Tom Waits- Time (REACTION & REVIEW) 

Some of the best Tom Waites lyrics don't paint a picture or tell a tale as much as they provide vignettes into an emotional state. They hint at the feelings from which the words are born, coming forth in almost a stream of consciousness without moderation or censure.

As with Neil Young, Tom Waits writes in a way where you don't know what he is talking about but you know exactly what he's saying. That's great writing!

One of my all time favorite Waits songs. Beautiful and poetic.

Rain Dogs is my favorite Tom Waits album. A true masterpeice.

Tom Waits has an ability like no other artist to walk directly into my heart when he is in this mode - like in A Little Rain, and Picture In a Frame and other of his lullaby type songs. Like you say, I don’t always understand what he’s saying, but I feel it nonetheless.

This is the song that plays in my dreams. I hear the line "So close your eyes son/And this won't hurt a bit" and know it's empty comfort. It will hurt, it will hurt like nothing else hurts, it will never stop hurting. Years from now, you'll put a glass down on a bar and realize you can't tell the difference between the whiskey and the hurt, and can't remember the time when you could.

I don't always know what Tom and Kathleen are writing about, but I always love the imagery and the textures.

Wow I haven’t listened to this song in decades. Wow. Great choice Jp. Thansk

I've always loved the double meaning of the chorus, "It's time that you love." Either as you get older you would love to have more time, and you should appreciate the moments you share with others. "Time is the thing you love." Or I read it as, now is the time you should prioritize loving others or loving life. "It's time for you to love." Two totally different meanings, yet they relate to each other.

Just wonderful!

Thank you 😊

'And the things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget. That history puts a saint in every dream' This is worthy of Dylan. It's deeply enigmatic, and it's perplexed me for years. And yet, it feels profoundly truthful, in some sense. This was one of those Waits songs that carried me from curious to... an absolute Waits nut.

Very interested to see you do the next track, Rain Dogs. This album is pure gold.

Last I checked, which was admittedly maybe ten years ago, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits between them were the most covered artists in the last century. It also delights me that the Shrek franchise featured songs from both of them, which I only hope leads to some kind of revival of awareness of both of them.

Down south we say, and it’s Tom, Tom, Tom that you love… I like it.

I love that you are continuing to make your way through "Rain Dogs," one of my favorites. You mention not being able to figure out, exactly, what the song is about. I've long ago given up on that; I don't think this song is about any one character; it's just little snippets of an anthology of morose, mostly urban characters that Waits was writing about for his entire career, up until what I see as his artistic expansion with the previous album, Swordfish Trombones. What I enjoy about this song is the snapshot of a character in a verse, or half a verse. They're evocative, more than literal. Also, in the previous "Rain Dogs" reaction I think you mentioned a track that you thought was the most intentionally commercial on the album...I just wanted to tell you that there is one but you haven't gotten to it yet; it's great but obvious, and it's on side 2.

Time Waits on no one, But Tom writes a timeless song, of times long gone, of no one, and everyone. Peace old son, and please more Leonard Cohen, since with all the rain and your growing popularity, you might need a "Famous Blue Raincoat"!

I love his metaphor of birds falling to represent suicide and blood. It's echoed again in "I'll Be Gone" -- 'the birds will all fly from my head'.

You have to love the way Tom uses repeating characters in different songs. The razor-murderer, "Matilda" a vague reference to a killer shows up as well in Tom Traubert's Blues where she "buried a dagger" in his chest after he begs her to stab him -- "Matilda"s the defendant; She's killed about a hundred".

And they all pretend they're orphans and their memory's like a train You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away And the things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget That history puts a saint in every dream

Beautiful

It's not meant to be literal. It's pure heartbreak vibe. I can never hear the "razor from her boot and a thousand pigeons fall around her feet" line without eye drips.

Subscribing because not many reactors to Tom Waits, and it's well worth the listen. Thanks for the video.

I just re-watched all of your Tom Waits reactions this evening. I am impressed by how much you tell with your expressions while listening, without uttering a word, but also by your analysis afterwards. I was 17, watching Norwegian tv, when they played the video from this album. It was so different from any music I knew, and I immediately fell in love with it. This album is definitely among my top five favourite albums, and I have listened to it countless times, but seeing and hearing your reactions makes me discover new nuances. Thanks 😊

'A day in the life on Skid Row' is how I sum up this era of Tom's music. So much heartbreak and tragedy, but also hope, and resilience, and love. Romance.

