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."
02 I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Well I hope that I don't fall in love with you
'Cause falling in love just makes me blue
Well the music plays and you display
Your heart for me to see
I had a beer and now I hear you
Calling out for me
Well the room is crowded, people everywhere
And I wonder, should I offer you a chair?
Well if you sit down with this old clown
Take that frown and break it
Before the evening's gone away
I think that we could make it
And I hope that I don't fall in love with you
Well the night does funny things inside a man
These old tom-cat feelings you don't understand
Well I turn around to look at you
You light a cigarette
I wish I had the guts to bum one
But we've never met
And I hope that I don't fall in love with you
I can see that you are lonesome just like me
And it being late, you'd like some company
Well I turn around to look at you
And you look back at me
The guy you're with he's up and split
The chair next to you's free
And I hope that you don't fall in love with me
Now it's closing time, the music's fading out
Last call for drinks, I'll have another stout
Well I turn around to look at you
You're nowhere to be found
I search the place for your lost face
Guess I'll have another round
And I think that I just fell in love with you
Tom Waits's song "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You" is a ballad about the emotional complexity that comes with meeting someone new. The singer is in a bar filled with people and music when he sees a woman he is attracted to. However, he does not want to fall in love with her because love always leads to pain. He fears that if he falls in love, he will end up feeling blue, or melancholy.
The song begins with Waits singing, "Well, I hope that I don't fall in love with you / 'Cause falling in love just makes me blue." This line sets the tone for the rest of the song. Waits then describes how he sees the woman and how they interact throughout the night. He tries to guard his heart, saying "I hope that I don't fall in love with you", but it is clear that he is interested in her.
The singer's reluctance to fall in love is made clear throughout the song. He says, "Well, the night does funny things inside a man / These old tom-cat feelings you don't understand". He feels out of control of his emotions, and he fears getting hurt. However, he cannot help but wonder if the woman is also feeling lonely and would like to spend time with him.
In the end, the song takes a surprising turn. Waits sings, "And I think that I just fell in love with you." This ending is unexpected and subverts the expectations set up by the rest of the song. It adds a layer of complexity to the singer's emotions and makes the listener wonder if falling in love is worth the pain.
Line by Line Meaning
Well I hope that I don't fall in love with you
I'm afraid of falling in love with you because it always ends up making me feel sad.
'Cause falling in love just makes me blue,
Falling in love always leaves me feeling down and depressed.
Well the music plays and you display
Your heart for me to see,
As the music plays, you seem to open up to me and show me your vulnerability.
I had a beer and now I hear you
Calling out for me
And I hope that I don't fall in love with you.
After a few drinks, you start calling out to me and I hope I don't start developing feelings for you.
Well the room is crowded, people everywhere
And I wonder, should I offer you a chair?
There are so many people here and I'm wondering if I should offer you a seat.
Well if you sit down with this old clown,
Take that frown and break it,
Before the evening's gone away,
I think that we could make it,
If you sit and talk with me, I might be able to make you smile and we could have a good time together.
Well the night does funny things inside a man
These old tom-cat feelings you don't understand,
The night makes you feel a certain way that only a man can understand.
Well I turn around to look at you,
You light a cigarette,
I wish I had the guts to bum one,
But we've never met,
I see you light up and I wish I had the courage to ask for a cigarette but we're strangers.
And I hope that I don't fall in love with you.
I'm hoping that I don't start having romantic feelings for you.
I can see that you are lonesome just like me,
And it being late, you'd like some some company,
I can tell you're feeling lonely like I am and since it's late, you might be looking for someone to spend time with.
The guy you're with has up and split,
The chair next to you's free,
The guy you were with left and now the chair next to you is empty.
And I hope that you don't fall in love with me.
I don't want you to develop feelings for me either.
Now it's closing time, the music's fading out
Last call for drinks, I'll have another stout.
The bar is closing and the music is ending, so I'll have one last beer.
Well I turn around to look at you,
You're nowhere to be found,
I search the place for your lost face,
Guess I'll have another round
When I look for you, you're gone and I can't find you, so I'll have to order another drink.
And I think that I just fell in love with you.
I realize that I've fallen in love with you, despite my attempts to avoid it.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Thomas Alan Waits
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind