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."
It’s Alright With Me
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Though your face is charming, it's the wrong face
It's not her face, but such a charming face
That it's all right with me
It's the wrong song in the wrong style
Though your smile is lovely, it's the wrong smile
It's not her smile, but a lovely smile
You can not know how happy I am we met
I'm strangely attracted to you
There's someone I'm trying so hard to forget
Don't you want to forget someone too?
And it's the wrong game and the wrong chips
Though your lips are tempting, it's the wrong lips
They're not her lips, but such tempting lips
That it's all right with me
It's the wrong time and the wrong place
Though your face is charming, it's the wrong face
It's not her face, but a charming face
And it's all right with me
It's the wrong song in the wrong style
Though your smile is lovely, it's the wrong smile
It's not her smile, but a lovely smile
And it's all right with me
You can not know how happy I am we met
I'm strangely attracted to you
There's someone I'm trying so hard to forget
Don't you want to forget someone too?
It's the wrong game and the wrong chips
Though your lips are tempting, it's the wrong lips
They're not her lips, but they're tempting lips
And it's all right with me
And it's all right, it's all right
It's all right with me
It's all right with me
It's the wrong time and the wrong place
Though your lips are charming, it's the wrong face
It's not her face, but a charming face
And it's all right with me
It's the wrong.
Tom Waits’s song “It’s Alright With Me” seems to be about a man meeting another woman who is not the one he truly desires. Despite this, he is charmed and attracted to her, even though everything about her is wrong – her face, her smile, her lips, and even the song they’re listening to. But despite all of this, he’s still happy to be with her and forget about the one he’s trying to move on from, and is strangely attracted to her.
The lyrics seem to convey a sense of loneliness and the desire for connection, even if it’s with the wrong person. The singer has someone in his past that he’s trying to forget, and being with this new woman helps him to do so. However, at the same time, he knows deep down that it’s not the person he truly desires, which is why he keeps repeating “It’s all right with me” – he’s trying to convince himself that it’s enough for now.
The song seems to use the metaphor of a game – “the wrong game and the wrong chips” – to describe the futility of trying to find the right person at the wrong time or place. The singer seems resigned to the fact that this woman is not the one he truly desires, but is trying to make the best of the situation anyway.
Line by Line Meaning
It's the wrong time and the wrong place
Although the situation is not ideal and fate seems to be working against us
Though your face is charming, it's the wrong face
Even though your attractiveness is undeniable, it's not the person I truly desire
It's not her face, but such a charming face
That it's all right with me
Your charming face is enough to make me forget about the person I truly desire
It's not her smile, but a lovely smile
Your smile may not be the one I truly desire, but it's still lovely
You can not know how happy I am we met
I'm incredibly happy to have met you, but there's still someone else on my mind
I'm strangely attracted to you
Your charm and allure is puzzling as it goes against my true desires
There's someone I'm trying so hard to forget
There's a person on my mind that I want to forget about, but can't seem to shake them off
Don't you want to forget someone too?
Maybe you also have someone on your mind that you want to forget about
They're not her lips, but such tempting lips
Although they're not the lips of the one I really desire, they're still tempting
And it's all right, it's all right
It's all right with me
Despite the circumstances not being ideal and the person not being who I truly desire, I'm okay with it
Writer(s): Porter Cole
Contributed by Matthew G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@kraminoss9148
What can you expect from a Jarmusch and Waits colaboration? The coolest videoclip in music history
@KRAZEEIZATION
It’s a great album. I bought the CD in 1992 but forgot it over the years. I found the vinyl yesterday and boy golly I’m mad about it again.
@nopartyleftthatsworthit4330
Love this man's work. Besides being a phenomenal musical genius he just crushes acting roles as well.
@dorlavegas
Just another grate video from Mr. Tom Waits. The sound is the coolest, sickest, most far out ever made. Love to see you again!!
@owlteachereducation
Possibly the coolest music video ever made?
@Aboyadita
Que Gran Genio Tom Waits!🤘🎼
@elenamilitopingitore5044
Phenomenally original, this man and his minds music
@maximpopov8651
Tom Waits is the best 💙♥️❤️
@punkassparker
I love that you can tell what happened here was Jim Jarmusch and Tom Waits were hanging out one afternoon and said "Fuck it, let's shoot a music video."
@melissasmith7544
Definitely!