Thank you once again for returning to Raindogs, I knew you would dig this song, there is just something about the chorus that is so comforting, even after all these years I can still take great comfort in hearing this song

Every line paints a feeling and a palette. It's up to our own depth to tie them into an arc. So non-narrative and wonderful, . Fantastic review, and gotta check out more of your content! Wow, you said you even did Leonard Cohen... I always felt Cohen paid more attention to the written word, and Waits through the heard word... a cool juxtaposition.

❤️

Cool song.

Such a beautiful song - gives me goose flesh every time I hear it.

Puddles Pity Party does an amazing version of this song. Recommended listen.

This song alone felt that Time Time Time was temporarily suspended. I bought the lp. Now i feel as if I’m in the interlude of an amateur dramatic college production of the longest play ever performed on stage, and yep side (act) two will continue in 3 mins, ladies and gentlemen. Please take your seats. . Cue bleedin harmonium / accordion and dungareed hobo dribblin whiskey . Give me Frail childlike joyous Jonathan Richman over this, anytime.

Wait'll you hear Blind Love. When I meet ScarJo I will sing her Tom Waits at top volume (she did a whole album of Tom Waits songs). Black Widow, big fan.

Justin, you DO understand what he's talking about. This is poetry. These are phrases that sound familiar but aren't. Most of the lines in Jockey Full... and Singapore that you think you need to research are made up by Tom. They feel like they are historical references, but I don't think they are. Tom Waits is a wordsmith. Consider "independent as a hog on ice." You know exactly what he means even though you've never heard that expression before. You can picture it. It's both perfectly clear and also a little bit silly. Everything he writes is like that. Sometimes he's cryptic. Sometimes he rips your heart out. There is beauty in his madness, just like his voice. I think his voice is gorgeous in this song. "She said she'd stick around until the bandages came off.... Close your eyes, son, and this won't hurt a bit." That kills me every time!

Subman, finely put, its a small world...

I enjoy your Tom Waits reactions very much. Please carry on to Frank's Wild Years, his next album and absolute masterpiece.

Deep, meaningful lyrics or random imagery drawn from the writer's imagination? Maybe it doesn't matter as far as the listener is concerned. I thought there were certainly some good lines in there. The theme of time makes me think of another song: Who Knows Where The Time Goes, by Fairport Convention.

I think the song is about two possible, or hopeful lovers that are never on the same page, or possible in the same stage of their life Verse 1: is from the males perspective… “Napoleon is weeping… his invisible fiances in the mirror”… he knows the specific girl out there is living her own life… but he can picture it different… the two of them together Verse 2: from the female perspective… “pulls a razor from her boot, and a thousand pigeons fall at her feet”…. She can have anyone she wants, but she cuts them down…. Verse 3: from both perspectives - but they are comfortable with not being together… “pay the fiddler off til I come back again” - kind of like “we’ll always have Paris”

have we done townes van zandt bob dylan or captain beefheart yet ?

Yes keep this going, this album is a masterpiece in its own way

Try Waits doing "On the Nickel"

This album is like an old friend. Ive owned it for 25 years - longer than a lot of relationships

Okay, Tom Waits. But the question is: What is he waiting for? 😉

I got Rain Dogs when it came out, Rain was one of the tracks that was instantly appealing and through which the rest became accessible. Waits shares with Talk Talk and Radiohead a sort of career in reverse, starting off with very commercial material and gradually getting weirder and less mainstream. I adore the entire Small Change album, but otherwise for me most of Waits' best material is his later work.

I find it incredible how people who listen to artists like Tom Waits, Nico, Captain Beefheart, Neil Young, Marianne Faithful, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen and want them to deliver some sort of soothing easy to digest music and that's not what any of them do. To me this is about a good a song as it gets. The lyrics evoke images, sentiments, ideas and amazing word play and his voice brings the vibe. There's plenty innocuous inoffensive slick ass slop out there for you to wallow in so leave Tom and the others free to do what they do. If you don't dig it then you got the problem.

Another of Wait's lyrical tone poems, which seems to evoke a kaleidoscope of events suggesting things drawing to a close, and it's time to move on.

Maybe the best song on this album, which is saying a lot. Imagery and emotions are invoked though the meanings are not exactly clear. Brilliant.

The singing was better than I thought it was going to be. As far as lyrics, I like to ponder meanings, not try to figure them out. For example, after Murder By Numbers, I spent the day reflecting upon human history and the role of vicious leaders in the destruction of mankind, e.g what’s happening in Ukraine. For this song, the only thing I ponder is “what are you trying to communicate?”

You might enjoy *Kinders van die Wind* by *Koos du Plessis* ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nIcrurRrwTw.html (Children of the Wind).

Very leonard cohen. Also rather dull and repetitive, though his awful gravely voice seemed slightly less awful on this one. Though i feel like i've been listening to this for forever, and it's only side 1... jeez.