last updated 06.21.00
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Do melhor, incomparavel...
Diogo......dmn@students.fct.unl.pt
shining black
......ditos@ping.at
He is a monkey-eyed freak lamp stuck to the pencil Hit wine table across the street from Bren Corral on 25th Street. The dark lord who inhabits the underworld latches onto his sack of lemons and forces the juice to come dripping out like a pool of blood from the slashed legs of a Mongolian yak. Tom Waits isn't real and isn't fake. To put it bureaucratically, the man is all of the above, so deal with it. Tom Waits may be the man but as i always say, "reverence is like biting into a steak and hearing the cow mooing inside of you." hooray for lounge singers, kleenex, rubber, and loose sex. ......no email address
fantastic
......92jonesg@somervale.rmplc.co.uk
The bizarre monkey tirade was written by me in a drunken/drug induced haze. If it seems shrouded in cynicism and pseudo-intellectual bullshit, I apologize. Tom Waits is a brilliant, whimsical guy, I only wish some of my friends at school shared the same enthusiasm for him. we'll see about the other "comments" I wrote. maybe they'll turn out semi-decent or then again maybe they'll sound like crap i do like his later shit (rain dogs/swordfishtrombones) more than the earlier stuff. ......cps12@jhu.edu
Before I heard Tom Waits' music, I was dissatisfied with modern artists. I couldn't seem to find any real artistry in anything I heard. Then I listened to Black Rider, and my faith in human creativity was absolutely restored. There is still originality and passion, and you won't hear it on the damned Top 40. Tom Waits is courageously innovative and eerily accurate in expressing the human soul. Never cut off your fingers so they'll fit into a glove. ......colophon@juno.com
I've been a fan since "Closing Time". My one and only show was in October 179 atthe Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Mo. It was a perfect venue for Tom. I remember him saying that he had been to K.C. once before "to by a pair of orange pants". Tom was grown more experimental over the years, but he has basically remaned true to his Beat roots. He never lets you down at 3am when you're alone and need a little drining music.......no email address
Amazing! He's everything from a lone hobo with a guitar to the grand marshall of a band of bleeding hearts pounding on steel. He's poetical and profane. All of us are sittin' in the gutter but some of us are reachin' for the stars. ......jtstumpf@artsci.wustl.edu
I only have small change, and it was through word of mouth, but I'm glad that mouth had the word. Great, great music. That's all I can say. ......decg@tinet.ie
I've only been listening for a few years, and cant wait for the new album to come out. I also enjoyed his acting in the film down by law......quesoloco5@hotmail.com
Man....when the blues hit you there are three things that you need a bottle, a dream and a Tom Waits album. The man is a genius. ......tony@indian-ocean.co.uk
to the voice and lyric, what Mozart was to the orchestra. ......92jonesg@somervale.rmplc.co.uk
I don't have the words......no email address
I first exposed myself to Tom Waits after reading a review of Foreign Affairs in a magazine. Ugly divorces and coffee spills later his music still takes care of whatever ills my days offer me. I feel fortunate to have been exposed to the poetry and the imagry that his music gives. There is nothing to compare against Wait's efforts, it should be set as a standard. I have hit the back button on my CD player after listening to Telephone Call From Istanbul so many times. I gave that tune to a friend from Turkey, she said "What the hell is that?" ......ahurd@greene.xtn.net
tom waits is god. ......beauhuddleston@hotmail.com
I firmly believe that "Frank's Wild Years" is one of the greatest albums that I have ever heard. It is absolutely brilliant. I am addicted to it. I will always be addicted to it. All of his stuff is wonderful, but something about "Frank...." is extra special. God only knows. Or maybe he doesn't. ......choirboy@idirect.com
tom waits - genial! dave......no email address
I usually cry......no email address
Good to see the flame still burns bright! Tough to pick a favourite album - I like them all. ......gwolf@metalceramics.com
tom's songs are good for a hack guitarist and howler like myself to play. it is more the feeling that the song elicits not just the music...anyway, that's my hope onion. ......mmccallu@mts.net
I first heard Tom Waits on a college radio in east lansing, MI. I don't remember the DJ but who ever he is (was) I thank him dearly. There aren't many musicians who are totally original, of course Tom is one of the rare breed. His music inspires me to the fullest extent. I consider him, along with dylan, one of the greatest lyricists ever. My only displeasure is that he doesn't tour, I would give anything to see him live. ......icecreaman@ameritech.net
>Casey B wrote:

>"and I've selected Swordfishtrombones, but it's a real
>toss-up between that, Small Change and Nighthawks...
>not that you can have a toss-up between three
>options but anyway you get my point..."

