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."
Nobody but You
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Don't take much to make you stop and look twice
And it's either feast or famine, I've found out that it's true
And I'm hungry as a bull dog, baby how about you
And when you ain't got no big mama, all the mamas look hot
And when lovin' is you weakness, your just bound to get caught
And the story never changes, history tells it so plain
And when you ain't got nobody, anybody looks nice
It don't take much to make you stop and look twice
And it's either feast or famine, I've found out that it's true
And I'm hungry as a bull dog, baby how about you, baby how about you
In this song, Tom Waits sings about the common human experience of loneliness and its effect on our perceptions of others. If we don't have anyone special in our lives, anyone can seem attractive to us. He talks about how this phenomenon can lead to getting caught up in love as a weakness. Waits also mentions how this is a timeless story throughout history. He offers himself as the male counterpart to his beloved, using "Dick" and "Jane" as a nod to the classic children's book series.
Waits masterfully captures the desperation of loneliness in this song. The repetition of "anybody looks nice" and "it don't take much to make you stop and look twice" drives home the point of how powerful the desire for companionship can be. The metaphor of being "hungry as a bull dog" further emphasizes this point, as dogs are known for their loyalty and attachment to their owners.
Overall, "Nobody But You" is a melancholic yet humorous take on the loneliness and the desire for love that we all experience in our lives.
Line by Line Meaning
Well when you ain't got nobody, anybody looks nice
When you're alone and feeling lonely, anyone who shows a bit of interest will seem attractive and desirable.
Don't take much to make you stop and look twice
It doesn't take much effort from someone to grab your attention and cause you to have second thoughts about being alone.
And it's either feast or famine, I've found out that it's true
Life can be unpredictable and sometimes you'll have everything you need, while at other times you'll have nothing.
And I'm hungry as a bull dog, baby how about you
I'm feeling desperately lonely and longing for companionship, are you feeling the same way?
And when you ain't got no big mama, all the mamas look hot
When you don't have a significant other or partner to be with, anyone who seems motherly and nurturing can be seen as appealing and attractive.
And when lovin' is your weakness, your just bound to get caught
When you're vulnerable to love and the desire for companionship, you're more likely to end up in a relationship and be 'caught' by someone.
And the story never changes, history tells it so plain
This pattern of looking for companionship when feeling alone and vulnerable is a repeated part of history and human nature.
And I'll be your Dick, honey, if you'll just be my Jane
I'm offering to be your partner and provide companionship, if you reciprocate with the same kind of commitment.
And it's either feast or famine, I've found out that it's true
Life remains unpredictable and sometimes abundant while at other times scarce.
And I'm hungry as a bull dog, baby how about you, baby how about you
I'm still feeling desperate for companionship and asking if you feel the same way.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: TOM WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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