Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits, in Pomona, California, on December 7, 19… Read Full Bio ↴Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits, in Pomona, California, on December 7, 1949) is a prolific American singer, songwriter, composer, and actor.

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."

Trouble's Braids
Tom Waits Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I built a fire in the skeleton backseat of an old Tucker
And I pulled on trouble's braids

I spanked cold red mud where the hornet stung deep
And I tossed in the ditch in a restless sleep
And I pulled on trouble's braids

I hung my rain-soaked jacket on some old barbed wire
Poured cold rusty water on a miserable fire
I pulled on trouble's braids

The creek was swollen by daybreak
And I could just barely see
And I floated downstream on an old dead tree
And I pulled on trouble's braids

I pulled on trouble's braids
I pulled on trouble's braids

Overall Meaning

In "Trouble's Braids," Tom Waits uses vivid and atmospheric lyrics to paint a portrait of a fugitive on the run. The singer hides in the briars by the quick mud, avoiding the main roads and passing out wolf tickets downwind from the bloodhounds. He pulls on trouble's braids, a vivid metaphor that suggests he's tempting fate or causing trouble for himself.

The lyrics describe the character sleeping by a cypress tree until his wounds stop bleeding. He blows the weather vane off an old road house and builds a fire in the skeleton back seat of an old Tucker. The singer also spanks cold red mud at the place where hornets stung him deeply, then dozes off in a restless sleep. As the song progresses, the singer pours cold, rusty water onto a miserable fire and floats downstream on an old dead tree, all while continuing to pull on trouble's braids.

The song's lyrics are open to interpretation, offering listeners an opportunity to engage with the song's themes. For some, the song might represent a search for freedom or release, while others might see it as a metaphor for the chaos and disorder of the modern world.

Line by Line Meaning

Well, I pulled on trouble's braids
I intentionally sought out danger and risk, inviting the consequences of my actions

And I hid in the briars out by the quick mud
I found refuge in a difficult and sticky situation, trying to avoid being caught

Stayin' away from the main roads
I avoided the safe and predictable routes, preferring to take a riskier path

Passin' out wolf tickets downwind from the blood hounds
I boasted and talked confidently despite being in a dangerous or vulnerable situation, while trying to avoid detection

And I lay by a cypress as quiet as a stone 'til the bleeding stopped
I tried to find peace and stillness after experiencing pain or hurt, waiting for time to heal my wounds

I blew the weather vane off some old road house
I caused destruction and chaos, disrupting the ordinary and predictable flow of things

I built a fire in the skeleton backseat of an old Tucker
I found warmth and comfort in a broken and abandoned place, making the best of a bad situation

I spanked cold red mud where the hornet stung deep
I confronted and faced the consequences of my actions, even if they were painful

And I tossed in the ditch in a restless sleep
I struggled and suffered in a difficult and uncomfortable situation, unable to find a peaceful rest

I hung my rain-soaked jacket on some old barbed wire
I let go of something that was weighing me down, shedding a burden I could no longer carry

Poured cold rusty water on a miserable fire
I tried to extinguish something that was burning within me, putting out a flame that was causing pain or trouble

The creek was swollen by daybreak
The situation had become more difficult and challenging over time

And I could just barely see
My vision and perception had been impaired by the difficulties I had faced

And I floated downstream on an old dead tree
I let myself be carried away by the flow of events, allowing fate to take me where it may

I pulled on trouble's braids
I continued to seek out danger and risk, unable to resist the thrill and excitement of living dangerously

I pulled on trouble's braids
I knew that the risks I took would have consequences, but I couldn't help myself from seeking them out

I pulled on trouble's braids
I lived my life on the edge, embracing risk and danger as a way of living fully and passionately

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, JALMA MUSIC
Written by: THOMAS ALAN WAITS

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

Madmaniac

43w↑2

Well, I pulled on trouble's braids
And I hid in the briars out by the quick mud
Stayin' away from the main roads
Passin' out wolf tickets downwind from the blood hounds
And I pulled on trouble's braids
And I lay by a cypress as quiet as a stone 'til the bleeding stopped
I blew the weather vane off some old road house
I built a fire in the skeleton backseat of an old Tucker
And I pulled on trouble's braids
I spanked cold red mud where the hornet stung deep
And I tossed in the ditch in a restless sleep
And I pulled on trouble's braids
I hung my rain-soaked jacket on some old barbed wire
Poured cold rusty water on a miserable fire
I pulled on trouble's braids
The creek was swollen by daybreak
And I could just barely see
And I floated downstream on an old dead tree
And I pulled on trouble's braids
I pulled on trouble's braids
I pulled on trouble's braids

All comments from YouTube:

Eddie Redmond

3y↑7

Tom Waits can surprise you track by track, as well as album by album. Love all of Swordfish Trombones. Sometimes find it hard to believe I heard the album in 1987 and still think it sounds original and timeless. One of the best albums I have been lucky enough to discover by pure chance.

Human Being

3y↑2

I only discovered Tom Waits about 2 years ago and when I first this album I was surprised by how fresh this album sounds for an early 80s album. It sounds like nothing else from that time.