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."
Telephone Call From Istanbul
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Living in a medicine chest
Medite-Romanian hotel back
Sprawled across a roll top desk
The monkey rode a blade on an overhead fan
They paint the donkey blue if you pay
I got a telephone call from Istanbul
My baby's coming home today
Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?
"Get me out of town" is what fireball said
Never trust a man in a blue trenchcoat
Never drive a car when you're dead
Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem
Dye your hair yellow and raise your hand
Follow me to Beulah's on dry creek road
I got to wear the hat that my baby done sewed
Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?
"Get me out of town" is what fireball said
Never trust a man in a blue trenchcoat
Never drive a car when you're dead
Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem
Dye your hair yellow and raise your hand
Follow me to Beulah's on dry creek road
I got to wear the hat that my baby done sewed
Well, take me down to buy a tux on red rose bear
I got to cut a hole in the day
I got a telephone call from Istanbul
My baby's coming home today
Sell me one of those if I shave my head
"Get me out of town" is what fireball said
Never trust a man in a blue trenchcoat
Never drive a car when you're dead
Saturday's a festival, now Friday's just a gem
Dye your hair yellow and raise your hand
Follow me to Beulah's on dry creek road
I got to wear the hat that my baby done sewed, whoa
Tom Waits’s “Telephone Call From Istanbul” is a surrealist journey into the exotic sights and sounds of a far-off land. The song takes us through a series of disconnected images, beginning with the broken glass and medicine chest of a hotel room. In this world, monkeys ride on ceiling fans and donkeys are painted blue for a fee. Against this backdrop of sensory overload, the singer receives a telephone call from Istanbul, announcing that his lover is on her way home.
Throughout the song, Waits’s lyrics are full of cryptic phrases and references. Fireball, for example, is a recurring character who advises the singer to “get out of town.” Meanwhile, the blue trenchcoat-wearing man seems to represent an untrustworthy presence. Amid all these strange and elusive details, the sense of urgency conveyed by the repeated “I got a telephone call from Istanbul” solidifies the song’s emotional core.
The song is a kaleidoscopic adventure, full of mystery and intrigue. Like many of Waits’s works, “Telephone Call From Istanbul” demands a listener who’s willing to immerse themselves in the song’s off-kilter world and find their own meaning in its imagery.
Line by Line Meaning
All night long on the broken glass
The singer has been up all night on the floor surrounded by broken glass, possibly from drinking or partying.
Living in a medicine chest
The singer feels trapped or confined, like they are living inside a medicine chest or pill bottle.
Medite-Romanian hotel back
The singer is staying in a hotel that is a blend of Mediterranean and Romanian culture, or possibly just uses those names to sound exotic.
Sprawled across a roll top desk
The artist is lying across a roll top desk in a state of exhaustion or drunkenness.
The monkey rode a blade on an overhead fan
This line is nonsensical, but could suggest a surreal or absurdist quality to the artist's experience.
They paint the donkey blue if you pay
This line is nonsensical, but could suggest that anything is possible or can be bought for the right price in this world.
I got a telephone call from Istanbul
The singer received a phone call from someone in Istanbul, indicating a long-distance or overseas connection.
My baby's coming home today
The artist is excited that their loved one is returning home after being away for some time.
Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head?
The artist is possibly in a marketplace or shop, asking if they can purchase something in exchange for shaving their head.
"Get me out of town" is what fireball said
Fireball, who may be a person or a thing, is expressing a desire to leave town or escape from a situation.
Never trust a man in a blue trenchcoat
The singer is warning against trusting someone who looks suspicious or untrustworthy, specifically a man wearing a blue trenchcoat.
Never drive a car when you're dead
This line may be interpreted as a humorous or ironic warning against reckless behavior.
Saturday's a festival, Friday's a gem
The singer is suggesting that Saturday is a celebratory day, while Friday is a valuable but underappreciated day.
Dye your hair yellow and raise your hand
This line is nonsensical, but could suggest a rebellious or nonconformist attitude.
Follow me to Beulah's on dry creek road
The singer is inviting someone to go with them to Beulah's, which could be a specific place or a metaphorical destination.
I got to wear the hat that my baby done sewed
The artist is wearing a hat that was made by their loved one, indicating a sentimental attachment.
Well, take me down to buy a tux on red rose bear
The artist is asking someone to take them to buy a tuxedo, possibly at a place called Red Rose Bear.
I got to cut a hole in the day
This line is ambiguous, but could suggest a desire to make a change or escape from a routine.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: THOMAS ALAN WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@bjelliott
"Never drive a car when you're dead." You can't argue with advice like that!
@QualityCrazy1967
😅😅
@dvrcdsuka
👌🏻😁
@jokerjolly5873
😂😂😂
@fl366
I can't dissagree.
@marycrawley3828
And you simply have to obey the order: “Dye your hair yellow!”
@davidbartel4144
God, we're lucky to live on a planet with Tom Waits on it...
@causti9744
28653 other species cry about this
@kylefer
You can never stop discovering him, be it through his many movie appearances or highly contrasted tunes.
@ReactionShot
That may well be one of my very favorite comments about Tom Waits of all time.