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My parents were playing Tom Waits for years and I never really got into it, just thought of him as a strange guy with a terrible voice, but one day I actually stopped to listen to some of the songs of Bone Machine and was just completely blown away. The voice which once seemed so awful know was an incredibly powerful and beautiful instrument. The song Black Wings off Bone Machine was the deepest voice I had ever heard, it was like he was singing into a bass guitar. I saw the movie Basquait (great movie) and recognised his song Tom Trauberts Blues, and againgn was blown awaty and decided I had to get more of his music. I bought Asylum Years the other day and the songs are amazing and know plan to purge his back catelogue. I just wish my friends could appreciate him like I do.(no email address)

I`m 18 and I can't get away with Tom Waits,I love that man. First song I heard was ``In the neighbourhood``. But when I saw `smoke`with Harvey Kietel I knew, He's best............j80p@hotmail.com

The first time I ever heard of Tom Waits was in my AP History class. At first I thought, "What the hell is this??" But after I got the Raindogs tape, I listened to it and at first it really freaked me out, but now I appreciate the stuff he had to say.............sflores@hawaii.edu

Tom Waits, in my humble opinion, is the probably the greatest musician/lyricist to ever have lived. He has a small but loyal following in Ireland and there are at least two Tom Waits tribute bands which play in small venues in and around Dublin.
The very first song I heard was 'Whistlin' Past the Graveyard'. I loved the madness, the strange use of language but most of all that unique voice.
The very first album I bought was Blue Valentine which I still feel is his crowning achievement (Postcard from a Hooker in Minneapolis, Romeo is Bleeding and Blue Valentines are just about the three greatest songs ever written) but I also love Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Nighthawks..., Closing Time and the strange but wonderful Black Rider.
Like the site as it is informative although it is strange to find there are so many Waits' freaks out there.
Best Waits' lyrics:
"I'll be eligible for parole come Valentine's Day"
"It takes a sweet little bullet from a pretty blue gun to put those scarlet ribbons in your hair"
"He'll die without a whimper, like every hero's dream. Like an angel with a bullet and Cagney on the screen"
"He ain't never gonna see another summertime for gunnin' down my brother and leavin' like a dog beneath a car without his knife"
"...and a moon that's the colour of bone" ............ecoffey@dit.ie

A very good Tom Waits site! The art work is beautiful... The best one i've seen. Very beautiful! Picking a favorate is too hard, Ithink I like Frank's Wild Years and Closing Time, and Small Change, and Swordfishtrombones,and Raindogs,and............raym@newschool.edu

I first heard Tom Waits when a few friends of mine decided that we take a trip out to Chicago to visit some of our other friends. The driver had a bunch of Tom Waits albums so of course we listened to most of them (mostly Bone Machine and the early years v.1). I was blown away. The man is simply one of the best song writters there is. Definately the most unique. He is probably the only artist out who could truly say he is "experimental," a term I find given to a bunch of hacks who can't play real songs. "Goin' Out West" nearly made me cry. One of the greatest things about him in my mind is that he knows how long to make a song. Most musicians play their songs too long Tom knows when to make them 90 seconds or 5 minutes. Again a sign of gifted song writter. In any nut I just bought my first Tom Waits album today. Being the cheap bastard I am I got the cheapest one, Swordfishtrombones. Did I luck out or what! "16 Shell's" and "Frank's Wild Years" are two of the best songs I have ever heard, but I still would have to say that "Ice Cream Man" is my favorite. I can hardly wait to go back home and tape my friend's Tow Waits collection.............mlisze1@tiger.towson.edu

i think tom waits is one of the most brilliant, gifted lyricist ever to come around. i started listening to him (the old stuff, like Heart of Saturday Night) when i was about thirteen. i write too, and it was the most inspiring, original thing i'd ever heard. his music is fascinating, it goes from traditional old blues, barroom stuff, to all the experimental stuff on Bone Machine. He's my idol.............Celidh3@aol.com

