Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits, in Pomona, California, on December 7, 19… Read Full Bio ↴Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits, in Pomona, California, on December 7, 1949) is a prolific American singer, songwriter, composer, and actor.

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."

Home I'll Never Be
Tom Waits Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I've been out in the world and I'm only ten

Don't worry about me if I should die of pleurisy

Across to Mississippi, across to Tennessee
Across the Niagara, home I'll never be
Home in ol' Medora, home in Ol' Truckee
Apalachicola, home I'll never be

Better or for worse, thick and thin
Like being married to the Little poor man
God he loves me (God he loves me)
Just like I love him (just like I love him)
I want you to do (I want you to do)
Just the same for him (just the same for him, yeah)

Well the worms eat away but don't worry watch the wind
So I left Montana on an old freight train (on an old freight train)
The night my father died in the cold cold rain (in the cold cold rain)

Road to Opelousas, road to Wounded Knee
Road to Ogallala home I'll never be
Road to Oklahoma, road to El Cahon
Road to Tahachapi, road to San Antone

Hey, hey

Road to Opelousas, road to Wounded Knee
Road to Ogallala, home I'll never be
Road to Oklahoma, road to El Cahon
Road to Tahachapi, road to San Antone

Home I'll never be, home I'll never be

Home I'll never be, home I'll never be
Home I'll never be, home I'll never be

Overall Meaning

Tom Waits's song "Home I'll Never Be" is a melancholic tale of a young boy who leaves New York in 1949 and travels across the country on his own. He sets out on this journey with little to his name, but with an unwavering determination to leave behind the hardships of his former life. He travels through Montana, where he reconnects with his estranged father in a gambling hall. The boy seems to be wise beyond his years, as he confronts his father and asks where he's been all his life.

The song touches on themes of homelessness, abandonment, and loneliness. It speaks to the hardships that many people face when they set out on their own, without a clear destination or a support system. The boy's journey across America is filled with uncertainty and danger, but he never loses sight of his goal. Despite the many obstacles he faces, and the fact that he may never find a place to call home, he continues down the road, hoping that he can find a better life.

In the end, the song leaves us with a sense of bittersweet nostalgia. The boy may never reach his destination, but his determination and resilience inspire us to keep moving forward, even when the road ahead seems endless.

Line by Line Meaning

I left New York in 1949
In 1949, I departed from New York

To go across the country without a bad blame dime
I traveled across the country with no money

Montana in the cold cold fall
I arrived in Montana in the cold autumn

Found my father in the gambling hall
I found my father in a gambling hall

Father, Father where you been?
I asked my father where he had been

I've been out in the world and I'm only ten
My father said he had already traveled a lot despite being only ten years old

Don't worry about me if I should die of pleurisy
My father told me not to worry if he dies from pleurisy

Across to Mississippi, across to Tennessee
I crossed the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers

Across the Niagara, home I'll never be
I crossed the Niagara river but will never be able to return home

Home in ol' Medora, home in Ol' Truckee
I used to call Medora and Truckee my home

Apalachicola, home I'll never be
I will never call Apalachicola my home

Better or for worse, thick and thin
Through good and bad times, I will stay loyal

Like being married to the Little poor man
My situation is similar to being married to a poor man

God he loves me (God he loves me)
I believe that God loves me

Just like I love him (just like I love him)
I love God just as he loves me

I want you to do (I want you to do)
I want you to do the same

Just the same for him (just the same for him, yeah)
Do the same for God as I do for him

Well the worms eat away but don't worry watch the wind
Although worms may eat away at my body, I am not worried as the wind will take my spirit

So I left Montana on an old freight train (on an old freight train)
I left Montana on a freight train that was old

The night my father died in the cold cold rain (in the cold cold rain)
My father died one night during a cold rainstorm

Road to Opelousas, road to Wounded Knee
I traveled on the roads to Opelousas and Wounded Knee

Road to Ogallala home I'll never be
I will never call Ogallala my home

Road to Oklahoma, road to El Cahon
I also traveled on the roads to Oklahoma and El Cajon

Road to Tahachapi, road to San Antone
I passed through Tahachapi and San Antonio

Home I'll never be, home I'll never be
I will never find my true home

Home I'll never be, home I'll never be
My longing for home will never be fulfilled

Home I'll never be, home I'll never be
I have accepted that I will never find a permanent home

Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, JALMA MUSIC
Written by: JACK KEROUAC, TOM WAITS

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

Swaggs303

5y↑3

I left New York in 1949
To go across the country without a bad blame dime
Montana in the cold cold fall
Found my father in the gambling hall
Father, Father where you been?
I've been out in the world and I'm only ten
Father, Father where you been?
I've been out in the world and I'm only ten
Don't worry about me if I should die of pleurisy
Across to Mississippi, across to Tennessee
Across the Niagara, home I'll never be
Home in ol' Medora, home in Ol' Truckee
Apalachicola, home I'll never be
Better or for worse, thick and thin
Like being married to the Little poor man
God he loves me (God he loves me)
Just like I love him (just like I love him)
I want you to do (I want you to do)
Just the same for him (just the same for him, yeah)
Well the worms eat away but don't worry watch the wind
So I left Montana on an old freight train (on an old freight train)
The night my father died in the cold cold rain (in the cold cold rain)
Road to Opelousas, road to Wounded Knee
Road to Ogallala home I'll never be
Road to Oklahoma, road to El Cahon
Road to Tahachapi, road to San Antone
Hey, hey
Road to Opelousas, road to Wounded Knee
Road to Ogallala, home I'll never be
Road to Oklahoma, road to El Cahon
Road to Tahachapi, road to San Antone
Home I'll never be, home I'll never be
Home I'll never be, home I'll never be
Home I'll never be, home I'll never be

All comments from YouTube:

GIARC SNOMMIT

12y↑29

As long as Tom Waits lives, there is goodness in the world. Mr Waits (if you're out there trolling the web), know that you inspire and comfort many souls. Never stop.

Vytautas A.

1y↑1

This song is like a blanket after many miles of harsh terrain.

Fro

6y↑12

a masterpiece

coreycox2345

6y↑2

I love the cover art for this. It is perfect for the theme of the songs, which seem of another time.

Franks mild years

3y↑1

Oh, Tom, you're a blessing.

Jake Wall

5y↑2

The fact that this was recorded and the way it was recorded and who it was recorded by, makes me hate it here a little less. Much love, Tom, you fuckin' rock.

Mick Sylvestre

7y↑4

This song always make me cry.

Vytautas A.

1y↑1

“So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars’ll be out, and don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.“