Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits, in Pomona, California, on December 7, 19… Read Full Bio ↴Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits, in Pomona, California, on December 7, 1949) is a prolific American singer, songwriter, composer, and actor.

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."

Bad Liver
Tom Waits Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Well I got a bad liver and broken heart, yeah
I drunk me a river since you tore me apart
And I don't have a drinking problem, 'cept when I can't get a drink
And I wish you'd a-known her, we were quite a pair
She was sharp as a razor and soft as a prayer
So welcome to the continuing saga, she was my better half, and I was just a dog
And so here am I slumped, I've been chipped and I've been chumped on my stool
So buy this fool some spirits and libations, it's these railroad station bars

And all these conductors and porters, and I'm all out of quarters
And this epitaph is the aftermath, yeah I choose my path, hey, come on, Kath
He's a lawyer, he ain't the one for ya
No, the moon ain't romantic, it's intimidating as hell
And some guy's trying to sell me a watch
And so I'll meet you at the bottom of a bottle of bargain Scotch
I got me a bottle and a dream, it's so maudlin it seems
You can name your poison, go on ahead and make some noise
I ain't sentimental, this ain't a purchase, it's a rental, and it's purgatory
And hey, what's your story, well I don't even care
Cause I got my own double-cross to bear

And I'll see your Red Label, and I'll raise you one more
And you can pour me a cab, I just can't drink no more
Cause it don't douse the flames that are started by dames
It ain't like asbestos

It don't do nothing but rest us assured
And substantiate the rumors that you've heard

Overall Meaning

In "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" Tom Waits explores the aftermath of a tumultuous relationship with a woman who was his "better half". The song begins with Waits admitting that he has a bad liver and a broken heart because he has been drinking heavily since the woman tore him apart. Though he insists that he doesn't have a drinking problem, he admits that he drinks when he can't get a drink. Waits then remembers the woman he was with and highlights her intellect, describing her as "sharp as a razor and soft as a prayer". He then goes on to lament his current state, slumped at a railroad station bar, out of quarters, with no money to buy himself more drinks. He imagines an epitaph for himself, choosing his own path and referencing a woman named Kath who has a boyfriend who is a lawyer and not the right match for her.

The song is a melancholy reflection of the pain and difficulty of ending a relationship, with Waits taking on the persona of a drunk who can't forget his past love. The lyrics reveal a complicated emotional landscape- Waits' drinking is symptomatic of the emotional pain he is experiencing. He utilizes vivid imagery to describe the effect of the moon on him and to recount a man trying to sell him a watch. At the end of the song, Waits acknowledges that drinking isn't a solution to his problems- it simply puts him in a temporary state of purgatory.

Line by Line Meaning

Well I got a bad liver and broken heart, yeah
My physical and emotional state is in shambles.

I drunk me a river since you tore me apart
I have been drinking excessively to alleviate my pain and distress.

And I don't have a drinking problem, 'cept when I can't get a drink
My drinking isn't problematic, except when I am unable to satisfy my desire for a drink.

And I wish you'd a-known her, we were quite a pair
I regret that you never had the chance to meet my exceptional ex-partner.

She was sharp as a razor and soft as a prayer
My ex-partner was intelligent yet gentle and compassionate.

So welcome to the continuing saga, she was my better half, and I was just a dog
This is the continuation of my ongoing story. My ex-partner was superior to me, and I was less significant in comparison.

And so here am I slumped, I've been chipped and I've been chumped on my stool
I am now sitting slumped and feeling defrauded and foolish.

So buy this fool some spirits and libations, it's these railroad station bars
Please purchase some alcohol for me in these train station bars like a fool.

And all these conductors and porters, and I'm all out of quarters
The conductors and porters are around me, but I have run out of coins to pay for my drinks.

And this epitaph is the aftermath, yeah I choose my path, hey, come on, Kath
This is the aftermath of my life, but I chose this path. By the way, are you coming with me, Kath?

He's a lawyer, he ain't the one for ya
The man you are with is a lawyer but he is not suited for you.

No, the moon ain't romantic, it's intimidating as hell
The moon is not dreamy but rather frightening and imposing.

And some guy's trying to sell me a watch
There is someone here trying to sell me a watch.

And so I'll meet you at the bottom of a bottle of bargain Scotch
Let's meet at the end of a discounted bottle of Scotch whiskey.

I got me a bottle and a dream, it's so maudlin it seems
I have a bottle and a dream that seems overly sentimental.

You can name your poison, go on ahead and make some noise
Feel free to order any alcoholic beverage of your choice.

I ain't sentimental, this ain't a purchase, it's a rental, and it's purgatory
I am not overly emotional; this is not a purchase, but rather a temporary rental that feels like a purgatory.

And hey, what's your story, well I don't even care
What is your story? To be frank, I am not interested.

Cause I got my own double-cross to bear
I have my own problems and difficulties to deal with.

And I'll see your Red Label, and I'll raise you one more
I acknowledge your ordinary whisky, but I want more than that.

And you can pour me a cab, I just can't drink no more
You can pour me a Cabernet Sauvignon wine; I can no longer consume alcoholic beverages.

Cause it don't douse the flames that are started by dames
Alcohol doesn't extinguish the flames ignited by women.

It ain't like asbestos
Alcohol is not like asbestos; it is not a fireproof material.

It don't do nothing but rest us assured
Alcohol does nothing except reassure us without actually helping in any way.

And substantiate the rumors that you've heard
Drinking alcohol proves the rumors you've heard about me.

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Tom Waits

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

@levisixx7545

3y↑16

Well I got a bad liver and broken heart yeah
I drunk me a river since you tore me apart
And I don't have a drinking problem, 'cept when I can't get a drink
And I wish you'd a-known her, we were quite a pair, ñ
She was sharp as a razor and soft as a prayer
So welcome to the continuing saga, she was my better half, and I was just a dog
And so here am I slumped, I've been chipped and I've been chumped on my stool
So buy this fool some spirits and libations, it's these railroad station bars
And all these conductors and porters, and I'm all out of quarters
And this epitaph is the aftermath, yeah I choose my path
Hey, come on, Kath
He's a lawyer, he ain't the one for ya
No, the moon ain't romantic
It's intimidating as hell
And some guy's trying to sell me a watch
And so I'll meet you at the bottom of a bottle of bargain Scotch
I got me a bottle and a dream, it's so maudlin it seems
You can name your poison, go on ahead and make some noise
I ain't sentimental, this ain't a purchase it's a rental, and it's purgatory
And hey, what's your story, well I don't even care
'Cause I got my own double-cross to bear
And I'll see your Red Label, and I'll raise you one more
And you can pour me a cab, I just can't drink no more
'Cause it don't douse the flames that are started by dames
It ain't like asbestos
It don't do nothing but rest us assured
And substantiate the rumors that you've heard