Was absolutely delighted to come across your page...It is beautifully designed!!!!!!! Thank you for sharing your talent...
I fell in love with Tom Waits music when I was was 24yrs old and I am now 33. The melodies brilliantly set the scenes and the feelings, us as listeners need to experience. He accomplishes this through his undeniably unique raspy voice and the accompaniment of each timely and beautifully played instrument. When I listen to his voice it is almost like being there with him in a smoky filled bar room, pondering life.
Today, there is no one who can match his artistry. I have since then introduced him to other people along my journeys and their response was similar to mine, simply awesome!!!!!!.............jake@connected.bc.ca

Dear G**! Does anyone else think that the ramones could have butchered 'i don't want to grow up' any more than they did? Franks wild years is definately the best album, although raindogs does have its moments. anyone living in eastern ontario canada should know that 'down by law' (an excellent movie with lots of talented actors and arguably one of tom's best performances) can be seen often on both Moviepix and Showcase specialty channels. Cheers to tom, the coolest musician/artist on the face of the planet............toocynical2speak@hotmail.com

I don't recall when I first heard Tom, but it might have been Pasties and a G-String, or something off of Nighthawks. I first saw him on "Fernwood Tonight" when he played "The Piano Has Been Drinking". Does anyone else remember that appearance? Last saw him in Hamburg Germany back in 88, when he had that damn refrigerator in the middle of the stage, that still stands out as the best concert I've seen in terms of mixing visual elements with music, there was almost something of Blue Man group in it. Anyway, Tom Waits continues to be one of my favorites. If I had to pick one, I'd go with Small Change or Closing Time. Best song? Probably Tom Traubert's Blues, but how can you pick just one?............danderso@dps.state.vt.us

The first time I ever saw Tom Waits wae 1997 on the Indipendent Film Channel when they showeed "BIG TIME". My VCR was broken at the time so I went out to rent one (sterio of course). I recorded it the next day when it was replayed. I'll bet I've listened to it 100 times since and still play it much to the distress of my neighbors. By the way, I am 47. Sure would be nice if he decided to go on tour again and swing by eastcoast............klitton@highpoint.net

The finest wordsmith. Too cool. If it don't kill ya, it makes you stronger............JeffandDonna@home.com

Tom Waits must truly be possessed by the soul of Howlin' Wolf. First heard TW on WEBN-FM in Cincinnati, OH in 1976 -- " The Piano Has Been Drinking " (WEBN used to be a great station, now it's corporate) My older brother brought home Small Change. I've been hooked ever since. Saw him in concert at the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland, OH on Thursday, October 29, 1987. Concert was like a gothic cabaret, a cross between Bertold Brecht, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Fats Waller, and Tim Burton. Favorite LP's: Blue Valentine, Heartattack and Vine, Raindogs, Bone Machine. Creative Issues: TW has ground down the roots of the blues, gospel, and jazz about as far as one can imagine and still call it music. With Black Rider he may gone too far for many of his fans and Island Records. Yet, I keep waiting and hoping for something new. I'm confident he'll resurface and regale us with more tales from the subcity. As he did on the Ritchie Cole/Manhattan Transfer recording, " Waiting For Waits," he'll drag in when least expected and tug at our sympathies, (TW) " Aw man, sorry I'm late, but I was down on the corner of Heartattack and Vine and ...."............jt8656a@aol.com

