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."
Paradise Alley
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And the losers have been swept from the gin mills(2)
Hello sucker, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
34th Street good tidings to you
And will you meet me in Paradise Alley tonight
We'll leave town in a bottle of whiskey
And come on, you old scarecrow, and be a wheel(3), not a lamppost
You know, the heroes will wait where their dreams used to be
Go on and ask the hooligans(4) as they sweep down the midway
I'm going waltzing tonight with the Statue of Liberty
And come on, you old lazy-bones, let's get out of this place
Will you meet me in Paradise Alley tonight
We'll leave town in a bottle of whiskey
And come on, you old scarecrow, and be a wheel, not a lamppost
Just put a saddle on a wishbone, and you're halfway there
Now there's a counterfeit moon, and I'm seeing right through it
Cause the dawn spent it all in one place
And we'll rise to the top of the morning tonight
You can ride on my shoulders, and I'll show you the way(5)
If you meet me in Paradise Alley tonight
We'll leave town in a bottle of whiskey
So come on, you old scarecrow, and be a wheel, not a lamppost
Just put a saddle on a wishbone, and you're halfway there
"Paradise Alley" is a song by musician Tom Waits that is about leaving behind the mundane life and running off for an adventure. Waits seems to be mentioning how chaotic and noisy the world is: hawk in the kitchen, sirens in bloom, and gin mills being cleared of its losers. But then he offers a solution to escape it all - meeting up in Paradise Alley and leaving town with a bottle of whiskey. It's an invitation to a romantic partner or maybe even a friend to join him on an adventure.
The use of the old scarecrow as an analogy for a person who is just a bystander to life, stuck in one place, is really clever. Waits wants them to be a wheel instead of a lamppost or a scarecrow. Putting a saddle on a wishbone means taking control of your own destiny and making your dreams come true. The line "counterfeit moon" talks about how fake things are these days, and how we need to cut through the noise and see things for what they really are. The song is about breaking free from society's expectations and going on an adventure to find your own personal paradise.
Line by Line Meaning
When the hawk's in the kitchen and the sirens in bloom
In times of chaos and confusion, symbolized by a hawk in the kitchen and blaring sirens, one must be vigilant and aware of their surroundings.
And the losers have been swept from the gin mills
In an environment characterized by alcohol and gambling, only the strongest and most resilient remain after the weak have been eliminated.
And come on, you old scarecrow, and be a wheel, not a lamppost
Instead of standing idly by like a lamppost, one should actively participate in life like a wheel, propelling themselves forward and making progress towards their goals.
Go on and ask the hooligans as they sweep down the midway
The wild and reckless youth offer valuable insight and knowledge about the underbelly of society; their perspective shouldn't be dismissed entirely.
You can ride on my shoulders, and I'll show you the way
In times of uncertainty, lean on others for guidance and support. With strength in numbers, it becomes easier to navigate through difficult situations.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, JALMA MUSIC
Written by: TOM WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind