Red Mosquito

Earth Died Screaming is one of the single greatest songs by any artist I've ever heard. It's a complete reinvention of the blues in a way that only Tom Waits could conceive/pull off. It's remarkable in every way. Ground breaking. Revolutionary. Brilliant. Gorgeous. Powerful.

But, yeah, totally. Not for everyone.

It's an amazing song, but I don't know that it's a song you grow into. I mean, what the hell can you compare it to? There's not much in the way of something to bridge to it anywhere outside of his catalog.


Tom Waits has very few songs that have grown on me over time. My first reactions tend to be pretty close to my final reaction. There are obviously songs that don't strike a chord that later become more interesting as you look for something less familiar, but they've rarely moved into the ranks of my favorites.

After march madness we should totally do a tom waits tournament.


So some time in June.

stip wrote:After march madness we should totally do a tom waits tournament.


So some time in June.

stip wrote:It's an amazing song, but I don't know that it's a song you grow into. I mean, what the hell can you compare it to? There's not much in the way of something to bridge to it anywhere outside of his catalog.


Tom Waits has very few songs that have grown on me over time. My first reactions tend to be pretty close to my final reaction. There are obviously songs that don't strike a chord that later become more interesting as you look for something less familiar, but they've rarely moved into the ranks of my favorites.

I cannot say that I share this experience/sentiment.

Bone Machine probably just has one song that would be in my top 25 Tom Waits songs, but start to finish its one of my favorites. It's 50 autumnal minutes of regretful rural nightmares. Everyone needs that in their lives, even if they don't know it yet.

durdencommatyler wrote:

stip wrote:It's an amazing song, but I don't know that it's a song you grow into. I mean, what the hell can you compare it to? There's not much in the way of something to bridge to it anywhere outside of his catalog.


Tom Waits has very few songs that have grown on me over time. My first reactions tend to be pretty close to my final reaction. There are obviously songs that don't strike a chord that later become more interesting as you look for something less familiar, but they've rarely moved into the ranks of my favorites.

I cannot say that I share this experience/sentiment.

It could just be me. What songs of his did you initially pass over that you now consider some of his best?

stip wrote:Bone Machine probably just has one song that would be in my top 25 Tom Waits songs, but start to finish its one of my favorites. It's 50 autumnal minutes of regretful rural nightmares. Everyone needs that in their lives, even if they don't know it yet.

You're alright, Stip.

stip wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

stip wrote:It's an amazing song, but I don't know that it's a song you grow into. I mean, what the hell can you compare it to? There's not much in the way of something to bridge to it anywhere outside of his catalog.


Tom Waits has very few songs that have grown on me over time. My first reactions tend to be pretty close to my final reaction. There are obviously songs that don't strike a chord that later become more interesting as you look for something less familiar, but they've rarely moved into the ranks of my favorites.

I cannot say that I share this experience/sentiment.

It could just be me. What songs of his did you initially pass over that you now consider some of his best?

I don't know if I'd say there are many that went from passed over to some of his best. Most of the ones that I consider his best grabbed me right away. But a lot of the stuff in the middle or at the bottom has shifted quite a bit. There's a good bit of Real Gone that I used to actively dislike and now I love almost every sound on that record, for example.

A Sweet Little Bullet from a Pretty Blue Gun is good example of a song I passed over the first few dozen listens, then revisited a year or so later and it had changed entirely for me.

that was immediately the second best song on that album, and it's never shifted.

I'm not like this with other artists, and it's not like I don't give TW albums a few listens and then shift immediately to a singles playlist. I don't know what it is.

Real Gone went from feeling like a middle of the road record with a great aesthetic to a career highlight for me. Frank's Wild Years was helped greatly by time and by filling in more of his career around it (it was my third Tom Waits purchase, it was the 90's, and I was young), and also by hearing the demos, which really reveal the early 80's writing style it birthed in and the journey to where it found its own voice.

Other than that, I'd say that most of his works hit me immediately and then maintain that rush of excitement fairly indefinitely.

Real gone has not aged for me the way it has for so many others. Some great stuff on there, for sure, but not one of the elite albums.

I agree with McP on "Real Gone" -- that is an album that took me a full five years to really "get," one song at a time.

durdencommatyler wrote:Earth Died Screaming is one of the single greatest songs by any artist I've ever heard. It's a complete reinvention of the blues in a way that only Tom Waits could conceive/pull off. It's remarkable in every way. Ground breaking. Revolutionary. Brilliant. Gorgeous. Powerful.

I clicked on this page.....I'm not sure why I don't care for Waits. Read this post and thought why not youtube that song Joey is a fine fellow. At first I was like yeah goofy...then the chorus....then confusion....kinda blew me away...then the verse no longer sounded goofy. Then I go into my music folders and listen to some Waits comps I have. Ehh not for me. Then I figure out what album Joey's favorite song is on and I youtube that album. It's kind of amazing. I'm not sure what is going on here.

bada wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Earth Died Screaming is one of the single greatest songs by any artist I've ever heard. It's a complete reinvention of the blues in a way that only Tom Waits could conceive/pull off. It's remarkable in every way. Ground breaking. Revolutionary. Brilliant. Gorgeous. Powerful.

I clicked on this page.....I'm not sure why I don't care for Waits. Read this post and thought why not youtube that song Joey is a fine fellow. At first I was like yeah goofy...then the chorus....then confusion....kinda blew me away...then the verse no longer sounded goofy. Then I go into my music folders and listen to some Waits comps I have. Ehh not for me. Then I figure out what album Joey's favorite song is on and I youtube that album. It's kind of amazing. I'm not sure what is going on here.

let it in.

I think what you're finding out is that the Tom Waits you've heard in the past and currently have in your folders is actually mislabeled music by another artist, and that Tom Waits kicks ass.

I already decided he sucks and you guys are crazy this sudden shift is causing me anxiety.

Strat wrote:

bada wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Earth Died Screaming is one of the single greatest songs by any artist I've ever heard. It's a complete reinvention of the blues in a way that only Tom Waits could conceive/pull off. It's remarkable in every way. Ground breaking. Revolutionary. Brilliant. Gorgeous. Powerful.

I clicked on this page.....I'm not sure why I don't care for Waits. Read this post and thought why not youtube that song Joey is a fine fellow. At first I was like yeah goofy...then the chorus....then confusion....kinda blew me away...then the verse no longer sounded goofy. Then I go into my music folders and listen to some Waits comps I have. Ehh not for me. Then I figure out what album Joey's favorite song is on and I youtube that album. It's kind of amazing. I'm not sure what is going on here.

let it in.

Bone Machine is a brilliant record, bada. Like I said before, it's my favorite album of all time. So glad you're digging what you've heard from it. I'd suggest listening to it, digesting it fully before you move on to something else. Really live with the thing for a while, it continues to open up over time.

Kevin Davis wrote:I think what you're finding out is that the Tom Waits you've heard in the past and currently have in your folders is actually mislabeled music by another artist, and that Tom Waits kicks ass.