Tom Waits - Where to start?
I've heard Swordfishtrombones and some other bits and bobs which i have really enjoyed. Any other recommendations of what to listen to pop pickers?
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bone machine
or rain dogs
or franks wild years
im partial to bone machine tho, go for that
Rain Dogs
Frank's Wild Years
Then try Bone Machine and Mule Variations.
At the beginning I think....
....closing time is fantastic.
Seconded
Though very straightforward in the light of everything that came after, it's an absolutely gorgeous, worldly and frankly astonishing debut album given he wasn't yet 25 when it was released. Man already sounds a million years old (the song Martha is particularly heart-rending).
Also, I'd possibly single out Come On Up To The House - the closing track on Mule Variations - as my standalone favourite Waits tune. Amazing.
yes
chronological is as good a way as any. Closing Time and The Heart of Saturday Night are right up there in my opinion.
I'd say
Rain Dogs then Mule Variations
Rain Dogs, for sure
don't touch anything after 1990
Except for
The Black Rider
Mule Variations
Blood Money
Alice
Orphans
You're forgetting BONE MACHINE
That was post 1990 and all kinds of awesome.
???"
This is going to cost me I can tell
I'm in the same boat, will order Rain Dogs to kickstart!
literally start anywhere
he hasn't made one bad album, and that's not superfan hyperbole, there's lots worth listening to on every one.
Touch EVERYTHING after 1990
Mule Variations got me into him and is still top 5
Rain Dogs
Bone Machine
Blue Valentine
Blood Money (better than Alice released the same year, but for some reason everyone else seems to prefer that)
and then everything else
sometime between 1990 and 2000 he became a complete parody of himself
and he still is
i say stay away
how much have you actually listened to?
considering you are telling someone else to completely disregard a whole 19 years of one of the single most consistently great songwriters ever I'd like to know.
plenty of Bone Machine, Alice, Blood Money, Real Gone
a fair bit of Black Rider, Mule Variations
some good songs in there, but plenty of bobbins as well. And it's MILES away from his best stuff, especially the post 00s material. It seems like Waits is just going through the motions, ticking the boxes
but hey, that's just my opinion
"some good songs in there"
so you basically disagree with your own generalised statement. I know its internets and all but jeez.
I don't think any of it seems like "going through the motions" though. Infact Im not even sure what you mean by that. There's loads of influences, different types, and he still manages that "soundtracks to films that don't exist yet" feel to his albums. I know you could maybe take a few tracks from Bone Machine, plonk them in another, but somehow all his albums feel complete.
Coney Island Baby, Hoist That Rag, That Feel, to name a few are up there with Ol'55, Blue Valentine, Martha, etc etc.
If him "going through the motions" is this good then I hope he continues. And plays some fucking gigs that dont cost £80.
Closing Time
Definitely
1. Rain Dogs
2. Swordfishtrombones
3. Orphans
4. Mule Variations
5. Bone Machine
start at the beginning
is always the best. you see the evolution from a lounge lizard playing piano to a freaked out dude shouting deranged messages to an old man who's even more fucked up but in a lovable way.
avoid one from the heart, blood money and black rider though. they're all pretty shit in comparison.
blood money is fucking amazing
Knife Chase is nuts, Coney Island baby the best ballad he's written in years and these lyrics are awesome...
I always play Russian Roulette in my head
It's seventeen black and twenty-nine red
How far from the gutter
How far fron the pew
I'll always remember to forget about you
A good man's is hard to find
Only strangers sleep in my bed
My favorite words are good-bye
And my favorite color is red
The other two arent essential though.
i just thought it was waits-by-numbers
i remember being distinctly disappointed when i first listened to it.
Black Rider has both
Right Amount of Bullets
AND
Briar and The Rose
I started with
Heart of Saturday Night and it still remains up there with both my favourite Tom Waits albums and favourite albums in general, surprising lack of love for it in this thread so far!
I spoke to some guys the other day
who were like "his early stuff is rubbish, i don't like anything before Swordfishtwombones". Idiots / misguided fools!
I think his best three albums are the Small Change, Foreign Affairs, Blue Valentine run, with the latter being the best. Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones are also obviously great, groundbreaking albums, but the others just have such consistently brilliant songs and lyrics.
The lack of love for the mid to late 70s period in this thread is disappointing / surprising!
i really like Heartattack & Vine
is that better?
Rain dogs / Heart of saturday night / Small change / Mule variations
Rain dogs is his best "mid-period" album IMHO - a more polished version of Swordfishtrombones.
Heart of saturday night is his best early album before he started to sound like the Cookie monster. A fantastic jazz/blues album that shows a completely different side of his genius.
Small change is the best of his jazzy / bar room years -- his voice is much croakier but his music is much more conventional jazz/blues than his 80s material.
Mule variations is a great later-period album that provides a great balance between his more raucous blues numbers and beautiful ballads.
Bone machine is also great but a difficult listen -- you really need to be into Tom Waits before getting this one.
And Orphans is great too.
Just get them all!
I'd start anywhere here:
The heart of saturday night
Blue Valentine
Alice
Rain Dogs
Mule Variations
Actually as jiggy said just get them all.
Heartattack & Vine
or Rain Dogs are good starting points i found. Mule Variations also.
H&V and Rain Dogs
are the two I started with, actually :)
suprised the lack of mentions for H&V actually
i think its a really well balanced album.
Also i think Closing Time is pretty beautiful and has some lovely songs on it.
I started with Rain Dogs and it's still one of my favourites
But basically everything that's been said already, though I'd put in a massive recommendation for his early live album Nighthawks At The Diner. It's got some amazing songs and classic Waits crowd banter.
NIGHTHAWKS indeed
surprised it took until the end of the thread to see that. Classic schmooze album and it even has an ode to having an evening wank on it.
What's he building in there...?
-That's the only track that I know that I know of*. And I like that. And it's on Mule Variations. Which is getting a good rep up there^. And it's on Spotify. So I'll give it a whirl later.
*The mention of Heart Attack and Vine led me to do a little surfing to confirm that, yup, that's the track from the Levi's advert from a few years ago. Didn't realise the Screamin' Jay Hawkins version was a cover & Waits' was the original.
I'm sure there's a whole slew of his stuff that I've heard without realising. Promising stuff...
I started with Asylum years, which is a compilation, but does have the original version of small change
the next one i got was bone machine.
This set me up quite nicely to appreciate the ballads versus the fire and brimstone death songs.
You can criticise/not get him etc i don't care - we don't need you on our boat - you can swim with everyone else that doesn't see the beauty in "Take care of all of my children".
The asylum years comp is great
let's be honest with ourselves here - if you are only getting into Tom Waits now you're not really going to wade through all his early stuff in the next few months are you? AY let's you in and you can pick and choose your way from there.
heartattack & vine
and closing time are my favourites. love the black rider too.