Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, composer and actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underworld and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in thefolk scene during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected the influence of such diverse genres asrock,jazz,Delta blues,opera,vaudeville,cabaret,funk and experimental techniques verging onindustrial music.[1][2]
Waits has influenced many artists and gained an internationalcult following. His songs have been covered byBruce Springsteen,Tori Amos,Rod Stewart, and theEagles and he has written songs forJohnny Cash andNorah Jones among others. In 2011, he was inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame.[6][7] Introducing him,Neil Young said "This next man is indescribable, and I'm here to describe him. He's sort of a performer, singer, actor, magician, spirit guide, changeling." Accepting the honor, Waits mused: "They say that I have no hits and I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's abad thing!"[8]
Thomas Alan Waits was born on December 7, 1949, inPomona, California.[10] He has one older and one younger sister.[11] His father, Jesse Frank Waits, was aTexas native of Scots-Irish descent, and his mother, Alma Fern (née Johnson), hailed fromOregon and had Norwegian ancestry.[12][13] Alma, a regular church-goer, managed the household. Jesse taught Spanish at a local school and was an alcoholic; Waits later related that his father was "a tough one, always an outsider."[14] They lived at 318 North Pickering Avenue inWhittier, California. He recalled having a "very middle-class" upbringing and "a pretty normal childhood". He attended Jordan Elementary School, where he was bullied. There, he learned to play thebugle andguitar. His father taught him to play theukulele.[15]
During the summers, he visited maternal relatives inGridley andMarysville, both in California. He later recalled that it was an uncle's raspy, gravelly timbre that inspired his own singing voice.[16] In 1959, his parents separated and his father moved away from the family home, a traumatic experience for the 10-year-old Waits.[17] Alma took her children and relocated toChula Vista, a middle-class suburb ofSan Diego.[18] Jesse visited the family there, taking his children on trips toTijuana.[19] In nearbySoutheast San Diego, Waits attendedO'Farrell Community School, where he fronted a school band, the Systems,[20] which he described as "white kids trying to get thatMotown sound." He developed a love ofR&B andsoul singers likeRay Charles andWilson Pickett, as well ascountry music andRoy Orbison.[21]Bob Dylan later became an inspiration; Waits placed transcriptions of Dylan's lyrics on his bedroom walls.[22]
Waits recalls: "I was fifteen and I snuck in to seeLightnin' Hopkins. Amazing show. Every time he opened his mouth he had that orchestra of gold teeth, and I was devastated... He walked through a door, and slammed the door behind him, and on the door it said, I swear to God, 'KEEP OUT. This room is for entertainers ONLY.' And I knew, at that moment, that I had to get into show business as soon as possible."[8] He recalls: "I first sawJames Brown in 1962 at an outdoor theatre in San Diego and it was indescribable ... it was like putting a finger in a light socket... It was really like seeing mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Christmas."[23] By the time he was studying atHilltop High School inChula Vista, California,[24][25] he later said he was "kind of an amateur juvenile delinquent", interested in "malicious mischief" and breaking the law.[26] He later said that he was a "rebel against the rebels", eschewing thehippie subculture which was growing in popularity for the 1950sBeat generation,[27] especiallyJack Kerouac,Allen Ginsberg, andWilliam S. Burroughs.[28] In 1968, at age 18, Waits dropped out of high school.[9] He was an avid watcher ofAlfred Hitchcock Presents andThe Twilight Zone.[29] Another influence was the comedianLenny Bruce.[30]
Waits worked at Napoleone's pizza restaurant inNational City, California, and both there and at a local diner developed an interest in the lives of the patrons, writing down phrases and snippets of dialogue he overheard.[31] He worked in the forestry service as a fireman for three years[32] and served with theU.S. Coast Guard.[33] He enrolled atSouthwestern Community College in Chula Vista to study photography, for a time considering a career in the field. He continued pursuing his musical interests, taking piano lessons. He began frequenting venues around San Diego, being drawn into the city'sfolk scene.[34]
In 1969, he was hired as an occasional doorman for the Heritage coffeehouse, which held regular performances from folk musicians.[35][36] He began to sing at the Heritage; his set initially consisted largely of covers of Dylan andRed Sovine's "Phantom 309".[37]In time, he performed his own material as well, often parodies of country songs or bittersweet ballads influenced by his relationships; these included early songs "Ol' 55" and "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You".[38] As his reputation grew, he played at other San Diego venues, supporting acts likeTim Buckley,Sonny Terry,Brownie McGhee, and his friendJack Tempchin. Aware that San Diego offered little opportunity for career progression, Waits began traveling into Los Angeles to play at theTroubadour inWest Hollywood.[39]It was there, in the autumn of 1971, that Waits came to the attention ofHerb Cohen, who signed him to publishing and recording contracts.[40] The recordings which were produced under that recording agreement were eventually released in the early 1990s asThe Early Years andThe Early Years, Volume Two. In early 1972, after quitting his job at Napoleone's to concentrate on his songwriting career, Waits moved to an apartment inSilver Lake, Los Angeles, a poor neighborhood known for its Hispanic andbohemian communities.[41]He continued performing at the Troubadour and there metDavid Geffen, who gave Waits a recording contract with hisAsylum Records.[42]Jerry Yester was chosen to produce his first album, with the recording sessions taking place in Hollywood'sSunset Sound studios.[43] The album,Closing Time, was released in March 1973[44] although it attracted little attention[45] and did not sell well.[46] BiographerBarney Hoskyns noted thatClosing Time was "broadly in step with the singer-songwriter school of the early 1970s";[47] Waits had wanted to create a piano-led jazz album although Yester had pushed its sound in a more folk-oriented direction. Buckley covered "Martha" on his albumSefronia later that year.[48] AnEagles recording of "Ol' 55" on their albumOn the Border brought Waits further money and recognition, although he regarded their version as "a little antiseptic".[49]
Waits met and had an intermittent romantic relationship withBette Midler (pictured here in 1981) and collaborated with her on the song "I Never Talk to Strangers".