No? "So you ask me what I'm doing here holding up the lamp-post, Flipping this quarter, trying to make up my mind And if it's heads I go to Tennessee, and tails I buy a drink, If it lands on the edge I keep talking to you." I found Small Change and Bounced Checks (a pretty good german collection) in my dads record collection around 15 years ago. Favourite songs (off the top of my head) include Invitation to the Blues, Burma Shave and Jersey Girl. I'll wrap this up by quoting a friends on the main difference between Mr Waits and Leonard Cohen "Waits tend to fill your glass, Cohen just doesn't do that".......me@theocide.net
Tom Waits is a one of a kind gem. The original psychedelic oompa polka waltz jazz blues artist ...... rlevy@nitusa.com
tom's music is great. he is a spectacular artist and i have all of his cds......no email address
. . . The guy walked out of an Edward Hopper painting and onto a piano bench . . ........oshinsky@webspan.net
It's 20 below in Anchorage...........wsmall2727@aol.com
Tom Waits is God. End of story.........yeti@paradiselost.com
I discovered Tom Waits while living in Baltimore. I was living with some friends of my brother at the time and was supposed to attend college but it didn't work out. I was also seperated from my girlfriend at the time (back in NY) and I was really depressed. One of the people i lived with had a massive collection of records and in there was Tom Waits "Closing Time" among others. No one had ever touched me the way Tom did. Shortly after that I saw "Down By Law" and it was all downhill from there. Everything Tom did amazed me, and still does to this day. ......zoompig@iname.com
Tom Waits, well what the hell. Late nights, scotch, waits. The texaco beacon burns on! No choice on faviote album. ......no email address
I first heard Tom Waits music in New Orleans when I was 6 years old by a fat guy playing a purple piano in the middle of Royal Street in the French Quarter. At the time, I was real into real soul blues, didn't dig Tom much. But then I turned 11, I got The Black Rider from a friend of mine- a Jack Kerouac meets Thoreau (what?!) type, and fell in love with the stuff...... In America, all my friends hated it, now I'm in Germany, and they hate it more. I wish I was in New Orleans, I can see it in my dreams..... My favorite CD is always changin, ya know, it's always the one which was in my stereo last (Swordfishtrombone as the case may be) good page, i like the beatnik stuff you added on here too ...........sabbaticals@usa.net
Waits is God. ..........t.connolly.student@ucc.ie
Years ago my best friend was invited to a free concert by some friends. It was held in a recording studio, with tables and chairs around to simulate a bar like atmosphere. They opened the show with a stripper, and then came Tom Waites and his fellow musicians. My friend was never the same after that night!! That was the night Tom recorded "Nighthawks at the Diner". Can you imagine having been there, never heard of the guy before, and getting to experience such and awsome musical event? Needless to say, she turned all of her friends on the the guy after that night, myself being one of them. Nighthawks is my favorite album, every bit of it, but I have a special fondness for "Better Off Without a Wife". What can you say? Could go on all night about Tom...........lilmcgil@earthlink.com
well, i guess since i'm really young (only 16), but have been listening to Mr. waits since 1990, this may have some validity. no musician before has touched my soul as waits has. born in 1982, i was part of a really shitty generation. a generation that held originality as a foreign concept. literature? no, they don't read, albeit cliffs notes (critical rape of art). instead of being "cool", i chose to seclude myself, reading kerouac, mailer, baraka, burroughs, burgess, ginsberg, anything i could get my hands on. i was abused, neglected, yes. what does this matter? noone cared until never. get drunk, read beat, listen to jazz and tom and gg allin. life!...........xdarklingx@theglobe.com
Tom has got to be the greatest songwriter ever. I was first exposed to him about two years ago, when a friend played me his dad's record of swordfish trombones. I imediately went to the music store the next day and purchased franks wild years. Since then ive picked up all his albums and he has climbed up my artist rankings to become one of my favorites. He is truly a unique artist. My one hope is to someday see him live. ...........jschneid@bu.edu
What more can you say than a deranged"?" genius. I first hear TW here in Italy where he has quite a following, My first albumn was nighthawks and I must say that I have never cried or laughed so much at the same time as listnig to Tom. I have made it my personnel mission in life to convert all People in the world to Tom fans...........shawnvance@gallura.net
I have rarely been more alarmed than the occasion I first heard Swordfishtrombones. Such an utterly departure, but there was no denying who wrote it. Nighthawks is my favourite record of his, but its a tossup with Frank's Wild Years. My favourite piece is That Feel, from neither of those albums. Despite his vast recording record, I have become more than eager for new material from Tom. I must add that I am glad his ardent (read cult) following still exists, my contemporaries all find me diseased for still listening to so much Waits material. I read he's coming here to Manhattan, I wonder who you'd have to kill to get tickets..........ejmi@haleyaldrich.com
The songs "Anywhere I Lay My Head", "Tom Traubert's Blues" and "Whistle Down The Wind" are probably the most moving music I have ever heard. I enjoy the contrast of Tom's beautifully flawed voice with the timeless melodies of these songs. I wish he would do an entire album with Keith Richards..........emotionalrescue@hotmail.com
My cat made a big brown in its poop pan. It smelled sickly sweet. When I saw it, my own belly went "rumble, rumble, rumble", and out came my brown. Raindogs is great. So is Tom Waits. ......no email address
I'm in love with him. His music? That is what makes me in love with him. Samantha Driscoll..........littlesparrow82@hotmail.com
Waitsian music plus a fine red wine plus a fine-leg woman: one of the best ways to beat death in life. ..........c.costa@chasque.apc.org
