Thursday, June 23, 2011

Tom Waits



Described as one of the last beatniks of the contemporary music, Tom Waits - in fact - had two separate careers. From 1973 (LP "Closing Time") to 1983 ("One From The Heart" soundtrack), he recorded nine LPs for Asylum Records, writing songs mainly in the manner of Tin Pan Alley, mixing them with jazz and blues. Extraordinarily, he never produced a hit, but he earned a cult following all over the world. In 1983 he signed with Island Records, and released a series of albums that stunned the music world. Beginning with "Swordfishtrombones", he introduced a whole new orchestration, which included some of the instruments invented by Harry Partch. He found a new ground for his innovations, searching in sound fields that never before were searched. This second part of his career coincided with his marriage to Kathleen Brennan, a former writer for Francis Ford Coppola (Zoetrope (1999)). His LPs "Rain Dogs" (1985), "Big Time" (soundtrack) and "The Black Rider" are today what Kurt Weill's music was once. "The Black Rider" brings music written for the show directed by Bob Wilson and staged in Germany.

21 comments:

  1. Tom Waits is legendary. Thanks for sharing his small life story with us.

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  2. I had not heard of him before this, i'll check his music out!

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  3. Sadly not available in my country

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  4. I thought after the howling it would get better, I was wrong.

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  5. Nice post and nice video.

    Followed :-)

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  6. this guy was great in the imaginarium of dr parnusus

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  7. Never heard of this guy, very good music though

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  8. Tom F'n Waits, I remember seeing him in the movie Mystery Men long before finding out he that he's a musical genius.

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  9. The facial expressions are classic.

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  10. Tom Waits one of the greatest minds of our generations :D

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  11. I like him, I first saw him in Dracula then listened to his music.

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  12. I'm obsessed with Tom Waits; his music is awesome

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