Waits moved from Silver Lake toEcho Park, spending much of his time indowntown Los Angeles.[56] In early 1974, he continued to perform around the West Coast, getting as far asDenver.[57] For Waits's second album, Geffen wanted a more jazz-oriented producer, selectingBones Howe for the job.[58] Howe recounts his first encounter with the young artist: "I told him I thought his music and lyrics had a Kerouac quality to them, and he was blown away that I knew who Jack Kerouac was. I told him I also played jazz drums and he went wild. Then I told him that when I was working forNorman Granz, Norman had found these tapes of Kerouac reading his poetry from The Beat Generation in a hotel room. I told Waits I'd make him a copy. That sealed it."[59] Recording sessions forThe Heart of Saturday Night took place atWally Heider's Studio 3 onCahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood in April and May,[60] with Waits conceptualizing the album as a sequence of songs about U.S. nightlife.[61] The album was far more widely reviewed thanClosing Time had been.[62] Waits himself later dismissed the album as "very ill-formed, but I was trying".[63]
After recordingThe Heart of Saturday Night, Waits reluctantly agreed to tour with Zappa again, but once more faced strong audience hostility. The kudos of having supported Zappa's tour nevertheless bolstered his image in the music industry and helped his career.[64] In October 1974, he first performed as the headline act before touring the East Coast; in New York City he met and befriendedBette Midler,[65] with whom he had a sporadic affair.[66] Back in Los Angeles, Cohen suggested Waits produce alive album. To this end, he performed two shows at theRecord Plant Studio in front of a small invited audience to recreate the atmosphere of ajazz club.[67][68] Again produced and engineered by Howe (as all his future Asylum releases would be), it was released asNighthawks at the Diner in October 1975.[69] The album cover and title were inspired byEdward Hopper'sNighthawks (1942).
He followed this with a week's residency at the Reno Sweeney nightclub, an off-Broadway–style club in New York City.[70] In December he appeared on thePBS concert showSoundstage.[71] From March to May 1976, he toured the U.S.,[72] telling interviewers that the experience was tough and that he was drinking too much alcohol.[73] In May, he embarked on his first tour of Europe, performing inLondon,Amsterdam,Brussels andCopenhagen.[74] On his return to Los Angeles, he joined his friendChuck E. Weiss, moving into theTropicana Motel inWest Hollywood, which had an established reputation in rock music circles.[75] Visitors noted his two-room apartment there was heavily cluttered. Waits told theLos Angeles Times that "You almost have to create situations in order to write about them, so I live in a constant state of self-imposed poverty".[76]
In July 1976, Waits recordedSmall Change, again produced by Howe.[77] He recalled it as a seminal episode in his development as a songwriter, the point when he became "completely confident in the craft".[78] The album was critically well received and was his first release to break into theBillboard Top 100 Album List, peaking at 89.[79] Per Bowman,Small Change "made it clear that Waits had evolved into a master storyteller, reflecting the influence of crime-noir writers such asDashiell Hammett andJohn D. MacDonald. Arguably his first masterpiece, the album featured exquisite piano ballads such as 'Tom Traubert's Blues' and ‘The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me),’ the word-jazz of ‘Pasties and a G-String,’ and the tour-de-force tenor-sax-accompanied hucksterism of ‘Step Right Up.’”[1] He received growing press attention, being profiled inNewsweek,Time,Vogue, andThe New Yorker;[80] he had begun to accrue acult following.[81] He went on tour to promote the new album, backed by the Nocturnal Emissions (Frank Vicari,Chip White and Fitz Jenkins).[82] In reference to "Pasties and a G-String", a female stripper joined him onstage.[83] He began 1977 by touringJapan for the first time.[84]
In 1977, Waits began a relationship with singer-songwriterRickie Lee Jones (pictured here in 2008); their work and styles influenced each other.
Back in Los Angeles, he encountered various problems. One female fan, recently escaped from a mental health institution inIllinois, beganstalking him and lurking outside his Tropicana apartment.[84] In May 1977, Waits and close friendChuck E. Weiss were arrested for fighting with police officers in a coffee shop. They were charged with two counts of disturbing the peace but were acquitted after the defense produced eight witnesses who refuted the police officers' account of the incident.[85] In response, Waits sued theLos Angeles Police Department and five years later was awarded $7,500 in damages.[86]
In July and August 1977, he recorded his fourth studio album,Foreign Affairs;[87]Bob Alcivar had been employed as itsarranger.[88] The album included "I Never Talk to Strangers", a duet with Midler, with whom he was still in an intermittent relationship.[89] She appeared with him at the Troubadour to sing the song; the next day he repaid the favor by performing at agay rights benefit at theHollywood Bowl that Midler was involved with.[90]Foreign Affairs was not as well received by critics as its predecessor, and unlikeSmall Change failed to make the Billboard Top 100 album chart.[91] That year, he began a relationship with the singer-songwriterRickie Lee Jones; their work and styles influenced each other.[92] In October 1977, he returned to touring with the Nocturnal Emissions; it was on this tour that he first began using props onstage, in this case a street lamp.[93] Again, he found the tour exhausting.[94] In March 1978, he embarked on his second tour of Japan.[95]
During these years, Waits sought to broaden his career beyond music. He befriended actor and directorSylvester Stallone and made his film debut as a drunken piano player in Stallone'sParadise Alley (1978).[96] WithPaul Hampton, Waits also began writing a movie musical, although this project never came to fruition.[97] Another project he began at this time was a book about entertainers of the past whom he admired.[97]
In July 1978, Waits began the recording sessions forBlue Valentine.[98] Part way through the sessions, he replaced his musicians to create a less jazz-oriented sound;[99] for the album, he switched from a piano to an electric guitar as his main instrument.[100] For the album's back cover, Waits used a picture of himself and Jones leaning against his car, a1964 Ford Thunderbird, taken by Elliot Gilbert.[101] Per Bowman, "Waits gradually began writing about junkies and prostitutes instead of skid-row drunks. In songs such as'Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis’ and ‘Red Shoes by the Drugstore,’ his writing became ever more vivid, compact, and complex."[102] From the album, Waits's first single, a cover ofLeonard Bernstein andStephen Sondheim's"Somewhere" fromWest Side Story, was released, but failed to chart.[103] For hisBlue Valentine tour, Waits assembled a new band; he also had a gas station built as a set for his performances.[104] His support act on the tour wasLeon Redbone.[105] In April, he embarked on a European tour, there making television appearances and press interviews; in Austria he was the subject of a short documentary.[106] From there, he flew to Australia for his first tour of that country before returning to Los Angeles in May.[107]
Waits was dissatisfied with Elektra-Asylum, who he felt had lost interest in him as an artist in favor of their more commercially successful acts likethe Eagles,Linda Ronstadt,Carly Simon andQueen.[105] After a phone call with their mutual friend Chuck E. Weiss, Waits told Jones, "Chuck E.'s in love". This was the inspiration for her song "Chuck E.'s in Love".[108] Jones's musical career was taking off; after an appearance onSaturday Night Live, "Chuck E.'s In Love" reached number 4 in the singles chart, straining her relationship with Waits.[109] Their relationship was further damaged by Jones'sheroin addiction.[110] Waits joined Jones for the first leg of her European tour, but then ended his relationship with her. Her grief at the breakup was channeled into the 1981 albumPirates.[111] In September, Waits moved toCrenshaw Boulevard to be closer to his father,[112] before deciding to relocate to New York City. He initially lived in theChelsea Hotel before renting an apartment on West 26th Street.[113] On arriving in the city, he told a reporter that he "just needed a new urban landscape. I've always wanted to live here. It's a good working atmosphere for me".[114] He considered writing aBroadway musical based onThornton Wilder'sOur Town.[115] Arotoscoped Waits performed "The One That Got Away" in the music videoTom Waits For No One (1979).
