Description

Tom Waits started out in the early 1970s as a piano-based barroom balladeer with a penchant for beat poetry and West Coast jazz. By the late '80s he had mutated into a brilliantly adventurous artist whose style suggested an amalgam of Howlin' Wolf, Kurt Weill, and Captain Beefheart. Ever the theatrical figure, Waits also found success as an actor in several films. He's also worked on numerous theatrical/musical projects with avant-garde theater king Robert Wilson. Though generally regarded as a cult artist, he's widely respected, and everyone from Rod Stewart to the Eagles to the Ramones has covered his songs.

Biography

b. 7 December 1949, Pomona, California, USA. A gifted lyricist, composer and raconteur, Tom Waits began performing in the late 60s, inspired by a spell working as a doorman in a San Diego nightclub. Here he saw a miscellany of acts - string bands, comedians, C&W singers - and by absorbing portions of an attendant down-market patois, developed his nascent songwriting talent. Having appeared at the Los Angeles' Troubador "Amateur Hoot Nights', Waits was signed by manager Herb Cohen who in turn secured a recording deal with Asylum Records. 1973"s Closing Time revealed a still-unfocused performer, as yet unable to draw together the folk, blues and singer-songwriter elements vying for prominence. It did contain "Ol' 55", later covered by the Eagles, and "Martha', a poignant melodrama of a now-middle-aged man telephoning his first love from 40 years previously. The Heart Of Saturday Night was an altogether more accomplished set in which the artist blended characterizations drawn from diners, truckers and waitresses, sung in a razor-edged, rasping voice, and infused with beatnik prepossessions. Waits" ability to paint blue-collar American life was encapsulated in its haunting, melodic title track.
1975's Nighthawks At The Diner and the following year's Small Change closed the performer's first era, where the dividing line between life and art grew increasingly blurred as Waits inhabited the flophouse life he sang about. Foreign Affairs unveiled a widening perspective and while the influence of "Beat" writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg still inhabited his work - as celebrated in "Jack & Neal/California Here I Come" - a duet with Bette Midler, "I Never Talk To Strangers", provided the impetus for his film soundtrack to One From The Heart, featuring Crystal Gayle. Blue Valentine was marked by its balance between lyrical ballads and up-front R&B, a contrast maintained on Heartattack And Vine. A tough combo prevailed on half of its content. Elsewhere, the composer's gift for emotive melody flourished on "Jersey Girl", later covered by Bruce Springsteen.
Despite it being a fine album, Heartattack And Vine marked the end of Waits' term with both Cohen and Asylum; in 1983 he opted for Island Records and signalled a new musical direction with the radical Swordfishtrombones. Exotic instruments, sound textures and offbeat rhythms marked a content which owed more to Captain Beefheart and composer Harry Partch than dowdy motel rooms. Waits came close to having a hit single in 1983 with the evocative "In The Neighbourhood", complete with a stunning sepia video. Waits also emphasized his interest in cinema with acting roles in Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, Down By Law and Ironweed, in the process completing the exemplary Rain Dogs, which featured support from Keith Richards on "Big Black Mariah". It also included "Downtown Train', another in a series of romantic vignettes and later a hit for Rod Stewart. Waits" next release, Frank's Wild Years, comprised material drawn from a play written with his wife Kathleen Brennan and based on a song from Swordfishtrombones. The folllow-up Big Time was the soundtrack to a concert film.
