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."
Dog Treat
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
In Tom Waits's song "Dog Treat", he talks about a shocking new kind of dog treat that he discovered in a pet store. At first, he thought it was a prank or something strange until he read the label on the back which revealed that it was made of bull penis. He expresses his surprise and disbelief that something so unusual and seemingly inappropriate for a canine diet could be marketed as a snack. Waits emphasizes the fact that it claims to be 100% natural and a real meat snack, which strikes him as lacking in dignity. He then adds some humor to the situation by mentioning the length of the treats – 36 inches long – and how they have to be cut into smaller sizes and braided together.
However, beyond the surface-level absurdity of the song, there may be deeper themes that Waits is hinting at. For instance, he may be commenting on how humans often have strange and illogical relationships with animals, which can include treating them as beloved pets one moment and then feeding them parts of other animals the next. Moreover, the fact that the dog treats are marketed as natural and containing real meat may reflect a larger trend in our society toward emphasizing the naturalness of certain products, even if they are inherently weird or off-putting.
Overall, "Dog Treat" is a clever and entertaining song with some thought-provoking ideas beneath the surface.
Line by Line Meaning
Thanks, uh... You know uh, this is weird uh... Most of us have dogs, allright? (applause)
Tom Waits acknowledges the audience and mentions that most people own dogs, and he has something weird to discuss.
I don't know if it's a local thing where I live, or if it's everywhere, and I'm checking it with you because uh, I don't get in the area that often and I'm just checking to see if...
Tom Waits is unsure if what he is about to discuss is specific to his area, and is asking the audience to confirm this.
There's a new kind of a dog treat. And uh (where I live) and they're available in the pet store and for the longest time I just thought that it was some kind of a prank. Or uh... I wasn't really sure what it was, until I read the label on the back and it said "Bull Penis" (laughter). I was a little shocked!
Tom Waits talks about a new style of dog treats, which he initially thought was a prank, until he read the label and found out it was made of bull penis, which surprised him.
I know you can get just about ANYTHING in this world. You can get a whale's pancreas if you'd want one! I can get you one! (laughter) But com'on, a bull's penis! How busy they were their whole lives. And they throw it to a dog, like that, for a snack! (laughter)
Tom Waits expresses his disbelief that a bull's penis is used as a dog snack, and wonders why such an organ, which played an important role in the bull's life, is being fed to dogs.
Now, are they available here in the Los Angeles area? They are, aren't they? Doesn't that make you a little weazy? Makes you wanna live a long time. And on the back, on the bottom it said: "100% natural"! I mean... that's the part that really got me. And it said: "A Real Meat Snack". There's just no dignity in that. Uh, anyway...
Tom Waits asks if the bull penis treats are available in Los Angeles, and comments on how the label saying 100% natural and a real meat snack is unsettling to him.
The other thing is that they're 36 inches long! (laughter). They're so long they had to cut them into bite-size portions. And then they take two of them and braid them together. I know, I know! I never want it done. But uh...
Tom Waits reveals that the bull penis treats are 36 inches long and have to be cut into smaller portions, and even braided together. He admits that he's not interested in trying them.
This is a song written for Gregory Peck for his dating my mom... That's a lie!
Tom Waits jokes that the song is dedicated to Gregory Peck dating his mom, but admits that he's not serious.
Contributed by Brayden H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
IndieMovie 4 Life
I like the way he says "whale's pancreas" and how he emphasizes "pancreas".
SwaggerLikeUz
That guy is hilarious and the music is great!
Tyler Vrooman
a real meat snack....
plop888
100% natural