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October 25, 2007 - 9:33pm
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Favorite Tom Waits album?
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"Nighthawks at the Diner" never fails to please but the simple fact is I'm a "Rain Dog" too!
I was at a bar this weekend where they played the entire Mule Variations disc. I was kind of surprised at how great it was; I'd forgotten -- and it was cool to realize that Waits had created something so excellent so late in his career.
But I think my favorite is Rain Dogs. That album moves, from song to song, in a way that just kills me.
Wow. That's an interesting bar. This is not an easily accesible album for many people.
Really? I guess I can understand that, but Waits' softer, gentler songs (and this album has a few) always strike me as the kind that anyone can love.
It was this place -- continuing a tradition of small, friendly, much-loved Jersey rock'n'roll bars.
I was in this place back in the day, and I gotta tell ya, I felt like the purpose of my entire life up to that point had been to lead me to that bar so I could hear "What's He Building In There?" on their juke box.
Life is funny that way. For all I know, maybe that was the purpose of my life up until that point...butterfly wing flapping and all...
It's one of my favorite demo songs, too. I can't explain it, it just is.
I like Waits, but find that many have a problem with his low gravely voice and diction, and the flow of his songs. He is a bit of an acquired taste. His music also demands attention.
I am often surprised at how good his melodies translate when someone else covers his songs. His singing style can partially hide some of what is going on.
Excellent comments, one and all.
I'm sad to say that my favorite Tom Waits album is not an official album at all but (surprise!!) a quite good sounding bootleg of an excellent Tom Waits concert.
The concert is from the Hammersmith Apollo in London and took place on November 23rd, 2004. This was part a very brief European tour in support of his then current album "Real Gone". The band is quite amazing with Marc Ribot on guitar among a stellar cast of musicians. Here's the set list:
101 - Hoist That Rag
102 - Make It Rain
103 - Jockey Full Of Bourbon
104 - Don't Go Into That Barn
105 - The Sins Of My Father
106 - Eyeball Kid
107 - Straight To The Top
108 - Alice
109 - Gods Away On Business
110 - November
201 - Fish and Bird
202 - Baby Gonna Leave Me
203 - Murder in the Red Barn
204 - The Day After Tomorrow
205 - Shake It
206 - Trampled Rose
207 - Invitation To The Blues
208 - Johnsburg, Illinois
209 - Come On Up To The House
210 - The House Where Nobody Lives
And of course in between many songs you get plenty of that classic Tom Waits stage banter. The highlight is a killer version of "The Sins Of My Father", although the entire concert is a winner. And who said that bootlegs have to suck?
OK, Jazzfan, once again, you're killing me!
How do I get that recording?
This does sound like a great concert!
What's he building in there?
Now, now Buddha, you're trending on some pretty thin ice. The official Stereophile (and just about every other audio forum out there) policy is to just ignore the great big elephant in the room.
What elephant am I referring to? Why the issue of illegal or somewhat less than legal downloads. Everyone knows that they exist but we're not allowed to write about them on these forums. Therefore I can say no more (at least on this public forum) about where and when I get some of these wonderful bootlegs. But I'll give you a big hint: Usenet
If you don't know what Usenet is, may I suggest that you do a little research. It's a big and scary world out there.
I don`t know exactly beacause i like several old albums. Let it be his debut album, but Blue Valentine and Foreign Affairs also good.
Anyone that loves Tom, usually likes Nick Drake.
I have most of Tom's stuff on LP, but..I'm using a digital crossover right now. Converting the LP to digital and then back to analog again, after the crossover function..is enough to kill the sonics so badly..that I won't do it.
I gotta get another analog crossover so I can use my MFA Venusian Pre and listen to an LP or two...
Once more Elk, I am forced to agree. I am sure everyone has their favourite example of this phenomenon. My own would be Paul Young's cover of "Soldier's Things" from 'The Secret of Association'. I remember hearing it used as a demo disc at a dealer - through a full monty Linn/Naim system cranked waaay up - back in the early nineties. I was completely blown away and rushed out to buy it (the disc that is
).
So, then, is everybody ready for Scarlett Johansson's album of Tom Waits covers?
Scralett Does Tom
Yes!
1) Ditto- absolutely! Ahh, the swelling, lush ripeness...of her voice.
2) Hear come the rack mount jokes...
Has anyone picked up Scarlett's disc yet?
I went to youtube and played one tune, but I wasn't particularly moved.
My love for ScarJo has been well-documented. I haven't listened to this disc yet, but Robert Baird took it home over the weekend. I'll let you know what he says.
I was impressed, however, to see in the liner notes that the band is made of members from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV On The Radio. Makes me think that, at the very least, the music has to be good.