Francis Ford Coppola asked Waits to return to Los Angeles to write a soundtrack for his forthcoming film,One from the Heart.[116] Waits was excited, but conflicted, by the prospect; Coppola wanted him to create music akin to his early work, a genre that he was trying to leave behind, and thus he characterized the project as an artistic "step backwards".[117] He nevertheless returned to Los Angeles to work on the soundtrack in a room set aside for the purpose in Coppola's Hollywood studios.[118] This style of working was new to Waits; he later recalled that he was "so insecure when I started ... I was sweating buckets".[119] Waits was nominated for the 1982Academy Award for Original Music Score.
Waits still contractually owed Elektra-Asylum another album, so took a break from Coppola's project to write an album that he initially calledWhite Spades.[120] He recorded the album in June;[121] it was released in September asHeartattack and Vine.[122] The album was more guitar-based and had, according to Humphries, "a harder R&B edge" than any of its predecessors.[123] It again broke into the Top 100 Album Chart,[124] peaking at number 96.[125] Reviews were generally good.[125] Hoskyns called it "one of Waits's pinnacle achievements" as an album.[124] One of its tracks, "Jersey Girl", was subsequently recorded byBruce Springsteen. Waits was grateful, both for the revenue that the cover brought him and because he felt appreciated by a songwriter he admired.[126] While on the set ofOne from the Heart, Waits encounteredKathleen Brennan, a youngIrish-American woman working as an assistant story editor. The two had previously met while Waits was filmingParadise Alley.[127][128] Waits would later describe this encounter with Brennan as "love at first sight"; they were engaged to be married within a week.[129] In August 1980, they married at a 24-hour wedding chapel onManchester Boulevard inWatts before honeymooning inTralee, a town inCounty Kerry, Ireland, where Brennan had family.[130]
A whip and a chair. The Bible. The Book of Revelations. She grew up Catholic, you know, blood and liquor and guilt. She pulverizes me so that I don't just write the same song over and over again. Which is what a lot of people do, including myself.
— Waits on what his wife brought to his creative process[131]
Returning to Los Angeles, Waits and Brennan moved into a Union Avenue apartment.[132] Hoskyns noted that with Brennan, "Waits had found the stabilizing, nurturing companion he'd always wanted", and that she brought him "a sense of emotional security he had never known" before.[133] At the same time, many of his old friends felt cut off after his marriage.[134] Waits said of Brennan: "She rescued me. Maybe I rescued her too; that's often how it works. Upshot is that we both got into the same leaky boat. Maybe the weight drags it down, because now you've two people sitting in it. Sorry, baby! But on the other hand you've also got two peoples' imagination to patch it up again. Everybody knows she's the brains behind Pa, as Dylan might have said. I'm just the figurehead. She's the one who's steering the ship."[135]
Recording of Waits'sOne from the Heart soundtrack began in October 1980 and continued until September 1981.[136] A number of the tracks were recorded as duets withCrystal Gayle; Waits had initially planned to duet with Midler but she proved unavailable.[137] The film was released in 1982, to largely poor reviews.[138] Waits makes a small cameo as a trumpet player in a crowd scene.[139] Waits'ssoundtrack album was released byColumbia Records in 1982.[140] Waits had misgivings about the album, thinking it over-produced.[141] Humphries thought that working with Coppola was an important move in Waits's career: it "led directly to Waits moving from cult (i.e. largely unknown) artiste to center-stage."[142]
In New York City, Waits shared a workspace with jazz musicianJohn Lurie (pictured in 2013).
Newly married and with his Elektra-Asylum contract completed, Waits decided that it was time to artistically reinvent himself.[143] He wanted to move away from using Howe as his producer, although the two parted on good terms.[144] With Brennan's help, he began the process of firing Cohen as his manager, with him and Brennan taking on managerial responsibilities themselves.[145] He came to believe that Cohen had been swindling him out of much of his earnings, later relating that "I thought I was a millionaire and it turned out I had, like, twenty bucks."[146] Waits credited Brennan with introducing him to much new music, most notablyCaptain Beefheart, a key influence on the direction in which he wanted to take his work.[147] He later said that "once you've heard Beefheart it's hard to wash him out of your clothes. It stains, like coffee or blood."[148] She also introduced him toHarry Partch, a composer who created his own instruments out of everyday materials.[149] Waits began to use images rather than moods or characters as the basis for his songs.[150]
I like to imagine how it feels for the object to become music. Imagine you're the lid to a fifty-gallon drum. That's your job. You work at that. That's your whole life. Then one day I find you and I say, "We're gonna drill a hole in you, run a wire through you, hang you from the ceiling of the studio, bang on you with a mallet, and now you're in show business, baby!"