He's what the other option to the progression of the beat generation was. Yet hippies came around just a bit faster. America has two musical bards, yet Dylan is the only one known. Waits has no one like him as did the villiage folkies and beatniks. And is he really avant-gard? I can and love listening to him, but the king of avant-gard Ornette Coleman i can't seem to grasp. Might he be the reincarnate of Jack Kerouac? His spoken word and imagery fits that bill. He is what the Grateful Dead couldn't handle. And they handled just about every genre from jazz to jug band. So for being as comparable to every other influential mainstream name, why isn't he mainstream. Now mind you, this is a good thing. This way when we turn him on to a friend, we look like the gods. You can't say that for Jack Kerouac. Everyone read On The Road back then that was not square. What else to say that no one knows? He's my hero. Hopefully yours. And for Franks sake, let's live each day just a bit wild. Conformity shouldn't be for anyone. I can't waite to hear Mule Variation!!! i think that's the name of the new one coming out early '99. ..........darkstarwavy2@excite.com
I don't know how to show the man respect. He's really the real thing. .........glyesquirt@hotmail.com
i love this man. his music is beautiful and true,. i have four albums (small change, nighthawks, the early years, and bone machine) i love each of these albums, especially nighthawks aand small change and all of them better off without a wife is an awesome song .........will_lee_simon@hotmail.com
i suppose he came to me via a mix tape given to me by Paula Kalakowski, we were seeing each other in the early '90s in Vermont. "underground" & "franks' wild years" were on it, along with songs by X, Hoodoo Gurus, lone justice, and Iggy POP. I lost her, and the tape, but she had planted a seed that grew and grew. For about a month every year i become completely buried in Waits',but then it gets too intense and i have to back off for a while. Right now i listen to the Night on Earth sndtrk a lot 'cause there aren't a whole lot of words to suck me in, sure do miss Paula. i really like the fact that because of the non-production style production he has used in the last ten or so years, the records never sound dated. i guess i also appreciate that it's not rock-n-roll, that i draws from a larger musical and lyrical palette than most contemporary music.
shane kennedy
1414 n. 5th ave #5
phx az 85003.....no email address
You're site is incredible.I have only been a fan for a couple of years, and there are alot of Tom Waits'gems that I haven't heard yet. I consider him to be one of the greatest American poets of all time. Thank you for devoting so much time and energy to this web site. It's far more informative than most that I've seen. I'm sure that this question comes up all the time, but when or if Mr. Waits tours, how does one find out?
Thanks again!
Cathleen
Dayton, Oh.
.........icon10@rocketmail.com
It probably is strange, but his music helps me to live in Russia. I like all that he makes. Thank you..........vsorkin@mail.ru
Tom Waits is one of the best songwriters that I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. For me, there is nothing like "The Heart of Saturday Night" while driving overnight far from home. If I didn't have my copy of that album I'd never be able to leave the state. While I am still adjusting to Tom's "noise collage" I constantly have "Small Change" "Closing Time" "Heart of Sat. Night" "Nighthakws" amd "Blue Valentine" in the CD player at all times. If there are any of his later albums that you think I must have in my collection please E-Mail me. (I do have Rain Dogs but I'm not too bug of a fan.) I guess that I have a while to go until I can call myself a Tom Waits die hard, but when it comes to jazz/blues vocal albums I'd take Tom over pretty much everyone. ..........apappas@wam.umd.edu
It was sort of strange. I stole a tape from my best friends sister, but I had no idea what it was. Anyway, on the way home I put it in and immediately hated it Being a pretty lazy person I never bothered to take the tape out of the car. Every now and then when the radio really sucked I would pop it in. It was not long before I couldnt get enough of it. It was Franks Wild Years and since then I havent looked back. I only have one other friend who I have converted. Everybody else seems to stare at me like a freak when I put it on. I hate to say it, but I think he peaked in the rain dog years. I dont think that Bone Machine was as good as some of his earlier albums, but I am still counting the days until his next release. Kev.....no email address
I heard Tom for the first time around 3 years ago. A friend of mine lend me a tape (awful quality really)- BONE MACHINE- absolutely electrifying album! Before that i thought that no foreign artist could express nostalgy, and mal d' etre urban dweller, in an intelligent (i.e. not lapidary) manneer, and only one polish artist appealed to me (KAZIK STASZEWSKI). After hearing Foreign affairs,and Beautigul Maladies I knew i was wrong. Though NY and Warsaw lie thousand of miles away from each other, and are tremendously different in character, I empathise with Tom's music. It taps on "the right string of my soul". .........jal10@ukc.ac.uk
Okay...I'm only 21 years old...and I just heard about Tom in like 1993 or so. That makes me um, 15 or so when I heard about him.I thought his voice was *SO* incredible(I've always been an odd one), and the lyrics were really great....so you know...I'm in love. .........skadoo77@aol.com
I first heard Mistah Waits while livin' in this faux co-op dive 10 years ago. One of my housemates was listening to Tom and trying to be Charles Bukowski. The two of 'em seem to go together like bottles of whiskey that have names you can't pronounce. Lyrically Tom is a genius. Be it wry, acid, ascerbic,trite or sarcastic-there's humor and darkness in all of it. He manages to create a world populated with people that you wish existed everywhere. Not just in some dark corner of the bar that's in your head. More importantly you wind up wondering why the hell you never meet anyone that interesting in the bars*outside* your head. It's probably just as well in most cases. .........weyrdbird@usa.net