Thanks for the opportunity. First saw Waits when I was in bed with a friend and glanced over to TV in time to see Waits walk on to America Tonight starring Martin Mull; the spin-off from that show, I can't remember the title, a woman's name. Mary Hart, Mary Hart or something. Anyway, he played The Piano Has Been Drinking, and it just doesn't seem that long ago twenty- over twenty years ago '76 or 77. ''My god who IS that guy" I'm thinking, and it wasn't until '85 I could start affording to buy his cd's. Started with a returned bargain bin special: Nighthawks, from Yesterday and Today Records in Miami. Got 'em all now. I happen to be a McCartney freak, but as my life began to deteriorate and I resigned to defeat and schlepdom, I only could listen to Mac on my fewer and fewer up moments, and Waits became the choice. One letter on your site I think had it ( the description) terse and succinct as it was, for Waits, and that was; 3 a.m. I think his poetry/music is the distilled quintessence of the blues, finding or seeing a profound beauty in profound sadness, tragedy, and destruction. It frightens me. How does this guy do it? I've been screaming inside for years for somebody to smash the door open and let that hummingbird out of that shoe store. I can't stand it. I really don't have anything better than this to add, nothing to offer, just taken' my pants down like every one else here. Thanks again though. By the way kind of an interesting aside, Jim Varney was on that same show with Waits, doing a hick inventor of an electric car which he or they featured on the show. I think it was a VW Rabbit with 500 or so flashlight d cell batteries under the hood. It must have been one of his first appearances before his "Vern" TV ads. Between him and Waits it was quite a strange kind of a weird gothic thing to see on TV at that time. Also talked to one of the technicians that worked at the studio where he recorded most of Bone Machine in Calif., and it was pretty interesting as well. He said it was quite a treat to work with him. He, (Waits) would come into the studio with sounds and music he had recorded the night before on a cheap cassette recorder, I gathered, and lay it right down on the album track............danlesley@prodigy.net

What is there really to say? 'cept that, one minute he's makin' me sad as hell, n' the next minute he's turned on me and is scaring the shit out of me, and then at other times he's crackin' jokes, and i'm rollin' on the floor, then he's slapping the shit out of me broken people and broken places. he rips my insides twists a knife in my heart then he holds me and talls me everythings alright............raym@newschool.edu

Tom Waits? He's a son of a bitch. Bastard still owes me twenty bucks. He came up to me outside the Glaze Donuts right where Excelsior crosses the Mission, and goes, "hey, buddy, you break a twenty?" I seen Tom at some parties, met him once or twice and he seemed ok, although he always insisted on trying to draw in the lines on the backs of the girl's legs so it looked like they were wearing pantyhose. So I give him change for a twenty, and the police stop at the light and he looks over and says to me "if they ask, don't tell 'em about Dolores." Who I don't even know. Then he runs off. I've never seen him since. Of course, he ran off before he gave me his twenty, and he kept my change. Now I find out he makes records. Although he looks different in the pictures you got here since he's a short little blonde Filipino dude but you know how these guys are. Lotsa people paid by the record company to spritz their hair and make 'em look tall and stuff. Man. If anyone's knows how to get in touch with Tom, I still need that twenty bucks for an operation...you know how it is.... ............jlester@earthlink.net

Favourite tom waits album/song.. surely a trick question? theres no such thing............f.oreilly@mailcity.com

He needs to nothing but Bone Machine and Rain Dogs stuff from now on, other than releasing a new album he is four years overdue!............blalack_osu@osu.net

I must say that I like it very much. Verbose prattling cannot do it justice.............no email address

His music has really set the perfect moods at the perfect times...........tbonemadcow@hotmail.com

Tom Waits - what can I say. An exquisite mix of fucked up music and elequent words. Music that was with me through my years or of drink and drugs and music that I like even more now I'm dry. Its nostalgia and its dreams. Its that line in rumble fish "have you ever seen the ocean". The only other resident on the beach is Cave now that the beats are dead - their wooden shacks with the flaking paint, doors banging in the wind, and finaly desterted. Its the last waltz. Its the story of us all..........mark.williamson@dial.pipex.com

I've always known that my musical tastes have been something other than the norm, but I didn't know that even with other TW fans I would be slightly different. I read the other responses and not one other person said that Heartattack and Vine was their favorite album of his. In my opinion, it's not only his best, but one of the best albums ever made. I have 2 copies of the cd. One for my home stereo and one for my car. Why is this album so overlooked in his collection? Even you don't have it listed in the lyrics section. Do me a favor, put away all of your other TW albums and listen to nothing but Heartattack and Vine for one week and I think you'll agree that it's better than you want to admit...........elfman@mail.usmo.com