Waits wrote the songs forSwordfishtrombones during a two-week trip to Ireland.[150] He recorded it at Sunset Sound studios and produced it himself; Brennan often attended the sessions and gave him advice.[152]Swordfishtrombones abandoned the jazz sound characteristic of his earlier work; it was his first album not to feature a saxophone[153] and his first to feature themarimba.[102] When the album was finished, he took it to Asylum, but they declined to release it.[154] Waits wanted to leave the label; in his view, "They liked dropping my name in terms of me being a 'prestige' artist, but when it came down to it they didn't invest a whole lot in me in terms of faith".[155]Chris Blackwell ofIsland Records learned of Waits' dissatisfaction and approached him, offering to releaseSwordfishtrombones;[156] Island had a reputation for signing more experimental acts, such asKing Crimson,Roxy Music andSparks.[157] Waits did not tour to promote the album, partly because Brennan was pregnant.[158] Although unenthusiastic about the new trend formusic videos, he appeared in one for the song "In the Neighborhood", co-directed byHaskell Wexler andMichael A. Russ.[159] Russ also designed theSwordfishtrombones album cover, featuring an image of Waits withLee Kolima, a circus strongman, andAngelo Rossitto, a dwarf.[160]
Jon Pareles wrote that "OnSwordfishtrombones, Waits has made a breakthrough–he's found music as evocative as his words. Waits's grumble of a voice now bounces off a peculiar assortment of horns and percussion and organ and keyboards, as if he'd led a Salvation Army band into a broken-down Hong Kong disco. It's as if he's shifted from monologues to screenplays."[161] According to David Smay,Swordfishtrombones was "the record where Tom Waits radically reinvented himself and reshaped the musical landscape."[162]NME named it the second best album of the year.[163] In 1989,Spin magazine named it the second greatest album of all time.[164]
In 1983, Waits appeared in three more Coppola films: as Benny, a philosopher running a billboard store inRumble Fish; as Buck Merrill inThe Outsiders; and as the maître'd inThe Cotton Club.[165] He later said that "Coppola is actually the only film director in Hollywood that has a conscience... most of them are egomaniacs and money-grabbing bastards".[166] In September, Brennan gave birth to their daughter, Kellesimone.[167] Waits was determined to keep his family life separate from his public image and to spend as much time as possible with his daughter.[168] With Brennan and their child, Waits moved to New York City to be closer to Brennan's parents and Island's U.S. office. They settled into a loft apartment near Union Square.[169]
Waits found New York City life frustrating, although it allowed him to meet many new musicians and artists. He befriendedJohn Lurie ofthe Lounge Lizards, and the duo began sharing a music studio in the Westbeth artist-community building inGreenwich Village. He began networking in the city's arts scene, and, at a partyJean-Michel Basquiat held for Lurie, he met the filmmakerJim Jarmusch.[170]
Waits appeared in several films byJim Jarmusch (pictured in 2013).
Starting in the mid-80s,Kurt Weill became an important influence on Waits's work. Bowman writes that "Waits had become interested in Weill's late-1920s and 1930s musical-theater works... Weill's slightly off-kilter, stylizedcabaret approach to melody, rhythm, orchestration, and musical narrative permeated much of Waits' later work."[102] Waits did the soundtrack for the documentaryStreetwise, about homeless youth in Seattle;[171] it was another influence on the subjects of his next album.Rain Dogs was recorded at theRCA Studios in mid 1985.[172] Musically, Waits called the album "kind of an interaction between Appalachia and Nigeria".[173]Keith Richards played on several tracks;[174] Richards later acknowledged Waits's encouragement of his debut solo album,Talk is Cheap.[175]Rain Dogs also markedMarc Ribot's debut as a session guitarist; he played on many later Waits albums.[176]Jean-Baptiste Mondino directed a music video of "Downtown Train" featuring boxerJake LaMotta. The song was subsequently covered byPatty Smyth in 1987, and later byRod Stewart, where it reached the top five in 1990.[177] In 1985,Rolling Stone named Waits its "Songwriter of the Year".[178] Arion Berger wrote that "WithRain Dogs, he dropped his bedraggled lounge-piano act and fused outsider influences–socialist decadence by way of Kurt Weill, pre-rock integrity from olddirty blues, the elegiac melancholy ofNew Orleans funeral brass–into a singularly idiosyncratic American style... The music is bony and menacingly beautiful, the desultory electric-guitar solo as cold as the rattle of marimbas in 'Clap Hands'. The evocative, elliptical rhymes describe scenes and characters with poetic precision but use atmosphere, not narrative, to connect them."[179]NME namedRain Dogs the best album of the year.[180]
In September 1985, his son Casey was born.[181] Waits assembled a band and went on tour, kicking it off in Scotland in October before proceeding around Europe and then the U.S.[182] He changed the setlist for each performance; most of the songs chosen were from his two Island albums.[183] Returning to the U.S., he traveled toNew Orleans to act in Jarmusch'sDown by Law. Jarmusch wroteDown by Law with Waits and Lurie in mind.[184] The film opened and closed with songs fromRain Dogs.[185] Jarmusch noted that "Tom and I have a kindred aesthetic. An interest in unambitious people, marginal people."[186] The pair developed a friendship; Waits called Jarmusch "Dr. Sullen", while Jarmusch called Waits "The Prince of Melancholy".[187]
Waits had devised a musical,Franks Wild Years, loosely based on "Frank's Wild Years" fromSwordfishtrombones. In late 1985, he reached an agreement that the play would be performed by theSteppenwolf Theatre Company inChicago'sBriar Street Theatre[188] Waits starred as Frank, whom he described as
Quite a guy. Grew up in a bird's eye frozen, oven-ready, rural American town whereBing,Bob,Dean,Wayne &Jerry are considered major constellations. Frank, mistakenly, thinks he can stuff himself into their shorts and present himself to an adoring world. He is a combination ofWill Rogers andMark Twain, playing accordion–but without the wisdom they possessed. He has a poet's heart and a boy's sense of wonder with the world. A legend in Rainville since he burned his house down and took off for the Big Time.[189]
Reviews were generally positive. He had initially considered a run in New York City but decided against it.[190] The songs from the show were recorded for his ninth studio album,Franks Wild Years, and released byIsland Records in 1987.[191]NME rankedFranks Wild Years fifth on its list of albums of the year.[192] The album was Waits's first collaboration withDavid Hidalgo, who played accordion on "Cold, Cold Ground" and "Train Song". After its release, Waits toured North America and Europe,[193] his last full tour for two decades.[194] Two of the performances were the basis for Chris Blum's concert filmBig Time (1988).[195]
Waits continued interacting and working with other artists he admired. He was a great fan ofThe Pogues and went on a Chicagopub crawl with them in 1986.[196] In 1987, he appeared as a master of ceremonies on several dates ofElvis Costello's "Wheel of Fortune" tour.[197]
At rehearsals, Tom Waits looked like any moment he might break at the waist or his head fall off his shoulders on to the floor. I once saw a small-town idiot walking across the park, totally drunk, but he was holding an ice-cream, staggering, but also concentrating on not allowing the ice-cream to fall. I felt there was something similar to Tom.