If you like Island-era Tom Waits (swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Bone Machine) like I do, then you'll probably like this new group I found on the Internet. Wild Hell Dogs has a CD called "Early Times." Their music is obviously influenced by Tom's more bluesy and rocking material. Check'em out online at: http://www.cdbaby.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/buy/wildhell.htm?E+cdbaby .........david@bungie.com
I love TOm Waits' music. He is numero uno in my list of best songwriters of all time. 1. Tom Waits 2. Leonard Cohen 3. Nick Cave 4. Nick Drake 5. Will Oldham I am also a songwriter and it is very frustrating having heroes such as these. nos vemos! .........brockett@angel.umar.mx
I love most his sad songs (guess theyre all a bit sad). I don't like much the very early stuff...I love "Blue Valentines" and some songs on Bone Machine and different songs on different records...Soldiers Things, Cold cold ground, Tomorrow is Here, Hang yer Head, More than Rain....also wierd tones like those on Black Rider. He is the Master of Moods... .........sl53433@uta.fi
I've been a fan of Mr. Waits for what must be most of his career. 1st listened to "Nighthawks" in the middle of a Colorado Rockies blizzard, holed up with some pretty strange folks the cabin had no running water, so no toilet (just an outhouse), but it had electicity. And what a sound system! this must've been....hell, I dunno. I used to drink a bit....it was a ways back. I started "singing" his songs 'bout 4 yrs back. I've not been the same singer since my voice is permanently gravel strewn. You might enjoy a look at my Site. I'll soon be releasing my Debut CD. URL is: http://geocities.datacellar.net/TheTropics/Harbor/2449 .........ThorJoseph@Hotmail.com
Since the first time I heard Tom Waits singing I was astonished, hypnotised, shocked. Never before any musician had such a deep impact on me. Tom's voice, his music, his lyrics, his manner very of his own all this made me tremble, float, loose. You might imagine how strong the impression should have been that it was exactly musical storytelling & implicit emotional & very personal context that could affect so the one for whom English wasn't even the second language. Ten years left & I'm still going mad even more about Tom's art (I'd dare to designate precisely this word), hungry for everything about him. Thank you so much for this site, thank you for your affection! Dima .........
i first heard tom waits from my art teacher in high school. i really wanted to sleep with her. alot. so i bought about four or five of mr. waits albums and decorated my house up while my parents were away with candles and stuff. i invited her over and broke out the cheap beer and cigars. we got drunk and shot the shit for a few hours, then i decided it was time for me to get ino her pants. so i did my 16 year old magic on her and slipped off her pants, the first thing that tipped me off was a bulge in her boxer shorts. but i was too drunk to mind at the time. i worked her shirt off to find she had a little hair on her chest and no breasts at all. i though to myself "gee, thats strange,she has breasts in art class" but i moved on.. i started kissing her hairy chest down the middle and got my braces caught on her happy trail? that should have been hint number two, but still i payed no attention. so i finally maved down to her boxers and pulled them off with my teeth, only to get smacked in the face by something hard. i dont know what it was to this day, or why she only allowed me to enter her in the ass, but i would have to say, that was my favorite tom waits moment. i put on rain dogs before we started to .. you know.! .........pomade_flux@hotmail.com
My best friend Gabe introduced me to Tom Waits in 1992, when I was a senior in high school. He crowded us around the tape player and made us stop yapping long enough to hear the words to Step Right Up. I went off to college with a copy of Small Change... that year, Gabe was murdered back in Cali and I had very little to keep me sane in far off Connecticut. But I had Small Change. I had Tom Waits articulating tragedy perfectly in my ears, and making these beautiful songs that said to me: if something can be at once so tragic and so beautiful, then life must somehow be worth living. Anyway. Became a tremendous Waits fan. Got a job at the campus radio station and played him a little every week. Two hours of only Waits once a year, on Gabe's birthday. Thought I'd share all that with all you total strangers, not sure why. I guess because Tom Waits is more important to me than any other artist contributing to the array of pop ephemera I've held dear. The other day I finally looked up Tom Waits online and found out all sorts of miraculous info (like there's an album I'd never heard of, with Crystal Gayle!). Glancing over the responses to this form, it seems that many, like me, are fans for life. I'm putting Rain Dogs as my very favorite Tom Waits album because of its diversity and the way the whole thing rings with paranoid dancing hall glee... but it's hard to pick one -- really more than half of his releases are just as good and in some ways better (and not one album has been weak). Am thrilled that Ribot is on his impending new record, also trilled at the prospect of a (small) tour. I've got plans to see the man play before either of us dies. What else? There was something else. OH yeah: Jeffrey Lee Pierce's cover of Pasties & a G String totally eats turds (but I love Pale Saints doing Jersey Girl), and if *I* was in a band I'd insist that we do a cover of Telephone Call From Istambul that all the SF hipsters could swing to. Oh, and if anyone out there can share an MP3 of "Hi Ho" from Stay Awake (that Disney cover album) or Marianne Faithful doing "Strange Weather", I'd owe you a shot of your choice. .........smoke@toke.com
Just a newly formed fan passing through on a downtown train. Got the Rain Dogs nippin' at my heels and I love it! I can take the pain. I could listen to that intoxicated piano song all night if I only had the album! That guy's a real genius with a crowd of wise-asses "Hey, you still workin' at the airport!" Gotta find Down By Law cause I love Roberto Benigni and Tom beng in there too is only more of an incentive! Gotta love that Tom guy! I hope I grow up to be like him, it would scare my mother! Gotta love that Tom Guy! .........The IMP
I only have one thing to say about Tom Waits and that is he puts his soul in it and thats all that matters......no email address
