Mike Douglas Show. I used to watch that show all the time and the Merv Griffin show too. Mike was very cool and a great interviewer. I didn't really appreciate how good he was at the time.
This is just so great - Marvin with no idea what to do, Mike trying to relate to Tom... I'd heard (but never seen) that Tom made an appearance on the Dinah Shore Show about this time and William F Buckley was seated next to him, and in a rather condescending manner asked, "Mr Waits, what was the last thing of any importance you read?" Tom raspingly replied, "Well Bill, I had your latest article tattooed on my back backwards, and I read it over my shoulder using 2 mirrors." Thanks for posting!
hibob418 That's hilarious and I dug William F Buckley even though I hardly agreed with his views. I wish they STILL had intelligent conservatives like him around today not dolts like hannity and o'reilly and the screamer Mike savage.
Before Mike Douglas was a talk show host, he made his living as a big band singer and had some lean years in the 50s. He probably knew and met a lot of the influences Tom was rambling off. He was a lot more comfortable going on Letterman.
Everyone's laughing when Tom told him that words....which mean.. walk in my shoes ... the path he had traveled ,live his sorrow his pain.... Everyone has a story, when you've lived my life then you can judge me
Yeah, it's pretty obvious Tom was kind of fucked up here, but this was during the early days when he was getting messed up. What kills me is the way Hamlisch is looking at him with so much disdain, like Tom was some kind of low-life and he was so much better. If Hamslisch were still alive he might be surprised at how much of a legend Tom has become over the years, and still going strong.
Wow! I wanted to see this specific clip tonight, part of a Tom Waits look back I have been doing lately. I remember the "seamy" accusation, saw this when it was originally broadcast. I knew it was a daytime talk show, but couldn't recall the host's name. So, I looked up talk show hosts of the 70s and 80s. I saw Mike Douglas then did a YT search for an interview with him. Presto! Thanks for sharing this gem! Peace.
I saw that and have it on cassette, Dinah asked William F Buckley something about Toms lyrics on the song he sang, and Buckley said he really couldn't hear them well, and Tom said he didn't get a soundcheck, and then he said, I think when you die, you go to a soundcheck! he was also on Dinah with Cindy Williams, wish someone would post that, very funny!
Tom Waits was on the Dinah Shore show back around this same time, and he was so funny, anybody have that to put on You Tube? I do have a cassette tape of that show that I recorded when it was on, but would love to see it again
yes, looking for the Dinah Shore bit. Buckley made a derogatory remark about tatoos, and Tom said" I've always supported one's inalienable right to put whatever one wants to on his chest"
Didn't seem like Mike nor the audience got him. "Four speed automatic transvestites" barely got a chuckle. I'll dare say between the three guest that day Tom was the more interesting interview.
I think Mike did get him actually. He just knows that most of his daytime audience doesn't. Mike was usually very kind to rock bands when they came on and Frank Zappa even performed "Black Napkins" with Mike's band "Joe Harnell and His Orchestra. Mike was around drugs all the time when he started out as a jazz singer . He'd seen it all by this point. This is daytime TV in the 70's and Tom is like a lit fuse about to go off . Thats probably all Mike Douglas was worried about.
Most studio audiences were (and are) tourists who wanted to see a free TV taping. Mike seemed to get Tom's "throwback" persona, but he was only in his mid 20s. He really hit his stride in the 80s, but the Capt. Beefheart fans thought he was a ripoff, even though Don was retired from music - he knew who Tom Was because Tom opened for Zappa, but he wasn't happy about it... but sometime in the 90s, Tom and Don finally met when Tom moved to the Bodega Bay area, and became (sort of) friends until his passing.
can anyone name the bands and artists Tom presents as inspiration sources? I only know Mississipi John Hurt, Lord Bukley, Chuck E.Weiss, Cole Porter... thanks
#TomWaits is not dead. #TomWaitsLives and Marvin Hamlisch couldn't even comprehend the genius of Tom Waits. and yep hamilsch is dead and Tom Waits Lives! #marvinhamlischisadolt
Vladimir Ashkanikov PUH PUH LEEEEEZE. Your millennial and x'er generations NEVER HEARD great radio because you were born to late and also because The radio consultants and monopolists RUINED free form progressive fm radio. Poor boy. But check out internet radio like radiothatdoesntsuck.com
@@JBCo2012 Jesus Christ, shut the fuck up. Oh, sorry we were born too late, like we can choose when we're born. So what if Heath Ledger brought him to Tom Waits, he's still introduced to his music. So fuck off and shove your "music was better in my day and any gen x and millenial are sorry stupid saps for not being born earlier" persona and shove it up your narrow asshole.
I think his worst experience (for him, maybe and for a real fan to see-it's embarrassing) is when Tom was on that parody talk show "Fernwood 2nite" with Martin Mull & Fred WIllard - which was a funny show, a spin-off, I think, from that parody soap - "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" -but Tom came out and sang this tune "The Piano Has Been Drinking" or something like that -and the thing is, I think a lot of people in the audience thought it was, like, some kind of gag or whatever cuz they were laughing, as if he was just making a joke, doing a "bit", etc. - those dopes didn't know he was for real! And as for fucking Marvin Hamlisch -he wrote a few hit broadway show tunes and so (he's dead now) thought he was hot shit - but, I gotta say: Tom Waits is the MUCH better songwriter and much more prolific!!!
+Kent Manthie I actually saw that episode when it originally aired. That was my first exposure to Tom Waits and I thought he was just an actor playing a part for the show. Of course once I found out he was for real I became an instant fan.
Anthony Stone Yeah, I remember that. Although it's an old show & I do remember it from years ago, I just saw that episode -or rather, just the part of it where Tom Waits comes out to play. He did "The Piano Has Been Drinking" an older tune -probably not so old at that time- and, I felt kind of embarrassed for him, the way people were snickering, laughing, etc -thinking it was just a gag. This was just no more than a couple years ago at most & I've been a big Waits fan for years, so I knew exactly who he was & what he was doing. But -sadly, especially at this point in time, many in the audience, no doubt, did not! Anyway, what is somewhat ironic, in a small way, maybe, is that in the last 20-25 years (maybe more, even) Tom Waits has acted in several pretty good films: Jim Jarmusch's indie classic, Down By Law, Robert Altman's Short Cuts and he's been in a few others along the way too -so he does have acting ability & experience, but back then he was still a kind of barroom crooner type -that's what he came across as. But always was a great songwriter!
I think the most unfunny thing about this is the ending with the "hipper than thou" John Fugelsang from VH-1, delivering his unfunny monotone PA (what a dope)
