Goddamn Tom Waits is good

[Courtesy Flush]

Why does it take me so long to discover talent that has always been there? I've heard the name for decades, but I'm just now listening, and it really speaks to me. I saw Waits in "The Tiger and the Snow" an Italian movie, this week, and now I'm listening to all the stuff I should have loved 30 years ago. Tom Waits really rules!

Same for the Grateful Dead. When I was a teen in the 70's I assumed the dead was a bunch of head bangers. Now I'm discovering them.

I can never see genius when it emerges!!!! That sucks about me.

[Danger Mouse]

1. My favorite song of his is 'Cold Cold Ground'

Used in an episode of 'Homicide: Life on the Streets' that gave me chills...

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. And "Way Down in the Hole" off the same album is the theme song for The Wire.

[Danger Mouse]

24. Yeah, the creators of the 'Wire' and 'Homicide' are clearly Tom Waits fans.

Can't blame em, either.
The scene in 'Homicide' when two of the detectives find the dead body of a drug dealer turned informant (who they pretty much knew was as good as dead), while the cold autumn wind blows dead leaves around the body to the tune of 'Cold, Cold Ground' DAMN man, that gives you chills...

[Starbucks Anarchist]

25. Same creator, in fact.

David Simon wrote the book that Homicide was based on and also created The Wire by himself.

I want to get the new deluxe DVD set for Homicide, too. It's only $160 for the entire series plus the movie and crossover episodes with Law & Order.

[Danger Mouse]

26. That's an EXCELLENT price, considering what the individual seasons have gone for in the past.

:)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

27. Oh, yeah, at least a $300 savings.

[Danger Mouse]

28. I'd love to get the first few seasons...after that, though, I dunno...

it went downhill significantly...

[Starbucks Anarchist]

30. Definitely after Andre Braugher left.

Though I thought all but the last season were excellent to varying degrees.

[likesmountains 52]

2. An appropriate post for my 1000th! Tom Waits rules...I have adored him for over 30 years...

[Courtesy Flush]

6. Congrats on your post count

and your taste in music

[Starbucks Anarchist]

4. He's amazing.

What albums do you have of his?

[Courtesy Flush]

8. Beautiful Maladies nt

[Starbucks Anarchist]

9. Ah, don't have that one myself.

If you want to hear his different phases, I'd start with Closing Time, which is very subdued and accessible; Small Change is half-experimental, half straightforward, and Rain Dogs is where he really went nuts, but in a good way.

[Courtesy Flush]

10. Will do nt

[cemaphonic]

17. It is a collection from his albums published by Island

Swordfishtrombones though The Black Rider. A nice collection, but you should really just get all of them.

[auburngrad82]

22. I love "I Don't Want to Grow Up" from this one

It also has Way Down in the Hole from the Wire HBO series.

[likesmountains 52]

13. Closing Time..and The Heart of Saturday Night...buy them!

[Schema Thing]

5. S'truth ;)

on this we agree :D

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. The Black Rider was one of the coolest theater pieces I've seen. Woyzeck was good, too.

And his non-opera stuff also wonderful, though I'm not familiar with any of it by name, just through hearing.

The guy's a true musical treasure.

[KG]

11. Ironweed - another movie he was in w/ Streep and Nicholson.

[likesmountains 52]

12. Short Cuts...another movie he's in...and a good movie anyway..

[Zomby Woof]

23. He was also Renfield in Coppola's "Dracula"

And had a cameo in Coppola's "The Outsiders". He always makes an impression in any movie he is in, large or small.

[Zomby Woof]

14. Rain Dogs

"Rain Dogs" is my favorite Waits album, although there are plenty right alongside it I recommend without reservation. "The Mule Variations", "Swordfishtrombones", and "Bone Machine"... all flawless classics.

[Heidi]

19. "Jockey Full of Bourbon,"

from "Rain Dogs" is absolutely one of my favorite songs ever. :thumbsup:

[Elidor]

15. Perhaps one of his fans can answer a question for me

Does it ever seem to you that, in rejecting slick production in favor of raw, emotional performances, he overdoes it? That he sings as rough as he can and thinks that it automatically makes him better? That he has eschewed artistry and finesse in a sort of anti-chic ethos which is just as nihilistic as the stuff he criticizes?

I like some of his stuff, when I'm in the right mood, but overall I don't get it, and I feel like "Hey, this guys thinks the rougher he sings the better he is." It seems to me that his unaffectation is a pretension, taken to such an extreme that it is in fact an affectation all its own.

[likesmountains 52]

16. I do like his older stuff better...seems more sincere. I do know what you mean.

[My Good Babushka]

21. over-the-top is what I look for.

I guess all singing seems like affectation to me, so you might as well go all the way.

[Heidi]

18. I love Tom Waits.

If you get a chance, check out the movie, "Down By Law." Excellent film. :thumbsup:

Edited to add link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090967/

[My Good Babushka]

20. Here Here!

I heartily concur. I've been loving Tom Waits for a long time. I can't stop listening to Orphans.

[wildhorses]

29. am i the only way here that thinks tom waits and

leonard cohen were brothers in another life

[Theres-a]

32. Absolutely

And Billy Bob Thornton may be a cousin.

[amerikat]

31. Lots of Tom Waits stuff on you-tube

check it out

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tom+waits&search=Search.

[Theres-a]

33. Also,search for the storyteller series

It's great.