Music Missive XII

By: Ken Brzezinski

Wednesday January 20, 2010

A Love/Hate Relationship with Tom Waits

I have a very odd love/hate relationship with singer/songwriter/generally crazy mofo Tom Waits. Hate probably is too strong a word, but it’s the best example of a dichotomy I can come up with at this moment. I don’t hate Tom Waits, but he sure can be annoying at times. That comes with the territory when you listen to a man who might be the most eccentric and bizarre man in the history of music.

I started thinking about this when I was given a copy of his Glitter and Doom Live CD by my best friend. Disc one is a CD of all music, one song from every stop on the tour. The other disc is of his stage raps and rants. For those of you who don’t know him or don’t like him because of the oddness of his music should listen to this. The guy is quite charming and has a great sense of humor and I guess that adds to the eccentricity of the whole package. And it comes out in his music. All of Tom’s music takes on this serious tone, but sometimes there is a juxtaposition of these completely absurd lyrics. The song “The Piano Has Been Drinking” from the Small Change album comes to mind when I think of that. The music has a heavy sort of jazz feeling but the lyrics and the meaning of the song (at least to my ears and brain) are completely absurd.

I love the openness Tom Waits has to experimentation. James Hetfield once said “He get’s these amazing sounds out of things he shouldn’t be able to get them out of” and makes them into some amazing songs. Think about a song like “Chocolate Jesus” from Mule Variations. It’s the first, and ONLY song, as far as I’m concerned, that uses a megaphone successfully. And trust me, I’ve heard a lot of avant-garde “artists” try and use that particular instrument and fail miserably. But for some reason, when Waits busts it out before belting out “Only a Chocolate Jesus, can satisfy, satisfy my soul” it sounds like it fits, it sounds like it belongs. The guy clearly is magical. Tom also gets amazing mileage out of a voice that sounds like it was bathed in pure grained alcohol, run over with a car and left for dead, only to make some kind of Jason/Freddy kind of resurrection. Really, it’s rough and it’s raw, and yet somehow Waits can sing these songs that bring some people to tears. The first time I ever heard him, I was a DJ at my college radio station and I played the title track from his Alice record. No, I didn’t cry but I did fall in love instantly with what was a very warm and colorful sounding jazzy kind of song with what sounded like the cookie monster on vocals. How in God’s name he makes that work is beyond me, but time after time, record after record, and decade after decade, Tom Waits has made it work, and work so well that this guy got a Grammy. Now don’t get me started on how much bullsh*t those things are, but when I heard Tom Waits was able to win one, it made me rethink my position on their lack of credibility for at least 2 seconds.

Now, that takes care of the “love” onto the “hate”. Like I said, it’s not hate, it’s just dealing with the maddening personality of this man who, as I said, is a bit of a weirdo. And it’s not dealing with it one on one, it’s dealing with it through the music. Let me explain…

Tom Waits has pretty much the most impeccable record when it comes to musical integrity. He does what he wants to do when he wants to do it. That may be why he’s still a diamond in the rough of so much crap music. While it’s great to be open, being open to everything can lead you to try and do some things that will turn a lot of people off. It turns me off a lot of the time, and I love the guy. Tom Waits has been releasing music since 1973 and it’s really hard for me to find a complete album by him that I am totally in love with. Between live albums, re-recordings, and everything else, Tom has close to 500 songs. And after wading through the marathon album known as Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, his bizarre albums like Blood Money, Real Gone, and his Night On Earth OST; there is a lot of filler on a lot of albums. And I know Tom Waits would probably take offense to that because I’m sure he thinks he’s putting his heart and soul into all of his music, but from what I hear, he’s not. There is a lot of music on a lot of albums that just sounds like it’s there just to be there. It’s usually on the latter albums when he gets a lot more experimental with the music. Take Real Gone, I don’t think there was one song on the album that didn’t have vocals that didn’t overmodulate way over their proper levels. Why? Because Tom wanted to. I have no idea the reason why to that, the songs didn’t always call for that kind of thing, if at all, yet it was there.

The other thing about Tom’s eccentricity that gets to me is when it comes to his live performances. You see, when you feel open to pretty much anything, you sometimes screw the fans, especially when you get to the live show. Wait’s, live, plays pretty much whatever he wants. When I got the Glitter and Doom Live record I wasn’t able to look at the track listing and just start singing the music as I can with pretty much every other live album I’ve ever gotten, I was disappointed. I had heard the songs, I knew them, but they weren’t his “hits”. Not ONE OF THEM were a “hit”” of his. That’s really disappointing for a guy like Tom Waits because unlike other acts, he doesn’t have as solid a rarity catalog. If the Rolling Stones played only B-Sides and rarities, how would you feel about it? You’d probably be pissed, but I bet there is at least one or two hits mixed in there somewhere, songs that weren’t intended to be huge but just blew up none the less. You don’t get that with Tom. With Tom, you never know what you’re going to get. And while most time’s I find that pretty exciting, when you (at least in my view) only have three or four albums worth of amazing stuff and the rest is mediocre at best, it’s really sad to have to slog through a Tom Waits concert without hearing “Eggs and Sausage”, “Chocolate Jesus”, “Old 55”, or “Jockey Full Of Burbon.”

That all being said, the greatness of Tom Waits still completely blows the negative out of the water. Even though I’d probably not hear one song I’d really want to hear, I’d still go to a live show (if he ever came anywhere near my home town). I will still continue to get his records and listen to his music, wading through the bad to find the pieces of pure musical gold that other people WISH they had the creativity and outright genius to write.

Home Film Games Music Print

Music Missive XII

By: Ken Brzezinski

Wednesday January 20, 2010

External Links

Random Features