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Tom Waits Information
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'Thomas Alan Waits' (born December 7, 1949 in Pomona, California) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor.
Waits' gravelly voice is immediately recognizable, described by the MusicHound Rock Album Guide as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl, as well as his experimental tendencies and a love of pre-rock Americana styles such as blues, jazz, and Vaudeville, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. Trouser Press called Waits "at once a throwback and a visionary."
Lyrically, Waits' songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of bizarre, seedy characters and places, although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads. He has a devoted cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters, despite having little radio or music video support. His songs are best known to the general public in the form of cover versions by more visible artists, such as Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, and Rod Stewart. Although Waits' albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries.
Waits has also worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films, including Short Cuts, The Two Jakes, Mystery Men, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Coffee and Cigarettes. He also had a starring role in the film Down By Law.
Early Career
Born in Pomona, California to parents of Scottish, Irish, and Norwegian descent, Tom Waits began his recording career in 1971, after he relocated to Los Angeles and signed with Herb Cohen, who was also the manager of Frank Zappa.
After numerous abortive recording sessions, Waits' first record, the melancholic, country-tinged Closing Time, was issued in 1973. While it received warm reviews, he did not gain widespread attention until his Ol' 55 was recorded by the Eagles in 1974. The Heart of Saturday Night showed Waits's roots as a nightclub singer, with half-spoken and half-crooned ballads, often accompanied with a jazz background.
The 1975 album Nighthawks at the Diner, recorded in a studio with a small audience to capture the ambiance of a live show, captures this phase of his career, including the lengthy spoken interludes between songs that punctuated his live act. Regarding his music of this era, Waits reported that "I wasn't thrilled by Blue Cheer, so I found an alternative, even if it was Bing Crosby."
Small Change (1976) (featuring famed drummer Shelly Manne) was more jazz influenced, and songs such as The Piano Has Been Drinking and Bad Liver and a Broken Heart cemented Waits' hard-living reputation, with a lyrical style that owed influence to Raymond Chandler and Charles Bukowski. Foreign Affairs (1977) and Blue Valentine (1978) were in a similar vein, but showed further refinement of his artistic voice. It was around this time that Waits had a famous romantic relationship with Rickie Lee Jones.
1980 saw the release of Heartattack and Vine. Though not entirely unprecedented, the album's gritty rhythm and blues sound was different for Waits, and foreshadowed the major changes in his music that would follow several years later. The same year, he began a long working relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, who asked Waits to provide music for his film One From The Heart. Waits worked with singer/songwriter Crystal Gayle as his vocal foil for the album.
Waits began his acting career with his appearance in Sylvester Stallone's 1978 film Paradise Alley and later appeared in Coppola's The Outsiders. He starred in Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law in 1987, and has played supporting roles in the films Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, Coffee and Cigarettes (as himself) and Dracula (as Dracula's insane slave Renfield).
In August 1980, Waits married Kathleen Brennan, whom he had met on the set of One from the Heart. Brennan is regularly credited as co-author of many songs on his later albums, and Waits often cites her as a major influence on his work. She introduced him to the music of Captain Beefheart, which Waits later described as a paradigm shift in his musical development.
Waits now lives in Sebastopol, California with his wife and children.
1980s
After leaving Asylum Records for Island Records, Waits released Swordfishtrombones in 1983, a record which marked a sharp turn in Waits's output, and which cemented his reputation as a visionary who remained steadfastly outside the mainstream. In many ways, Waits had carved out his own musical genre.
Apart from Captain Beefheart and some of Dr. John's early output, there was little precedent in popular music for Swordfishtrombones or equally idiosyncratic albums, Rain Dogs (1985) and Frank's Wild Years (1987).
Waits had earlier played either piano or guitar, but he began tiring of these instruments, saying, "Your hands are like dogs, going to the same places they've been. You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don't explore, you only play what is confident and pleasing. I'm learning to break those habits by playing instruments I know absolutely nothing about, like a bassoon or a waterphone."
The instrumentation and orchestration in his later albums were often quite eclectic. Waits's self-described "Junkyard Orchestra" included wheezing pump organs, clattering percussion (sometimes reminiscent of the music of Harry Partch), bleary horn sections (often featuring Ralph Carney, and taking their cues from brass bands or soul music), nearly atonal guitar (perhaps best typified by Marc Ribot's contributions) and obsolete instruments. Waits is particularly fond of a damaged chamberlin; recent albums have featured the little-used stroh violin.
Along with a new instrumental approach, Waits gradually altered his singing style to sound less like the late-night crooner of the 70s, instead adopting a number of techniques: a gravelly sound reminiscent of Howlin' Wolf and Captain Beefheart, a booming, feral bark, or a strained, nearly shrieking falsetto Waits jokingly describes as his Prince voice. Tom Moon describes Waits's voice as a "broad-spectrum assault weapon".
His songwriting shifted as well, becoming somewhat more abstract and embracing a number of styles largely ignored in pop music, including primal blues, cabaret stylings, rhumbas, theatrical approaches in the style of Kurt Weill, tangos, early country music, European folk music and Tin Pan Alley-era songs. He undertook a few nearly-spoken word pieces influenced by Ken Nordine's "word jazz" records of the 1950s. All of these different techniques are filtered through Waits' unique lens, however, and so rarely seem like a pastiche.
Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs and Frank's Wild Years were a trilogy of loose concept albums, following the sailor Frank O'Brien as he leaves the familiar comfort of home, sees the world, and returns. The last of these albums was also adapted as an off-Broadway musical, which Waits co-wrote with Brennan. This was the first of several theatre collaborations Waits would undertake. With his wife, Waits also wrote and performed in Big Time, a surreal concert movie and soundtrack released in 1988.
1990s
Waits appeared on Primus' 1991 album, Sailing the Seas of Cheese as the voice of "Tommy the Cat", which exposed him to a new audience in alternative rock. This was the first of several collaborations between Waits and the group; Les Claypool (Primus' singer, songwriter and bassist) would appear on several subsequent Waits releases.
In 1991 Waits also had a featured role in the film At Play In The Fields Of The Lord.
Bone Machine was released in 1992. The stark record featured a great deal of percussion and guitar (with little piano or sax), marking another change in Waits's sound. Critic Steve Huey calls it "perhaps Tom Waits' most cohesive album ... a morbid, sinister nightmare, one that applied the quirks of his experimental '80s classics to stunningly evocative -- and often harrowing -- effect ... Waits' most affecting and powerful recording, even if it isn't his most accessible." Bone Machine was awarded a Grammy, and the Ramones later recorded a version of the album's memorable single, "I Don't Wanna Grow Up." The Pixies had earlier written a song called "Bone Machine" (from Surfer Rosa), though it's unclear it Waits borrowed the term from them, or invented it independetly.
Waits wrote and conducted the music for Jim Jarmusch's 1993 film Night on Earth, which was released as an album. The Black Rider is the result of a theatrical collaboration between Waits, director Robert Wilson and writer William S. Burroughs.
Mule Variations was issued in 1999, and also won a Grammy. It was Waits' first release for Anti Records, and his first to feature a turntablist, though, predictably, the instrument is used in an offbeat manner.
2000s
Singer John Hammond's Wicked Grin was issued in 2001. Hammond and Waits are close friends, and the album is a collection of cover songs, originally written by Waits, who appears on most songs (playing guitar, piano or offering backing vocals). There is also the traditional "I Know I've Been Changed", which Hammond and Waits perform duet-style.
2001 also saw the release of trumpeter Dave Douglas's Witness. Waits features on the 25-minute Mahfouz, reading an excerpt from a work by Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz.
In 2002, Waits simultaneously released two albums, Alice and Blood Money. Both were the fruits of theatrical collaborations with Wilson. The former was originally intended as a musical play about Lewis Carroll, and the latter was an interpretation of Georg Büchner's unfinished Woyzeck. The two albums revisit the tango, Tin Pan Alley, and spoken word influences of Swordfishtrombones, while the lyrics are both profoundly cynical and melancholy, as the titles Misery is the River of the World and No One Knows I'm Gone make clear.
Real Gone was released in 2004. While more refined than Bone Machine and perhaps more commercially viable than Alice or Blood Money, its sound is mostly rough and experimental, and his only album (thus far) completely lacking in piano. Waits beatboxes on the opening track, Top of the Hill, and most of the album's songs began as Waits' tape-recorded "vocal percusion" improvisations. It is also more rock-oriented, with less blues influence. In a first for Waits, he offers an explicitly political song: the album-closing The Day After Tomorrow takes on the persona of a soldier writing home that he is disillusioned with the war and is thankful to be leaving. The song doesn't mention the Iraq war, and, as Moon writes, "it could be the voice of a Civil War soldier singing a lonesome late-night dirge." Waits does describe the song as an "elliptical" protest song about the Iraqi invasion, however. Thom Jurek describes The Day After Tomorrow as "one of the most insightful and understated antiwar songs to have been written in decades. It contains not a hint of banality or sentiment in its folksy articulation.". The second song, Hoist That Rag has clear anti-war overtones.
Lawsuits
Waits has steadfastly refused to allow the use of his songs in commercials and has criticized other artists who do. ("If Michael Jackson wants to work for Pepsi, why doesn't he just get himself a suit and an office in their headquarters and be done with it.") He has filed several lawsuits against advertisers who used his material without permission.
This may be part of a wariness regarding large corporations. Waits has often switched to smaller independent record companies over the years: he signed to Asylum Records before they were bought out by Elektra Records and Warner Bros.. During his time with Island Records, that label expanded from a small company to a music industry giant; he then signed to Anti Records, a division of Epitaph Records.
Waits' first lawsuit was filed in 1988 against Frito Lay, and resulted in a US$2.6 million judgement in his favor. Frito Lay had approached Waits to use one of his songs in an advertisement. Waits declined the offer, and Frito Lay hired a Waits soundalike to sing a jingle similar to Small Change's "Step Right Up", which is, ironically, a song Waits has called "an indictment of advertising." ("Step Right Up" concludes with the lyric "The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away"). Waits won the lawsuit, becoming the first celebrity to succesfully sue a company for using an impersonator without permission.
