It’s hard to underestimate how great Closing Time and Heart of Saturday Night are. His songs were jazzy, full of feeling and amazing songs. By Heart Attack and Vine it was still great but you could hear he was ready to evolve. The fact that he had no “hits” or radio airplay yet he still had a cult following is evidence his music spoke for itself. Small Change is also another favorite from his 70’s period. He knew how to create songs you really never grew tired of. By the 80’s he worked hard to grow and not repeat himself, and perhaps he became more cinematic in his writing style, but the pure genius of his output by now is undeniable. If anything, the fact that not everyone gets him is why he is so loved. He was not trying to be Elton or Billy Joel, he was nothing of that sort. His music grows on you slowly and never lets go.
The reason why his first album sounds different than his last one is because was true to himself. One of the last true artists/musician/performer of our era. No one told him what to do. He did what he wanted to do because he loved the music inside him.
closing time is still and will probably always be my favourite Tom Waits album closely followed by heartattack and vine.I can still remember the night i heard it for the first time ,and what a wild night it was.I still do some of the songs on stage some 40 + years later.The memories of that night rush back in every time i play the songs.It always amazes me how the sounds and smells and the feelings are invoked when remembering the first time i heard a song that meant something to me.Thanks Tom.A true gentleman and living legend.
I think Waits has, easily, one of the 10 greatest catalogues of music ever. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Miles Davis ... I think you could say he’s next behind those artists. He has so many great albums and has evolved as much as any artist ever has. How many artists have an album like Closing Time, while also having an album like Bone Machine? And the ultimate irony is that his later albums literally took me 10 years to understand. I always liked his early stuff but other than Mule Variations, I just didn’t get his later stuff. But I still felt like there was something about those albums that intrigued me, so I kept listening to them despite the fact that I didn’t really “get” them. Then, one day, I was listening to Rain Dogs for something like the 20th time, and the second he started singing on “Anywhere I lay my head” (the last song of the album) ... suddenly it all made sense to me. It was like something out of a movie. As soon as I heard his voice, suddenly everything that I had ever heard from him made sense to me. It was a truly amazing moment in my life. All that is to say - if you’re one of those people that still feels like you can’t get into his music, or any artist for that matter ..... just keep listening.
I agree, he is truly unique. and just like you, his later stuff took time to get into - And it started with Rain dogs for mt too. However I disagree when you put Bop Dylan ahead of Waits....
Chrissein63 Ok, so first, please understand that I’m not at all tryin to argue with you: but you HAVE to try listening to more Dylan albums. That man’s discography is stupefying. •Freewheeling •The times they are a changing •Another side of Bob Dylan •Bringing it all back home •Highway 61 •Blonde on Blonde •John Wesley Harding •Nashville Skyline •The Basement tapes •Blood on the tracks •Desire •Time Out of Mind •Love and theft •Modern Times •Live at the royal albert hall As well as all his bootleg collection albums... They’re all absolute masterpieces. And he has other albums that are great as well. Stuff like Infidels, World gone wrong, Oh Mercy, Street Legal... Those are great, I just don’t know if I would call them masterpieces. Like I said I’m not trying to disagree at all, I just feel like if you become familiar with those, it’s hard to say anybody’s catalog is better. I’m a die hard beatles fan, and for most of my life I’ve felt like nobody is in the same universe as the Beatles, in terms of the quality and quantity of their albums. And even though I still think that nobody has ever made better albums, Dylan’s albums come pretty damn close, AND he has like 24 albums that are absolutely essential. But to be fair to your point; I definitely think that Waits has the edge when it comes to constantly pushing boundaries when Dylan wasn’t *AS* innovative, even though he was still very innovative. Anyway-Ya, just try getting into all those albums I named. So do you think that The Beatles and Neil Young are ahead of him? I’m just curious. You seem like you have great taste and knowledge so I’m interested in maybe finding about some new stuff from you.
The real list is Bob Dylan > The Beatles > Tom Waits > Nick Cave/Neil Young/Paul Simon. Paul Simon and Neil Young have both expressly admitted Dylan is better than them, Nick Cave’s favorite song he wished he’d written is a cut from Nashville Skyline. Waits says Dylan is the most important learning tool to any songwriter.
Taking into account both music, vocals and lyrics, Tom Waits is the greatest all-round performer of all time. Dylan and Nick Cave are better lyrically, Neil Young is somewhat overrated lyrically. But in strictly musical terms, Waits, Beefheart and Zappa are the greatest solo artists.
Bones Howe just defined his working and personal relationship with Tom Waits in honest, and totally unbiased terms. That doesn't happen often and although I did not know of Bones Howe, he gained my respect and admiration.
aww I hope they meet again. I've been listening to Tom Waits' music for 21+ years, and for much of that I hadn't heard his Asylum era music. I started with Rain Dogs and Bone Machine as a teenager and gradually experienced Tom Wait's music in inverse chronology. I'm reaching for something interesting and profound to say about that--- I suppose I imagine his Asylum music in a more 'mature' atmosphere. Smokey bars, awkward sex, dangerous looks-- while his post-Asylum albums give me more fantasy-escapism. Cowboys, Drifters, freaks, . Dangerous in a different way, but maybe he's just less horny.
