Waitsian

Almost anything pertaining to Tom Waits is Waitsian.

1. Any music he has made, or been involved in.

2. His style in art, clothing, and conversation.

3. His very singular voice.

4. Any memorabilia, like autographs.

And so on.

My music collection is full of Waitsian CDs

8👍 3👎

A and B the C.O.D.

Above and Beyond the Call Of Duty

That work you did is really A and B the C.O.D.

16👍 14👎

Crap Shoot

A crap shoot is a view of the future, seeing it as variable and dynamic, and totally unforeseeable. Besides the fact that it is slightly more black than the present.

"What are you doing friday?"

"I don't know. it's a crap shoot."

51👍 71👎

Alice

From 2002, this is Tom Waits' fourteenth album, simultaneously released with Blood Money. For a third time, Waits made a studio version of the music that he used in a play, this is the second part of a trilogy involving The Black Rider. Waits' album is absolutely beautiful, but quite scary. Alice, the title track, is a song of obsession and love that pulls you into it's murky waters and holds you under. Table Top Joe is a great song, very full of life, and it reminds one of Straight Up To the Top. Reeperbahn is a sandpaper song with stories of various people, and their tragedies.

An excerpt from Alice's-
Reeperbahn

Now if you've lost your inheritance
And all you're left is common sense
And you're not too picky about the crowd you keep
Or the mattress where you sleep
Behind every window, behind every door
The apple's gone but there's always the core
The seeds will sprout up right through the floor
Down there in the Reeperbahn

79👍 107👎

Clang, Boom and Steam

1. The thirteenth song on Tom Waits' 2004 album, Real Gone.

2. Sort of like Hook, Line and Sinker, this is supposed to mean everything.

Well my baby ’s so fine
Even her car looks good
From behind
Oh yeah!
Well my baby ’s so fine
Even her car looks good
From behind

But the train that took
My baby…
It went Clang, Boom and Steam

9th & Hennepin

1. The twelfth song on Tom Waits' '85 album, Rain Dogs. It is a chilling, but beautiful, description of the bad part of town.

2. A street corner, or part of town know for prostitution, drugs, and crime. A hooker here could be called a Hennepin girl. Cops would be crooked, the food rotten, the bars bloodied, and the sky dark.

Well, it's 9th & Hennepin
And all the donuts have
Names that sound like prostitutes
And the moon's teeth marks are
On the sky like a tarp thrown over all this
And the broken umbrellas like
Dead birds and the steam
Comes out of the grill like
The whole goddamned town is ready to blow.

Bone Machine

This 1992 album was Tom Waits' darkest release yet. Full of dark "cyber drama" and vicious guitar strings, he had totally dropped his piano onto the city sidewalk. Here we find Goin' Out West, Murder In The Red Barn, and the delicate suicide story, The Ocean Doesn't Want Me. Waits' voice sounds stepped on and burned out, but the songs are more amazing than ever because of it.

An excerpt from Bone Machine's-
Black Wings

Well they've stopped trying to hold him
With mortar, stone and chain
He broke out of every prison
Well the boots mount the staircase
The door is flung back open
He's not there for he has risen
He's not there for he has risen
Well he once killed a man with a guitar string
He's been seen at the table with kings
Well, he once saved a baby from drowning
There are those who say beneath his coat there are wings

11👍 3👎