Best products from r/tomwaits

Thanks for sharing this with those of us who've never seen this. Holy crap, there is so much in this one interview! I probably missed half of the stuff he was talking about but here's some of the things I noticed:

"Did you record others that didn’t make it on the record?
Yeah, I did about 25 all together. There’s a religious song that didn’t get on the album. It’s called “Bethlehem, Pa.” it’s about a guy named Bob Christ. There were a couple of others.

What happens to those?
They’re orphans. They’re on their own."

And we all know what happened to the orphans!

Then there's this:

"A couple of years ago on my wife’s birthday we heard a song called “Jesus’ Blood Never Fails,” and it stayed in my head for so long."

Which he recorded with Gavin Byars

I picked up on this reference:

"How do you audition a road manager?
Well, you take a couple of candidates out toe the Mojave Desert and you leave the car by the side of the road and you walk for a couple of days, and when you get to a stream, the guys that want to drink from a cup, those are the guys you don’t want. It’s the guys that throw themselves headlong into the stream and just drink, those are the best soldiers."

Which is a reference/subversion of Judges 7:4

Then there's this:

"Then I’m doing a film with Robert Frank, who took the picture on the cover of this record. It’s called There Ain’t No Candy Mountain. It’s going to be written by Rudi Wurlitzer and directed by Robert Frank. We’re going to do it in the spring. It’s about a guy like Les Paul who becomes really famous as a guitar designer and manufacturer. Then he completely abandons everything and disappears. And this young guy goes looking for him."

Which became Candy Mountain and is welll-worth a watch for Tom alone. Crappy youtube upload. Tom shows up around 18:30. It's also got Buster Poindexter, Dr. John and other folks.

Really great 80's independent film for anyone who like instruments, songwriting or musicians.

And then this:

"Maybe I should say something about the title of the album, Rain Dogs. You know dogs in the rain lose their way back home. They even seem to look up at you and ask if you can help them get back home. ‘Cause after it rains every place they peed on has been washed out."

They talk about it a bit in the 33 1/3 book on Swordfishtrombones. According to the book it was a wonderful mess, that resembled the story told in the album but was it's own thing. The author was really into the more chaotic side of Waits though, and played it up as often as they could. Good book though, I recommend it. I can look at it when I get home and find some quotes if you're interested? Unfortunately that's kind of the best we've got.

This is the viewpoint I got (and disagreed with) when reading Lowside of the Road. Hoskyns seemed to pine for Tom's early years as soon as he started discussing anything post-Heartattack.

As much as I love Tom's more ballady, piano stuff, I love his weirder stuff so much more. And that's not to say that he can't perfect a blend of both (Johnsburg, llinois or Come On Up To The House, for example).

Even Bad As Me had its more gentle moments, but that's what I love about Tom - that his albums are always a crazy, eclectic mix - a little bit of everything.

You can actually get this on an out of print boot called "Dime Store Novels Vol. 1." There was never a volume 2. It's pretty cool.

http://www.amazon.com/Dime-Store-Novels-Volume-October/dp/B0000DEMAT

knellers happy campers

Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits

by Barney Hoskyns

I read it and enjoyed it some years past.

https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Waits-Musicians-Their-Words/dp/1569763127

This one here?

https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Waits-Little-Songbook-Chords/dp/184772986X?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&psc=1


Tom Waits - Little Black Book

Bend Down The Branches is fittingly on this kid's album