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."
Frank
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That woman will make you something you've never seen
That woman's got claws, that woman's got laws
Now look out man, you're gonna loose your mind
I had a friend, his name was Frank
He walked on the water and lord he sank
We used to go stag, now he's got a hag
That woman will take you, that woman will break you
That woman will make you something you've never seen
That woman's got claws, that woman's got laws
Now look out Frank, you're gonna loose your mind
What happened to Frank, can happen to you
Just find you a woman and watch what she'll do
That woman will take you, that woman's gonna break you
Look out man you're gonna loose, you're gonna loose your mind
The lyrics of Tom Waits's song "Frank" are a warning about the dangers of getting involved with a particular type of woman - one who is fierce, controlling, and unpredictable. The woman in question is described as having "claws" and "laws" - she is powerful and commanding, and she will not hesitate to take control of a man's life, breaking him down and remaking him in her own image.
The song tells the story of a man named Frank who was once a free spirit ("he walked on the water") but who has now become trapped in a relationship with this kind of woman ("he's got a hag"). The singer warns that what happened to Frank - being consumed and ultimately destroyed by this woman - can happen to anyone: "Just find you a woman and watch what she'll do... Look out man you're gonna loose, you're gonna loose your mind."
The lyrics of "Frank" could be interpreted as cautionary, but there is also a sense of playfulness and humor in Tom Waits's delivery. The use of slang and wordplay - "Frank's got a new bag" being a twist on the old saying "got a new lease on life" - gives the song a playful edge, even as it deals with serious subject matter.
Line by Line Meaning
That woman will take you, that woman will break you
This woman has the power to control and ultimately ruin a man's life.
That woman will make you something you've never seen
She can transform a man into something unrecognizable from his former self.
That woman's got claws, that woman's got laws
She has sharp, potent tools at her disposal to manipulate people, and follows her own set of strict rules.
Now look out man, you're gonna loose your mind
Be careful, because getting involved with this woman can drive you insane.
I had a friend, his name was Frank
The artist knew someone named Frank.
He walked on the water and lord he sank
Frank had high aspirations but ultimately failed and struggled in life.
We used to go stag, now he's got a hag
The singer and Frank used to go out and meet new people together, but now Frank is in a committed relationship with an unpleasant woman.
It looks like Frank's got a new bag
Frank has changed and is now involved with a new woman who has a negative impact on him.
What happened to Frank, can happen to you
The same fate that befell Frank could happen to anyone who gets involved with the wrong person.
Just find you a woman and watch what she'll do
Be aware of the power that women can have over men.
Look out man you're gonna loose, you're gonna loose your mind
Again, beware of the dangers posed by getting involved with the wrong woman. She can damage your mental wellbeing.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: TOM WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Carlin R Nicholson
Frank's Wild Years
©1983
Well Frank settled down in the Valley
& hung his wild years
on a nail that he drove through
his wife's forehead.
He sold used office furniture
out there on San Fernando Road
& assumed a $30, 000 loan
at 15 1/4 % & put down payment
on a little two bedroom place.
his wife was a spent piece of used jet trash
made good bloody marys
kept her mouth shut most of the time
had a little Chihuahua named Carlos
that had some kind of skin disease
& was totally blind.
They had a
thoroughly modern kitchen
self-cleaning oven (the whole bit).
Frank drove a little sedan
they were so happy
One night Frank was on his way home
from work, stopped at the liquor store,
picked up a couple of Mickey's Big Mouths
drank 'em in the car on his way
to the Shell station.
He got a gallon of
gas in a can, drove home, doused
everything in the house, torched it,
parked across the street, laughing,
watching it burn, all Halloween
orange and chimney red then
Frank put on a top forty station
got on the Hollywood Freeway,
headed north.
Never could stand that dog
source: Tom Waits, *1949, Pomona, CA, USA
Josh M
God , I love this so much . This is my favorite piece of art from Waits . He has so many but this is my personal favorite .
RDRGV350
The "nail/forehead" line is one of my all time fave lyrics. Genius.
innocentmaps
Torched it.
(ah-he-hum. Mmhh.)
That little cough/affirmative always gets me. In that little sound is everything that makes Tom Waits the masterful player piano of both the depths and the swill of the human emotional landscape.
I love you, Tom.
tans taafl
Second best little cough in the history of the 20th century
The best was Rutger Hauer's delivery of the tears in rain monologue in Blade Runner
Aaron Lane
His delivery is very nuanced- it's the subtle details like what you mentioned, that I Iove.
Phil Pebcak
I was the college radio music director at the time so I could put this on rotation. As it well deserved. Some forty years later it's still my all-time favorite by San Diego ex-pat Tom Waits. Thanks Tom!
Cathal Griffin
In my early twenties I recited this at a family gathering mainly the women just my uncle was there and when I finished they just say there with their mouths hanging open in shock 🤣
Peter Davies
I bet that was some night.
Naseem Brunswick
Brilliant.
SP
Nice