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."
Danny Says
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Gotta go to Idaho
But we can't go surfin'
Cause it's twenty below
Sound check's at 5:02
Record stores and interviews
Oh, but I can't wait
Baby
Oho-ho-ho, we got nowhere to go
And it may sound funny, but it's true
Hangin' out in 100 B
Watching 'Get Smart' on TV
Thinkin' about
You and me and you and me
Hangin' out in L.A.
And there's nowhere to go
It ain't Christmas if there ain't no snow
Listening to Sheena on the radio
Oh-ho oh-ho
The song Danny Says by Tom Waits features his distinctive gravelly voice that makes his lyrics all the more poignant. In this song, Danny asks the listener/listeners to go to Idaho, but cautions that they cannot go surfing because of the cold weather. The song shifts to a soundcheck at 5:02 pm and a series of record stores and interviews. But what Danny is waiting for, what he truly wants to do, is to be with someone dear tomorrow. The song ends with Danny and the listener hanging out in an empty apartment, tuning into a TV show, and listening to Sheena on the radio, pondering about the present and their shared memories.
The first verse sets the tone for the song - the desire for a journey even if it is cold, the passion to create music and perform, and the overwhelming desire to be with someone special, underscored by Danny's voice that sounds a little melancholic at times. The second verse is about spending time together, even in a city like L.A., when there seems to be nothing to do. It is about appreciating the small joys of life, savoring the silence, and reminiscing the past. Danny Says is a melancholic ode to companionship, love, and memories that captures the spirit of Tom Waits's music.
Line by Line Meaning
Danny says we gotta go
Danny has suggested that we should leave and travel to another place
Gotta go to Idaho
We have to go to Idaho, without any specific reason
But we can't go surfin'
We cannot enjoy surfing in Idaho because it's too cold, nearly zero degree Celsius
Cause it's twenty below
The temperature is extremely low, 20-degree Celsius below freezing point
Sound check's at 5:02
The sound check is scheduled at 5:02 PM at the concert venue
Record stores and interviews
The singer will visit record stores and attend interviews during his visit to Idaho
Oh, but I can't wait
The singer is eagerly waiting for tomorrow to arrive
To be with you tomorrow
He is looking forward to being with someone special tomorrow
Hangin' out in 100 B
He's spending his time in apartment 100 B
Watching 'Get Smart' on TV
He's watching the TV show 'Get Smart' on television
Thinkin' about
He is deeply contemplating and reflecting on his thoughts
You and me and you and me
He is thinking about being with someone special and the joy it brings
Hangin' out in L.A.
The singer is now in Los Angeles, California
And there's nowhere to go
He has no specific plan or destination for the day in L.A.
It ain't Christmas if there ain't no snow
The singer thinks that Christmas is incomplete without snow
Listening to Sheena on the radio
He is listening to the radio show of Sheena, probably a DJ or host
Oh-ho oh-ho
An exclamation to denote appreciation, enjoyment, or surprise
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Douglas Colvin, Jeff Hyman, John Cummings
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
M
Been a fan of Tom Waits since my father showed me a newspaper article (in Germany in a german rural gazette's feuilleton) around 2002. Tom Waits has a whole own (and for everybody) world to discover like our german fellow Helge Schneider. I rediscovered this song a few days ago and it is magical. It somehow didn't catch my attention as I heard this triptychon as it came out and over the years. But these days I really fell in love with it and sent it to my best friends. Thank you!
Nossa
My favorite from this album, no question.
Sarah Lee
Because it's an amazing song that the Ramones wrote.
pit2ryan3
@Sarah Lee - Yes, and Tom Waits wrote I Don't Wanna Grow Up...
Boney Tony
Danny didn’t want to grow up either; did he?