In 1993, Levi's used Screamin' Jay Hawkins's version of Waits' Heartattack and Vine in a commercial. Waits sued, and Levi's agreed to cease all use of the song, and offered a full page apology in Billboard Magazine.
In 2000, Waits found himself in a situation similar to his earlier one with Frito-Lay: Audi approached him, asking to use Innocent When You Dream (from Frank's Wild Years) for a commercial broadcast in Spain. Waits declined, but the commercial ultimately featured music very similar to that song. Waits undertook legal action, and a Spanish court recognized there had been a violation of Waits's moral rights, in addition to the infringement of copyright . The production company, Tandem Campany Guasch, was ordered to pay compensation to Waits through his Spanish publisher.
In 2005, Waits sued Adam Opel AG, claiming that, after having failed to sign him to sing in their Scandinavian commercials, they had hired a sound-alike singer.
The Sons of Lee Marvin
Tom Waits has claimed on several occasions to be a member of the secret society, "The Sons of Lee Marvin", a group founded by Jarmusch in which all members bear a physical resemblance to actor Lee Marvin.
Discography
Major releases
Collections
*1983 Anthology of Tom Waits (Elektra)
*1991 The Early Years, Volume One
*1993 The Early Years, Volume Two
*1998 Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years
Contributions
*1991 Sailing the Seas of Cheese, by Primus: Waits does character vocals on Tommy The Cat
*1992 Beautiful Mess, by Thelonious Monster: Waits appears as a guest singer on Adios Lounge
*1993 Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet, by Gavin Bryars: Waits appears as guest singer
*1997 All for Nothing/Nothing for All, by The Replacements: Waits appears as guest singer on Date to Church
*1999 Antipop, by Primus: Waits produces the song Coattails of a Deadman and does vocals on it
*1999 More Oar: A Tribute To Skip Spence by various artists: Waits covers Spence's "Books of Moses"
*2000 Helium, by Tin Hat Trio: Waits appears as guest singer on Helium Reprise
*2001 It's A Wonderful Life, by Sparklehorse: Waits does vocals on "Dog Door"
*2002 For the Kids by various artists: Waits performs the lullaby "Bring Down the Branches"
*2003 We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to the Ramones by various artists: Waits covers "Return of Jackie and Judy"
*2004 The Ride by Los Lobos: Waits does vocals on the track "Kitate"
*2004 The Late Great Daniel Johnston by various artists: Waits covers Johnston's "King Kong"
*2005 Blinking Lights and other Revelations by Eels: Waits screams on the track "Going Fetal"
Tribute albums
*1995 Temptation, Holly Cole
*1995 Step Right Up, various artists
*2000 New Coat of Paint, various artists
*2001 Wicked Grin, John Hammond
*2003 Greetings from HELL - The Tom Waits Songbook, Hell Blues Choir
*2004 Step Right Up: The Songs of Tom Waits, various artists
Filmography
*1978 Movie debut as 'Mumbles' in Paradise Alley.
*1980 Worked with Francis Ford Coppola on the soundtrack to One From The Heart.
*1982 Soundtrack of One From The Heart. Nominated for an Academy Award for best original score.
**Played petrified man in carnival in The Stone Boy.
*1983 Played Buck Merrill in The Outsiders.
**Played Bennie the pool hall owner in Rumble Fish.
*1984 Played Irving Stark in The Cotton Club.
** Soundtrack to a documentary about street kids on Pike St. in Seattle.
*1986 Starred as Zack in Down by Law.
*1987 Played Rudy The Kraut in Ironweed.
**Played Al Silk in Candy Mountain.
*1989 Played the 'Punch & Judy Man' in Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale.
**Starred as Kenny the Hitman in Cold Feet.
**Voice of the radio DJ in Mystery Train. Composer on Sea of Love
*1990 Played a plainclothes policeman in The Two Jakes.
*1991 Played Wolf in At Play in the Fields of the Lord.
**Played a disabled Veteran beggar in The Fisher King.
**Wrote the score of Night on Earth (With Kathleen Brennan).
**Played Monte in Queens Logic.
*1992 Composer (With Kathleen Brennan) on American Heart.
**Played R.M. Renfield in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
**Played Earl Piggott in Short Cuts.
**Appeared as himself in the IFC TV series Fishing with John.
*1996 Composer on soundtrack of Dead Man Walking.
**Composer on soundtrack of The End of Violence.
**'Cold Cold Ground' and 'Temptation' appeared on the soundtrack to Leolo.
*1999 Mystery Men -- played an inventor who specialized in non-lethal weapons.
*2001 Composer on soundtrack of Big Bad Love.
*2003 Appeared in conversation with Iggy Pop in Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere In California (filmed in 1993).
*2004 Composer (with Kathleen Brennan) on soundtrack of Shrek 2. Also appears, in a shared role with Nick Cave, as an animated piano-playing pirate singing "A Little Drop Of Poison".
*2005 Played the Wanderer in Domino
*2005 Contributed song "Soldier's Things" to soundtrack of film Jarhead.
*2006 Played Raphael Kneller in Wristcutters
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