrashingwavescamecrashing Posts: 440
    its all about bone machine for me.

    I love murder in the red barn.

    i should check out more when i get the time and money...


    its just so creepy, the sound of his voice, the lyrics. i love the way he tells a story and sings it so you feel like its happening right in front of you, his voice is an instrument

    great guy.

    anyone seen him live?
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    clairenordon wrote:
    its all about bone machine for me.

    I love murder in the red barn.

    i should check out more when i get the time and money...


    its just so creepy, the sound of his voice, the lyrics. i love the way he tells a story and sings it so you feel like its happening right in front of you, his voice is an instrument

    great guy.

    anyone seen him live?
    Bone Machine is so goddamn dark. Earth died screaming and Dirt in the ground both sound like the end of the world.

    actually, Earth Died Screaming was in Twelve Monkeys for that very reason.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    He's the poor man's Captain Beefheart, but he's okay.
  • AzwethinkweizAzwethinkweiz Posts: 547
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    He's the poor man's Captain Beefheart, but he's okay.

    Hell effing no.

    I mean, Captain Beefheart's good, but nowhere near the league of Tom Waits.
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Azwethinkweiz wrote:
    Hell effing no.

    I mean, Captain Beefheart's good, but nowhere near the league of Tom Waits.


    Pffffft.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFMjztFBSzM&
  • geishagrrlgeishagrrl Posts: 130
    I love his music but I also enjoy it when he is in a film. Mystery Men happened to be on tv this afternoon and he was cracking me up. I had forgotten that he was in that one.

    I absolutely love Small Change. I'd also like to corrupt a small child by teaching them to sing God's Away on Business.
  • merkinballmerkinball Posts: 2,262
    geishagrrl wrote:
    I absolutely love Small Change. I'd also like to corrupt a small child by teaching them to sing God's Away on Business.

    Not quite this song, but my 6 year old likes to sing 'Eyeball Kid'.
    "You're no help," he told the lime. This was unfair. It was only a lime; there was nothing special about it at all. It was doing the best it could.

    http://www.last.fm/user/merkinball/
    spotify:user:merkinball
  • JeanieJeanie Posts: 9,446
    So glad I clarified that it's John Waite that I love before I launched myself in this thread! :D


    Carry on. :p
    NOPE!!!

    *~You're IT Bert!~*

    Hold on to the thread
    The currents will shift
  • glasshouseglasshouse Posts: 1,762
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    He's the poor man's Captain Beefheart, but he's okay.

    disagree
    Athens, Greece: 2006/09/30

    "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world." Herman Melville : Moby Dick
  • bovy_jbovy_j Posts: 1,008
    Tom Waits = love
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    He's the poor man's Captain Beefheart, but he's okay.
    worst
    opinion
    ever :)

    Beefheart tries too hard to be weird and sometimes it works very well, sometimes it doesn't. Waits manages to make things both accessible and thoughly weird without it seeming indulgent. You can't tell me that Waits at his best isn't the equal of Beefheart at his best.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Jeremy1012 wrote:
    worst
    opinion
    ever :)

    Beefheart tries too hard to be weird and sometimes it works very well, sometimes it doesn't. Waits manages to make things both accessible and thoughly weird without it seeming indulgent. You can't tell me that Waits at his best isn't the equal of Beefheart at his best.


    I fookin' can. :D

    Beefheart's not weird, by the way. He's normal. But then I did have a long love affair with blotting paper, for a few years. ;)
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    I fookin' can. :D

    Beefheart's not weird, by the way. He's normal. But then I did have a long love affair with blotting paper, for a few years. ;)
    Normal?! :D he once locked the Magic Band up in his house for weeks until they played the sound he was looking for but he wouldn't tell them what it was. you call that normal? besides, Waits is obviously cooler. anyone that uses animal bones as a percussion section is obviously on another level.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Jeremy1012 wrote:
    Normal?! :D he once locked the Magic Band up in his house for weeks until they played the sound he was looking for but he wouldn't tell them what it was. you call that normal? besides, Waits is obviously cooler. anyone that uses animal bones as a percussion section is obviously on another level.


    Anyone who designs a trout mask camouflage perfume bottle atomiser air bulb invention is better than dat. :D
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    Anyone who designs a trout mask camouflage perfume bottle atomiser air bulb invention is better than dat. :D
    fair play, fair play... but Waits can be both bizarre, arcane, really really weird and touching within one record, or even within one song. I don't think I've ever heard a Beefheart song that I'd describe as touching :D oh and also, Don stopped making records because he was pretty much losing it. I personally think Wait's more recent stuff is FAR better than his early albums. he really made a change with Swordfishtrombones that he has followed through with and always has more to offer.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Jeremy1012 wrote:
    fair play, fair play... but Waits can be both bizarre, arcane, really really weird and touching within one record, or even within one song. I don't think I've ever heard a Beefheart song that I'd describe as touching :D oh and also, Don stopped making records because he was pretty much losing it. I personally think Wait's more recent stuff is FAR better than his early albums. he really made a change with Swordfishtrombones that he has followed through with and always has more to offer.