This is a timeless and perfectly clean interview GREAT WORK! I hope your career skyrocketed after this production I will pray for America. Please pray for me. God Bless you. Bones seems like a good man as does Waits
This is very insightful. Always was interested if I picked an album up and saw Bones Howe name as producer listed. The same for Ted Templeman, etc All of these men really understood musicians, songwriters etc
I don't doubt that the Waits /Howe collaboration had run it's course and Tom truly needed to do something else but the albums they did together are my favorites.
@Texas Chainsaw Jesus the weird is the most interesting - a lot is made of Waits getting weird but he always was. He just eventually found that weird and we all benefit from it the most - when music can change your whole perspective on life then its truly art
The order of Waits LP’s after the final collaboration with Bones Howe, (Heartattack & Vine, 1980) -> Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985), Frank’s Wild Years (1987), Bone Machine (1992), The Black Rider (1993), Mule Variations (1999), etc… My favorite Waits period is from Nighthawks at the Diner (1975) through Frank’s Wild Years, with Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs being his finest LP’s. (Songs, originality, performances, musicians, production)
@@christopherpederson1021 Really? I find that to be a rather odd choice. It's a pretty straightforward album, doesn't really break any new ground, and thematically it's all over the place. Out of all of his albums, I think Mule Variations is the least coherent as an album. There are a lot of really slow, mellow songs like "Hold On" and "Get Behind a Mule", humorous songs like "Big in Japan" and "What's he Building in There". "Come on Up to the House" is an amazing gospel song and one of Waits's best, "Cold Water" is an absolute classic in every way, and "Pony" is quintessential Waits storytelling, but done a whole lot better than many of other similar songs where he names a bunch of people and places. "Picture in a Frame" is a beautiful weeper. But all in all, the album just seems too all over the place thematically. The humor feels out of place here, compared to say, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" which was an excellent way to end such a dark album.
I love all of his albums, but Orpans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards is literally three full albums with very different feels/sounds. It was his White album, his The Wall... for lack of a better comparison. I had already been listening to all his albums before it came out, and I got a signed pre-ordered copy the day it was released, and it was one of the happiest days I can remember when it comes to music... Three new Waits albums! And he signed it! I was so happy.
@@davemick7216 It's not three albums, it's three CDs full of random songs. Waits is one of the great masters of making a real album, that has a cohesive theme and where the songs flow beautifully in the order they appear. Look at Alice and Blood Money. Released on the same day, but each album has its own unique feel to it, as if they could have been made years apart. Bone Machine was his best until Real Gone came out. The albums are almost identical, but Real Gone is a more clearly realized vision if what Bone Mahone should have been. He also has a much better band, and somehow incorporates a ton of hip hop elements like beat boxing, turntable, samples, "can I get a little bit more of my voice?", Clang, Boom, Steam has a clever one liner about how sexy his gurl is, etc. It's an amazing album that defies convention, and is the culmination of his career brought to a zenith of a completely unique and even experimental record.
he did great work with tom but I like the stuff afterwards. rain dogs, swordfish, bone machine. . ..so rain dogs was his first LP without bones. wonder if the bone in bone machine is mr. howe?
I love Waits's first era: Closing time, The Heart of the Saturday Night, Small Change. Like the Nighthawks, too. Next era was the Frank trilogy, which I also love, but differently: Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985), Franks Wild Years I have to listen more of the records of his final era. Haven't find such gems as with the older ones, though. His music is like wine, it gets better as it ages.
I agree with your comments on the first era...I started to listen to Tom in the late 1970's and found his rawness and spontaneity refreshing. I did not feel the same about his 1980's albums but then I fell in love with his 1990's Bone Machine, Mule Variations, Blood Money... I understand from this interview what I like most about his music... like Picasso, Tom is a rule breaker and this is like a breath of fresh air among artists who are forced to sound the same by the "system". What brilliance Tom had to recognize that and what a gentleman he was to explain this to Bones.
I think he seems like a novelty act at first but then people listen to the depth of some of the lyrics and realize oh this is actually high quality musical craftsmanship.
His best work was, IMHO, with Howe. That's not to say there haven't been wonderful subsequent works but if I were choosing an album to someone not familiar with Waits I'd probably start with "small change" or "Heart Attack and Vine"
I don't understand Tom Waits. Is the attraction like circuits freak curiosity or is there some real value there beyond the freaky voice? Just trying to understand.
he’s a very diverse artist. all kinds of moods on any given track. he gets into a character for every song and his voice reflects the tone of that character/story. i’ll give you a list of some songs to check out take me home long way home cold cold ground i want you picture in a frame those are some mellower songs where his voice is more laid back to maybe show you a different side of him
Try listening to Mule Variations. It might be a little easier to listen to and open up your ears. It has a little of everything about him, i think, on that lp.
He's a poet and a wordsmith. He is a very unique entertainer but freak no. He is not a freak by my definition. He's an obscure talent though and something very endearing about him actually. He's one of those guys you want to nurture and play muse for.
I would suggest listening to his albums from the beginning to his discography to the end (which stretches from 1971/1973-2011, as it stands), or maybe just select ones from each era, just so you don't immediately jump into his more outworldish stuff. Albums like Closing Time, The Heart of Saturday Night, Blue Valentine, Heartattack and Vine, Rain Dogs, Frank's Wild Years, and Bone Machine, albums released from '73-'92 that might give you a good idea of how he evolved over the years and also gives a good variety of sounds to listen to. He only started sounding as rough as he did around Bone Machine, and it just kind of became his standard sound
