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."
Falling Down
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Come from St. Petersburg, Scarlett and me
When I open my eyes, I was blind as can be
And to give a man luck, he must fall in the sea
And she wants you to steal and get caught
For she loves you for all that you are not
When you're falling down, falling down
When you're falling down, falling down, falling down
You forget all the roses don't come around on Sunday
She's not gonna choose you for standing so tall
Go on take a swig of that poison and like it
And now don't ask for silverware, don't ask for nothing
Go on and put your ear to the ground
You know you'll be hearing that sound, falling down
You're falling down, falling down
Falling down, falling down
Falling down
When you're falling down, falling down, falling down
Go on down see that wrecking ball come swing in on her now
Everyone knew that hotel was a goner
They broke all the windows and took all the door knobs
And they hauled it away in a couple of days
Now someone yelled timber, take off your hat
We all look smaller down here on the ground
When you're falling down, falling down, falling down
Falling down, falling down
Falling down
Someone's falling down, falling down, falling down
Falling down, falling down
Falling down
The lyrics to Tom Waits's song "Falling Down the Lane" are poetic and metaphorical. The first verse is about a man who travels a great distance to see his "angel" or the woman he loves who he considers to be pure and good. However, when he opens his eyes, he realizes that he was blind to who she really is. She wants him to do bad things and get caught because she loves the idea of him more than who he actually is. The chorus talks about falling down, which can be interpreted as a metaphor for failure or hitting rock bottom, and how it happens to everyone.
The second verse discusses how things aren't always as they seem, using the metaphor of roses not blooming on Sundays, which is traditionally a day of rest. The woman he loves won't choose him for being virtuous and standing upright, but rather for being flawed and broken. The lines "go on take a swig of that poison and like it" and "don't ask for silverware, don't ask for nothing" suggest that the person should accept their situation, regardless of its negativity. The lines "you know you'll be hearing that sound, falling down" suggests that the person will continue to fall unless they change something.
In the final verse, the song takes a darker turn as the metaphor shifts to a building being destroyed. The hotel, which was once a symbol of luxury and grandeur, is now being torn down. The image of the wrecking ball symbolizes destruction and the breaking of something important. The lyrics emphasize the impermanence of things, suggesting that nothing lasts forever, including the love between two people. The chorus repeats, but this time someone else is falling down, suggesting that everyone is prone to failure.
Line by Line Meaning
I've come 500 miles just to see your halo
I have traveled a long distance just to be with you and witness the goodness that surrounds you
Come from St. Petersburg, Scarlett and me
I arrived here with my partner Scarlett from St. Petersburg
When I open my eyes, I was blind as can be
The beauty and purity of your essence has left me stunned and speechless with awe and admiration
And to give a man luck, he must fall in the sea
Sometimes, one needs to go through difficult experiences in order to attain a stroke of good fortune
And she wants you to steal and get caught
She desires for you to engage in risky behavior and inevitably face its repercussions
For she loves you for all that you are not
She is in love with a version of you that is not true to who you really are
When you're falling down, falling down
In the moments of your greatest struggle and downfall
You forget all the roses don't come around on Sunday
In times of hardship, it becomes easy to forget that life doesn't always bring joy and beauty on a set schedule
She's not gonna choose you for standing so tall
The person you desire won't appreciate you just because you are impressive or successful
Go on take a swig of that poison and like it
Give in to your vices and addictions, even if they are harmful to you, and learn to be content with that lifestyle
And now don't ask for silverware, don't ask for nothing
Don't expect anything from anyone, and don't even ask for basic necessities such as utensils
Go on and put your ear to the ground
Listen closely to the world around you
You know you'll be hearing that sound, falling down
The sound of things crashing and burning, of life falling apart
Go on down see that wrecking ball come swing in on her now
Watch as everything you've built or desired gets destroyed
Everyone knew that hotel was a goner
It was obvious to everyone that something was doomed to fail
They broke all the windows and took all the door knobs
Thoroughly ravaged and pillaged every bit of value from the object being destroyed
And they hauled it away in a couple of days
The destruction was swift and complete, leaving nothing behind
Now someone yelled timber, take off your hat
The point of no return has been reached, and it's time to accept the devastation that has occurred
We all look smaller down here on the ground
Experiencing destruction and failure can be incredibly humbling, making us feel small and insignificant
Someone's falling down, falling down, falling down
Others are likely experiencing their own struggles, much like the artist in this song
Falling down, falling down
Repeated refrain of the main theme of the song
Falling down
Final repetition, emphasizing the feeling of descent and failure
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: THOMAS ALAN WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@spiderzer0
He takes you through some of the toughest, saddest and lowest times in life, but always with a subtle promise that no matter how down and out, no matter how broken and beaten you are today, tomorrow you'll wake up. And the day after that. And one day, you'll be on the other side and you'll be alright.
@beatacatthegreat
There will never be an artist like Tom Waits. He is one of a kind genius, a master of dark feelings, of the grim part of human soul.
@SupernaturalLover67
Something about Waits' voice just fulfills something inside of me that no other artist has ever been able to fulfill. I always feel so full and satisfied when I listen to him. it's hard to explain but it just kicks something into gear for me. As for Scarlett, the fact of the matter is, Tom Waits is brilliant, and one of a kind and incomparable, but I salute her for honoring him and being original, instead of doing some floozy pop album. Tom, you're bloody brilliant.
@colliedogboy
His musical instrumentation is so powerful and so perfectly sets the mood for his voice and those wonderful lyrics. I have heard no one else like Tom.
@kweogog5007
Perry Mike I sing Tom at karaoke I have a deep gravelly voice I do Tom well at least what they say karaoke
@mujerpantera
Sus canciones son hermosas.
@VeronicaFrancoHoe
AMASING! this version has all the IRONY that Scarlett's lacks. however, u gotta applaud Scarlett 4 being so young and still(being able) comprehending such a sophisticated poem.
@tarantona
It is so hard to cover Tom Waits. He is so unique that you are better off making an effort to interpret the song your way. I think SJ did a very good job at making the song hers and making it sound believable while respecting the original.
@HeadlessPony
In this world of negativity, with starvation and war and bigotry and incurable diseases, Tom Waits music is a reminder to everyone that it's okay to love life despite these things.
@lomashsirohiify
Specially true in today’s times bruv..