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 FreischĂĽtz" 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 BĂĽchner. 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."
Diamonds
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And the rusty nails
Where the violets grow
Say goodbye to the railroad
And the mad dogs of summer
And everything that I know
What some men will do here for diamonds
Wounded but they just keep on climbin'
Sleep by the side of the road
There's a hole in the ladder
A fence we can climb
Mad as a hatter
You're thin as a dime
Go out to the meadow
The hills are agreen
Sing me a rainbow
Steal me a dream
Small-time Napoleons
Shattered his knees
But he stays in the saddle for Rose
And all his disciples
They shave in the gutter
And gather what's left of his clothers
What some men will do here for diamonds
What some men will do here for gold
Wounded but they just keep on climbin'
They sleep by the side of the road
"Diamonds & Gold" by Tom Waits is a haunting song about the raw desperation that drives men to dangerous pursuits. The opening lines set the tone for the song's themes of decay and abandonment, as Waits paints a bleak picture of broken glass, rusty nails, and wilting violets. The scene is one of decay and abandonment, a place where the railroad has been bid farewell and the summer has gone mad. It's a place where everything the singer knows has been uprooted and left to wither in the sun.
Waits uses the lyrics to describe the lengths men will go to chase their dreams of wealth and prosperity. The lines "What some men will do here for diamonds / What some men will do here for gold" are repeated throughout the song, emphasizing the dangerous obsession with material goods that drives men to risk their lives. Despite being wounded, they refuse to give up, climbing ever higher in their pursuit of riches. When they do sleep, it is by the side of the road, as if they have no home or shelter to turn to.
Line by Line Meaning
The broken glass
The shattered pieces of glass lying around
And the rusty nails
The old, decaying nails that have turned rust-coloured
Where the violets grow
Around the area where violets are blooming
Say goodbye to the railroad
Bidding farewell to the train tracks
And the mad dogs of summer
Referring to the heatwaves of summer
And everything that I know
Leaving behind everything that is familiar
There's a hole in the ladder
A gap that exists in the ladder
A fence we can climb
A fence that can be scaled or crossed
Mad as a hatter
Insane or crazy in the head as though the person were a hatter
You're thin as a dime
A person who is as thin as a dime coin
Go out to the meadow
Head out to an open field
The hills are agreen
The hills are rich with a lush greenery
Sing me a rainbow
Sing a colorful and bright song
Steal me a dream
Taking someone's grand ambitions or aspirations
Small-time Napoleons
Individuals of minor importance who behave as if they were great leaders
Shattered his knees
Caused him significant injury, particularly to his knees
But he stays in the saddle for Rose
He continues to ride with a sense of purpose because of Rose
And all his disciples
His followers or devotees
They shave in the gutter
Shaving in the road's low point
And gather what's left of his clothers
Picking up what remains of his clothes
What some men will do here for diamonds
The extreme lengths some individuals will go at this place for diamonds
What some men will do here for gold
The extreme lengths some individuals will go at this place for gold
Wounded but they just keep on climbin'
Despite injuries, the individuals continue to climb
They sleep by the side of the road
They rest at the edge of the highway
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: THOMAS ALAN WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@nicholaskinsey5160
The broken glass
And the rusty nails
Where the violets grow
Say goodbye to the railroad
And the mad dogs of summer
And everything that I know
What some men will do here for diamonds
What some men will do here for gold
Wounded but they just keep on climbin'
Sleep by the side of the road
There's a hole in the ladder
A fence we can climb
Mad as a hatter
You're thin as a dime
Go out to the meadow
The hills are agreen
Sing me a rainbow
Steal me a dream
Small-time Napoleons
Shattered his knees
But he stays in the saddle for Rose
And all his disciples
They shave in the gutter
And gather what's left of his clothers
What some men will do here for diamonds
What some men will do here for gold
Wounded but they just keep on climbin'
They sleep by the side of the road
@47ejecting2
My wife used to sing this as a lullaby to our daughter, so that version is definitive for me. But this one is good too.
@mikefiftynine
It has the sound of a lullaby. It reminds me of a song in Mary Poppins at times.
@gilthethrill9179
"Rain Dogs" is by far one of Americas top albums of all time.
@JohnnyNowhere
The fact that your comment has only garnered a measly 36 up votes is proof that your observation is nothing short of genius.
And I am not being facetious, I'm fucking serious.
@tortis6342
@Johnny Nowhere those aren’t mutually exclusive
@flanaryclan1
Such great imagery. This will indeed be my daughters first lullaby. Thanks Tom.
@nicholaskinsey5160
The broken glass
And the rusty nails
Where the violets grow
Say goodbye to the railroad
And the mad dogs of summer
And everything that I know
What some men will do here for diamonds
What some men will do here for gold
Wounded but they just keep on climbin'
Sleep by the side of the road
There's a hole in the ladder
A fence we can climb
Mad as a hatter
You're thin as a dime
Go out to the meadow
The hills are agreen
Sing me a rainbow
Steal me a dream
Small-time Napoleons
Shattered his knees
But he stays in the saddle for Rose
And all his disciples
They shave in the gutter
And gather what's left of his clothers
What some men will do here for diamonds
What some men will do here for gold
Wounded but they just keep on climbin'
They sleep by the side of the road
@Caspero68o
Thank you Tom Waits.
@ivyshandle1989
great track
@mr.trollsaur9996
Much love!