Tom Waits

[Kevin Davis]

"There's a hummingbird trapped in a closed down shoe store" is one of my favorite TW lyrics ever.

[VinylGuy]

Listening to Day After Tomorrow right now.

So beautiful.

[epilogue]

if anything I underrate this album. What a piece of work. There are a few records that get close, but this has to be his best, right?

I don't think so, no. I don't have it in the top 5, even. Great as it is.

[stip]

madness!

[epilogue]

The man has a lot of great music. What can I say.

[VinylGuy]

i still think his best album is Bone Machine. Thats his peak for me.

[digster]

I think I'd put Mule Variations as the top, but it's hard to go wrong with Rain Dogs onward.

[epilogue]

Bone Machine, to me, is everything I want from a piece of art. It's amazing. I think it's the best album I've ever heard.

However, I can't be mad at anyone who prefers Rain Dogs. It just doesn't quite get there for me. Bone Machine, Blood Money, and Mule Variations are all masterpieces, to me. Rain Dogs can't keep that company. But I can understand why others disagree. It's not absurd to me that it would be any individual fan's favorite.

[VinylGuy]

yeah i feel Bone Machine is the first time he mixed his early years and his modern ones. Everything that come after, while good as it is, its derivative from this album.

Thats why i feel its his masterpiece.

[stip]

On to Frank’s Wild Years. I bought my copy of this CD in Istanbull on a shore stop on an awesome mediterranean cruise. I was JUST getting into Tom Waits. I may have only had Beautiful Maladies and Mule Variations at this point. I got into TW 1999-2000. So this weird record has a soft spot in my heart.

Also, I used to have a copy of the accompanying high concept play. If I recall, it’s not good

[stip]

On to Frank’s Wild Years. I bought my copy of this CD in Istanbull on a shore stop on an awesome mediterranean cruise. I was JUST getting into Tom Waits. I may have only had Beautiful Maladies and Mule Variations at this point. I got into TW 1999-2000. So this weird record has a soft spot in my heart.

Also, I used to have a copy of the accompanying high concept play. If I recall, it’s not good

[stip]

Hang on the Christopher: One of his better openers. Love the bad ass music

Straight up to the top: a genre exercise. Prefer it to the vegas version. There is a performative quality to much of this album. well executed songs that nevertheless feel just a little uninspired, and this is a good example of one

Blow Wind Blow: This one doesnt do much for me. Fine in the context of the album but not a song I ever listen to. I feel like the bones of better songs on Mule Variations and especially Alice are here though

Temptation: Tom’s faux-falsetto I could do without. Feels weird for weirdness sake, which he (thankfully) usually manages to avoid


Bit of a flat start to the album after a strong beginning

[stip]

Innocent When You Dream: This is the first TW song I ever heard. It plays at the end of the movie Smoke. The only thing I remember about the movie is this song at the end. I found it really striking, but didnt stick around until the end of the credits to find out who it was. So it was a wonderful moment when I was finally able to close the loop on this

I inspired some sleep away campers to use this song for their end of camp slideshow

This is a great song. Number 2 on the record. Simple but poweful and magically feels authentic for all of its over the top maudlin character. The brief piano accents are really striking


Ill be Gone: The rooster is a nice touch. Real batshit crazy song, and like Telephone Call its manic energy carries it through. Not a classic, but it has its place.

Yesterday is Here: I almost always love quiet and contemplative TW. Really good lyrics and performance. And as I noted somewhere on Rain Dogs (Jockey, I think) I love these guitar sounds. Probably number 4 on the album for me

‘Today is grey skies
Tomorrow is tears
You’ll have to wait ‘til yesterday is here’

You can hear the bones of ‘How’s It Gonna End’ in this one

Please Wake Me in My Dreams: I am really struck by how often on this album it feels like he is working on ideas he will execute better in the future. This doesnt do much for me, but I can hear the foundations of Coney Island Baby

Frank’s Theme: Midwat through the lowpoint of the album. This song supports the larger story’d narrative, but it isnt a song Id ever seek out. Like too many songs on this record I feel like it doesnt have an emotional core despite the subject matter

More than Rain: Actually I barely remembered this one, and like it more than I remember. Parisian Tom. he comes back to this in It’s Over, maybe more effectively, but I still dig this. This would have been a nice song to immediately follow yesterday is here if one were to trim this record down (which feels bloated).

[stip]

Down in the Hole: Is the first appearance of Gospel Tom? I don’t like this song as much as others do, but I get the appeal. It’s just slightly too bright, sharp, and angular to me. It needs its edges just a little bit softened

Straight to the Top: Fun genre exercise I bet he had a great time recording. But I didnt need two versions of this song, especially on an album that drags a bit.

Ill Take NY: another song improved just a bit if you know the play, maybe. But as a song it doesnt work for me. A great example of how this album gets overly self-indulgent. ‘Have you got two tens for a five?’ is a good lyric though

Telephone Call From Istanbull: A like this one for its batshit insanity. Plus I first heard it in Istanbull. I think the high water mark for a song like this is Starving in the Belly of the Whale (does anyone else see a connection?) but I enjoy the attempt. Even stronger song if the album trims its fat - there are so many maudlin songs on this album it would be a nice contrast

[stip]

Cold Cold Ground: This is it. My very favorite Tom Waits song. I knew the live version on Beautiful Maladies first, but I love them equally. This does everything right. Great vocal performance, that wistful, dreamy guitar, the perfect accordion lead that plays sadness, longing, and regret, the hesitant barely there percussion. And the lyrics are amazing. An elegy for a never realized dream and a sad, inevitable surrender to a provincial, small life that feels like death. Almost every image stays with you. I fucking love it

[stip]

‘crestfallen sidekick in an old cafe
Never slept with a dream ‘til be had to go away’

perfect opening lyric - the rest of the song could just be music and you know exactly what is at stake in the song

‘there’s a bird in my chimney and a stone in my bed
whenthe road’s washed out we pass the bottle around
and wait in the arms of the cold cold ground’

‘the cat’ll sleep in the mailbox and we’ll never go to town
til we bury every dream in the cold cold ground’

‘the piano is firewood. Times Square is a dream’

‘Make a pile of trunk tires and burn them all down’


just an incredible set of hopelessly defeated self-pittying lyrics

and at the end, maybe the most Tom Waits lyric of all time;

‘Beware of my temper, and this dog that I found’

[stip]

Train Song: I think the only other song this over the top is maybe Make It Rain (which is a masterpiece). Train Song isnt as good since it isnt nearly as believable (so much of this album feels staged). But I like it when it comes on.

Innocent When You Dream (78): I think I prefer the barroom version, but now Im not sure. This is charming as hell, and a nice cooldown after Train Song. This album ends 3 times, but its also probably the strongest run

[stip]

This album is a mess. It is bloated, and the bloat comes from soundtracking the play. But the bright spots here are pretty damn bright. And while it feels like a step back from Rain Dogs, there is still a clarity here missing from Swordfishtrombones. The album is held back by its selff-imposed parameters.

Still looking forward to adding a touch of darkness and getting Bone Machine - his second masterpiece

[stip]

shit, Night on Earth is next. but after that its smooth sailing

[epilogue]

The version of FWY that I downloaded had the tracklist all effed up. Blow Wind Blow was the opener. And it's a way better opener than St. Christopher. I still wince when I hear the album proper and BWB isn't the opener.