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."
Baby Gonna Leave Me
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Until my feet got wet
I stood by the faucet
Till the sink filled up
I stood by the window
Until the moon came up
My baby's bought a ticket
Long as my clothes line
Na na na na, na-na-na
Na na na na
My baby went and left me in a '49 Ford
Going down the highway in a 49 sword
My baby ripped my heart out
with every turn of the moon
Somebody told me
there's never been a rose without a thorn
Na na na na, na-na-na
Na na na
Well I'm just another sad guest
on this dark earth
And if I was a tree
I'd be a cut down tree
And if I was a bed
I'd be an unmade bed
I'll get my 32/20 and it'll have to do
Na na na na, na-na-na
Na na na na
Gone like the wind in the meadow
And the rain on the hill
You even left your lipstick
And your powder and your blush
Baby gonna leave me
on a Grey Hound bus
The stars are melting
all across the sky
Na na na na, na-na-na
Na na na na
I let the dog out
But he didn't come back
Stood on the corner until
my feet got wet
Baby leave me in a '49 Ford
I stood by the window
until the moon came up
Na na na na, na-na-na
Na na na na
The lyrics to Tom Waits's song "Baby Gonna Leave Me" is a poignant and emotional depiction of the singer's sorrow after his lover leaves him. The song begins with the singer standing on the street corner, waiting for his lover until he got wet feet. Then he stands by the faucet until the sink fills up and waits by the window until the moon rises. The woman he loves has bought a ticket, and now she is going to leave him behind. The imagery of standing and waiting throughout the song highlights the singer's sense of helplessness and despair as he watches his love depart.
The second stanza of the song talks about how his lover left in a '49 Ford, symbolizing how she moved on with her life without him. The singer mourns his broken heart, and every turn of the moon is a reminder of the love he has lost. Somebody told him that there is never a rose without a thorn, and this reflects his understanding that love and pain come as a package. In the chorus, the singer expresses his sadness at being left behind and reflects that he is just another sad guest on this dark earth. If he was a tree or a bed, he would be a cut-down tree or an unmade bed, respectively. He talks about how he will get his 32/20, a gun, and that will have to do.
In the final stanza, the singer reminisces about his lover, talking about how she left her lipstick, powder, and blush, highlighting her carelessness and disregard for his feelings. The woman he loved is going to leave him on a Grey Hound bus, and the stars are melting across the sky as she departs. He let the dog out but he didn’t come back, emphasizing the feeling of abandonment. The chorus ends, repeating the theme of waiting and being left behind, ending the song on a somber note.
Line by Line Meaning
Well I stood on the corner
Until my feet got wet
I waited for my lover until my feet were soaked from the rain
I stood by the faucet
Till the sink filled up
I waited for my lover by the sink until it was full
I stood by the window
Until the moon came up
I waited for my lover by the window until nightfall
My baby's bought a ticket
Long as my clothes line
My lover has left me and won't be returning for a long time
Na na na na, na-na-na
Na na na na
Instrumental
My baby went and left me in a '49 Ford
Going down the highway in a 49 sword
My lover left me in a 1949 Ford car, driving away quickly
My baby ripped my heart out
with every turn of the moon
My lover tore my heart apart every time the moon came up
Somebody told me
there's never been a rose without a thorn
Someone told me that nothing good comes without some bad
Well I'm just another sad guest
on this dark earth
I am just another sad person in this sad world
And if I was a tree
I'd be a cut down tree
If I were a tree, I'd be a dead one
And if I was a bed
I'd be an unmade bed
If I were a bed, I'd be a messy, unused one
I'll get my 32/20 and it'll have to do
I'll settle for my gun and do what I need to
Gone like the wind in the meadow
And the rain on the hill
My lover has left me without a trace, like the wind or rain that can't be seen
You even left your lipstick
And your powder and your blush
My lover left behind their makeup, showing they didn't intend to return
Baby gonna leave me
on a Grey Hound bus
My lover is leaving me on a Greyhound bus
The stars are melting
all across the sky
I am so heartbroken that the stars in the sky seem to be fading away
I let the dog out
But he didn't come back
I let my dog out but he didn't return, just like my lover
Stood on the corner until
my feet got wet
I was so lost and sad that I waited on the corner in the rain until my feet were soaked
Na na na na, na-na-na
Na na na na
Instrumental
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, JALMA MUSIC
Written by: KATHLEEN BRENNAN, THOMAS ALAN WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
V.M Varga
The guitar solo in this goes so well with all that beatbox, whistles and can hitting noises infecting the sound of the instrument. Tom is all that is good in music
Paul Weber
I was only tangentially aware of Tom Waits' music before this record came out. The purity of the music on this record hit me like a ton of bricks.
SeaBass
Such a great album...such a song.
onearmand
Really good stuff here!
Jim M.
No problem, mello, there are 50 million lovers out there , and we are just a few! Dig it!
Alfred Valdivia Jr.
Well I'm just another sad guest On this dark earth And if I was a tree I'd be a cut down tree And if I was a bed I'd be an unmade bed I'll get my 32/20 and it'll have to do
Leif av Holmström
TOM WAITS- WAS HERE TOO !
Feels Man
If I was a tree I would be a cut down tree
Marija Malenica
💘
Kasey Lofty
The guitar tone is so filthy dirty that I need to go wash…