Tom Waits

[Fulham Road Lights]

Anyone else think he does the most amazing ballads? What are your favourites and why? His first album Closing Time seems to have the most on, but then he goes and does songs on other albums like Jersey Girl, Time and Tom Traubert's Blues which are just some of the most beautiful songs I think I've ever heard. Plus he has the most unique voice. I haven't heard any of his later stuff so if anyone wans to recommends songs like the ones I've mentioned, feel free

 

[The Griffith Underground]

Kentucky Avenue (Blue Valentine)...My son has Cystic Fibrosis and when he was an infant I was giving him chest therapy one day and this song was on my headphones, and I broke down and started crying my guts out.

I Wish I Was In New Orleans (Small Change)...Bittersweet ode to a town and time now gone, but which wasn't then.

Better Off Without A Wife (Nighthawks at the Diner)...need I say more than the title? Beers of refusal.

The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (Small Change) "you can't find your waitress with a geiger counter, and she hates you and your friends but you cannot get served without her..." There is, or was, a very good YouTube clip of him performing this on Fernwood Tonight back in the 70s.

Bad Liver and a Broken Heart In Lowell (Small Change)...Kerouac-inspired hymn to lost love and death by alcoholism, featuring the classic lyric, "I don't have a drinking problem, except when I can't get a drink," and "The moon ain't romantic, it's intimidating as hell."

Martha (Closing Time)...one of those songs where, when you listen to it, it puts you somewhere else. In this case, the mind of a lovelorn middle aged man whose who is married with children and still secretly pines for his highschool love, 30 years gone.

Goodnight Irene (Orphans Disc Two)...this is a cover of, I think, a very very very old Leadbelly song. Waits makes it his own and when it's over it takes about three more minutes to snap out of the cast spell. "Sometimes I take a great notion to jump in the river and drown."

In The Neighborhood (Swordfishtrombones)...sluggishly singsong ode to suburbia with melodic complaints about noisy delivery trucks, stray dogs, and bothersome contruction work.

Bottom of the World (Orphans Disc One)...old-timey ode to hoboing and broken noses. "The best friend you'll have is a railroad track."

Never Let Go (Orphans Disc Two)...words can't really say how exquistite this is. References to pawned wedding rings, jumping to one's death, and walking home through the mud. A beautiful piano line with highschool marching band drumfills and accordion flourishes. Perfect.

 

[Qvist]

Anyone else think he does the most amazing ballads? What are your favourites and why? His first album Closing Time seems to have the most on, but then he goes and does songs on other albums like Jersey Girl, Time and Tom Traubert's Blues which are just some of the most beautiful songs I think I've ever heard. Plus he has the most unique voice. I haven't heard any of his later stuff so if anyone wans to recommends songs like the ones I've mentioned, feel free

I have a particular fondness for the dark, Weill-like albums (The Black Rider and Frank's Wild Years), which contain a number of terrific ballds - notably November, Innocent when you dream and It's More Than Rain. Also not to be forgotten is the best songs from the "One for the Heart" Soundtrack - the title track and the opening number, whose name I forget.

cheers

 

[atlas]

damn you qvist, i was just about to post that one from the heart is my favourite waits album. but then the film came out when i was a film student and i fell in love with it so it doesnt mean its actually his best album. basically put nastasia kinsky in a film and im happy.

 

[atlas]

Also not to be forgotten is the best songs from the "One for the Heart" Soundtrack - the title track and the opening number, whose name I forget.

cheers[/QUOTE]


this ones from the heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdqw5irMX7A

 

[Qvist]

damn you qvist, i was just about to post that one from the heart is my favourite waits album. but then the film came out when i was a film student and i fell in love with it so it doesnt mean its actually his best album. basically put nastasia kinsky in a film and im happy.

Well, at least you remembered the title correctly, which is more than I can say.

cheers

 

[Bona Drag]

And how about "Chritmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis"?...

So touching... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12qBoy2rhVw

 

[EPbabe]

I was a dating a French guy a zillion years ago and he made me a tape with his fav Tom Waits songs. I wasn't too impressed, I must confess, but there was one song I really really liked: Semi Suite.

 

[atlas]

I was a dating a French guy a zillion years ago and he made me a tape with his fav Tom Waits songs. I wasn't too impressed, I must confess, but there was one song I really really liked: Semi Suite.

the french have a lot to answer for.

listen to "jesus gonna be here soon" if you like spirituals.

 

[jesuisbryony]

Goodnight Irene (Orphans Disc Two)...this is a cover of, I think, a very very very old Leadbelly song. Waits makes it his own and when it's over it takes about three more minutes to snap out of the cast spell. "Sometimes I take a great notion to jump in the river and drown."

Bottom of the World (Orphans Disc One)...old-timey ode to hoboing and broken noses. "The best friend you'll have is a railroad track."

Never Let Go (Orphans Disc Two)...words can't really say how exquistite this is. References to pawned wedding rings, jumping to one's death, and walking home through the mud. A beautiful piano line with highschool marching band drumfills and accordion flourishes. Perfect.

I'd choose Orphans over Swords, any day. A much better collection.
Nice choices.

 

[goinghome]

A little bit out of this world -

[youtube]QMZVZ5NBkpw&feature=related[/youtube]

 

[anon x]

What becomes of the little boys who never comb their hair ?

 

[Skinner]

And how about "Chritmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis"?...

So touching... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12qBoy2rhVw

This pretty much does it for me. It may be one of his more well known tunes, but honestly, the picture that is painted with these lyrics and the subtle melody is priceless to me. I love this man. Love this song, and love the album Blue Valentine. Amoung others. He is just brilliant.

 

[menju56]

Big Waits fan here. I tend to divide his career in my mind in three stages - 1973-80 Asylum years, the three '80s records, and then everything after that. And within those three periods there are sub-groups for me too (e.g. the first two albums are kind of separate from the next few.)

Anyway, my favourites are probably Closing Time, Foreign Affairs, and Swordfishtrombones. Bone Machine is great too.

 

[Fulham Road Lights]

Big Waits fan here. I tend to divide his career in my mind in three stages - 1973-80 Asylum years, the three '80s records, and then everything after that. And within those three periods there are sub-groups for me too (e.g. the first two albums are kind of separate from the next few.)

Anyway, my favourites are probably Closing Time, Foreign Affairs, and Swordfishtrombones. Bone Machine is great too.

Agreed re: first two records. My favourite Waits albums. I don't like the route his voice took after Heart of Saturday Night, although the music was quite similar for the rest of the '70s (Tom Traubert's Blues is my favourite post-HOSN song - it often makes me feel like life is over, and I am about to get washed away). His voice was gravelly enough, why did he have to go and overdo it? My favourite songs are his early voice backed with piano. Perfection. Nick Cave has done some great records like that, but Waits came first. Love the guy.