Tom Waits Part 1 : Probably My Favouirite Song Writer and Artist

One tenet that I have always held onto is that you do not need to have a great voice to be a great singer.  In fact hardly any of the singers I really enjoy have great voices. Somehow great voices and emotional depth do not often combine.  However I can say categorically that Tom Waits is a great singer and  an even better songwriter.

Tom Waits started eeking his way into my life in 1977 when I bought, Small Change.  I was in my last year of high school and at that stage was in a no man's land between the Old Wave and the New Wave.

At that time Tom Waits was like nothing else in my collection and to a certain  extent he still is unique in the collection.  I had bought it solely for the almost novelty track The Piano Has Been Drinking. Something different to play as my friends and I played pool late at night when the song should probably have been retitled The Pool Cue's been drinking.

One thing I remember at the time was that NO ONE ELSE seemed to get Tom Waits apart from that one song.  I was on my own.

That first record also had the magnificent Tom Traubert's Blues (or as many know it Waltzing Mathilda).  Rod Stewart has tried covering Waits a few times and while I have great respect for Stewart's interpretative singing ability - his version of this is just bloody awful.  His approach toward Downtown Train (with Jeff Beck on guitar is much more creditable.

I remember at the time saying that I would probably only ever have one or two albums by him as I did not think his music would have lasting appeal or enough variation to sustain many more. How wrong I was and I am now the proud owner of about 50 records, cds and DVDs by the man. Up there with what I have by Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, Dylan and Bowie - but unlike the others the only reason I do not have more by Tom is that he has not made more.  I also have some terrific albums of other artists interpreting his songs (the best of which are probably Temptation by Holy Cole and Southside Johnny's big band interpretations Grapefruit Moon).

A lot of people categorise Waits' career into two distinct phases.  The first the boho barfly period where Waits seemed like a musical cross between Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski.  The second being the more sonically experimental period.  The latter seemed to kick off when he met his wife Kathleen Brennan on the set of One From The Heart for which he was writing the soundtrack.  The movie was a flop but the soundtrack is outstanding and it did have Nastasia Kinski in it so it could not have been all bad!

However I do not think that there is as much difference between the two phases as people tend to say.  All he really did in my opinion was add some extra noise (in addition to his voice :-) ) to the melodies and take things a little lo-fi.

With Waits' music it is always the melodies that get to me - buried not far beneath growl, they are always there and when combined with his lyrics you get what is one of the most memorable songbooks since the great American Song Book was invented by Cole Porter, Rogers and Hammerstein and Gershwin.  He is of course a great story teller as well and whether the stories are told in song or in the between song banter makes no difference.  He has even specifically recorded some like his reminiscing about all the family cars in The Pontiac what a great story and so real!

Waits lyrics are, in my opinion,  some of  the most complete lyrics ever written.  What I mean by that is that they stand along as lyrics, present complete stories or situations and it seems that each word is specifically chosen and fitted like a complex jig-saw puzzle.  Certainly many stand reading alone without the music - quite unusual in rock lyrics.  There is obvious craftsmanship at work.

Another common theme with Waits is the calibre of the musicians he attracts - always a good sign when there is real talent at work.  Waits' roll call includes the likes of guitar supremos Keith Richard and Marc Ribot, Shelly Mann on Drums, Victor Feldman, Greg Cohen and Larry Taylor on Bass, Teddy Edwards on Sax and Bette Midler and Crystal Gayle on vocals,

It is very hard for me to pick a favourite Waits' album.  I come back to all of them frequently and Jan gets tired of changing from Waits on the car stereo.  Anyway here they are my favourite Waits' albums in  the order they were released.

Closing Time was his first album and many do not rate it but it is certainly in my top 5 Waits albums. Waits says he never liked the arrangements.  He was already wise beyond his years and writing songs that seemed to come from someone much older than his 22 years at the time.  Sure he has written some better songs but not much better.

The romantiscm of Martha, an old lover ringing what seems like the love of his life after a gap of 40 years or so.  Then there is the barroom romance of I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You, Ol' 55 - another car song (and the song that Waits claimed put his kids through school when The Eagles covered it on their first album. Then there is Grapefruit Moon.

Closing Time was followed by fan favourite The Heart of Saturday Night, the live album of new songs Nighthawks at The Diner and my introduction to his work Small Change.

Foreign Affair, the album after Small Change has some of my favourite songs with some of Waits' best lyrics. The title track stands out for what I consider some of the best lyrics ever written and a great example of what I call complete lyrics.

Foreign Affair

"When traveling abroad in the continental style

It's my belief one must attempt to be discreet

And subsequently bear in mind your transient position

Allows you a perspective that's unique

And though you'll find your itinerary's a blessing and a curse

Your wanderlust won't let you settle down

And you'll wonder how you ever fathomed that you'd be content

To stay within the city limits of a small Midwestern town

Most vagabonds I know don't ever want to find the culprit

That remains the object of their long relentless quest

The obsession's in the chasing not the apprehending

The pursuit you see and never the arrest

Without fear of contradiction "bon voyage" is always hollered

In conjunction with a handkerchief from shore

By a girl who drives a rambler and furthermore

Is overly concerned that she won't see him anymore

Planes and trains and boats and buses

Characteristically evoke a common attitude of blue

Unless you have a suitcase and a ticket and a passport

And the cargo that they're carrying is you

A foreign affair juxtaposed with a stateside

And domestically approved romantic fancy

Is mysteriously attractive due to circumstances knowing

It will only be parlayed into a memory

The album after Foreign Affair,  Blue Valentine was the last of his full fledged barfly albums and probably the most popular of the early albums. The song titles say it all, A Sweet Little Bullet from a Pretty Blue Gun, Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis, Whistling Past The Grave Yard are all terrific tracks and I often wonder why I do not play it more often.

Things started to change after this album and I was fortunate enough to see him soon after when he played the Wellington Town Hall.

More of that to come.