Scarlett Johansson is hot.
I vote this line as the most redundant quote ever in the history of these forums.
I like being obvious.
"As far as vanity projects go," says RB, "it's not bad." And the all-star band is tight.
No. Halle Berry is hot.
Scarlett don't do squat for me.
Cuz every time I ask her to do something for me, her body guards beat me up.
This is a very apt comment regarding tweaks, too!
How do I sign up as a test subject for Scarlett Johansson and Halle Berry tweaks?
Closing time is one of my favorites of all time. Real different sound from the rest of his albums.
Nighthawks at the diner
Rain Dogs
The Heart of Saturday Night
Small Change
Bone Machine
in that order
Tom Is amaaaazing..
Johannsen, however... can take a flying leap. Cant sing.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92916923
amazing recording..
I can only respond with a quote from a previous post:
This is one of the only instances where circular reasoning makes complete sense.
This used to be a very worthwhile and informative thread. Now it's just turning into male bonding session, in other words, a circle jerk.
How about discussing Tom Waits' albums broken down by phases within his long and artistically varied career? The Early (Asylum Records) years, The Island Records years and the Post-Mule Variations (Anti Records) years
From the Early years: Nighthawks At The Diner (only because it was originally a double LP - meaning more Waits)
Island years: Rain Dogs
Anti years: Real Gone
That's all well and good. But if threads in this forum start never venturing away from the topic at hand (especially for a good humorous comment), I (and I would venture to guess most of the people here) would stop reading. Of course there has to be a balance [insert whatever caveat you have in mind here].
The thread has been pretty dead anyway. I hate it when people complain in a relatively low-traffic forum (like this one - where there aren't 50 replies to any given thread in a single day, and usually even in a week) complain about some off-topic comments. No one is stopping anyone from saying something on topic. When there are a billion posts a day and such comments can "hijack" a thread, it is more of a problem.
Just post something on topic without whining about a humorous back-and-forth.
Also, my tone of voice is as good-humored as you can imagine.
Okay, jazzfan, okay. Here's a curveball for the thread: the truth is, I don't care much about Tom Waits' music. Please flame away.
Jazzfan - here's an on-topic question for you (and anyone else who wants to chime in):
I've never really listened to Waits's music enough to get really into it - but I don't dislike what I hear. Aside from the "best" Waits album overall (and this may very well be the same thing), what is the "best" album with which to start?
well, do us a favor, and dont post here. I love how the crowd goes against DUP for doing the very same thing you are doing.. at least DUP wasnt being sexist,,and ON TOPIC. Are we cavemen here?
glad you asked. I would say that the most palatable is closing time. after that... the heart of saturday night, nighthawks at the diner.... get closing time first though.
I agree. Apparently this is what DUP was guilty of, and now he is banned.
Sorry for the delay in answering but my wife and I have just returned from our 14 months of living in the Netherlands and I've been kind of busy with trying to put our affairs back in order. In addition I've been relegated to using my Vista based Dell laptop computer since my desktop computer is currently in transit. To say that any Vista based computer is a complete and utter piece of shit is it putting very, very mildly.
To answer your question I would have to say that, once again, one needs to address Tom Waits' work on the basis of the major phases of his career. In other words, each phase requires it's own "best" album.
So for the early years I would go with "Closing Time" - lots of good tunes and lots of fun.
For the middle (Island) years I would recommend "Big Time" which is basically a live greatest hits album. Again, lots of good tunes and lots of fun plus some classic Tom Waits stage banter.
Once you get to his later (Anti) years things get a just a bit sticky since most of this material is pretty far out. Starting with "Mule Variations" (which is the one I would recommend) each successive release gets more and more "out there", which is one of the things I love most about Tom Waits: Tom Waits (along with Bjork, Sonic Youth and Patti Smith) are the closest thing to avant-garde that "popular" (or mass market) music gets. May God bless them all.
As for the Scarlett Johansson POS (piece of shit) I think it was a rather calculated move. Since it's quite obvious after listening to the recording that Ms. Johansson cannot sing worth a damn by putting out an album of Tom Waits covers she benefits in two ways. First, since Waits is one of those "critic's darlings" by covering Waits' songs she at least keeps the critics from hammering her over her selection of material and second, while Waits may be a critics darling, for the large part most of her potential audience is not all that familiar with much of his work (aside from "Old '55" made famous by the Eagles) and therefore they have no basis for comparison. I say that's a win-win except for the fact the album pretty much sucks - and yes, I have heard it in full CD sound quality, i.e. not via MP3.
As for Selfdivider all I can say is that I would hope you will give Mr. Waits another chance since he is easily one of America's greatest living songwriters and belongs alongside Bob Dylan for the tremendous depth and breath of his work.
