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."
God
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Baby, for a buck, for a buck
If you're looking for someone to pull you uut of that ditch
You're out of luck, you're out of luck
Ship is sinking
The ship is sinking
The ship is sinking
There's leak, there's a leak, in the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves, and lawyers
God's away, God's away
God's away on business
Business
God's away, God's away
God's away on business
Business
Digging up the dead with a shovel and a pick
It's a job, it's a job
Bloody moon rising with a plague and a flood
Join the mob, join the mob
It's all over, it's all over, it's all over
And there's a leak, there's a leak, in the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves, and lawyers
God's away, God's away, God's away
On Business
Business
God's away, God's away
On Business
Business, ha
Goddamn there's always such a big temptation
To be good, to be good
There's always free cheddar in a mousetrap, baby
It's a deal, it's a deal
God's away, God's away, God's away
On business
Business
God's away, God's away, God's away
On business
Business
I narrow my eyes like a coin slot baby
Let her ring, let her ring
God's away, God's away
God's away on business
God's away, God's away
God's away on business, business
Tom Waits's song "God's Away on Business" is a commentary on the state of the world and the people in positions of power who have led to its downfall. The first verse speaks about desperation and the willingness to sell one's heart for a meager sum of money. The second verse eludes to the ship sinking, which is a metaphor for the world falling apart due to corruption and greed. The leak in the boiler room is symbolic of society's problems, with the poor, the lame and the blind (who are supposed to be taken care of) being left to suffer. Instead of focusing on their needs, the people in charge are killers, thieves, and lawyers.
The chorus emphasizes the fact that God is absent and he is away on business. This could be interpreted as God being indifferent to the state of the world, allowing it to spiral out of control. The third verse mentions digging up the dead and a bloody moon rising, which could be a sign of the end of the world. Joining the mob in this context is almost a survival strategy. The last verse highlights how difficult it is to be and remain virtuous in a world filled with temptation. Even in a mousetrap, there is free cheese, which is a metaphor for the lure of easy rewards. The final line, "let her ring," is mysterious, but could be interpreted as letting fate take its course, allowing the world to continue on its destructive path.
Line by Line Meaning
I'd sell your heart to the junkman Baby, for a buck, for a buck
I am willing to do anything for a quick profit, even if it involves a loved one
If you're looking for someone to pull you uut of that ditch You're out of luck, you're out of luck
Don't rely on anyone to help you out of a tough situation; you're on your own
Ship is sinking The ship is sinking The ship is sinking
We are in dire straits, things are falling apart
There's leak, there's a leak, in the boiler room The poor, the lame, the blind Who are the ones that we kept in charge? Killers, thieves, and lawyers
Those in charge are incompetent and corrupt, and those who suffer most bear the brunt
God's away, God's away God's away on business Business God's away, God's away God's away on business Business
God is absent and we are left to our own devices, which often involves ruthless business practices
Digging up the dead with a shovel and a pick It's a job, it's a job Bloody moon rising with a plague and a flood Join the mob, join the mob
Times are tough and desperate, people will do anything to survive, even if it means resorting to violence
It's all over, it's all over, it's all over
All hope is lost, there is no going back
Goddamn there's always such a big temptation To be good, to be good There's always free cheddar in a mousetrap, baby It's a deal, it's a deal
It's hard to resist the urge to do the right thing, but often times the easy way out is filled with trap and pitfalls
God's away, God's away, God's away On business Business
Once again, God is gone, and we are left to carry on with ruthless business practices
I narrow my eyes like a coin slot baby Let her ring, let her ring
I am willing to put aside any moral qualms for profit, like a vending machine dispensing goods for a price
God's away, God's away God's away on business God's away, God's away God's away on business, business
Until God returns, business will be our god, and it will demand our unwavering dedication
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, JALMA MUSIC
Written by: Kathleen Brennan, Thomas Alan Waits
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@bowsmed
I'd sell your heart to the junkman baby
For a buck, for a buck
If you're looking for someone
To pull you out of that ditch
You're out of luck, you're out of luck
The ship is sinking
The ship is sinking
The ship is sinking
There's leak, there's leak,
In the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves, and lawyers
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business. Business.
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business. Business.
Digging up the dead with
A shovel and a pick
It's a job, it's a job
Bloody moon rising with
A plague and a flood
Join the mob, join the mob
It's all over, it's all over, it's all over
There's a leak, there's a leak,
In the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves, and lawyers
God's away, God's away, God's away
On Business. Business.
God's away, God's away,
On Business. Business.
[Instrumental Break]
Goddamn there's always such
A big temptation
To be good, To be good
There's always free cheddar in
A mousetrap, baby
It's a deal, it's a deal
God's away, God's away, God's away
On Business. Business.
God's away, God's away, God's away
On Business. Business.
I narrow my eyes like a coin slot baby,
Let her ring, let her ring
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business.
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business.
Business....
@chriswscott7640
Tom Waits is in his own category of music. There is no one like him
@keithmarcrum9464
A wonderful rarity
@brandonmcdonald6611
Tom would share that category with Primus, and they'd all be happy and probably take it as a huge compliment :)
@DSAK55
Charles Bukowski set to music
@AngryJT
The genre is psychadelic polka, and Waits shares it with Primus/Les Claypool.
@ulpana
Bert Brecht and Kurt Weill didn't have Tom Waits to inspire them! Waits is impressive enough as a synthesizing artistic force to have been plenty influenced by the giants on whose shoulders he precariously perches...See Woody Guthrie's definition of the "folk process..."
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Shifters and Song Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa
Media Disc-us-sion List
@IamDayoldHate1
It's not just the voice. It's the music he creates, It's the act. Having seen him live several times, it's also the performances he gives, it's the eccentricities he has. He's the last true Vaudevillian actor.
@TheTomTerrible
Well said.
@HammyGiblets
That's it isn't it. The carnivalesque, the circus, Americana.
@Skyhawk1998
All of Tom's music has the very interesting effect of sounding like it is from the perspective of someone with a broken, distorted mind. The overall sound, his voice, even the music videos makes it feel like a sample of madness.