An amazing American phenomenon, one of the finest storytellers of the age and an excellent route into many other superb musicians - John Lurie et al...........peter@jackson-architects.ndire

A Pure Master of his craft, a man with a great abililty to take the wonderful sounds of the past, mix it with his own personality, and come out with a completely original style. Tom Waits is unclassifiable. One of the best performers of the 20th century. I weep at the fact that I missed his last show in Oakland. I honestly do not have a favorite album. They are all excellent in one way or another...........harrisj@slip.net

Tom Waits? Ah, to be that good and that overlooked presupposes a great talent: only Dylan is better lyrically, and only Zappa is better musically...........no email address

I find it hard to get excited about much music these days. It's all the same old boring thing. The same sounds on the same themes with the same styles on the same instruments. I immediately buy any new Tom Waits music. You never know what a Tom Waits album will be like. He's always pushing the envelope and his music and lyrics are always phenomenal. There's nobody else even on the same page. He always amazes me............klumberg@summitpoint.com

Every album from Tom delves into a different realm of musical experiences. Throughout them all, the essence, the heart remains constant. There are so few performers whose growth and maturity as a writer and performer are obvious with each new project. Tom is truly one of a kind...........ragefoto@erols.com

a love of mine turned me on tom waits. i had only heard his songs in passing, hard to believe now i passed them. she was passionate about him and because i wanted to please her, i bought swordfishtrombones, then bone machine, then, well you know the rest. that love i mentioned, well i betrayed her and we have parted... i've realized now what she could've been to me, i hear her voice in every word tom sings and the pain makes me remember her. tom has pulled me through bouts of hopelessness with his pain-sharing. when the world and the history of it needs to be spoken about, it is the voice of tom waits that you will hear...........ace@mediasoft.net

Tom Waits is so good! All his songsare so special! My fav song is Time! Tom Waits rocks!..........badalien@mailexcite.com

I first heard Tom on the David Lettermen show. I remember he played " On the Nickel". I'd never even heard of him before and loved him right off. I was pissed though because Lettermen(A-hole) was himself as usual. If you saw it you'd know how I felt. Anyway I didn't get the name and everyone kept telling me I was thinking of John Waite ( the Babys). It was about 4 yrs later I was talking music with a friend and he mentioned a white guy that sounded kind of black. As soon as I heard 1 song I knew I'd found him. I haven't heard all of his music to date, but I'm working that way. I just heard " Hang on St Christopher". Wow!!..........lonepine@primenet.com

i own four of his albums at this point and i admit i've gotten rather addicted and need more. oh, i dont remember the first time i heard that man. i remember in some distant memory perhaps, he at a piano playing and singing in that barrel rumble that is his voice. a year ago, a friend played raindogs for me and that was when i fell in love. here is a familiar world, yet completely bizarre. it met at several intersections of music i have experienced in my life--jazz, blues, industrial, country, etc. yet at every instance fails to be any one genre. i loved the howl of tom waits' voice, the truthfulness yet fantasy of his lyrics. an odd man who stirs the soul and vibrates the ears. that's all i want, all i need..........drklngchld@aol.com

Unfortunatley I did not become a fan of Tom Waits until the early 1990s so the opportunities to see him perform live have been extremely limited. Fortunately, I live in the Bay Area and I was able to see him live at the Paramount Theatre in Oaklan, California in February of 1996. It was an amazing performance, with songs from every period, and just an outstanding collaborative effort with the band, especially considering that it was a one time show. The power of his music did not break through with me immediately, but now I am a tremendous fan and have every single album. It is hard for me to pick one favorite, but these are my current top five: Closing Time, Nighthawks at the Diner, Big Time, Bone Machine, Small Change. Has he basically ruled out performing live much in the future and what are future album plans? Thanks for this excellence resource of information!.........dmdunham@hewitt.com

