Tom Waits

Other than Pearl Jam, who else is there?
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epilogue
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Re: Tom Waits

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The Argonaut wrote:
theplatypus wrote:
The Argonaut wrote:Does anyone remember that website with Tom Waits lyrics and lots of footnotes to explain what all the references mean? something like the lyrics database? Is that website gone?
It was called the Tom Waits library. The good version of it closed. It's been replaced by this piece of shit: http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/
That was it, yeah. What the hell happened? The old site was amazing.
It's still kicking around: http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits% ... brary.com/
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Re: Tom Waits

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:heartbeat:

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Re: Tom Waits

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That site is really useful as Tom decides to use words and phrases that either have never been used previously or have been out of style for the better part of a century. I love the way he can turn a phrase that makes little sense upon hearing it, but upon examining it the phrase of 5 words could convey so much more than just those 5 words.
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Re: Tom Waits

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Gods' Die wrote:That site is really useful as Tom decides to use words and phrases that either have never been used previously or have been out of style for the better part of a century. I love the way he can turn a phrase that makes little sense upon hearing it, but upon examining it the phrase of 5 words could convey so much more than just those 5 words.
He's also so super well read/well listened. He drops fantastic references. Most of which I don't get until I read about them. This site has been especially helpful on that score.
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Re: Tom Waits

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durdencommatyler wrote:
The Argonaut wrote:
theplatypus wrote:
The Argonaut wrote:Does anyone remember that website with Tom Waits lyrics and lots of footnotes to explain what all the references mean? something like the lyrics database? Is that website gone?
It was called the Tom Waits library. The good version of it closed. It's been replaced by this piece of shit: http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/
That was it, yeah. What the hell happened? The old site was amazing.
It's still kicking around: http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits% ... brary.com/
Awesome, thank you d,t. I've been wondering where the song Pony is actually about.
Please consider voting for me
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Re: Tom Waits

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The Argonaut wrote:
durdencommatyler wrote:
The Argonaut wrote:
theplatypus wrote:
The Argonaut wrote:Does anyone remember that website with Tom Waits lyrics and lots of footnotes to explain what all the references mean? something like the lyrics database? Is that website gone?
It was called the Tom Waits library. The good version of it closed. It's been replaced by this piece of shit: http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/
That was it, yeah. What the hell happened? The old site was amazing.
It's still kicking around: http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits% ... brary.com/
Awesome, thank you d,t. I've been wondering where the song Pony is actually about.
You find what you were looking for?
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Re: Tom Waits

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Listened to Bone Machine, Mule Variations and some random odds and ends yesterday. Those two albums feel like they're close relatives. Like Stephen King books. Like both albums are about some of the people that populate the same town. I don't know.

But I bet Buzz Fledderjohn has beautiful nails. And I bet she's even the mayor. Maybe.
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Re: Tom Waits

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A lot of fans complained that Mule was too similar to Bone when it first came out, but I always thought that Bone sounded like the gospel and blues that accompanies the end of the world and Mule was the field recorded folk music the survivors made after.
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Re: Tom Waits

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McParadigm wrote:A lot of fans complained that Mule was too similar to Bone when it first came out, but I always thought that Bone sounded like the gospel and blues that accompanies the end of the world and Mule was the field recorded folk music the survivors made after.
Yes! I think that's it exactly. Couldn't agree more.

Bone Machine is much more abrasive and forsaken.
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Re: Tom Waits

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You know what is great about this guy? I used to not really be into Real Gone so much, but now years later it is one my TW favorites. This is what an artist listener/experience should be like....

HOIST THAT RAG HOIST THAT RAG!
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Re: Tom Waits

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verb_to_trust wrote:You know what is great about this guy? I used to not really be into Real Gone so much, but now years later it is one my TW favorites. This is what an artist listener/experience should be like....

HOIST THAT RAG HOIST THAT RAG!
I 100% agree. It helps that it took him until 30 years into his career to bring his most aurally destructive tendencies to their extreme...and also that it happens to contain some of the strongest lyrical moments of the greatest lyricist in history.

History.
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Re: Tom Waits

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McParadigm wrote:
verb_to_trust wrote:You know what is great about this guy? I used to not really be into Real Gone so much, but now years later it is one my TW favorites. This is what an artist listener/experience should be like....

HOIST THAT RAG HOIST THAT RAG!
I 100% agree. It helps that it took him until 30 years into his career to bring his most aurally destructive tendencies to their extreme...and also that it happens to contain some of the strongest lyrical moments of the greatest lyricist in history.

History.
Yeah...Real Gone's lyrics are pretty outstanding. Make It Rain...oy. And yeah...maybe I've just listened to them a thousand times but Mule Variations seems like a much easier album to listen to than Bone Machine. Bone Machine is more sparse and abrasive.

Mule Variations sounds like it's being played with actual instruments (piano, acoustic/electric guitar). Bone Machine is played with the wreckage found: scrap metal and such.
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Re: Tom Waits

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My goodness Down There by The Train just slays me. So beautiful. Amazing performance too
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Re: Tom Waits

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Strat wrote:My goodness Down There by The Train just slays me. So beautiful. Amazing performance too
Train Song from Big Time.
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Re: Tom Waits

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Real Gone has been growing on me. Big time. Over the last several months it's the one I've been reaching for first when I'm spinning Waits on vinyl.
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Re: Tom Waits

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durdencommatyler wrote:Real Gone has been growing on me. Big time. Over the last several months it's the one I've been reaching for first when I'm spinning Waits on vinyl.
I fucking love it...one day it clicked for me while driving through rural Iowa between the 6 foot tall corn, it was around 108 degrees and 100% humidity. It hit perfectly on that day. Ever since the scratchy, difficult songs slide right on by along with the songs I thoroughly enjoyed previously.
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Re: Tom Waits

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Gods' Die wrote:
durdencommatyler wrote:Real Gone has been growing on me. Big time. Over the last several months it's the one I've been reaching for first when I'm spinning Waits on vinyl.
I fucking love it...one day it clicked for me while driving through rural Iowa between the 6 foot tall corn, it was around 108 degrees and 100% humidity. It hit perfectly on that day. Ever since the scratchy, difficult songs slide right on by along with the songs I thoroughly enjoyed previously.
Yeah, I'm getting there.

Hoist That Rag, Make it Rain, Don't Go Into That Barn, Trampled Rose, Day After Tomorrow, these have long been Tom Waits highlights for me. But now it's some of the weirder stuff that has been grabbing me.
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Re: Tom Waits

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Hoist That Rag, Make it Rain, Don't Go Into That Barn, Trampled Rose, Day After Tomorrow, these have long been Tom Waits highlights for me. But now it's some of the weirder stuff that has been grabbing me.
Sins of My Father.

Really, though....it's not until you find yourself listening to Shake it on repeat that you begin to realize the truth: your natural (or perhaps long trained and rewarded) inclination to want to peel back the layers of Real Gone's 'transistor radio with bad reception' aesthetic and broken furniture physicality and look underneath was the exact opposite of what you needed to do in order to figure out what made it beautiful.
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Re: Tom Waits

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Buzz Fledderjohn might be my absolute favorite of Tom's orphaned songs.
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Re: Tom Waits

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Does anyone know where I can get a list of what songs were written when? What songs from Orphans were part of the Real Gone sessions?
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