He started his career in the early 1970s as a singer in spit 'n' sawdust bars. Initially, he was deeply influenced by the beat generation, novelists like Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, and poets like Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski. Waits is often compared to Charles Bukowski, being similar both in content and lifestyle
Waits was unable to make a living from his music in the 70s because his classical bar music, based in pre-rock, and Americana, blues, and Vaudeville styles were not popular. Waits's voice back then was soft, warm and clear.
Waits subsequently developed a devoted cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters, despite having little radio or music video support. In fact, his songs are perhaps best known to the general public in the form of cover versions of more visible artists, such as the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart.
Although Waits’s albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries.
Lyrically, Waits's songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of seedy characters and places; he sings about the losers on the streets: alcoholics, junkies, prostitutes and social outcasts, although he also includes more conventional and touching ballads in his repertoire.
While opening for Frank Zappa, the audience catcalled and refused to listen to him; he was an unsuitable match with Zappa's avantgarde style.
Countless cigarettes, gallons of alcohol and many all night parties eventually left their trace in his face and voice.
His more recent gravelly voice can be first heard on Small Change. This distinctive voice turned out to be his trademark. It is described by the Music Hound Rock Album Guide as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car". Small Change with its sentimental ballads, its bar-jazz attitude and Film Noir-oriented stories turned out to be his biggest commercial success in the 1970s.
Waits subsequently developed a more unique style. His songs have grown more abrasive since then, and the arrangements have turned more surreal and experimental with every new record. His life brings him to new visions, as indicated by the direction taken in his "Alice" release.
While composing the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's One From The Heart Waits met Kathleen Brennan, his bride-to-be. They married in 1980 and she helped him quit drinking and smoking. Since their marriage they have been working together on his albums as co-producers and co-writers. It is hard to say which part belongs to her and which to him, but it's easy to see that they make a perfect team. Additionally, his eldest son Casey can be heard on turntables and percussion on Waits's album "Real Gone".
One of Waits's greatest successes was the album "Swordfishtrombones", released in 1983. It struck with his critics and fans alike. He achieved a new level of song writing and left former conventions (and his earlier career) behind. All songs, whether ballads, jive or jazz are played in a completely different way. It seems that Waits had taken the musical archetypes of these styles and made them his own. All tracks are in the quintessential Waits style. They have a striking rawness and listenability and they set the stage for his success and his future career.
The Bad As Me Songfacts reports that 36 years after the release of Waits' first album, Closing Time in 1973, Bad As Me became Waits's first ever top 10 album in the US when it debuted at #6 with 63,000 sales.
In the late 1980s Waits discovered an outlet for his creativity in composing musicals. His first Musical was named "The Black Rider", and is based on "Der Freischütz" by Carl Maria von Weber. It was co-produced by Robert Wilson and the lyrics come from William S. Burroughs. The story is slightly reminiscent of Kurt Weil's and Berthold Brecht's "Three Penny Opera" and the 1930s. The debut performance of the play was in 1990 at the Thalia Theater, Hamburg and has been played by various theatre groups since then.
Waits was also responsible for two other musicals, which later became albums released simultaneously in 2002. One was the musical "Blood Money," which covers the "Woyczek" theme of Georg Büchner. This one is one of the darkest works from Waits. The other musical is based on Lewis Carroll's classic children's novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". "Alice" is very romantic, dreamy and soft, and contains one of Waits most romantic songs. Even though they were released at the same time, the bootlegs of the "Alice" musical were long before traded between fans and were just rearranged and re-mastered for the official release.
Besides many film contributions as composer – the Internet Movie Database imdb.com lists 47 appearances of Waits as composer and 38 soundtracks containing songs by Waits - he also is an actor with a total of 25 appearances, ranging from some mini-roles as a trumpeter in "Heart of Saturday Night" and the R. M. Renfield in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" to the major role of Zack in Jim Jarmusch's "Down by Law". He recently appeared in Roberto Benigni's "The Tiger and the Snow", playing You Can Never Hold Back Spring at Benigni's wedding dream. Even more recently, Waits played Mr.Nick (the Devil) in Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus".
In addition to a number of concert videos, he also appeared in the critically-acclaimed concert feature film "Big Time" (1990).
Waits has always refused to allow the use of his songs in commercials. He has filed several lawsuits against advertisers for using his material without permission. Waits also successfully sued an advertiser for using a work that was stylistically similar to his work, after he had declined to sell them the rights to his song. He has been quoted as saying, "Apparently the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad — ideally naked and purring on the hood of a new car. I have adamantly and repeatedly refused this dubious honor."
Lie to Me
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Uh huh
Lie to me baby
Lie to me baby
Lie to me baby
Move on
I know you got another jockey at home
Let me be your rider
Till your real man comes
Whip me baby
Lie like a dog
I really don't care
If you do
Lie to me baby
Uh huh
Lie to me baby
Lie to me baby
Lie to me baby
Move on
I know you got yourself a skinny old man
Let me be your baby
I know that I can
Slap me baby
Give me all of your grief
I have no use for the truth
Lie to me baby
Move on
I know you got another jockey at home
Let me be your rider
Till your real man comes
Whip me baby
Lie like a dog
I really don't care
If you do
Never stop telling me lies
Lie to me baby
Move on
The lyrics to Tom Waits's song "Lie to Me" are a raw confession of a man who is willing to accept a relationship built on lies and deceit. Waits sings this bluesy anthem with a gritty and rough voice that is in keeping with the song's subject matter. In the song, the singer tells the object of his affection that he knows she has another man at home, but he is willing to play the role of her secret lover until she gets tired of him. He asks her to lie to him and whip him if that's what she wants. He doesn't care if she tells him the truth, as long as she never stops telling him lies.
The song's lyrics can be interpreted in different ways. The singer could be seen as someone who is aware of the other person's infidelity and is willing to enable it because of his own needs. He is aware of the power dynamic within their relationship and is willing to be submissive to her whims. Alternatively, the song could be seen as a commentary on the nature of love and how people are willing to accept anything for the sake of being with the object of their affection.
Line by Line Meaning
Lie to me baby
Tom Waits is asking his partner to continue lying to him
Uh huh
an interjection of agreement or acknowledgement
Move on
Tom Waits is telling his partner to continue their behavior even if it means lying to him
I know you got another jockey at home
Tom Waits is aware that his partner has another lover at home
Let me be your rider
Tom Waits wants to be his partner's lover
Till your real man comes
Tom Waits knows that his status as his partner's lover is temporary
Whip me baby
Tom Waits enjoys being dominated by his partner
Lie like a dog
Tom Waits wants his partner to lie to him consistently
I really don't care
Tom Waits is indifferent to the truth and prefers his partner's lies
If you do
referring to lying, Tom Waits doesn't care if his partner is truthful or not
I know you got yourself a skinny old man
Tom Waits is aware that his partner has another lover who is old and thin
Let me be your baby
Tom Waits wants to be his partner's lover
I know that I can
Tom Waits is confident in his ability to please his partner more than her other lover
Slap me baby
Tom Waits wants to be physically dominated by his partner
Give me all of your grief
Tom Waits wants to take on his partner's emotional baggage
I have no use for the truth
Tom Waits values his partner's lies over honesty
Never stop telling me lies
Tom Waits wants his partner to continue lying to him indefinitely
Move on
Tom Waits is telling his partner to continue their behavior even if it means lying to him
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, JALMA MUSIC
Written by: KATHLEEN BRENNAN, THOMAS A. WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind