I am listeneing to a Tom Waits concert in my car from a podcast I downloaded recently. Up until this point, I have not heard much of his stuff but I am really enjoying this show. Great musicianship and great songwriting. Interesting sound (and not just his voice which is definitley different). The thing that keeps coming into my head is that I am listeneing to a Tim Burton movie soundtrack (not a bad thing) with a dash of Frank Zappa.

Very enjoyable thus far. I am about an hour in to the show.

One of my favorite Waits songs is "Shiver Me Timbers".

Did you know he is a character actor and has been in many movies including "Shawshank Redemption"

uncleb, baseball is getting close......Angels may have picked up the World Series in signing Bobby Abreu.

Charlie

Great voice and has a truly different style.

http://www.myspace.com/tomwaits 

Been around for years, Great Artist!!

Charlie- The key is going to be can the young guys perform. Also, there is still a question on the 5th starter. I am glad they picked up Abreu though.

Shiver Me Timbers is a song I have had on my IPOD for awhile but never explored him beyond that until now.

House Where Nobody Lives is a haunting song.

It is interesting to hear how his music has changed since the early 70s. Started out with a definite jazz/lounge sound and now his music is unable to be classified, but instantly recognizable. He truly makes music an art form.

Rod Stewart butchered Tom Waits'' "Downtown Train".

"Closing Time" in my mind, is the quintessential TW album. But Slim recently turned me on to his newer stuff.

The guy''s a genious.

Character actor: first saw him years ago in movie where he played lunatic eating flies.

Musically, he''s pretty damn diverse and unique. Lots of his stuff on Youtube. Chief Likes!

But he''s not for everybody.

That was Waits as "Renfield" in Bram Stoker''s Dracula.

Eating the flies, I mean.

NIGHT HAWKS AT THE DINER.

""Closing Time" in my mind, is the quintessential TW album."

Just downloaded the album from Itunes. Plan to listen to it this weekend.

Borndead

So what is new as Rod Stewart has been butchering other people''s songs for years...."The Great American Songbook" is the worst albumn produced in last 20 years.

Stewart sucks as an artist.

Charlie

J.Redleg ... "Slim recently turned me on to his newer stuff."

Dude ... ''Nighthawks at the Diner'' was released in 2002 on CD (but were recorded at the Record Plant, Hollywood, California on July 30 & 31, 1975) and ''Used Songs'' was released on 2001 on CD ... but were originaly recored between 1973 to 1980 !!!

A major part of Tom Waits''s mystique has always been his complex, intriguing persona; part Bukowski-esque barfly poet, part Kerouac-inspired hipster, part Hoagy Carmichael troubadour.

Nowhere has that persona been more fully utilized than on NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER. Throughout the album waits unfurls his colorful, charismatic, artfully amplified personality. It''s like spending the evening with a lounge lizard/raconteur/beatnik standup comic who also happens to compose strikingly beautiful tunes that could have come from the Great American Songbook if not for their lyrical quirkiness.

Though it would be a few more years before Waits would reinvent himself on SWORDFISHTROMBONES, the character who stomps through your brain on NIGHTHAWKS with both guns blazing is as original and impressive a character as you could want.

Tom Waits - The Piano Has Been Drinking - 1977

A $20 bill and an alligator purse....

some of his stuff is very blues like! I have taken all his albums and created a fav list of about 15-20 songs that are great! he rocks! he was in the movie about the girl bounty hunter ''Domino'' ummm he was the creapy reverend that came out of nowhere in the desert with an old black caddy! he is a bad ass!

"Thheeereeee''sss aaa ppplaaacceee fffoorrrUUUZZZZZ,

A TTTiiimmeee aannnddd pppllaacceee fffoorrrUUUUZZZ,

Hold my hand and III"""LLL tttaaakkkee yyooouu tthheeree.....

^^^Title of song?? I don''t know but it is one of his best interperated songs ever.

That would be Somewhere from West Side Story