To use that most hackneyed of cliches, Tom Waits is a genius. That word, in the original, powerful sense of it, is the only one that does justice to him. His songs are wonderful character sketches and vignettes that compress life stories and mythic adventures into the pop song format of three minute running times (not that I think of Waits as a pop musician, he's way beyond that). I have to admit that I wonder how a guy with a voice like that ever took it into his head that he was a singer, but thank God he did. Bone Machine is music for both the fin de siecle and the new millenium. .........chisholm+@pitt.edu
Tom Waits has influenced my life now, for the past 6 or 7 years. During which time I (and my roommate) have acquired nearly everything that he has put out. The man's acting ability far surpasses any singer turn actor that I have ever seen. Down By Law and Short Cuts are two of my favorite films. I keep a xerox copy of Tom (next to my picture of John Hartford)in a shabby wooden frame next to my computer at my work so I can glance up at any time and be inspired. Many co-workers have asked if he is a family member. I simply reply, "Yes, that's my uncle Tom" .........travis@sdgonline.com
He rules .........maxnine@hotmail.com
Never love a stranger, and muriel knows best. At 2am with too much beer there is no better soul music than the music of the soul. Age 12 and in the company of my alcholic uncle I listened to "Waltsing Matilda" and understood. While the rest of my group fell in love with the Osmonds, I dwelt in the land of dark sexuality and emotional adiction. Waits and Bowie made the whle damn thing worth while. Thank you. You can cut my bleeding heart out and still meet me on potters field, cos we know.
Fi.........fono@cybergal.com
Tom's music and words have a profound effect on me. I can't say that I know exactly what the meaning of each song is, so many are mysterious, leaving hidden corners, unseen rooms. His melodies and lyrics stay with me. "It's more than a bad dream...nothing but sad times". Not that his work is maudlin. Life is sad, and avoiding that aspect of my days would not make it less so, only prolong the feeling, and prevent its obverse, joy. Tom's work is not disposable. It offers more than can be had in a listening. His accompaniments move along, they are meant each to go with his voice and words, customized to surround, weave, complete. I haven't bought one artist's work, ever,until his: album after album. I nearly have them all. From recent photos, I fear that T.'s health may not be great. I hope that he husbands his talent, strength, and prolongs his tenure here for decades more..........molderic@aol.com
I'm pretty much a Blues guy and have ventured into Jazz and all it's incarnations. Every so often you've got to take it to the edge,artists like Captain Beefheart, Gong and Tom Waits all seem to challenge the listener to listen closely, to take notes, pay attention or you might miss some sutle passage. The early albums were great Nighthawks was facinating. Heard Tom interviewed on WHCN (or was it WCCC)in Hartford CT. must have been 75 or6. Back in the days when radio turned people onto new music, not formats. The albums on Island were groundbreaking and sometimes very Beefheartian. Blue Valentine's my favorite. ......no email address
His music (and he ?)is great.......no email address
I read the lyrics of San Diego Serenade on this site. I was wondering where you got 'em, and whether they are official. I always heard "I never saw a white line 'till I ... (then: a sound imitating someone who's drunk and has to walk on a white line for the police as a test (they do that in Belgium)). Here, I read something else. Please tell me where these lyrics come from. thanx ..........ChuckE_Weiss@yahoo.com
I first became familiar with his earlier music (as Closing Time is my favorite album). His music has changed and progressed, and while I like his new stuff, too, I miss love songs like "Martha" and "I hope that I don't fall in Love with You." ..........blahid@hotmail.com
I'm a man of few words. I first heard Tom Waits in a dark smoke filled room somewhere lost in Oneonta, New York. I got into Waits after my girlfriend left me and my house burned down. It's been a match made in heaven. I am a fan of the early stuff, but I am very fond of Bone Machine. It's all good, though. Getting stranger and stranger, like all interesting things do. ..........prowrestlinghw@bigfoot.com
Most of my collection is vinyl. Seems like yesterday, but it was 15 years ago that I first started listening to Mr. Tom with my long, lost love Stefan while in Freiburg, Germany. "Anthology" still brings back many bittersweet memories and still drives me to drink. .......no email address
Tom Waits is a great musician and lyricist because he approaches songwriting as a craftsman. I admire his innocence and charm, and I love the fact that his wife is his major collaborator. As much as I love his early work, I think his work with Kathleen is phenomenal and a great testament to the power of kindred spirits. Tom is a childlike visionary, he was a great inspiration to me as a songwriter, and I can't say there are many in this modern era who are. I think that he'll be recognized in the next century as the foremost songwriter from our era, as Weill or Gershwin or Ellington are from the past ones. The first Tom Waits album I heard was a promo copy of "Big Time", which was the best of the Island stuff about 10 years ago, and then "Frank's Wild Years" which I have to say is still my favorite. I love the variety of styles, and I can hardly wait for "Mule Variations", from what I've read it's even more creative and instrumentally organic than "Bone Machine ". My dream is that Tom could somehow find time to produce my band's album. Maybe someday... ..........blissblood@hotmail.com
I found Tom Waits' music one of the most exciting, original and sentimental music I've ever heard. His songs and lyrics I could listen thousand times and never be bored. He reveals other side of American dream, the side you can't find in Hollywood blockbuster movies and top-chart hits. They sound so sincere, probably because the most of his lyrics happened to him. >I wish I coud hear his live performance at least once, but unfortunately he never came to this part of the world. I found his early albums are better part of his career. My favourite are "Small Change" , "Heartattack and Wine" and "The Heart of Saturday Night". ..........zfabac@ka.tel.hr.