In 1986, he took a small part inCandy Mountain, as millionaire golf enthusiast Al Silk.[199] He costarred inHector Babenco'sIronweed, as Rudy the Kraut.[200] Hoskyns noted thatIronweed put Waits "on the mainstream Hollywood map as a character actor". In Fall 1987, Waits and his family left New York and returned to Los Angeles, settling on Union Avenue.[201] He appeared as a hitman inRobert Dornhelm'sCold Feet[202] and lent his voice to Jarmusch'sMystery Train.[203]
Although Waits had provided a voice-over for a 1981 television advert for Butcher's Blend dog food,[204] he objected to musicians letting companies use their songs in advertising; he said that "artists who take money for ads poison and pervert their songs".[205] In November 1988, he brought a lawsuit againstFrito-Lay for using an impersonator performing "Step Right Up" in an advertisement forDoritos; it came to court in April 1990, and Waits won the case in 1992. He received a $2.6 million settlement, a sum larger than his earnings from all of his previous albums combined.[206] This earned him and Brennan reputations as tireless adversaries.[207]
In 1989, Waits began planning a collaboration withRobert Wilson, a theater director he had known throughout the 1980s. Their project was the "cowboy opera"The Black Rider. It was based on a German folk tale, theFreischütz, which had inspiredCarl Maria von Weber's operaDer Freischütz (1821).[208] In 2004, Waits related that "Wilson is my teacher. There's nobody that's affected me that much as an artist".[209] Waits wrote the music and, at the suggestion ofAllen Ginsberg, Waits and Wilson approachedWilliam S. Burroughs to pen the lyrics. They flew toKansas to meet with Burroughs, who agreed to join the project. Waits traveled toHamburg, Germany in May 1989 to work on the project, and was later joined there by Burroughs.[210]The Black Rider debuted in Hamburg'sThalia Theater in March 1990.[211] On completing its run at the Thalia, the play went on an international tour,[212] with a second run of performances occurring in the mid-2000s.[213]
In 1991, Waits and his family moved to the outskirts ofSonoma.[220] Waits's family later moved to a secluded house nearValley Ford after a bypass road was built near to their first Sonoma County house.[224] Also in 1991, 13 of Waits's 1971 pre-Asylum Records recordings were released for the first time on the first volume ofTom Waits: The Early Years. Waits was angered at this, describing many of his early demos as "baby pictures" that he would not want released. A second volume with 13 more recordings from 1971 was released in 1993.[225] In April 1992, Waits released the soundtrack album to Jarmusch'sNight on Earth. Largely instrumental, it had been recorded at the Prairie Sun studio inCotati.[226] In 1992, Waits quit drinking alcohol and joinedAlcoholics Anonymous.[227][228] In the early 1990s he took part in several charitable causes. In 1990 he contributed a song to theHIV/AIDS benefit albumRed Hot + Blue and later appeared at aWiltern Theater fundraising show for the victims of the1992 Los Angeles riots.[229]
In August 1992, Waits released his tenth studio album,Bone Machine. Waits wanted to explore "more machinery sounds" with the album, reflecting his interest inindustrial music.[230] It was recorded in an old storage room at Prairie Sun.Waits recalled, "I found a great room to work in, it's just a cement floor and a hot water heater. Okay, we'll do it here. It's got some good echo."[231] Eight of the album's tracks were co-written with Brennan.[232] The cover was co-designed by Waits andJesse Dylan. Jarmusch and Dylan directed videos for "I Don't Wanna Grow Up", and "Goin' Out West", respectively.[233] Critic Steve Huey called it "perhaps Tom Waits's most cohesive album... a morbid, sinister nightmare, one that applied the quirks of his experimental '80s classics to stunningly evocative—and often harrowing—effect... Waits's most affecting and powerful recording, even if it isn't his most accessible."[234] The album's closing track, "That Feel", was co-written withKeith Richards.Bone Machine won theGrammy forBest Alternative Music Album;[235] in response, Waits asked Jarmusch: "alternative towhat?!"[236]
Waits decided to record an album of the songs written forThe Black Rider, and did so at Los Angeles'sSunset Sound Factory.The Black Rider was released in the fall of 1993.[237] Waits and Wilson decided to collaborate again, this time on an operatic treatment ofLewis Carroll's relationship withAlice Liddell, who had provided the inspiration forAlice in Wonderland andThrough the Looking Glass.[238] Again scheduled to premier at the Thalia, they began working on the project in Hamburg in early 1992.[239] Waits characterized the songs he wrote for the play as "adult songs for children, or children's songs for adults". In his lyrics, Waits drew on his increasing interest infreak shows and the physically deformed.[240] He thought the play itself was about "repression, mental illness and obsessive, compulsive disorders".[241]Alice premiered at the Thalia in December 1992.[242]
In early 1993, Brennan was pregnant with Waits's third child, Sullivan.[243] He decided to reduce his workload so as to spend more time with his children; this isolation spawned rumours that he was seriously ill or had separated from his wife. For three years, he turned down all offers to perform gigs or appear in movies.[244] However, he made several cameos and guest appearances on albums by musicians he admired.[245] In February 1996, he held a benefit performance to raise funds for the legal defense of his friend Don Hyde, who had been charged with distributingLSD.[246] He wrote "Walk Away" and "The Fall of Troy" forthe soundtrack ofDead Man Walking (1995)[247] and "Little Drop of Poison" forThe End of Violence (1997).[248] In 1998, Island releasedBeautiful Maladies, a compilation of 23 Waits tracks from his albums with the company, selected by Waits himself.[249]
After his contract with Island expired, Waits decided not to try to renew it, particularly as Blackwell had resigned from the company.[250] He signed to a smaller record label,Anti-, recently launched as an offshoot of thepunk-labelEpitaph Records.[251] He described the company as "a friendly place".[252] The president of Anti-,Andy Kaulkin, said the label was "blown away that Tom would even consider us. We are huge fans."[253] Waits himself praised the label: "Epitaph is a label run by and for artists and musicians, where it feels much more like a partnership than a plantation... We shook on the deal over a coffee in a truck stop. I know it's going to be an adventure."[254]
In March 1999, Anti- releasedMule Variations.[252] Waits had been recording the tracks at Prairie Sun since June 1998.[255] The tracks often dealt with themes involving rural life in the United States and were influenced by the early blues recordings made byAlan Lomax;[256] Waits coined the term "surrural" ("surreal" and "rural") to describe the album's content.[257]Mule Variations reached number 30 on the U.S. Billboard 200, the highest showing of a Waits album.[258] The album was well received,[252] being named "Album of the Year" byMojo.[259] It won theGrammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.[260] On the categorization of the album asfolk music, Waits said: "That's not a bad thing to be called if you've got to be in some kind of category."[236]
Also in March 1999, Waits gave his first live show in three years atParamount Theater, Austin, Texas as part of theSouth by Southwest festival.[261] He then appeared in an episode ofVH1 Storytellers. In the later part of the year he embarked on theMule Variations tour, primarily in the U.S. but also featuring dates in Berlin.[262] In October, he performed atNeil Young's annualBridge School benefit concert.[263] In 1999, he appeared inKinka Usher's comic book spoofMystery Men as Dr A. Heller, an eccentric inventor living in an abandoned amusement park.[264]
