Happy birthday Tom Waits

[Peegoo]

Hatched in Pomona, CA on this day in 1949. Happy 73, Tom! I'm raising a glass to ya.

Let's celebrate by combining some of his song titles to make new ones. I'll go first.

What's He Drinking In There?



and

 

[buster poser]

Not another like him.

 

[SuprHtr]

I celebrate Tom’s birthday annually.

 

[elihu]

Someone post the Fernwood Tonight episode where Tom is a guest (I’m on my phone). That always makes me laugh.

What a songwriter!

 

[Wally]

Happy Birthday, Mr. Waits!
Have any of you seen the Cinemax special from 1988……’Roy Orbison…Black and White Nights’? Waits played piano. There is one song where they passed “leads” around. When it came time for Waits to take his turn in the spotlight, he had a brain fog moment. He was totally lost. The camera shows James Burton in the background. He was watching Waits struggle to find some way back to the musical reality of the moment….Burton could not help himself..he had to laugh! Waits did finally find the key and the chords, but it was a struggle even for a world class musical and producer. He was temporarily so lost it was like he was on another planet. I am sure he had a good laugh later on, too.
Great musical assembly for that special. Springsteen even sang some high harmony to Orbison.

 

[Blue Bill]

Big Nighthawks in Japan

 

[Chiogtr4x]

Happy Birthday Tom!

 

[Peegoo]

Someone post the Fernwood Tonight episode where Tom is a guest (I’m on my phone). That always makes me laugh.

What a songwriter!

It is a classic bit of TV. Martin Mull is superb.

 

[Chiogtr4x]

Happy Birthday Tom!

 

[doof]

Even in his 60s (2011) he was putting out music that was more badass than any modern heavy rock band.

 

[Peegoo]

Tom has more fun with his audience than the audience does with him; he's a social commentator and engineer. He was doing social engineering before it even had a name.

Much of his shtick is the vagrant/hobo act, and he'd like you to believe he was raised in train yards as a child. But he came from a quite normal middle-class upbringing. Both his parents were school teachers, which explains his wide-ranging tastes and styles in everything musical, as well as his deep knowledge of history and classical and contemporary writing and poetry. He's a very smart guy.



Before he met his wife Kathleen, who was a Hollywood screenwriter, he was involved with Rickie Lee Jones for a stretch.

Which I'd like to think is part of the reason why we get to enjoy some really twisted tales of failed relationships in his songs.

If you have not seen the film Down By Law, it's a good one. Tom is superb as a failed radio jock and a dupe that fell into some bad stuff because he was so down on his luck.

"It tastes like a tire, Bob."

 

[Rustbucket]

My mashup submission: “I Hope that I don’t Fall in Love with…a Hooker from Minneapolis.”

 

[Rustbucket]

 

[elihu]

Not only does Tom write his own songs, he created a persona to sing them.

Genius

 

[nojazzhere]

Someone post the Fernwood Tonight episode where Tom is a guest (I’m on my phone). That always makes me laugh.

What a songwriter!

It is a classic bit of TV. Martin Mull is superb.

I saw this when first broadcast......I wonder how many viewers had no idea who Tom was, and thought maybe he was just some comedy actor hired for this?
And, you confirmed for me that this was where I first heard him and the "Frontal lobotomy" line.

 

[bender66]

Met him on the street one day. I could hardly speak.

 

[Chip]

This is my favorite…

 

[57joonya]

Not another like him.

Wow!! Never seen this . Neato

 

[David Barnett]

Will he ever do another album?

 

[buster poser]

Will he ever do another album?

“Fan video” per the description fyi, but I hadn’t either. Pretty cool.