Raindogs was the first Waits album I picked up. A friend of mine would constantly talk about how great he was. I loved it, every minute. I've since picked up a few more of his albums (Closing Time, Small Change, Nighthawks at the Diner, BOne Machine) but Raindogs remains my favorite for its mix of storytelling (Singapore, Cemetary Polka), imagery & poetry (9th & Hennepen), and beautiful melody (Hang Down your Head, Downtown Train)...........01750751@3web.net
I hope to see Waits in concert before I die. If anyone gets wind that Tom will be anywhere near Nashville, let me know. ...........funknomicron@hotmail.com
What I can say !!!!!!!!! Viva Tom Waits and the brotherhood: Primus, Les Claypool, Tchad Blake, Los Lobos, Marc Ribot, etc.. ...........nop02859@mail.telepac.pt
no comments... It's exellent! ...........doctor@blitz.kiev.ua
he is THE MAN...........crbarrett@mindspring.com
...been listening to Tom for so long I can't remember when it started. While going through a rough period of life 6 or 7 years ago his music was the only friend I thought I had!! I felt I owed him such a debt that I had "BLUE VALENTINE" tatooed on my arm! I had to pick Bone Machine for my favorite only because that was the last cd I played. There is a favorite for every mood. ...........bobdavey@home.com
First time I heard Tom Waits was, on an old FM station 1n 1974, it was Ice Cream Man off of the Closing Time album. Unable to locate the album, I saw a poster at the record store that He was coming to a local collage (Gorham,Maine) and purchased tickets for the show. He was the opening act for Maria Muldor. I've been hooked on TW since that show in 74. ...........jmitch99@YAHOO.COM
Raise your glass (or he'll raise it for you) to the hippest cat to ever walk the earth (considering the fact that Tom¹s white, this is truly impressive). Nearly thirty years into his career, Tom has charmed everyone from B.B. King to Gordon Gano. Covered by people as diverse as Marianne Faithfull and The Ramones. His collaborations have included Bette Midler, Keith Richards and William S. Burroughs. Spinning yarns of the down and desolate on songs like ³Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis², ³Bad Liver and A Broken Heart², and ³Jockey Full of Bourbon², all the while wetting his creative palette with one more drink. More than anything, Tom is living proof that nicotine and liquor, by the crateful, do make for better singing. Preach on, Brother Thomas... ...........VelvtJonz@aol.com
Tom is best!!! ...........filadendron@yahoo.com
I write from Spain to do a little protest: in your page (the best of Waits I've ever visited) I was looking above all for lyrics because many times I can't understand him as good as I'd like, and some of his albums don't include the lyrics. In Spain we have a very good book of lyrics (with translations to Spanish) but it is an anthology, so it doesn't contain all Waits' lyrics. And well, after all this bore, my protest: in the album "Rain dogs" the lyrics of "Hang down your head" and "Blind love" are missing. It doesn't matter to me the first one because I already have it, but I did was interested in the lyrics of "Blind love" because it is a song I like quite a lot. I hope you will be able to include it soon. Thanks a lot and congratulations,
Fernando Rodr’guez-Gallego L—pez
Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
...........elmundo0627@arrakis.es
i like to think that i have fairly diverse taste in music, but most of it falls into the alternarock/pop sphere. tom waits is unlike any other band or artist that i listen to. his eclecticism is matched by few. i haven't heard any of his 70's stuff, but everything i have heard ('83 onwards) sounds neither dated nor contemporary - it is as though tom writes his music and lyrics in his own world (i've actually heard that he often writes material in his greenhouse these days). i hated waits at first, and i only really got into his music at the start of the year. his voice really bugged me -it's an acquired taste which took me the best part of three years to acquire. by virtue of his voice, he is able to write songs that are as scary as those written by today's loudest bands. - Tom Brewster ...........spanishbomb@hotmail.com
Hmm... I'm Korean and I'm really poor in english I would like obtain your consent in advance. I REALLY LOVE TOM WAITS!! Meeting and talking with tom waits is a wish of my life. When I listen to the album "Nighthawks at the dinner", I feel like I was there. And I always says that ol'`55 is the song of my life!! I broadcast in my college. I'm getting ready for Tom waits' special edition exactly. And I believe that I could interview with Tom waits some day!! I believe!!!