Great page! For me, Tom Waits speaks to that part of my psyche that's still lying in a ditch in an alleyway off Washington Square, desperate for death, but faced with the reality that I'm not dead. That's what Tom's music is tome: the message that yes, life can be horrible, but even in the darkest most desparate situations, there's still something to appreciate. I'm rambling now. I'll signoff. Thanks. BTW, the computer's been drinking, not me........... doug_baker@hotmail.com

So hard to pick a favorite album, I have so many favorites from different ones. I still love to hear "Time", gets me emotional everytime I listen to it. Tom is a master poet that is undervalued for his writngs (lyrics)............jbergmeier@algonquinauto.com

Iam only 15 years old, and i enjoy the likes of many great blues men such as Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Sonny Boy James Greg Allman, BB King and of course Tom Waits. I have been listeting to him since i was 3 years old, it was kinda of a tradition for me to play my father's Tom Waits albums when he came home drunk. I really think that Mr. Waits is a great musican, and that he is very overlooked by the american public............ mcghts@microserve.net

I just got my first Tom Waits album today, Rain Dogs. It really blew me away! its so innovative and interesting and scary. this is one of the freakiest album i've ever heard. first of all his rough, raspy voice is frightening enough, but the music has a freaky horror movie atmosphere to it, and the subject matter is really dark. One of the best songs i've heard in my life is "Time". This guy is an amazing songwriter.............xd7@aol.com

Hi, I adore Tom Waits and I would like to know if he had singed and recorded "Silent Night". I also would like to know in which CD this song was recorded. Thank you. Andreia........... andreia@jcocco.com.br

Sipping battery acid and buying an old piano has never sounded more attractive than it did when I bought Small Change on the advice of a hot dog vender...........muddasylum@aol.com

right on............powell@montana.com

He's great. He makes a completely new kind of music. I wish more people were doing it...........spandler@hotmail.com

The first place I actually heard Tom Waits was his song 'Little Drop of Poison' on the End of Violence Sound- track. I fell in love, but never got around to buying an actual one of his CD's. Then, I was in a small store in downtown Spokane, WA, and they had Step Right UP playing on the stereo. I knew it was Waits, and I knew I had to buy SOMETHING! I work in a music store, and a few months ago, I noticed BEAUTIFUL MALADIES coming up on the new release bit. I said, OK, I'll make the owner order one in for me. I got it, and am absolutely in love. The most wonderful, darkly depressing and hilarious music I have ever heard! I'm looking forward to a lifetime of enjoying this (I'm 17, BTW, but not w/o taste. I listen to Dylan [i was passing through spokane on the way back from his concert @ the Gorge], Bowie, Tori Amos, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, and more). > -)...........happyphantom@innocent.com

My brother came home from the Navy on crutches, with a nasty drinking problem and Nighthawks on vinyl. I didn't quite know what to make of the whole thing (I was 12, it was 1977, the suburbs) but I could hear Waits' audience laugh (and then not laugh) and I sensed my big brother was on to something besides whiskey. I brought some Waits albums to college with me in 1984, and listened to them in the dorm. I only listened to him though headphones: with everyone else listening to Flock of Seagulls or whatever the fuck, I thought no one else would understand. Waits was from some other time, the past or the future. I couldn't tell. Now I'm 33, an old man compared to the tattooed 20-year-olds who, I guess I imagine, hear in Waits the latest "cocktail" music. But I'm thankful that he's currently trendy. If genius isn't fashionable, what does that leave? Last summer, I saw a kid, a baby it seemed to me, with as good a goatee as he could muster, spats, baggy vintage pants, and a fedora (like it was Halloween and he was going as Tom Waits). He was playing on the street corner for loose change, but he wasn't playing yet another fucking guitar: he was wheezing out some otherworldly, devil's-breath from a hurdy-gurdy, of all things. YEAH, I thought, EXACTLY. Kid, soak up all the Waits you can hold...........kgege@imacinc.com

