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."
Hang Me in the Bottle
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
let the crows pick me clean but for my hat
where the wailing of a baby
meets the footsteps of the dead
we're all mad here
and the devil sticks his flag into the mud
Mrs Carol has run off with Reverend Judd
hell is such a lonely place
have I told you all about the eyeball kid?
he was born alone inside a petri dish
he was born without a body or a brow
and you'll die with the rose still on your lips
and in time the heart-shaped bone that was your hips
and all the worms
they will climb the rugged ladder of your spine
we're all mad here
and my eyeballs roll this terrible terrain
and we're all inside a decomposing train
and your eyes will die like fish
and the shore of your face will turn to bone
hang me in a bottle like a cat
let the crows pick me clean but for my hat
where the wailing of a baby
meets the footsteps of the dead
we're all mad here
The first verse of Tom Waits’s song, "Hang Me in the Bottle," is reminiscent of an old superstition where one can hang a cat in a bottle as a sort of charm to ward off evil spirits. The singer seems to be resigned to this fate, asking for their hat to be spared from the crows that will come to pick at their remains. The imagery then shifts to a haunting and macabre scene where the sound of a crying baby mixes with the footsteps of the dead. Here, Waits brings us into a world where death and decay are ever-present and, perhaps, signifies the inevitability of mortality. The line “we’re all mad here” seems to add to the surrealist imagery Waits is creating, portraying a world that is on the edge of sanity and insanity.
In the next verse, Waits introduces “Mrs. Carol” and “Reverend Judd” to paint a picture of debauchery and infidelity. He then introduces the idea of hell as a “lonely place” and a celebrity’s “big expensive face” being fleeting. The line “have I told you all about the eyeball kid?” brings us to the story of a person with a severe physical deformity - born without a body or brow. Waits juxtaposes this image of physical deformity with the idea of dying with a “rose still on your lips” and a heart-shaped bone in your hips – a reminder of how fleeting beauty can be.
The final verse brings us back to the original image of being hung in a bottle. The singer reiterates their request to be hung in this way, but this time with a stronger sense of finality. The haunting imagery from the first verse is reprised with the sound of the crying baby and footsteps of the dead. The singer then summarizes the general idea of the song with the line “we’re all mad here,” perhaps suggesting that we’re all just trying to ward off the inevitability of death, but ultimately we’re all just a little mad for trying.
Line by Line Meaning
well you can hang me in a bottle like a cat
I am not afraid of death, despite the horrific image of being hung in a bottle like a cat
let the crows pick me clean but for my hat
My body will decay and be devoured by scavengers, but even in death, I hope to keep my one prized possession - my hat
where the wailing of a baby meets the footsteps of the dead
Life and death are inextricably linked; even the cries of a newborn are eventually silenced by the march of time and mortality
we're all mad here
The world is an insane and chaotic place; everyone is a little crazy in their own way
and the devil sticks his flag into the mud
Evil has a hold on this world, and even the devil himself finds it difficult to maintain his footing in the muck of society
Mrs Carol has run off with Reverend Judd
The forces of temptation and corruption are strong, even affecting those society has deemed most holy
hell is such a lonely place
The afterlife, if such a thing exists, is a desolate and isolating experience
and your big expensive face will never last
Material possessions and physical beauty are fleeting, and even the richest among us eventually meet the same fate as everyone else
have I told you all about the eyeball kid?
Let me tell you a story about something truly strange and incomprehensible
he was born alone inside a petri dish
The world is capable of producing phenomena that defy ordinary explanation and understanding
he was born without a body or a brow
Even the most fundamental aspects of human existence, such as having a physical form, can be completely discarded in this world
and you'll die with the rose still on your lips
Even in death, there is beauty and life
and in time the heart-shaped bone that was your hips
Time itself corrodes and erodes everything, from the most tangible to the most abstract
and all the worms they will climb the rugged ladder of your spine
Death itself is not just a cessation of life, but a slow and grotesque process of decay
and my eyeballs roll this terrible terrain
My perspective on the world is one of constant horror and turmoil
and we're all inside a decomposing train
Our existence is a sort of slow-motion decay, like being trapped on a train that is perpetually falling apart
and your eyes will die like fish
Even the most vibrant and captivating features of a person can eventually become lifeless and dull
and the shore of your face will turn to bone
The most familiar and recognizable aspects of humanity can become unrecognizable and alien over time
we're all mad here
The world is fundamentally incomprehensible and insane, and everyone must find a way to navigate through it regardless
Contributed by Kaelyn G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Candle Mambo
i love both versions. great to be able to listen to different versions of songs. especially when they're by truly great artists like Tom Waits.
sunchilde68
this is incredibly awesome!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!
Caleb R
It is, but a different version... I've never heard it before. I love it.
ospididious
Tom was DEFINITELY inspired by Captain Beefheart, and this song proves it... Right on!
Hirnlego999
This is better than the album version!
hugh gabin
it reminds me of my friend shawn channeling demons in his sleep...haha...cool enough.. best song
Toma
1:00 my favourite part!!! Tom Waits is God, he even knows that everything goes to hell but he's too lazy to work that out.
A Demiurge
this guy's music is genius and you're gonna call him lazy?! You're outa your gourd.
Hiranipra
that picture of Tom looks like one of those posters you'd see in a school library that says READ in big letters over it, except a billion times better!
popelauncher
This is the scariest song I have ever heard!