Tom Waits

Blood Money.

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is snuggly

Rain Dogs is spectacular.

This is a recent interview I found. Enjoy.

Time Out UK Magazine Interview

Time Out London - Issue 1787 - November 17-24

Page 28 - full page photo by James Minchin
Page 29 - Interview by Ross Fortune

Out in northern California, with the leaves starting to fall from trees
blacked with crows, Tom Waits momentarily stops rocking in his chair, his
tan face fixing into a slow , sly, squinty stare. ' I feel like Evel
Knievel,' he says. 'In mid-air.going over the Grand Canyon.'

Yes life for Waits is good. His new album, 'Real Gone', has garnered
widespread acclaim. His revived theatrical collaboration with Robert Wilson
and William Burroughs, 'The Black Rider' (which premiered at the Barbican in
the summer), has just finished a successful run in San Francisco. His
photograph showing a leaping horse chewed into a stable door by equine teeth
recently beguiled America when he showed it off on 'Letterman'. And this
week he plays his first London concert for 17 years.

Waits is an artist at the peak of his powers, digging deep, reaching back
and pushing ever on. What makes him so unusual is that he has maintained
this position over two decades. And just as he exercises complete control
over his working life, so he manages to keep his family life private. A
perfect balance of self and other, mythology and enigma. 'I do what I want,'
he affirms. 'But I don't think of that as something unique or bizarre. You
can pretty much make your own way in the world, make your own rules. Of
course, it's easier to ride on the road that's already there, but sometimes
you need to make your own road.'

Of those left standing, probably only Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Elvis
Costello and Nick Cave come close to Waits in stature or gift and none is
ageing quite so gloriously or with such savage mystery and sheer aplomb.
Elsewhere, apart from the whole retro scene, Radiohead and U2 try hard -
too hard probably - and as for the rest, well, so many just seem like icily
conservative, pudden-faced businessmen at heart.

'If you list to contemporary music, a lot of it is really like processed
cheese,' says Waits. 'You're not going to get a lot of nutrition from it. So
I go after listening to stuff that's more, I don't know, rougher. I mean
ultimately the only reason to make a record is because you can't find the
record that is in you in the stores. I go to a record store and say, " Hey
John Boy, what's new man ? You got something I'd like ? " "Aww, I don't
know. You may like these guys but I don't know..You heard The Spastic Colons
?" "Yeah, I heard their first record, but I thought they went nowhere after
that." "What about The Shitheads ?" "Well, I used to like 'em. Is the new
one good ?" "Nah. It's not as good as the first one...". So you know, you're
hungry for something that isn't there, and a lot of the time the answer is
in you.'

Success without ego compromise or greed is rare, but Waits is an exception.
'I'm not Zsa Zsa Gabor,' he rasps. 'I'm not Liberace. I'm not a showbiz
animal. My life is different from my career. People will only pry as far as
you allow them to. I mean we're not sitting in my kitchen with the dog at
your feet. I'm very careful about what I allow to be public and what I allow
to be private.'

With wife Kathleen a long-time inspiration and collaborator, and now their
18 year old son Casey playing percussion and turntables on the new album and
in his live band, is there a danger of these public and private worlds
colliding? ' Well, gee.. I don't know,' he says. 'It's just the family
business. I'd be trying to get Casey to put his own band together, but I
don't know..in the studio with your kids..it can be kind of ..sketchy. Like
I might say "Case, turn that drum upside down, take the snare off, play with
a mallet, go outside, stand right in the doorway there and play that bass
drum." And he'll just say "You do it!" Or you get into these things where
what you thought you said was "Play that backbeat with a brush and the
downbeat with the stick." But he heard "After you done taking out the trash,
would you please feed the dog and watch your brother 'cos we're going to the
movies." So.. You gotta watch it. but it turned out good!'

One of the reasons it has taken so long for Waits to return to London is the
lack of a suitable venue. He prefers 2000-capacity places with character,
style and a little bit of hole-in-the-sole pizzazz- like the glorious art
deco Le Grand Rex movie palace in Paris. London, for all its old theatres
and venues, just kept coming up short. Hammersmith Apollo blatantly isn't
ideal, but there is a kind of synchronicity to choosing it as it's where he
played his last English dates - November 19-22 1987. This weeks show is on
November 23. I was there 17 years ago and they were memorable shows;
expectations are again running high. No problem: live, as on record, Waits
just improves with age. These days, a Tom Waits show is a darkly theatrical
carnival of noise, a circus for the soul, a ticket to a lost world of beauty
and wonder. A unique experience. Hence the clamour for Hammersmith tickets,
which sold out in 30 minutes.

'We're going to do this one night,' he says, 'then we're hoping to come back
and do like a couple of weeks at a place. I think that's the plan...' Next
spring seems to have been tentatively pencilled in.

