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."
Broken Bicycles
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With busted handle bars out in the rain.
Somebody must have an orphanage for
All these things that nobody wants any more
September's reminding July
It's time to be saying good-bye
Summer is gone, Our love will remain
Like old broken bicycles out in the rain
Broken bicycles, don't tell my folks
There's all those playing cards pinned to the spokes
Laid down like skeletons out on the lawn
The wheels won't turn when the other has gone
The seasons can turn on a dime
Somehow I forget every time
For all the things that you've given me
Will always stay, there broken but I'll never throw them away
The lyrics to Tom Waits's song "Broken Bicycles" have a sense of nostalgia and longing. The song talks about a collection of old and broken things, including bicycles with busted chains and handlebars, playing cards pinned to the spokes, and other abandoned items. The artist seems to be lamenting that these items are no longer wanted or loved, but he sees beauty in their decay.
Throughout the song, there is a sense of loss and change. September is reminding July that it's time to say goodbye, and summer is gone. However, the love that the artist has experienced will remain, just like the old broken bicycles that are left out in the rain. The artist seems to be saying that even though things change and fall apart, there is still something that remains.
Line by Line Meaning
Broken bicycles, old busted chains
The bicycles and their chains are broken and old, in bad condition.
With busted handle bars out in the rain.
The handle bars of the bicycles are also broken and they are left outside in the rain.
Somebody must have an orphanage for
The singer is thinking that there must be a place to take care of these unwanted things.
All these things that nobody wants any more
The bicycles and other things nobody wants any more are left out in the rain.
September's reminding July
September is indicating the end of the summer and that it's time to say goodbye.
It's time to be saying good-bye
It's time to say goodbye to summer and the loved one.
Summer is gone, Our love will remain
Although summer is gone, their love will remain and not fade away.
Like old broken bicycles out in the rain
Their love, like the old broken bicycles, is still there despite being left out and forgotten in the rain.
Broken bicycles, don't tell my folks
The singer doesn't want his family to know about the broken bicycles and other things he's collected.
There's all those playing cards pinned to the spokes
The singer has decorated the bicycles with playing cards, a symbol of discarded things that no one values anymore.
Laid down like skeletons out on the lawn
The bicycles are represented like skeletons and left to decay on the lawn.
The wheels won't turn when the other has gone
The wheels of the bicycles won't turn without someone to ride them; they're like a broken heart that just won't work.
The seasons can turn on a dime
The seasons can change unexpectedly in a moment.
Somehow I forget every time
Despite knowing that seasons can change quickly, the singer forgets whenever it comes around.
For all the things that you've given me
The singer addresses someone, saying they have given him things that he appreciates.
Will always stay, there broken but I'll never throw them away
The things they've given him may be broken, but he'll cherish them and never let them go.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: TOM WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Haroupi
LYRICS:
Broken bicycles, old busted chains
With busted handle bars out in the rain.
Somebody must have an orphanage for
All these things that nobody wants any more
September's reminding July
It's time to be saying good-bye
Summer is gone, Our love will remain
Like old broken bicycles out in the rain
Broken bicycles, don't tell my folks
There's all those playing cards pinned to the spokes
Laid down like skeletons out on the lawn
The wheels won't turn when the other has gone
The seasons can turn on a dime
Somehow I forget every time
For all the things that you've given me
Will always stay, there broken but I'll never throw them away...
@noelhorgan1082
The summer is gone but our love will remain
@randallbenton5557
Heard this for the first time one quiet Valentine's day evening after my divorce. Cried like a baby. Still do.
@honesty_-no9he
The movie is beautiful.
@user-oy3sw7lb9d
I love❤
@ruthanningram413
Love this album.
@ShadyCrackers
Very pretty. From before Tom's ''hammering on engine parts with a metal bar'' period.
@christopappageorge827
lol
@RhythmGrizz
... which was an amazing period.
Waits never had a bad record
@honesty_-no9he
Interesting comments are still on here but most official artist music upload pages have now closed down comments deleting some of the most beautiful and moving stories and remarks from people's lives.
@digitsdigitsdigits808
This was a unilateral decision on youtube's part; all automatically-generated music uploads now have their comments disabled. Very unfortunate