Waits continued his cinematic career with roles in Candy Mountain and Cold Feet, and in 1989 made his theatrical debut in Demon Wine. The wonderful "Good Old World (Waltz)' was the standout track from his 1992 soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch's Night On Earth. His rhythmic experimentation came to fruition the same year on Bone Machine, which was for many critics his finest album since Swordfishtrombones. The following year's The Black Rider featured music from Waits" stage play of the same name, co-written with William Burroughs. Waits also collaborated with Brennan, director Robert Wilson and Hamburg's Thalia Theatre on Alice, which enjoyed a brief eight week run. Waits entered into litigation in 1993, objecting to the use of his "Heartattack And Vine', with Screamin" Jay Hawkins' voice, for a Levi's television advertisement. A grovelling public apology was made via the national music press from Levi's in 1995. Similarly he has won other cases against his previous music publisher for other songs licensed for television advertising, notably "Step Right Up", "Ruby's Arms" and "Opening Montage"/"Once Upon A Town".
This perplexing genius and cult figure maintained a recording silence through most of the 90s, but made further movie appearances in Dracula, Short Cuts and Mystery Men. Waits left Island Records in 1998, although his legacy was celebrated on the superb Beautiful Maladies compilation. After signing to independent label Epitaph Records, he released Mule Variations in April 1999. Astonishingly, the album broke into the UK Top 10 and won a Grammy Award in the USA.
Waits is hardly a prolific writer, and his recent work has increasingly been confined to theatre and film soundtracks. His collaborations with avant garde director Robert Wilson have been of particular note, and resulted in the release of two studio albums on the same day in May 2002, a remarkable feat given that they were both of excellent quality. The romantic Alice and the bitter Blood Money, inspired by Wilson's readings of Lewis Carroll's Alice books and Georg Büchner's Woyzeck respectively, were two of Waits' finest yet most challenging recordings. As with most of his recent work, the albums were co-written with his wife, Kathleen Brennan. The duo's 2004 collaboration, Real Gone, was a striking departure even by Waits' standards. Largely eschewing piano and a rhythm section, Waits chose this point in his career to begin experimenting with human beatboxing. With his son Casey's turntables also pitched into the mix, the effect added startling new layers to Waits' trademark lyricism which touched on contemporary events on two of the album's best tracks, "Sins Of My Father" and "Day After Tomorrow".
DISCOGRAPHY: Closing Time (Asylum 1973)***, The Heart Of Saturday Night (Asylum 1974)***, Nighthawks At The Diner (Asylum 1975)***, Small Change (Asylum 1976)****, Foreign Affairs (Asylum 1977)***, Blue Valentine (Asylum 1978)****, Heartattack And Vine (Asylum 1980)****, with Crystal Gayle One From The Heart (Columbia 1982)****, Swordfishtrombones (Island 1983)*****, Rain Dogs (Island 1985)****, Frank's Wild Years (Island 1987)***, Big Time (Island 1988)***, Night On Earth film soundtrack (Island 1992)***, Bone Machine (Island 1992)****, The Black Rider (Island 1993)***, Mule Variations (Epitaph 1999)****, Alice (Anti 2002)****, Blood Money (Anti 2002)****, Real Gone (Anti 2004)****.
COMPILATIONS: Bounced Checks (Asylum 1981)***, Asylum Years (Asylum 1986)****, The Early Years (Bizarre/Straight 1991)***, The Early Years Vol. 2 (Bizarre/Straight 1992)**, Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years (Island 1998)****, Used Songs (1973-1980) (Rhino 2001)****.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Small Change: A Life Of Tom Waits, Patrick Humphries. Tom Waits, Cath Carroll. Wild Years: The Music And Myth Of Tom Waits, Jay S. Jacobs.
FILMOGRAPHY: Paradise Alley (1978), Wolfen (1981), One From The Heart (1982), Poetry In Motion (1982), The Outsiders (1983), Rumble Fish (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), Down By Law (1986), Ironweed (1987), Candy Mountain (1988), Big Time (1988), Cold Feet (1989), Mystery Train voice only (1989), Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale (1989), The Two Jakes (1990), Queens Logic (1991), Bis Ans Ende Der Welt aka Until The End Of The World (1991), The Fisher King (1991), At Play In The Fields Of The Lord (1991), Dracula (1992), Short Cuts (1993), Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman In Carver Country (1993), Coffee And Cigarettes III (1993), Guy Maddin: Waiting For Twilight voice only (1997), Mystery Men (1999), Freedom Highway (2001), Coffee And Cigarettes (2003).

Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989 - 2004