Tom Waits is a witty, entertaining, smart: a rascal of a man. There's always
been a big humanitarian streak running through his songs too, but these days
it's rare for him to record anything as stripped-down and pointed as 'Day
After Tomorrow' - a song from the new album written in the form of a letter
home from a soldier. In the current political climate, he explains, this was
just something he felt compelled to write. 'Well , I read the papers and all
that and I got kids who are draft age and I guess you get to a point where
if you say nothing that becomes a political statement too. I feel like my
job is to maybe put a human face on the war. The fact that we aren't seeing
what's really happening. They're very careful about what they allow to come
home. If you saw the dead babies and houses on fire, it would change how
people feel, but that's why they're so careful. Certain things are on a
need-to-know basis, that's the part I hate. It's a kind like we're livestock
who are being fed.' He shrugs. 'I don't know...follow the money. Who has the
most to benefit ? It's all a mess right now.'

He pours another cup of coffee. 'This is a plan that was in place many, many
years ago - the whole global combination and star wars stuff. This is a play
that they wrote, and we're reading it a page at a time. We're acting it out,
doing our lines. I don't understand the world, the political theatre, but I
remember what Kissinger said - " America doesn't have any friends we only
have interests" - and it's true. We have stuck a hypodermic needle into a
very fat animal and we are slowly drawing out the blood to feed our babies.'

At 54, Waits could be forgiven for wanting to ease up, but far from it. He
wanted to make the new record, felt impelled to stretch himself. So he
shelved plans for 'Orphans', a compilation album of his film music. 'Maybe
we'll put that out next,' he says. An album of Howlin' Wolf songs ('Waits
Sings Wolf' ) had also been discussed - 'It's a good idea ,' he
acknowledges. But right now , it seems he's consumed by more creative urges.
' I already got a good title for another record,' he beams. ' "Hell Breaks
Loose" - but breaks is b-r-a-k-e-s and loose is l-u-c-e.'

So tell me, Tom: you have three kids whom you're obviously proud of, you're
still very much in love, you've achieved success on your own terms, you
enjoy respect, acclaim.things seem to have turned out pretty well. Are you
happy ?

'Oh yeah," he purrs. 'To say otherwise would be ridiculous ! I mean I like
to be busy. I can't imagine me doing something else. I'd never make it as a
plumber or a botanist..Yeah, I love what I do. I got the three cherries,
y'know. I pulled the handle and all the quarters came out. I just caught
them in my hat and I'm on the way to the window to cash out.'

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"Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk." Tom Waits

thank you !!!
i'll find the link to one great site (well it's kinda on rumanian...) and post it...

btw, check your PMs...

__________________
Cause there's nothin strange
About an axe with bloodstains in the barn.
There's always some killin'
You got to do around the farm.
- Tom Waits

www.myspace.com/computerliebe

Botley, you should check Rain Dogs, it's spectacular like Shane G. said, really great!!!

__________________
Cause there's nothin strange
About an axe with bloodstains in the barn.
There's always some killin'
You got to do around the farm.
- Tom Waits

www.myspace.com/computerliebe

I'm starting to like the ''new'' Waits now also. I also think Rain Dogs is spectacular. I also like Mule Variations. And his latest ''Real Gone'' has some excellent stuff on it.

And that is really weird cause a while ago i was still wondering how people could ever listen to that kind of music. It just took me a while to see the beauty of it i guess.

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Disneyland can wait

Yeah, that's not "easy listening" man! But that's true gold, trust me. I know you're into concept albums, Dert, so I recommend you three albums:

Frank's Wild Years, the bizarre story of this character named Frank and his rise and fall. Waits made a theatrical show of it.

Alice, which actually is the music for a theatrical play of Robert Wilson about Lewis Carroll. One of the most amazing albums of Tom IMO.

Blood Money, another work with Robert Wilson based on the "Woizeck".

__________________
"Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk." Tom Waits

Yeah i love concept albums, so i'll definitaly check them out.

__________________
Disneyland can wait

Meh. Tom Waits blows.











Oh wait, I forgot.....Bone Machine is one of my favorite albums. Seriously, how could you not love Tom Waits?

seriously...

__________________
Cause there's nothin strange
About an axe with bloodstains in the barn.
There's always some killin'
You got to do around the farm.
- Tom Waits

www.myspace.com/computerliebe

Tom waits for no man.

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Carter. Available in original vanilla and now, chocolate swirl! Mmmm...Mmmm...Mmmm!

Multiculturalism is national suicide and political correctness is the cyanide capsule. Wake up, America.

what do you mean stratty?

__________________
Cause there's nothin strange
About an axe with bloodstains in the barn.
There's always some killin'
You got to do around the farm.
- Tom Waits

www.myspace.com/computerliebe

That Tom doesn't wait for any man.

__________________
Disneyland can wait

ok, for a second i thought he's no longer with us...geee

__________________
Cause there's nothin strange
About an axe with bloodstains in the barn.
There's always some killin'
You got to do around the farm.
- Tom Waits

www.myspace.com/computerliebe

Ok great news for the few rain dogs at the APFFN: Tom Waits is going to release the triple CD box Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards, an impressive collection of 54 rare or unreleased recordings, including 30 new songs.

November 21 on ANTI- label. Don't miss this one.

__________________
"Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk." Tom Waits