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."
...But There's Never A Rose
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
but there's never a rose
and over there the roses are frightened to bloom
so they never can grow
and over here they need wool
for weaving their baby's new clothes
but nobody has any wool
and the sheep are all lost in the harbour
and over here they want diamonds to wear
but there aren't any here
and over there everyone's hiding their tears
but they're crying inside
and the wall won't come down
till they're no longer afraid of themselves
and if you don't believe me ask the elves
and then I can come down to the harbour
down to the harbour
and then I will fill the ocean back up with my tears
I still have a couple more years
and then I can come back to the harbour
down to the harbour
In Tom Waits’s song “...But There's Never A Rose,” he paints a picture of a world where things are missing, where there is a constant sense of lacking. In the first verse, he compares women to perfume, but notes that there are no roses. This juxtaposition creates a sense of imbalance in the world – the beauty of the women is not complemented by the life and colour of the natural world. In the second verse, Waits describes a world in which the roses themselves are frightened to bloom. This suggests a world in which life is stifled, where the beauty that is present is held back by fear and uncertainty.
The middle verse is filled with more examples of things that are missing or hidden – wool for clothing, diamonds for adornment, and tears being hidden away. It’s as though Waits is saying that people have needs and wants, but those things are just beyond reach, or they are hidden away. The wall mentioned in the third line further cements this idea – that there are barriers and obstacles preventing people from getting what they need or want.
The final lines of the song bring it all together. If the wall won’t come down until people are no longer afraid of themselves, then perhaps these missing elements are not physical, but internal. Maybe the wool and diamonds are really symbolic of love and self-acceptance that people lack. And maybe the harbour, a place of safety and refuge, is where Waits hopes to return one day, when life is no longer so lacking.
Overall, “...But There's Never A Rose” is a song about the absence of things, the ways in which life can feel empty, and the need for love and acceptance that we all feel.
Line by Line Meaning
over here the ladies all waltz with perfume
In this place, women wear expensive fragrances and dance waltz.
but there's never a rose
However, there's never a flower offered as a gift or accessory.
and over there the roses are frightened to bloom
In contrast, on the other side, flowers do not grow as they are afraid to open up.
so they never can grow
Thus, they remain unyielding and stunted forever.
and over here they need wool
People in this area require wool to weave clothes for newborns.
for weaving their baby's new clothes
This is a significant part of their culture.
but nobody has any wool
However, no one has access to the material.
and the sheep are all lost in the harbour
The sheep that could have provided the wool have been lost at sea.
lost in the harbour
This demonstrates the misfortune of the area.
and over here they want diamonds to wear
People in this part of town desire diamonds as accessories.
but there aren't any here
Unfortunately, there are none available in this location.
and over there everyone's hiding their tears
On the other side of town, people are hiding their emotions.
but they're crying inside
Even though they mask their feelings, they are still grieving inside.
and the wall won't come down
The emotional barrier between the two areas will not come down.
till they're no longer afraid of themselves
It will only be broken once they can confront their inner fears.
and if you don't believe me ask the elves
The artist is suggesting that the situation is so dire that even elves would know it to be true.
and then I can come down to the harbour
Once conditions have improved, the artist will be able to return to the harbor.
down to the harbour
This is a pivotal location that is significant to the narrative.
and then I will fill the ocean back up with my tears
The singer feels a deep sense of sadness and will weep to fill the sea.
I still have a couple more years
However, the artist knows that this change will not occur soon.
and then I can come back to the harbour
The artist desires to return to the harbor when things have improved.
down to the harbour
This line furthers the importance of this location to the artist.
Contributed by Taylor Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@copediff
and over there everyone's hiding their tears
but they're crying inside
@0otee
Thank you monsieur Tom… Great sounds from the inner👌🌺
❣️Songs to Sooth the Soul❣️
Great for today.. With War mongers in Ukraine.. 😱😡
@frankgallagher2374
Beautiful
@the-bottom-of-a-black-hole-.
"A monster frightened by the waves walked along the beach during low tide dragging a stick, longing for the horizon as the lines in the sand behind him were gently stolen by the sea."
,dan'
@barbeluthomasfischer4577
Welove you❤❤❤😊
@barbeluthomasfischer4577
🕗🕘🕤🕥🌒⭐♥️🌏🌏⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵✈😘
@barbeluthomasfischer4577
😢