In 2000, Waits began writing songs for Wilson's adaptation ofGeorg Büchner'sWoyzeck, which had earlier inspiredAlban Berg's operaWozzeck (1925). It was scheduled to start at the Betty Nansen Theater inCopenhagen in November 2000. He initially worked on the songs at home before traveling to Copenhagen for rehearsals in October.[265] Waits said that he liked the play because it was "a proletariat story ... about a poor soldier who is manipulated by the government".[266] He decided to then record the songs he had written for bothAlice andWoyzeck, placing them on separate albums. For these recordings, he brought in a range of jazz and avant-garde musicians from San Francisco.[267] The two albums,Alice andBlood Money, were released simultaneously in May 2002.[268]Alice entered the U.S. album chart at number 32 andBlood Money at number 33, his highest charting positions at that time.[269] Waits describedAlice as being "more metaphysical or something, maybe more water, more feminine", whileBlood Money was "more earthbound, more carnival, more the slaving meat-wheel that we're all on". Of the two,Alice was better received by critics.[270]Jesse Dylan directed a video for "God's Away On Business", but shooting was delayed when theemus who were set to star were eaten by coyotes. PerNME, "Replacements were hastily found and the video for ‘God’s Away On Business’, the single lifted from ‘Blood Money’, one of Waits’ two new albums, went ahead a little late."[271]
In May 2001, Waits accepted a Founders Award at the 18th annualAmerican Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Pop Music Awards in a ceremony at theBeverly Hilton Hotel inBeverly Hills, California.[272] That same month, he joined singersNancy andAnn Wilson ofHeart, as well asRandy Newman, in launching a $40 million lawsuit againstmp3.com for copyright infringement.[273] In September 2002, he appeared at a hearing on accounting practices within the music industry in California. There, he expressed satisfaction with Anti- but declared more broadly that "the record companies are like cartels. It's a nightmare to be trapped in one."[274]
In September 2003, Waits performed at the Healing the Divide fundraiser in New York City.[275] He appeared in Jarmusch'sCoffee and Cigarettes (2003), having a conversation withIggy Pop.[276]
In 2004, Waits released his fifteenth studio album,Real Gone.[277] He had recorded it in an abandoned schoolhouse inLocke. Hoskyns called the album Waits' "roughest, most unkempt music to date". It incorporated Waitsbeatboxing, a technique he had picked up from his growing interest inhip hop.[278] Humphries characterized it as "the most overtly political album of Waits' career".[279] It featured three political songs expressing Waits' anger at the presidency ofGeorge W. Bush and theIraq War. He said: "I'm not a politician. I keep my mouth shut because I don't want to put my foot in it. But at a certain point, saying absolutely nothing is a political statement of its own."[280]Real Gone received largely positive reviews.[281] It made the Billboard Top 30 as well as the Top 10 in several European album charts,[282] also earning him a nomination for Best International Male Solo Artist at the 2005Brit Awards.[283] In October 2004, he launched a tour inVancouver before heading to Europe, where his shows were sell-outs:[284] his only London gig saw 78,000 applications for around 3,700 available tickets.[285] Per Bowman, "Much ofReal Gone was built around oral-percussion home recordings that Waits made in his bathroom, using his mouth as a human beat-box. A superb example is the bed track underpinning the hellacious groove of ‘Metropolitan Glide’ that Waits aptly described as ‘cubist funk.’ In stark contrast, the album's closing track, 'Day After Tomorrow,' returned Waits to his singer-songwriter roots, and features a beautiful melody that sounds eerily similar to Dylan's early acoustic work."[1]
After several years without film appearances, he played a gun-totingSeventh-day Adventist inTony Scott'sDomino (2005).[286] Later in 2005, he traveled toItaly to appear in Benigni'sThe Tiger and the Snow.[287] Next Waits was inWristcutters: A Love Story (2007) performing as an angel posing as a tramp.[288] In the summer of 2006, he embarked on his "Orphans" tour of southern and midwest states. His son Casey played in the band accompanying him on tour.[289] In 2006, Waits issuedOrphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, a 54-song three-disc box set of rarities, unreleased tracks and new compositions; he said that the music is "songs that fell behind the stove while making dinner." The first disc,Brawlers, consists of raucousrock andblues-based numbers; the second,Bawlers, of melancholiccountry songs and ballads; the third,Bastards, of stories,spoken word pieces and other works not so easily categorized.[290]Orphans made the top ten in several European charts. In 2006, Waits was a guest onThe Daily Show withJon Stewart, where he played "Day After Tomorrow".[291]
Waits found himself in a situation similar to his earlier one with Frito Lay in 2000 whenAudi approached him, asking to use "Innocent When You Dream" for a commercial broadcast in Spain. Waits declined, but the commercial ultimately featured music very similar to that song. Waits undertook legal action, and a Spanish court recognized that there had been a violation of Waits'smoral rights in addition to the infringement of copyright. The production company, Tandem Campmany Guasch, was ordered to pay compensation to Waits through his Spanish publisher. Waits later joked that they got the name of the song wrong, thinking it was called "Innocent When You Scheme".[298][299] In 2005, Waits suedAdam Opel AG, claiming that, after having failed to sign him to sing in their Scandinavian commercials, they had hired a sound-alike singer. In 2007, the suit was settled, and Waits gave his proceeds to charity.[300]
In 2010, Waits was reported to be working on a new stage musical with director and long-time collaboratorRobert Wilson and playwrightMartin McDonagh.[301]
In early 2011, Waits completed a set of 23 poems,Seeds on Hard Ground, which were inspired by Michael O'Brien's portraits of the homeless in his book,Hard Ground. O'Brien's book included the poems alongside the portraits. In anticipation of the book release, Waits andANTI- printed limited edition chapbooks of the poems to raise money for Redwood Empire Food Bank, a homeless referral and family support service inSonoma County, California. As of January 26, 2011, four editions, each limited to 1,000 copies, sold out, raising $90,000 for the food bank.[302] On February 24, 2011, it was announced via Waits's official website that he had begun work on his next studio album.[303] Waits said through his website that on August 23 he would "set the record straight" in regards to rumors of a new release.[304] On August 23, the title of the new album was revealed to beBad as Me,[305] and the lead single and title track started being offered viaAmazon.com and other sites.[306]
Since 2012, though not having made any formal announcement of retreating from a musical career, Waits has focused much of his artistic energy on poetry and acting. He has not toured as a musician since 2008, and has not issued new music since 2011. However, Waits still performs music occasionally, as there have been a very few widely-spaced appearances by Waits as a musical performer at various events in the 2010s and 2020s, wherein he typically performs between one and three songs.