I am eager to his new album.. Please don't forget there is a sincere fan in small country of asia. Brace yourself up!!
from korea
park..
...........flying-stone@hanmail.net
Although I love Waits' earlier music, I am going to offer up some praise for his later endeavors...both Bone Machine and The Black Rider show Waits' continued exploration of the aural landscape...as well as the psychological...one of my favorite song's is "A Little Rain". Waits' lyrics and sound are sly, gentle, funny, terrifying... PS: this site is excellent - ...........beth@staylor.com
hey,tom waits is the greatest singer,songwriter and actor of the 20th century.he is a genius.thats it ...........norbert2000@t-online.de
Sorry, i would know the Tom Wiats address. It is possible? Thanke you.
Giancarlo Francini
Italy
...........itfs@cybermarket.it
Well, I first (okay, it was ONLY once) saw Tom at the Uptown Theatre in Kansas City in 1981, during the "Heartattack And Vine" Tour. An old, very rundown theatre, art deco to the hilt and the first twenty-five rows of seats removed, to make way for tables and waitresses, the Uptown was the purfect setting for what was one of the most memorable experiences in live performance. Tom was particularly desultory, which fit in well with both atmosphere and crowd response. I've come to believe that most live performers are at their best when the crowds not necessarily with them...gives things kind of an edge. Tom's version of "Red Shoes" on voice and timpani still stands out. Dark stage, porkpie hat, growl that reached all the way to the rafters...very cool. I had been listening to Tom for about five years at that time, and the live show was more than I could have hoped for in cementing him into my brain as an all-time favorite. I can't fault you for choosing "Swordfishtrombones", but there are few better listening experiences than a rainy night, depression and "Blue Valentine". None of his albums have disappointed, but the most recent wonderfulness was finding "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" by Gavin Bryars. I take particular delight in the fact that none of my friends, especially those who have been at least tolerant of the occasional bit of Waitsmania, can stay for more than a few minutes of that droning gutteral growl. They just...don't..get it. ...........sjw@ci.columbia.mo.us
I think this is a great page...full a good waits stuff....... i'm looking for tapes of waits shows.....looking to trade please e-mail me.... ...........dregger1@aol.com
I've seen thousands of bands and performers live - but never Tom Waits - he's the only performer left who I need to see play live When will he play shows in England?? ...........pample@moose.u-net.com
I was maybe 15 when a Black dressed man in a music shop gave me Blue Valentines. -Buy and just listen to it - he said I did and I couldn't stop listening Next day I went to that shop but the guy wasn't there I couldn't even say THANK YOU ... all happened in 1994 in Poland ... Thank you ...........nina@aol.com
Oh, my God, thanks for Tom & Waits! ...........pszatkow@filon.filg.uj.edu.pl
love is not the word... i have been a fan since i was a little boy in oklahoma. passed on from my father to me. first album came out when i was eight. liked him. then as i got older and found punk rock, tom got weird. so did i. he let me know that "there's a world going on underground". i found my way out west to los angeles. ran into him in a video store in my first month here. what a rush! i mumbled alot of gibberish and ran off. it was great. ended up working with him on "short cuts" in 1992. i was on the art department and built the trailer that he and lily tomlin "lived in". got to "hang out" with tom a couple times. he was the best. a real kick. i can't wait for the new record. it's been quite awhile and i've been through alot of changes... ...........gordzilla66@loop.com
I think I was first introduced to Mr. Waits music by the lovely Zack V. J. of Santa Cruz. Met him when he was Robitussing downtown..what en experience.remember Jack's black room with no windows playing accordion and listening to albums in Zack's basement at the medicine cabinet house on whatever St. next to the library and down the street from the roller rink. shit. I think we listened to Waits and Lenny Bruce. Zack's house burnt down, he moved to the basement, the little yellow house with the field in back got torn down a few years back, turned into condos. Zack moved to Portland, tried to track him down when I went up there with Laura L. P., his friend said he moved to New York, the painter, last I heard he moved to Spain, following some girl he fell for...I wonder where the hell he is now.. ...........breadie@garbagemail.com
i heard tom wait's music for the first time five years ago when my brother had swordfishtrombones - a fresh gravel bone of an album scratching and intrigueing, like nothing i had ever heard. like all my favourite music it was not likeable immediately, but still i wanted to hear more (does anyone want to hear this??)and i persisted and now it's everything i wanted to hear and it's now a part of me or perhaps that's just romantic bullshit. love tom waits (no relation) ...........dustybin123@excite.com
Tom Waits isn't a cartoon character like most modern "scary" artists. He's just really scary. ...........arfarfwoof_74@hotmail.com
There is nothing better than "Closing Time" or "Heart Attack and Vine" for driving alone at night in the rain. It's like in "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren. You lose yourself completely- you are not you... you are inbetween places, and Tom Waits is all that fills the space in the dark car. Especially Closing Time- I just melt until I'm part of the rain that's washing over my windshield- Ol' 55.. ...........bockley@gis.net
