Played dirty water from a swordfishtrombone

If you've been a reader here for more than ten minutes, you've likely seen me mention Tom Waits. I go on about him as if everybody knows who I mean, but I do realize that he's more of a fringe entertainer than a mainstream household name. So, here's a little bit of explanation for those of you who haven't been enchanted by Waits' overwhelming weirdness yet. This is not a formal bio, and I'm not gonna be all anal about his discography or filmography, but if any of you have tidbits you think are important, by all means add them to comments.



Tom Waits - singer/songwriter/actor/eccentric. TW began his career writing and recording songs with more of a folk/ballad leaning, dipped into a lot of blues, and has become more and more experimental with his musical styles since he surprised everyone but himself with the release of Swordfishtrombones in 1983. His lyrics have always been something out of the ordinary, even when he wasn't pursuing more avant garde musical styles. I love him for writing things like:

Licorice tattoo turned a gun metal blue
scrawled across the shoulders of a dying town
the one eyed jacks across the railroad tracks
and the scar on its belly pulled a stranger passing through
(Burma Shave)

and

And the moon's a silver slipper
It's pouring champagne stars
Broadway's like a serpent
Pulling shiny top-down cars
(Drunk on the Moon)

and
Please allow thirty days for delivery
don't be fooled by cheap imitations
You can live in it, live in it
laugh in it, love in it
Swim in it, sleep in it
Live in it, swim in it
laugh in it, love in it
Removes embarrassing stains from contour sheets
that's right
And it entertains visiting relatives
it turns a sandwich into a banquet
Tired of being the life of the party?
Change your shorts
change your life
change your life
Change into a nine-year-old Hindu boy
get rid of your wife
(Step Right Up)
Well, you get the idea. Not your ordinary "moon/june" lyricist. I discovered TW at 13, and I just ain't been right since then. Yeah. It's Tom's fault.



TW hasn't really broken into mainstream radio play, but he has written songs which became hits for other artists, such as the Eagles' cover of Ol' 55 and Rod Stewart's version of Downtown Train. If you don't know TW as a singer or a songwriter, you might well be familiar with him as a film actor. He's appeared in a number of films, including some directed by Jim Jarmusch (Down By Law and Mystery Train), and Francis Ford Coppola, including Ironweed, Rumble Fish, The Outsiders, and perhaps his most flamboyant turn, as the bug-munching lunatic Renfield in Coppola's underappreciated Bram Stoker's Dracula:


Raw deal, Renfield: "Mawwwwster...you said you'd make me immortal!"

This post is by no means all-inclusive regarding TW's career, and if this has piqued your interest, I urge you to go all Waits on your family and walk around muttering the lyrics to Pasties and a G-String.