Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 02:08:51 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Tom Waits's Best Song

Started by kalowski, April 09, 2021, 10:32:46 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

kalowski

Shameless theft from the Nick Cave thread.

It's probably post-Asylum. Maybe 16 Shells From a 30.06. But I love The Briar and the Rose. And Diamonds and Gold. Innocent When You Dream. Picture in a Frame. A Little Rain.
But maybe it is Invitation to the Blues. So from the Asylum years...

"They say that I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing."


I like Kentucky Avenue, which I discovered very late onto my fandom for some reason. I also really love You Can Never Hold Back Spring.

kalowski

Quote from: thecuriousorange on April 09, 2021, 10:51:34 PM
I like Kentucky Avenue, which I discovered very late onto my fandom for some reason. I also really love You Can Never Hold Back Spring.
Two fucking crackers. Good choices.

Ferris

Long Way Home? Fuck there's too many bangers.

Similar to Cave, there's a bit of an "Old Testament"/"New Testament" thing as well.

Will have a think and post something once more organized.

Pink Gregory

November from the Black Rider.

My personal fave that isn't often talked about

kalowski

Quote from: Pink Gregory on April 10, 2021, 07:16:25 AM
November from the Black Rider.

My personal fave that isn't often talked about
I was listening to November when I decided to start the thread. Love everything about that song, about the whole album, in fact.


shagatha crustie


Dr Rock

Very hard to pick just one, but I'll go for 16 Shells From a 30.06. Not only one of my favourites, it reminds me of visiting a girl in Belgium who would play it again and again. I knew a bit of Waits material before, but that's when I fell in love.

Very fond of Goin Out West too.

Twit 2

Kentucky Avenue
Small Change
A Little Rain
If I Have to Go
Take It With Me
House Where Nobody Lives
I'm Still Here
Shore Leave
Rains on Me
Johnsburg, Illinois
Dirt in the Ground
Anywhere I Lay My Head
Red Shoes by the Drugstore
Who Are You
Singapore
Hoist That Rag
Never Let Go

earl_sleek

Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis from his earlier period, and probably Johnsburg, Illinois or Sixteen Shells From a 30.06 from his latter.

Jockice


famethrowa

Tom Traubert's Blues. So many good words there.

Dannyhood91

So many great mentions on here. I've been a huge fan of his for years and know pretty much all of his work reasonably well. I've just found a new appreciation for On The Nickle

Aleister Growley


All Stripped Down

Just The Right Bullets

Video Game Fan 2000


Hmmm, I'm going to say (Looking for the) Heart of Saturday Night for now, but Jockey Full of Bourbon and Day After Tomorrow are up there too.

Pink Gregory

Quote from: Dannyhood91 on April 10, 2021, 05:02:31 PM
So many great mentions on here. I've been a huge fan of his for years and know pretty much all of his work reasonably well. I've just found a new appreciation for On The Nickle

There's footage from the BBC from I guess the late 70s of Tom doing a set I think just after Blue Valentine came out; early performance of On the Nickle.  Much nicer version as well, I really don't get on with Heartattack and Vine's production.

Pink Gregory

Quote from: famethrowa on April 10, 2021, 12:40:48 PM
Tom Traubert's Blues. So many good words there.

"Cream puff casper milque toast" sticks in my mind from The Piano Has Been Drinking

Pink Gregory

On second thoughts - All the World is Green from Blood Money

Oz Oz Alice

Alice for me, it sounds like a film noir detective luring himself to his own certain death.

Ferris

Quote from: Oz Oz Alice on April 10, 2021, 09:14:15 PM
Alice for me, it sounds like a film noir detective luring himself to his own certain death.

Foreign Affairs is my favourite Waits record for much the same reason.

I.D. Smith

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on April 10, 2021, 09:15:08 PM
Foreign Affairs is my favourite Waits record for much the same reason.

Mine too, in terms of the early smoother sounding records. Off that one, I'd say the love song to Muriel Gray[nb]Kidding![/nb], 'Muriel' is my favourite.

Most of my faves have been mentioned already, but I'll also throw in 'Yesterday Is Here', which I don't think has been mentioned yet.

Quote from: earl_sleek on April 10, 2021, 09:50:56 AM
Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis from his earlier period, and probably Johnsburg, Illinois or Sixteen Shells From a 30.06 from his latter.

Also this song was the one that got me into Tom Waits, when I first heard it on Consolevania when they used it in the end credits of their Christmas episode from series 1.

Dusty Substance


Probably alone on this one as it's not really a song, more a spoken word piece, but I fucking love "What's He Building In There" from Mule Variations.


Rizla

I've yet to delve into his records, but I saw him live in (checks google, Jesus, was it 2008?? WHERE DID MAI LAIF GO). Bloody marvellous concert. "God's Away On Business" was a standout, that line about "always free cheddar in a mousetrap, baby" rattled around my head for days.

Sebastian Cobb

Probably gonna get a load of derison from people who like Waits a lot more than I do but I really like OI' 55.

Ferris

Quote from: Dusty Substance on April 10, 2021, 09:52:27 PM
Probably alone on this one as it's not really a song, more a spoken word piece, but I fucking love "What's He Building In There" from Mule Variations.

His output is so extensive, I think that's the first mention of the excellent Mule Variations in the thread.

Must do some relistening.

kalowski

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on April 10, 2021, 10:35:14 PM
His output is so extensive, I think that's the first mention of the excellent Mule Variations in the thread.

Must do some relistening.
I put Picture in a Frame in the opening post. I love Mule Variations.
I see four periods of Waits: The early Asylum records as he found his voice. Late period Asylum: Small Change to Heart Attack. The peerless Island years, especially the trilogy, but none of those albums are bad, and the underrated Anti years, which includes the brilliant Alice and the oft forgotten Real Gone. I do think Bad As Me is a weaker effort, but it still has some great tracks, like the title track and Satisfaction ("Mr Jagger! And Mr Richards!")

Ferris

Quote from: kalowski on April 10, 2021, 11:54:19 PM
I put Picture in a Frame in the opening post.

You did, but to be fair I couldn't have told you what record that came off (thought it was Brawlers...), so I'm saved via my own ignorance.

QuoteI love Mule Variations.
I see four periods of Waits: The early Asylum records as he found his voice. Late period Asylum: Small Change to Heart Attack. The peerless Island years, especially the trilogy, but none of those albums are bad, and the underrated Anti years, which includes the brilliant Alice and the oft forgotten Real Gone. I do think Bad As Me is a weaker effort, but it still has some great tracks, like the title track and Satisfaction ("Mr Jagger! And Mr Richards!")

I'd agree with this also. Real Gone is excellent.

Phil_A

I love the starkness of "Dead And Lovely" from Real Gone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxCZC5dF8D8

Kind-of disappointed that they've cleaned up the murkiness of the sound on the remaster though(even added some extra stuff like the horns on Hoist That Rag), the distinctly lo-fi grunginess of it was a big part of the appeal for me.