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."
Grapefruit Moon
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Heard that tune, and now I'm pining, honey, can't you see?
'Cause every time I hear that melody, well, something breaks inside
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining, can't turn back the tide
Never had no destinations, could not get across
You became my inspiration, oh but what a cost
'Cause every time I hear that melody, well, something breaks inside
Now I'm smoking cigarettes and I strive for purity
And I slip just like the stars into obscurity
'Cause every time I hear that melody, well, puts me up a tree
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining, is all that I can see
In "Grapefruit Moon," Tom Waits sings about heartbreak and longing, triggered by a haunting melody that seems to be taking over his life. The grapefruit moon and one shining star serve as a symbol of his love and hope, and yet they also represent his inability to move on from his pain. The lyrics suggest that the singer's lack of direction and purpose in life has led him to become captivated by the melody, which seems to hold some kind of existential meaning for him. He becomes lost in his desire to understand the music and its significance, and as a result, he begins to lose control of his own life.
In the second verse, Waits references the high cost of his inspiration. While the melody inspires him artistically, it also causes him pain and heartache. He seems to suggest that the price of creative inspiration is often paid through deep emotional turmoil. The final verse finds him struggling with addiction, trying to find purity in his life. But even in the depths of his struggle, the melody continues to call to him, leading him further into obscurity.
Overall, "Grapefruit Moon" is a song about the complex relationship between art and life, and the ways in which the two can become intertwined to the point of obsession. It's a hauntingly beautiful reflection on the power of music to move us and the ways in which it can become a conduit for our deepest hopes and fears.
Line by Line Meaning
Grapefruit moon, one star shining, shining down on me
Tom Waits sees a grapefruit moon with a single, bright star that shines down on him.
Heard that tune, and now I'm pining, honey, can't you see?
Tom has heard a particular song and now he longs for something, and he implores his lover to see his pain.
'Cause every time I hear that melody, well, something breaks inside
Tom is emotionally affected every time he hears the melody of the song he mentioned earlier.
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining, can't turn back the tide
Even though the grapefruit moon is shining, it cannot turn back the tide of Tom's brokenness caused by the song's melody.
Never had no destinations, could not get across
Tom had no clear sense of direction and couldn't get where he wanted to go.
You became my inspiration, oh but what a cost
Tom's lover became his inspiration but at a significant cost to him.
'Cause every time I hear that melody, well, something breaks inside
The melody of the song that Tom heard earlier causes emotional turmoil every time he hears it.
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining, is more than I can hide
Tom cannot hide from the grapefruit moon with its single, bright star that seems to watch over him.
Now I'm smoking cigarettes and I strive for purity
Tom is striving for purity but also takes up smoking as a habit.
And I slip just like the stars into obscurity
Tom feels like he is fading into obscurity just like stars can disappear from the night sky.
'Cause every time I hear that melody, well, puts me up a tree
Tom is emotionally moved by the melody of the song that he keeps hearing, and it puts him in a difficult position.
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining, is all that I can see
Tom is fixated on the grapefruit moon with its single, shining star as it seems to be the only thing keeping him company amidst his emotional turmoil.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, JALMA MUSIC
Written by: TOM WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@gwythal.doire.4361
Velcro }}}
Or those of us just taking a night's brief sabbatical from all of your profund or hidden hilarious renderings.!!!
.... eg.. Now, tho I never knew the guy or woman in that classic pyromanical song,...I guess I too "Never could like "That" dog."!!!
Tom, keep your lyrical renderings rolling, the happy, the sad, the declarative or simply inquisitive....I too oftimes wonder, about my neighbor & ponder,.... "What.. (t'feck )..Is He Makin In There".!?!?
.
Now, even at 3am, the noise doesn't overly nor necessarily bother me, but Jeeeeezzze, does he have to give each of his newly acquired "Power Tools" a run out.!?
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind if he stuck to just "one" of them once my ear's attuned, but the varied cacophony of, not-so well Orchestrated, high pitched whines, forces me,..a fellow pensioner...to slap on your entire discography...Vol at Max.!!!
That changes nothing, but it keeps us both happily combating Alzheimers overnight, till we happily meet the following afternoon for a pint or two of Guinness & wonder which of the, youngish, curtain-twitchin neighbours will report, have us arrested or interred for breach of the peace.!!!
As he plans his latest, "late night project" & I check the Stylus & "Boom Factor" of newest Speakers....not Cans or Headphones....sure that would take away the mighty "Craic" factor from these two,..not-so Grumpy Oul Farts.!!
Thank you TOM for your, Inimitable, Interminable & multivariate repertoire of lyric & song.!
You make two Grumpy Oul Fartz, who, realising that "Life Ain't No Rehersal" are determined to live each moment of it in full.....or sometimes just "Full".!!!
...ps...Tom, did you ever find out exactly..."What He Was Makin In There"????
If you haven't..Don't spoil the mystery.!!!
@kiramara77
Grapefruit moon, one star shining, shining down on me.
Heard that tune, and now I'm pining, honey, can't you see?
'Cause every time I hear that melody, well, something breaks inside,
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining, can't turn back the tide.
Never had no destination, could not get across.
You became my inspiration, oh but what a cost.
'Cause every time I hear that melody, well, something breaks inside,
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining, is more than I can hide.
Now I'm smoking cigarettes and I strive for purity,
And I slip just like the stars into obscurity.
'Cause every time I hear that melody, well, puts me up a tree,
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining, is all that I can see.
@Snakefinger1000
Tom saved my life one night. I was fast asleep and "On The Nickel" came on the radio and woke me up. My house was burning and full of smoke I couldn't see the light through the smoke. I was very young 25 I think, now I'm 66. It's been a rough road, lots of bumps but Tom has always been here for me.
@janiceward2169
Snakefinger1000 you should write a book around that experience..!
@emanuelenglund1036
One of the best songs ever. I rank it very high!
@jamesburns2500
Pure emotion. Pure genius. No other song speaks to me like this one does. Thank you Mr. Waits.
@MrLachucik
This song turns a smile into a frown in the nicest possible way
@noelmcinerney520
Tom waits is a genius,he has a soul that he doesn't want to hide
@AnnaLVajda
He hides a little he reveals what he wants to when he wants too. Soul stripper.
@obraddabovic
@@AnnaLVajda Arent we all soul strippers in our own unique ways?
@jasonpierce-williams165
Tom....the closest friend I never met.....
@asanilsson7509
:-) It's the same for me ... Many hours in company with Tom, for inspiration, comfort, meditation or just digging! At work, in the car, at a café or in a restaurant, with other Tom-friends, at home, 1 concert in Gothenborg and 1 in Stockholm, he's been with me for over 30 years now. I feel grateful to "know" him.