Over the years, Waits made six appearances on theLate Show with David Letterman,[315] and on May 14, 2015, sang "Take One Last Look" on the show's fifth to last broadcast.[316] He was accompanied byLarry Taylor on upright bass and Gabriel Donohue on piano accordion, with the horn section of theCBS Orchestra. In 2016, Waits pursued litigation against French artist Bartabas, who had used several of his songs as a backdrop to a theatrical performance. Claims and counterclaims were made, with Bartabas claiming to have sought and been granted permission to use the material (and to have paid $400,000 for the privilege) but with Waits claiming that his identity had been stolen. The court ruled in Bartabas's favor, and the circus performance was allowed to continue, although the threat of further litigation meant that it was not performed outside France and the resulting DVD release does not contain Waits's material.[317]
In 2018, Waits had a feature role inThe Ballad of Buster Scruggs, aWestern anthology film by theCoen brothers, as the Prospector.[318] Also in 2018, Waits provided the recorded narration for performances of McDonagh's playA Very Very Very Dark Matter, which was performed at theBridge Theatre, London. In 2021, Waits had a supporting role inPaul Thomas Anderson's coming-of-age filmLicorice Pizza.[319] In 2023, he joinedIggy Pop on theConfidential Show, where they swapped stories and songs.[320][321] In 2025, he appeared as part of Italian public television channel RAI3’s ‘The Human Factor’ series in the last episode, “The Last Ride”, where he read from his poetry book “Seeds On Hard Ground”, and performed a few of his songs.[322][323]
In addition to Kerouac and Bukowski, literary influences includeNelson Algren,John Rechy andHubert Selby Jr.[324] Bowman notes the influence of crime writers likeDashiell Hammett andJohn D. Macdonald.[102] Waits says that "for a songwriter, Dylan is as essential as a hammer and nails and saw are to a carpenter."[23] Musical influences includeRandy Newman[325] andDr. John. He has praisedMerle Haggard: "Want to learn how to write songs? Listen to Merle Haggard."[326][327] He is anopera lover; he recalls hearingPuccini's "Nessun dorma" "in the kitchen at Coppola's withRaul Julia one night, and it changed my life, that particular Aria. I had never heard it. He asked me if I had ever heard it, and I said no, and he was like, as if I said I've never had spaghetti and meatballs - 'Oh My God, Oh My God!'-and he grabbed me and he brought me into the jukebox (there was a jukebox in the kitchen) and he put that on and he just kind of left me there. It was like giving a cigar to a five-year old."[23] A jazz influence isThelonious Monk: "He almost sounded like a kid taking piano lessons. I could relate to that when I first started playing the piano, because he was decomposing the music while he was playing it."[23][108] One of Waits's own favorite descriptions of his vocal style was "Louis Armstrong andEthel Merman meeting in Hell."[328]
Waits credits his wife with inspiration: "She's an opera buff and bug collector. And she's done a lot of things. And she has dreams likeHieronymus Bosch. She writes more from her dreams, I wrote more from the world, or from the newspaper... And somehow it all works together." He credits her with helping him unify his eclectic musical interests: "it's really my wife that started helping me see that you can find the place whereLead Belly andSchoenberg overlap."[329]
In 1980, Waits married frequent collaboratorKathleen Brennan. They live inSonoma County, California,[130] and have three children: Kellesimone Wylder Waits (born 1983),[167] Casey Waits (born 1985),[181] and Sullivan Blake Waits (born 1993).[331][332] After he married and had children, Waits became increasingly reclusive.[333] Safeguarding the privacy of his family life became very important to him.[334]
During interviews, he has deflected questions about his personal life and refused to sanction any biography.[335] When Barney Hoskyns was researching his unauthorized 2009 biography,Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, Waits and his wife asked people not to talk to him. Hoskyns believed that it was Brennan who was responsible for the "wall of inaccessibility" surrounding Waits.[336] When asked about his religious beliefs, he said, "With the God stuff I don't know. I don't know what's out there any more than anyone else."[337]
Waits has been determined to keep a distance between his public persona and his personal life.[338] According to Hoskyns, Waits hides behind his persona, noting that "Tom Waits is as much of a character created for his fans as it is a real man."[339] In Hoskyns's view, Waits's self-image is in part "a self-protective device, a screen to deflect attention."[340] A few music journalists have gone so far as to suggest that Waits is a "poseur".[341] Hoskyns regarded Waits's "persona of the skid-row boho/hobo, a young man out of time and place" as an "ongoing experiment in performance art."[342] He goes on to say that Waits has adopted a "self-appointed role as the bard of the streets."[343] Mick Brown, a music journalist fromSounds who interviewed Waits in the mid-1970s, noted that "he had immersed himself in this character to the point where itwasn't an act and had become an identity."[344] Louie Lista, a friend of Waits' during the 1970s, said that the singer's general attitude was, "I'm an outsider, but I'llrevel in being an outsider."[345] Like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Waits is known for cutting contact with figures he worked with in his past.[346]
"There ain't no Devil, there's just God when he's drunk." "I don't have a drinking problem, 'cept when I can't get a drink." "Everybody I like is either dead or not feeling very well." "I'm so broke I can't even pay attention." "You have to keep busy, after all, no dog ever pissed on a moving car." "I don't care who I have to step on on my way down."