At great personal risk of being called a "male bonder" or "circle jerker," welcome back!
Where is home going to be now?
Getting back on track...
My favorite Waits cut not on a Waits album is "Heigh Ho" from the Stay Awake Disney tribute disc.
I think he even stole his own riff from that when he did "Big in Japan."
I agree with Jazzfan's early and late choices. "Closing Time" and "Heart of Saturday Night" are of a piece, to me.
I'll go with Swordfishtrombones from 1983 as the bridge from era to era.
Hi Buddha,
"Home" is now back to where I started 14 months ago: Mahwah, NJ
When my wife and I left we did not sell our house since our older daughter was able to live there and take care of the house in our absence. I now have access once again to my "big rig" and it still sounds great! Once our shipment gets here (it's currently on a ship heading for the port of Newark) I'll have my Slim Devices' Transporter and my 2+ terabytes of hard drive based music to listen to in addition to my 2000+ LP collection.
Your choice of "Swordfishtrombones" is equally valid and very worthwhile selection.
So now that I'm back in the NYC area, when's the next pub crawl?
Awesome. It seems that you have some petty personal vendetta against me because I called you out for implying that I was lying about DUP posting about the prospect of the Holocaust not having happened. Really mature. So I ask again. You said you were going to be upset or disappointed if DUP indeed said that. Since Stephen verified it, along with others, what's your conclusion or do you want to conveniently forget that too?
Besides a moral integrity, get a sense of humor. Hilarious that I get branded as sexist. And an uber-DUP. My life is complete.
Nice! Throw up some dates, jazzfan, let's see if we can get something going.
Welcome home to the state of my auspicious birth- Joizey!
Might you concede that Scarlett's decision was based on her admiration for Waits and not some misguided calculation to endear herself to the cognoscenti? She doesn't sing very well, but neither does Tom- I know it's not the same thing.
I've been a fan since the Fernwood/America Tonight tv series with Martin Mull and Fred Willard. (Anyone else as old as me remember?) One time Tom busted into a buffet line when one of the regulars got "married" on the show. He loaded a paper plate, then folded it like a taco and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. Good stuff.
Charles Bukowski was also popular then- way before "Barfly." Saw him get drunk and read at the Golden Bear on PCH in Huntington Beach. What great times.
Awww, whad da madder, you haven't learned to right click and select "Run as Administrator" yet? Or is it you haven't learned to turn off those User Access Controls?
I really expected more from the computer savvy Jazzfan. Perhaps this is what a year in the Nederlands can do to one.
Welcome home...
RG
I always run my computers as an "administrator" and long ago turned off those nasty USCs but the only really good way to run Vista is to run XP (or dare I say buy a MacBook). Unfortunately back when I bought this POS Dell didn't give one the option of getting XP in lieu of Vista and I was too stupid to know any better. Oh well, live and learn. At least in the Nederlands one could smoke oneself into a glorious state of oblivion and then even Vista would appear fast.
Oops, I'm going off topic.
Back on topic: If Ms. Johansson really admired Tom Waits then perhaps she would have thought better of his music then to "honor" it with her "singing".
And I agree that Waits doesn't have all that great a voice but he knows how to write some damn good songs. Johansson can't sing worth a damn but she sure knows how to act plus she does look really nice. I say let Waits stick to the music (and the occasional acting job) and let Johansson stick to acting (with limited singing).
As for the NYC pub crawl, how about sometime before the end of this year? Thanksgiving weekend perhaps?
Well, Thanksgiving wknd is lousy for me, b/c I'm a respectable familiy man. But before the end of this year, for sure, are you kidding me?
Trying to get settled here in "Elba," I decided Tom was worth some wall space.
I've had some animation cels awaiting the light of day, used in a 1979 short called "Tom Waits for No One," an animated video of the song "The One That Got away."
So, thanks to the Aaron brothers, the hallway...
Individual quick shots...
Link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCNDZY4vXPs
Got to listen to the new Live album...
My 12 year old was mesmerized!
Tom seems to have assimilated the souls of Sun Ra and Walt Disney (circa 1935).
I'll give it a thumbs up, but the sound was "busy" in a way the music wasn't. That's a weird way to say it. I think the mix "mooshed" the sonics together frequently.
Haven't listened to the 'banter' disc yet.
Cheers.
I haven't listened to the music yet - went right to the rants, which are wunnerful.
s.
Live albums are hard to get right(I have an on location./live recording business), you are dealing with a host of stumbling blocks that arent present in studio dates..that being said, I am quite fond of it, and thought it sounded quite good, especially for a live album. the fact that it is Tom Waits , in my mind, gives it a bye automatically. the man is a lyrical deity.