I made a deal with an old friend he promised to listen to some Elvis Costello, if I went and bought some Tom Waits. Started off with Closing Time, then onto Nighthawks and Bone Machine, back again to Rain Dogs and forwards and backwards and downwards. This man is a living treasure. I remember one night, I turned to a drinking partner and asked "Why isn't he dead yet?". My friend turned to me and explained, "Because he's too stubborn". He's been a driving influence in my own work. For those in Sydney, Australia, you can see me performing some of his classic tracks as well as my own stuff, around Newtown area. My name is Andrew Keese, hope I can sit and have an ale with you all sometime. Keep up the good work on the page. ...........ikeese@zeta.org.au
My first introduction to Tom Waits was when I was 17 and working in a small, slow video rental store that had a copy of Big Time. One night out of boredom I put the tape in the stores machine because I thought the name sounded familiar. At that age and lack of experince with life I watch about fifteen minutes and shut it off. The next day I thought about what I had seen and realized I needed to try and watch it again. Ten years later I still have that copy of Big Time, Which I was given when the store closed, and most of my Waits CD's skip to due years of overuse. I hope had I not been bored at work long ago someone somewhere would have turned me on to Wait's music, Instead it has been me who has introduced dozens of friends, Only those deemed worthy, into Waits' genuis. I know I'm really interrested in a girl if I'm willing to show her the move Big time, and I have to say it has always worked. ...........andriscin@hotmail.com
brilliant ...........outerlimits39@hotmail.com
I haven't experienced all of him yet, but that leaves more to explore. I tried turning on my 73 year old aunt to him and guess what? He spans the ages!! I wanted to turn on my 58 year old brother to him-but I waited two monthes too long. He died from alcoholism. I heard his very voice and mannerisms in TW's songs and I know he would've loved him. I can even hear my mother's voice resonating in his. I may not be some music expert but his unique voice moves me to tears and laughter as well as a Debussey tune or the lightheartedness of Mozart. As for a favorite its a toss up between all I've heard thus far-Small Change, Foreign Affairs, Blue Valentine, Swordfishtrombones, Heart Attack and Vine, and Nighthawks, Closing Time, Heart of Saturday Night, not necessarily in that order. I must have his CD's with me constantly. He's awesome and I can't get enough. I'd still say Small Change is numeral uno. ...........no email address
Tom is God. I saw him last year in Berlin. Now i'm two days away from his Paris concert. Can't eat anymore...Smoke a lot...Close to another nervous breakdown... ...........dick.stockman12@yucom.be
Tom Waits paints a picture of carnival booths and leaving a bar to find the sun rising over the hovering buildings of Anytown USA. I know hes an aquired taste and 'm glad I got it. ...........durl@richmond.com
Tom Waits changed my life!! I would only listen to chicago blues and delta blues and I hated most of everything new, but after hearing tom waits, I have opened up to a hell of alot more. ...........shuckbig@hotmail.com
only 2 words needed: THE BEST! ...........fleaman@yucom.be
Wednesday 31th of may 2000 i will be at the Grand Rex in Paris... Tom is gonna be here ... i have been waiting for him for such a long long time ... That will be the day ! ...........Andre.Charbonnel@Wanadoo.fr
tom waits--tormented genius who could find the stark beauty in a lump of coal. when i was in pre-teen stage i remember laughing at the funny man crouched up in the "I don't wanna grow up" video, and until i saw the cover of mule variations, the waits name had escaped me. through the borrowing of rain dogs, i was hooked for life. after collecting an 18-cd collection and any press stuff i can find, i do believe that through his stories, melodies and misfortunes, i have learnt more from tom then any teacher, boss, friend or parent. Thank you for everything, Tom... Geoff Brennan ...........mdmpd@hotmail.com
tom waits--tormented genius who could find the stark beauty in a lump of coal. ...........mdmpd@hotmail.com
yep ...........jo2mishley@kitty-hawk.navy.mil
he is the best musician I ever heard ...........sstavila@fx.ro
Tom Waits paints a picture of carnival booths and leaving a bar to find the sun rising over the hovering buildings of Anytown USA. I know hes an aquired taste and 'm glad I got it. ...........durl@richmond.com
Im just beggining to experiance Tom Waits. I first heard about him when he sang Tommy The Cat for Primus (my favorite band) and then when they did Coatails of a Deadman together, I finally decided to listen to his own stuff and downloaded a few of his songs. My favorite so far is certainly Ol 55. I plan to buy many if not all of his albums, i really love the amazing originality. ...........mindspread@hotmail.com
I got to know Tom Waits when I saw "Down by Law", one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life. After that, I become interested in his music, and I find it wonderful. ...........vazquez@utk.edu
It's like living inside a dream ...........tonychap@home.com
Seen him in Paris yesterday (mai 30) and really loved the show. Now I can die in peace. ...........kleindeefke@hotmail.com
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