— Waits quotations which Humphries called "Waitsisms"[347]
Another friend from that time, Troubadour-manager Robert Marchese, related that Waits cultivated "the whole mystique of this really funky dude and all thatCharles Bukowski crap" to give "his impression of how funky poor folk really are," whereas in reality Waits was "basically a middle-class, San Diego mom-and-pop-schoolteacher kid."[345] Humphries thought that there was a "conservative element" to Waits' persona, stating that behind his public image, "Waits has always been more of a white-picket-fence kind of guy than you might imagine."[348]
Jarmusch described Waits as "a very contradictory character," stating that he is "potentially violent if he thinks someone isscrewing with him, but he's gentle and kind too."[349]Herbert Hardesty, who worked with Waits onBlue Valentine, called him "a very pleasant human being, a very nice person."[350] Humphries referred to him as "an essentially reticent man ... reflective and surprisingly shy."[351] Hoskyns said that Waits is "unequivocally—some would say almost gruffly—heterosexual."[352]
Hoskyns suggested that Waits has had an "on-off affair with alcohol, never quite able to shake it off."[353] During the 1970s, he was known as a heavy drinker and a smoker but avoided any drugs harder than cocaine.[354] He told one interviewer, "I discovered alcohol at an early age, and that guided me a lot."[355] Humphries suggested that Waits's use of alcohol as opposed to illicit drugs marked him out as being different from many of his contemporaries on the 1970s U.S. music scene.[356]
During interviews, Waits has avoided questions about his personal life, gone off on tangents, and thrown in trivia.[357] Humphries noted that Waits has often supplied interviewers with "droll one-liners", something he termed "Waitsisms", observing that the singer was "dripping with wit and vinegar."[347] Waits is known for getting irate with journalists.[358]He dislikes touring[359] but Hoskyns added that Waits has "a strong work ethic".[360]
In concert, Waits tended to wear all black. Humphries noted that "on stage, Waits is a consummate performer, a raconteur of the recherché, and a genuine wit."[361] Waits has stated that a performance should be "a spectacle and entertaining".[57] It was on his 1977 tour forForeign Affairs that he started employing props as part of his routine;[93] one recurring prop was a megaphone through which he would shout at the audience.[285]
Bowman writes that "At the dawn of the second decade of the 21st century, Waits’s influence can be seen in the work of many of the most forward-thinking contemporary artists, includingBeck,PJ Harvey, andRadiohead’sThom Yorke.”[102] Other musicians who have expressed admiration for Waits's work includeElvis Costello,[378]Bruce Springsteen,[378]Nanci Griffith,[378]Joe Strummer ofthe Clash,[379]Michael Stipe ofR.E.M.,[378]Frank Black ofPixies,[380] andJames Hetfield ofMetallica.[379]Bob Dylan, a major influence on the young Waits, called Waits one of his "secret heroes".[381] Humphries said that he is "one of America's finest post-Dylan singer-songwriters" and, along withEdward Hopper, "one of the two great depicters of American isolation."[382] Hoskyns called him "as important an American artist as anyone the twentieth century has produced."[383][384] He notes that by the end of the twentieth century, "Waits was an iconic alternative figure, not just to the fans who'd grown up with him but to subsequent generations of music geeks",[385] coming to be "universally acknowledged as an elder statesman of 'alternative' rock.'"[386] Karen Schoemer ofNewsweek said that "to the postboomer generation, he's more Dylan than Dylan. [His] melting-pot approach toAmericana, his brilliant narratives and his hardiness against commercial trends have made him the ultimate icon for the alternative-minded."[385]Steve Vai said: "Tom Waits is my favorite artist now. I completely resonate deeply with his music, his voice and his lyrics; I buy everything he ever does. He's one of those guys who are totally at one with the creative element with no excuses or concerns about what's going on around him–totally uncompromising."[387] When asked which song she wished she had written,Florence Welch ofFlorence and the Machine said: “‘Green Grass’ by Tom Waits... Really, anything by Tom Waits. I wish I was Tom Waits. His songs are so visceral and bloody. I just love his use of imagery."[388]Bones Howe says: "I do a lot of seminars. Occasionally I'll do something for songwriters. They all say the same thing to me. 'All the great lyrics are done.' And I say, 'I'm going to give you a lyric that you never heard before'", the following from "Tom Traubert's Blues": "A battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace / And a wound that will never heal." Howe calls this "the work of an extremely talented lyricist, poet, whatever you want to say. That is brilliant, brilliant work. And he never mentions the person, but you see the person."[389]
I've seen him standing in a bunch of dust, and I thought I saw sparkly things coming off of him. I looked at him when he was singing and I said, "Is my vision going? I'm seeing three, maybe four people up there?" And they all seem to be waiting for the other one to finish so that they come in. And then this other one would justwhistle at me. And then one would speak in a kind of speaking-in-tongues kind of voice. And then The Eagles covered it.
I thought I’d finishedRemains, but then one evening heard Tom Waits singing his song "Ruby’s Arms". It’s a ballad about a soldier leaving his lover sleeping in the early hours to go away on a train. Nothing unusual in that. But the song is sung in the voice of a rough American hobo type utterly unaccustomed to wearing his emotions on his sleeve... there comes a moment, when the singer declares his heart is breaking, that’s almost unbearably moving because of the tension between the sentiment itself and the huge resistance that’s obviously been overcome to utter it. Waits sings the line with cathartic magnificence, and you feel a lifetime of tough-guy stoicism crumbling in the face of overwhelming sadness. I heard this and reversed a decision I’d made, that Stevens would remain emotionally buttoned up right to the bitter end. I decided that at just one point–which I’d have to choose very carefully–his rigid defence would crack, and a hitherto concealed tragic romanticism would be glimpsed.[406]
Another author who notes Waits's influence isIan Rankin:
I already knew Tom Waits’s music, those soulful communications from the louche underbelly of the American dream, but nothing had prepared me forSwordfishtrombones. I first heard it on a friend’s stereo system, the pair of us transfixed by what was happening in front of our ears. It felt to me as if a vaudeville show was taking place in a scrapyard, the music whirling and clanging, Waits presiding over it all like a bruised but keen-eyed master of ceremonies.Rain Dogs added extra textures and refinements, laying its (marked) cards on the table with its opening track, "Singapore", a novel contained within two and a half minutes of controlled musical mayhem. By the time of its release I had left university and was trying to shape myself into a writer. I admired Waits’s lyrical vision and concision–the man was a born storyteller, stopping travellers who had wandered into the wrong part of town and compelling them with his words.[407]
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
