“I can resist anything except temptation” quipped Oscar Wilde, well over a century ago. Wilde was thumbing his nose at Victorian morality, which worked out really well for him. We like to imagine that we’re well past the era of unctuous moralizing, but we’re not … Continue reading Temptation
This is Tom Waits at his most non-weird, a reminder that in the first phase of his career, he was an average songwriter not dissimilar to Randy Newman or Bruce Springsteen. Being those things isn’t bad – he was perfectly good at it. But eccentricity … Continue reading Tell Me
“Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you’re dead…” Well, if you can’t trust Tom Waits for good life advice, then you can’t trust anyone. Meanwhile, I want to see whatever movie is unspooling inside of old Tom’s … Continue reading Telephone Call From Istanbul
“I tell you all my secrets but I lie about my past, so send me off to bed forevermore.” One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite albums. Of course, every song on Rain Dogs is full of some of my favorite lines. … Continue reading Tango Till They’re Sore
What the hell has Tom Waits been up to the past ten years? I know the answer is he’s enjoying a nice semi-retirement, and he probably makes better money for the occasional acting role than he does making records. I imagine that he has a … Continue reading Talking at the Same Time
I know it’s morning, but here’s a lullaby. If it’s Tom Waits crooning you to sleep, there’s no certainty that your dreams will be sweet. There’s no certainty that you will even awake. However, with Tom Waits as my spirit guide, I will gladly go … Continue reading Take It With Me
Tom Waits himself is quite a scream. His career has been an ongoing evolution towards increasing weirdness. I think that Bone Machine (1992) marks – loosely – the beginning of the third phase, or evolutionary stage, in the progression of the Tom Waits persona. From … Continue reading Such a Scream
If there’s one thing you’re not likely to see nowadays, it’s Tom Waits glad-handing a late night talk show host. Tom Waits has long ago progressed past the need of putting himself out there like that. But the 1980’s were just crazy enough to have … Continue reading Straight to the Top
One gets the sense that all Tom Waits ever wanted was to be the piano player at some burlesque joint, preferably down the street from a greasy spoon. He really missed the boat on that one, growing up just when burlesque was going downhill. But … Continue reading Spare Parts II and Closing
In 1975 Tom Waits was seen as just another prematurely hoarse young man in a porkpie hat singing earnest songs about the travails of the drinking classes. Not entirely dissimilar from Bruce Springsteen or Randy Newman. It wasn’t selling him a whole lot of records … Continue reading Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal Emission)
Lady Garfunkel's Song of the Day 