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 over
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The sky's the colour of lead
All you've left me is a feather
On an unmade bed
It's always me whenever there's trouble
The world does nothing but turn
And the ring it fell off my finger
But it's over, it's over, it's over
I'm getting dressed in the dark
Our story ends before it begins
I always confess to everyones sins
The nail gets hammered down
And it's over, let it go
So don't go and make a big deal out of nothing
Well it's just a storm on a dime
And I've always found there's nothing
That money can't buy
I've already gone to the place I'm going
There's no place left to fall
And there's something to be said
For saying nothing at all
And it's over, it's over, it's over
It's done forgotten and through
No one cares what it's all for
You'll be buried in the clothes that you've never wore
So keep your suitcase by the door
It's over, let it go
No one cares what it's all for
You'll be buried in the clothes that you never wore
So keep your suitcase by the door
It's over, let it go
You gotta let it go
Let it go, let it go
The lyrics of Tom Waits's song "It's Over" start with a bleak picture of the grey sky, which serves as a metaphor for the ennui and sadness that the singer is feeling. The next line, "All you've left me is a feather on an unmade bed," is an interesting illustration. It is a poetic way to suggest that the loved one has left and the singer is left with the mere trace of their presence. It can also imply that the lover's presence was so fleeting as to not even leave a mark, like a feather that has been blown away.
As the song progresses, the singer takes the responsibility for the failed relationship upon themselves, stating that it is always them that is the source of trouble. The line "the ring fell off my finger, I guess I'll never learn" may suggest that the singer's inability to hold onto the ring is a metaphor for their inability to hold onto the love of their life, and perhaps that this is a repetition of a pattern that they have experienced with previous relationships.
The message of the song is acceptance, in a sense of recognizing that nothing lasts forever, and that it is better to let go of the past and move on with life. The chorus repeats the words "It's over, let it go" which serves as a reminder that it is time to move on from the past and embrace what lies ahead.
Line by Line Meaning
You must have brought the bad weather with you
I blame you for the misery I'm feeling.
The sky's the colour of lead
The sky is dark and gloomy, reflecting my mood.
All you've left me is a feather, on an unmade bed
You left me with nothing but a reminder of your fleeting presence.
It's always me whenever there's trouble, the world does nothing but turn
I'm always the one who suffers when bad things happen, and yet the world keeps on moving.
And the ring it fell off my finger, I guess I'll never learn
I lost something valuable and it seems that I'll never stop making the same mistakes.
But it's over, it's over, it's over
This is the end, there's no turning back.
I'm getting dressed in the dark
I'm lost, confused and alone.
Our story ends before it begins
Our relationship was doomed from the start.
I always confess to everyone's sins
I take responsibility for others' mistakes.
The nail gets hammered down
Those who stick out get punished.
And it's over, let it go
Accept that it's over and move on.
So don't go and make a big deal out of nothing
Don't exaggerate insignificant problems.
Well it's just a storm on a dime
The current issue is small and insignificant.
And I've always found there's nothing, that money can't buy
Money can solve almost any problem.
I've already gone to the place I'm going
I've accepted my fate.
There's no place left to fall
I've hit rock bottom.
And there's something to be said, for saying nothing at all
Sometimes it's better to keep quiet and avoid confrontation.
It's done forgotten and through
This is finished and will be quickly forgotten.
No one cares what it's all for
The purpose of it all is irrelevant.
You'll be buried in the clothes that you never wore
You'll leave this world with regrets for things you never did.
So keep your suitcase by the door
Be ready to leave at any moment.
It's over, let it go
Accept that it's over and move on.
You gotta let it go
It's time to let go of the past and move forward.
Let it go, let it go
Repetition of the idea that it's time to move on and let go.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: KATHLEEN BRENNAN, THOMAS ALAN WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Vesela Simeonova
One day when I have a bar with dim lights and old thick wood furniture with dark red velvet upholstery, this song will be played in the wee hours when only folks ruminating over failed relationships remain in the bar... they will all wear hats of course
mike f
See you then, pal
Evan Flick
I put this song in my noir film
GRMN GTRRZ
Wheres the original version