things you have learned from Tom Waits

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"we're chained to the world and we've all gotta pull."

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:06 (twenty-two years ago)

"this is a brand new watch... same old time."

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Always keep a diamond in your mind!

― rgeary (rgeary), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Never drive a car when you're dead.

― rgeary (rgeary), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:10 (twenty-two years ago)

When you walk through the garden, you gotta watch your back.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:15 (twenty-two years ago)

if your career's floundering, you can make a lot of money ripping off someone who's retired from making music.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Enter the cynic.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:16 (twenty-two years ago)

that's why I make the big bucks.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:21 (twenty-two years ago)

you can make a lot of money ripping off someone who's retired from making music

I wonder if you're thinking of one someone, or many. Either way, I'm not sure you have anything approaching a valid point, considering... you know... how everything comes from somewhere. Are you calling Tom Waits "derivative"? Wouldn't you ordinarily consider that sort of thinking reactionary?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:26 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, everything has precedence, but ripping off someone's schtick (which may have come about as the result of that other someone's ripping off someone else's schtick, but managing to create something new out of it) without doing much to create your own style is not all that fascinating or worthy of praise. And I don't think it's "reactionary" to point that out.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:31 (twenty-two years ago)

The only kind of love is stone blind love.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:34 (twenty-two years ago)

In what way did Tom Waits not create anything new? Seems to me like his voice + his weird worldview contributed significantly to the vaudeville/beat thing he was dong pre-Island, and really became it's own thing after that.

Thank you luna for not derailing.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Everything goes to hell, anyway...

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Two dead ends and you still have to choose.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:36 (twenty-two years ago)

A good man is hard to find

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:37 (twenty-two years ago)

you can become a nice old coot after being a mildly creative f*ckup for 30 years, provided you have a demanding partner

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:37 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't have a drinking problem... cept when i can't get a drink.

― Asymmetric Cocktails (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:38 (twenty-two years ago)

the moon ain't romantic... it's intimidating as hell.

― Asymmetric Cocktails (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:38 (twenty-two years ago)

hstencil and gabbneb: I don't remember inviting haters to this thread.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:39 (twenty-two years ago)

When (angels) leave they're so hard to find...

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Fuck you Kenan, I don't need an invite. You don't want people posting whatever they damn well like, go to some other forum.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Mark Ribot really is the coolest man in the world

(Kenan, it's a free forum)

(also, who said we hated Tom Waits?)

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:41 (twenty-two years ago)

There are diamonds on my windshield.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Point taken, hstencil. I was just trying to find a nicer way to say "fuck you." I guess you don't feel the same need.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I never knew I needed you 'til I was caught up in a bind.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:43 (twenty-two years ago)

No, I sure don't. If you're really gonna be so touchy about not being able to control how people contribute to a thread you started, then maybe this isn't the right place for you.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:44 (twenty-two years ago)

and I said baby, I'm so far away from home.

― rgeary (rgeary), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Jesus, hstencil, lay off. I'm not being that touchy.

Looks like I'm up shit creek again.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:45 (twenty-two years ago)

dude don't sweat it. Just try not to take too much umbrage at one of my stupid jokes in the future.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Well I hope that I don't fall in love with you
'Cause falling in love just makes me blue.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll agree to not be so touchy if you will.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:47 (twenty-two years ago)

You're innocent when you dream.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Love's bittersweet, life's treasures deep.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Misery's the river of the world.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Hell doesn't want you and heaven is full.

― Prude (Prude), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:53 (twenty-two years ago)

The ocean doesn't want me today.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Today's grey skies
Tomorrow is tears
I'll have to wait till yesterday is here

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:54 (twenty-two years ago)

a little rain never hurt no-one

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:55 (twenty-two years ago)

When I'm lying in my bed at night! I don't wanna grow up!

― rgeary (rgeary), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:58 (twenty-two years ago)

T'ain't no sin to take off your skin
And dance around your bones.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 06:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, the whole thing is great.

When I'm lyin' in my bed at night
I don't wanna grow up
nothin' ever seems to turn out right
I don't wanna grow up
how do you move in a world of fog
that's always changing things
makes me wish that I could be a dog
when I see the price that you pay
I don't wanna gow up
I don't ever wanna be that way
I don't wanna grow up

Seems like folks turn into things that they'd never want
the only thing to live for is today...
I'm gonna put a hole in my T.V. set
I don't wanna grow up
open up the medicine chest
and I don't wanna gow up
I don't wanna have to shout it out
I don't wanna be filled with doubt
I don't wanna be a good boy scout
I don't wannt have to learn to count
I don't wanna have the biggest amount
I don't wanna grow up

Well when I see my parents fight
I don't wanna gow up
they all go out and drinking all night
and I don't wanna grow up
I'd rather stay here in my room
nothin' out there but sad and gloom
I don't wanna live in a big old tomb
on Grand Street

When I see the 5 o'clock news
I don't wanna grow up
comb their hair and shine their shoes
I don't wanna grow up
stay around in my old hometown
I don't wanna put no money down
I don't wanna get me a big old loan
work them fingers to the bone
I don't wanna float a broom
fall in love and get married then boom
how the hell did it get here so soon
I don't wanna grow up

― Captain Typo (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 07:00 (twenty-two years ago)

You can't unring a bell, junior.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 07:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I know that we both must part
You can live in my heart.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 07:08 (twenty-two years ago)

There's always some killin' you got to do around the farm.

