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."
On the road
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Little Joe from Kokomo, it rattles to the ground
The dice is laughin' at the man that it throwed
I'm rollin' over to the lowside of the road
The moon is red and you're dancin' real slow
Twenty-nine miles left to go
The chain monkeys help you with your load
Jezebel is naked with an axe
The prosecution tells you to relax
Your head feels like it's ready to explode
And you're rollin' over, you're rollin' over
Well, the clapper has been ripped out of the bell
The flapper has been kicked right out of hell
When the horse whips the man that he rode
You're rollin' over to the lowside of the road
The dog won't bite if you beat him with a bone
And she's so shy when she's talkin' on the phone
And then the ground rises up and starts to groan
And rollin' over to the lowside of the road
Unto the lowside of the road
Unto the lowside of the road
Tom Waits's song "Lowside of the Road" is a reflective piece that discusses the feelings of despair and loneliness in today's society. It begins with the singer acknowledging that he is on a "black elevator" going down, which can be interpreted as a metaphor for his mood spiraling downwards. He then discusses the laughter of the dice, suggesting that luck is allowing him to lose. As he's "rollin' over to the lowside of the road," it's clear that he's aware of his current state of mind and that he's accepting his fate, though it is not a good one.
As the song progresses, the singer mentions "Jezebel," who is naked and holding an ax while he's facing a trial. This creates the image of a woman who is both seductive yet dangerous, which could represent troubles that he's facing. His "head feels like it's ready to explode," which further highlights the difficulty of the situation. He then goes on to discuss the fact that the "clapper has been ripped out of the bell" and the "flapper has been kicked right out of hell." These lines suggest that everything seems to be going wrong, and that things are just getting worse. Finally, the song ends with the singer acknowledging that he's rolling over to the "lowside of the road," resigning himself to the fact that things aren't going to get any better.
Overall, "Lowside of the Road" uses a variety of metaphors to describe the feeling of despair and the inevitability of losing in the game of life. The moon being red, the chain monkeys helping with the load, and the ground rising up and starting to groan are all examples of these metaphors. The song is a testament to Waits's poetic prowess and his ability to describe complex emotions in a simple yet resonant way.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm on a black elevator goin' down
I feel like I'm descending, stuck in a downward spiral and I don't know how to stop it.
Little Joe from Kokomo, it rattles to the ground
I feel like a small and insignificant person, barely making any impact in this world.
The dice is laughin' at the man that it throwed
Luck is not on my side, every roll of the dice seems to be against me.
I'm rollin' over to the lowside of the road
I'm heading towards the worst possible outcome, down the path of self-destruction.
The moon is red and you're dancin' real slow
The world feels ominous and uncertain, and yet people seem to be carrying on as if everything is normal.
Twenty-nine miles left to go
There's still a long way to go before anything gets better, and I'm not sure I have the strength to make the journey.
The chain monkeys help you with your load
Even when people try to help, it feels like they're just going through the motions and not really understanding the depth of my problems.
Jezebel is naked with an axe
Danger is all around me, disguised as seductive temptations that could lead me even further down the wrong path.
The prosecution tells you to relax
Even when people in authority try to calm me down, I know that the situation is still dire and under control.
Your head feels like it's ready to explode
The stress and anxiety of my life feels like it might become too much to handle at any moment.
And you're rollin' over, you're rollin' over
I'm trapped in a cycle of doom and can't seem to escape it, no matter how hard I try.
Well, the clapper has been ripped out of the bell
The signals and warning signs I used to rely on have been silenced, leaving me in the dark and without direction.
The flapper has been kicked right out of hell
Even in the afterlife, there's no escape from the suffering and torment I'm experiencing in life.
When the horse whips the man that he rode
Sometimes, life feels like a cruel joke where even things that are supposed to be helping me end up making things worse for me.
You're rollin' over to the lowside of the road
I'm becoming more and more hopeless, descending into the worst possible circumstances.
The dog won't bite if you beat him with a bone
Even when I try to assert dominance and control over my life, it doesn't always work out as planned.
And she's so shy when she's talkin' on the phone
Communication is difficult for me, even with people I'm close to, and I feel a constant sense of isolation and misunderstanding.
And then the ground rises up and starts to groan
Even the solid foundations of my life feel unstable and threatening, and I'm never sure when everything might come crashing down.
And rollin' over to the lowside of the road
No matter what happens, I seem to be heading in a downward spiral that feels inescapable and destined for failure.
Unto the lowside of the road
I'm fully succumbing to the worst possible life circumstances, and there doesn't seem to be any way out.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: KATHLEEN BRENNAN, THOMAS ALAN WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@rrtodd95
Three of my favourite things. Jack Kerouac, Tom Waits and Primus.
@wackyruss
Is that Les Claypool of Primus doing backing vocals? It sounds like him...