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."
Virginia Avenue
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Trying to find somebody to tell my troubles to.
Harold's club is closing,
And everybody's going on home:
What's a poor boy to do?
I'll just get on back into my short,
Sleep off all the crazy lizards inside of my brain.
There's got to be some place
That's better than this
This life I'm leading's driving me insane
And let me tell you I'm dreaming
Let me tell you that
I'm dreaming to the twilight,
This town has got me down.
I've seen all the highlights,
I've been walking all around
I won't make a fuss, I'll take a Greyhound bus,
Carry me away from here:
Tell me, what have I got to lose?
Cause I'm walking on down Columbus Avenue
The bars are all closing,
Cause it's quarter to two
Every town I go to is like a lock without a key
Those I leave behind are catching up on me,
Let me tell you they're catching up on me,
They're catching up on me
Catching up on me, catching up on me,
Catching up on me.
The song Virginia Avenue by Tom Waits tells the story of a man who is walking down the street feeling lost and looking for someone to confide his problems in. The singer's goal is to forget his worries by getting drunk at Harold's club, which is unfortunately closing, forcing him to leave. He decides to return to his lodging, hoping to find solace there from the imaginary creatures that torment him. The lyrics reveal how he is unhappy with his life and desperate to find somewhere better.
As the song progresses, the singer confesses that he is dreaming of an escape from the drudgery of his present life. He longs for something better than what he has, which makes him feel trapped and drives him insane. The reference to Columbus Avenue signifies that he is now moving from one town to another, feeling increasingly isolated and exhausted. Every locale he visits feels the same, trapping him in an endless cycle of despair.
Overall, the lyrics are quite articulate, presenting a vivid picture of a man who is lost and trying to find his way through the disorienting nature of existence. The song presents a touching account of a man's struggles and his attempts to find hope in a world that seems to be working against him.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, I'm walking on down Virginia Avenue
I'm strolling down Virginia Avenue
Trying to find somebody to tell my troubles to.
I'm searching for someone to confide in.
Harold's club is closing,
Harold's club shuts down.
And everybody's going on home:
All are leaving for home:
What's a poor boy to do?
What is a poor man left to do?
I'll just get on back into my short,
I'm going to my apartment
Make it back to the fort
Returning to the house.
Sleep off all the crazy lizards inside of my brain.
Sleep off the unbearable thoughts in my mind.
There's got to be some place That's better than this This life I'm leading's driving me insane
There must be a better place other than this place that is driving me crazy.
And let me tell you I'm dreaming Let me tell you that I'm dreaming to the twilight,
I'm daydreaming of the twilight hour.
This town has got me down.
This town has got me down.
I've seen all the highlights, I've been walking all around
I've seen everything this place has to offer, and I've walked all over.
I won't make a fuss, I'll take a Greyhound bus, Carry me away from here:
To avoid a scene, I'll board a Greyhound bus, and it will take me away from here:
Tell me, what have I got to lose?
What would I lose by leaving this place?
Cause I'm walking on down Columbus Avenue
As I walk down Columbus Avenue
The bars are all closing, Cause it's quarter to two
All bars shut by 2 am.
Every town I go to is like a lock without a key
Every new town is disappointing.
Those I leave behind are catching up on me,
The people I left behind are reaching out to me
Let me tell you they're catching up on me, They're catching up on me
They are catching up on me.
Catching up on me, catching up on me, Catching up on me.
Continuously catching up on me.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, JALMA MUSIC
Written by: Thomas Waits
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Peter Casey
What a haunting masterpiece
“Sleep off all the craziness that’s inside of my brain…”
DangerZone
*Crazy lizards
David Schmidt
It takes amazing attention to detail to write/produce the kind of sound/sleaze that Tom creates....there's slinky and then there's Tom...
Nebojsa Culjkovic
Genious musician. Composer, writer, singer and also actor one of my favororites ever..
3rdRock
Legendary !
Anton K
His first melodies times when the biggest trees were growing to the skies
Matthew Brown
Nice nighttime walk music
melissa johannes
fuckin great song
Helena Figueiredo
Sleep off all the crazy lizards inside of my brain!
Carlos Matos
Este é o 3.º dos 15 temas de uma radionovela que (começou aqui: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc_moGu2dAs; e) prossegue aqui: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zREpjywwJpo.