― weatheringdaleson (weatheringdaleson), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 07:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Weeell Jesus gonna be here
He gonna be here soon

― manuel (manuel), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 07:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 07:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Somebody please, take Luna off to bed forevermore.

― Captain Typo (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 07:27 (twenty-two years ago)

(you know I would if I could, hon.)

― Captain Typo (kenan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 07:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm so sorry that I broke your heart
please don't leave my side
take me home
you silly boy
cause I'm still in love with you

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 07:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I wish you would.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 07:43 (twenty-two years ago)

"i'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"

― Asymmetric Cocktails (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 08:30 (twenty-two years ago)

"i'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"

I can't believe it took that long for someone to come up with that one!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 08:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Mister anywhere you point this thing
Has got to beat the hell out of the sting
Of going to bed with every dream that dies here every mornin

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 08:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Rudy's on the midway
And Jacob's in the hole
The monkey's on the ladder
The devil shovels coal
With crows as big as airplanes
The lion has three heads
And someone will eat the skin that he sheds

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 08:39 (twenty-two years ago)

What happened to Frank, can happen to you
Just find you a woman and watch what she'll do
That woman will take you, that woman's gonna break you
Look out man you're gonna loose, you're gonna loose your mind

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 08:40 (twenty-two years ago)

he didnt make up that lobotomy thing, thats old old old

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 08:41 (twenty-two years ago)

And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her
And the box-office is drooling, and the bar stools are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
'Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking, not me, not me, not me, not me, not me

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 08:47 (twenty-two years ago)

The captain is a one-armed dwarf, he's throwing dice along the wharf
In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king, so take this ring

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 08:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Change into a nine-year-old Hindu boy
get rid of your wife

― Sean M (Sean M), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

There ain't no devil, there's just God when he's drunk.

― Ess, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 12:44 (twenty-two years ago)

ya got to get behind the mule every morning and plow

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 12:55 (twenty-two years ago)

the piano is firewood, Times Square is a dream...
I find we'll lay down together in the cold cold ground...

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 12:58 (twenty-two years ago)

If you live it up, you won't live it down.

― Alan Connor, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(I think it's funny that stence is trying to call out Tom Waits for ripping (vague unspecified) people off when Tom Waits himself actually has been ripped off more than once specifically and won intellectual property lawsuits from it, but I think everything's funny, so whatevah.)

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

stripclubs = "getcha little sumthin thatcha can't get at home"

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

"I'm full of bourbon, I can't stand up."

― christoff (christoff), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 13:07 (twenty-two years ago)

"and it's 'mercy, mercy mr. percy. there ain't nothin' for me in jersey but a broken-down jalopy of a man i left behind.' "

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 13:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Strong coffee is important. Advertising is a joke. Love does end, sometimes. You can change, sometimes.
None of this matters when your walking Spanish down the hall.

― Brandon Welch (Brandon Welch), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

She says she still a virgin, but it is only a quarter to three.

― earlnash, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Well I fell in love
With your sailor's mouth and your wounded eyes
You better get down on the floor
Don't you know this is war

Alternately:

I'll tell you ONE thing, he's not building a playhouse for the children.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 14:38 (twenty-two years ago)

(Also, for Hstencil if he cares, I'll take any derivativeness Tom Waits has had over the years over tons of folks' alleged originality.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

If you get far enough away, you'll be on your way back home.

― Truck Turner, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

From AV club interview:

"You know mosquito repellents don't actually repel anything? They actually hide you because they block the mosquito's sensors. They don't know that you're there. It's like blinding them."

Now that's something I really learned from Tom Waits.

p.s. Tom Waits + hired car + Mohave desert at 3a.m. = 5*****

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 15:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Men with heads growing out their backs will not come to a happy end.

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)

His interviews are wonderful. Asked why he released two albums (Alice and Blood Money) at once, he replied:
"If yer gonna fire up the griddle, you might as well make more than one pancake."
Also, blood and whiskey doesn't come out in the wash.

― nonthings (nonthings), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Another interview: I recall Terry Gross asking (unsurprisingly) a pretty dopey question like "How did your voice get so gravelly?" Tom replied, "Oh, just a lot of screaming into pillows."

― nonthings (nonthings), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)

TOM WAITS FOR NO MAN

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

apparently, it's finally time for me to love. i've been waiting for such a long time too.

― Felcher (Felcher), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 17:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Another interview: I recall Terry Gross asking (unsurprisingly) a pretty dopey question like "How did your voice get so gravelly?" Tom replied, "Oh, just a lot of screaming into pillows."

From an interview around the time that Frank's Wild Years was released:

Q: Do you do anything special to take care of your voice?
Tom: I gargle with my own urine.

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Your spirit don't leave knowing
Your face or your name
And the wind through your bones
Is all that remains

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:50 (twenty-two years ago)

He taught me where NOT to go for a good marinara.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:54 (twenty-two years ago)

He helped me learn how to make non-ridiculous music.

― Les Claypool (nickalicious), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

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