Tom Waits is probably the greatest songwriter of the 20th century . I don't know of anyone who knows their music who would argue that . His songs typify everything that's great about american life . RainDogs and SwordfishTrombones are 2 of the greatest albums of the eighties . A brilliant writer , a brilliant singer , and a great sense of humour : what a package . If only we could all be as talented as Tom . Tom helped me through some hard times as a teenager , and even now , approaching my thirties , his music is still as relevant as ever : IT WILL NEVER AGE ..........dthomas@eu.fore.com

when i was 14 my acting teacher played me raindogs and i was instantly hooked. A couple days later I spent far too much of my paycheque on swordfishtrombones, small change and heartattack and vine. that proved to be the best $$I ever spent. From the time I left home for good singing "on the nickel" to myself in grade 9 to my senior year theatre class adaptation of "Frank's wild years",to the time I was actually within 20 feet of him at a john lee hooker show , (I was watching from the crowd and he from backstage-you can imagine the frustration),tom has never been far from my mind. Please tour tom, please? P.S. any one with live shows, I would love to trade. shows to trade?..........laz@sunshinecable.com

hmmmm... not much I suppose... minor deity comes to mind..........pan@theramp.net

I discovered Tom around '83 when he appeared on Letterman. He first performed "Frank's Wild Years" (he was promoting Swordfishtrombones). I didn't know what to make of his first selection, but after a brief chat with Dave he did "On the Nickel," which blew me away. I wrote down his name so I wouldn't forget it, but didn't actually buy a Waits album until I heard him again, the next year at college, being played in a record store. I bought Heartattack and Vine and wore it (and my roommate's patience) out. Quickly followed with Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones. To this day I subject anyone who'll listen to Waits. He's the best. I've been inspired to do paintings and lithographs based on "Time," "Telephone Call from Istanbul," and other songs. I only wish I could see him live! ...and that he'd make albums more frequently.........nylash@aol.com

>...heard there was a film by wim wenders featuring a new song by TW, so the other day I went to this local cd store , put the headphones on and from the first sound it was pure magic. it was like... hearing TW for the first time. It brought a tear to my eye. it really did. life is so much uglier without his music. But like all good things it comes in (very!) small portions. So we, the true believers, will just have to wait for the next revelation.........ratner@bgumail.bgu.ac.il

First heard him on the soundtrack/score of Night On Earth, one of my favorite films by one of my favorite directors, JIm Jarmuch. Waits perfectly described in his music (varying in one album from low down and dirty jazz to obscure polka to interprative obscurity) the feel of each of the five cities described in the film, whether irt was grimy L.A. dusk, alien New York night through the eyes of a foreighner, Paris at three in the morning, Rome in the middle of the night, or a pre-dawn Helsinki. Having been in three of the five cities, I was amazed by how incredibly accurately Waits could envoke the essence of the city through his music. From then on, I was hooked.(no email address)

I first heard Tom when in college. A roommate had "Small Change" As with any neophyte listener, I had to listen again and again, each time catching a few nuances and getting a greater appreciation for his lyricism. This continues to be my favorite album, since it is one of the few filled with "songs", not productions. Again, this is a personal feeling. My first experience with him performing was on an old version of PBS's Soundstage, where he performed on a smoke-filled stage in the round, accompanied by a piano player, a sax, and I think a drum set. He was leaning against a lamppost. ( or this is just nothing but a bad drug flash-back I keep having, I'm not really sure) Remember, it's better to have a free bottle in front of me than a pre-frontal lobotomy!
Uncle Ruggs.........mikeruggs@pol.net

I've always been facinated by Waits' music like sittin' a foot away from a coiled rattlesnake or swimmin'with a cottonmouth.........jstotrozhev@hotmail.com

hi, my name is milica naumov and i'm from yugoslavia. when my boyfriend played me MARTHA for the first time i couldn't stop crying. that was the moment when i realised that MR.TOM WAITS is one of the greatest musicians on earth. now when i heard all of his works and when i saw some of his films, i know that the first impresion was right. keep up with good work and long live MR.TOM WAITS ........naumov@sezam.co.yu

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