    I read somewhere that Swordfishtrombones was when Tom was starting to get into Don. ;)

    And you've got to admit, Dachau Blues is harrowing, Orange Claw Hammer is profoundly touching and Veteran's Day Poppy a brilliant anti-war song of the highest order.
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    I read somewhere that Swordfishtrombones was when Tom was starting to get into Don. ;)

    And you've got to admit, Dachau Blues is harrowing, Orange Claw Hammer is profoundly touching and Veteran's Day Poppy a brilliant anti-war song of the highest order.
    Dachau Blues is harrowing but I don't think I'd call it touching :) kind of amusing in a dark way. Waits' piano ballads are just generally beautiful.

    "Well I've never asked forgivenees and I've never said a prayer
    Never given of myself and I've never truly cared
    I've left the ones who loved me and I'm still raising cain
    I'm taking the low road and if you've done the same
    Meet me down there by the train"

    "What does it matter, a dream of love or a dream of lies
    We're all gonna be in the same place when we die
    Your spirit don't leave knowing
    Your face or your name
    And the wind through your bones
    Is all that remains"
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • BlyssBlyss Posts: 166
    Took a while to grow on me but really starting to grow on me - what's the best album looking fo one to buy?
  • cubbieblue82cubbieblue82 Posts: 292
    I'd probably start with Mule Variations or Rain Dogs. Those two are pretty easy to get into.

    Orphans would be another good place to start since it pretty much covers all of his styles.
    Obama/Biden '08!!!
  • glasshouseglasshouse Posts: 1,762
    yeah tom waits! :cool:
    Athens, Greece: 2006/09/30

    "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world." Herman Melville : Moby Dick
  • THE BANDTHE BAND Posts: 83
    I enjoy Tom waits however, too really get the picture I feel it necessary for me to have had been there as the albums were coming out allowing time to digest the material. His work ethic was pretty charged placing an album out every year But he's one of the dangerous artists who created material quickly. Looking back through his catalog of music I find it hard to understand...Thats why I Love Tom Waits.
  • spnoonespnoone Posts: 633
    favorites:
    small change.
    bone machine.
    the heart of saturday night.
    swordfishtrombones.

    least favorites:
    alice (mainly cause the finished product wasn't as good as the leaked demos.)
    foreign affairs (the title track and sight for sore eyes being exceptions.)
    both soundtracks.
    early years (volumes 1 to infinity.)
  • mariposamariposa Posts: 2,523
    I haven't listened to Tom Waits in years, and because of Immagine in Cornice...it got me listening to Mule Variations a lot as of late. And I will eventually have go through his catalogs... Frank's Wild Years, Bone Machine..so many good ones.

    I don't know what it is...but I find his voice to be quite comforting.
    "All the strength that you might think would disappear, resolving..."
  • glasshouseglasshouse Posts: 1,762
    purchased bone machine and asylum years yesterday.
    gave bone machine a good listen - i love it. this is the type of artist i'v been searching for many years now.
    Athens, Greece: 2006/09/30

    "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world." Herman Melville : Moby Dick
  • Dick JonesDick Jones Posts: 777
    16 shells from a thirty-ought six
    clap hands
    tango til they're sore
    goin' out west
    get behind the mule
    cold water
    earth died screaming
    in the coliseum
    big in japan
    low side of the road
    hold on
    i don't wanna grow up
    that feel
    murder in the red barn
    picture in a frame
    jesus gonna be here

    all those songs right there are pretty great.

    "we can always find a millionaire to shovel all the coal."
    Are you too good to tango with the poor poor boys?
  • RAT!RAT! Posts: 115
    agreed tom waits is a genius. i love how he's changed evolved over the years

    his 70's stuff to his current stuff. all amazing music.
  • Get_RightGet_Right Posts: 13,488
    I never understood why people like him
    one of the worst voices ever

    kinda like Dylan
    the songs all sound a lot better when someone else is singing
  • AiCPearlJamWeenAiCPearlJamWeen Posts: 785
    Azwethinkweiz wrote:
    My favorite solo-artist.

    This man is pure genius who haven't released one bad album.

    So, what are your favorite albums by him?


    I say the same thing about Mark Lanegan all the time.....Have never heard a song by Tom Waits though but really want to.
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