Recently, and from time to time, I have read comments from people who say that Tom Waits has got to be the most underrated artist around today. While Waits is unique and his fans are sometimes described as part of a “cult following,” he is certgainly not “underrated” by those in the know.
Waits’ raspy voice has been described, with some justification, as “like how you’d sound if you drank a quart of bourbon, smoked a pack of cigarettes and swallowed a pack of razor blades. . . . Late at night. After not sleeping for three days.” Many of his songs give the impression that they were recorded at 3:00 a.m., after the bars all closed, before he crawled back to his Old ’55 Chevy to sleep it off.
Whether that characterization may have been accurate at sometime in the past, I can’t say. I believe that now, however, it is part of an artistic persona that Tom has fostered and publicly maintains because it serves him well. In fact, he is a very talented individual who seems to be very much in control of his career decisions and creative endeavors. He has been recording for more than 40 years and has released more than 20 albums. Two of those albums have won Grammys and he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He has also acted in more than 30 motion pictures – I think the most recent was Seven Psychopaths in 2012. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the soundtrack on Francis Ford Coppola’s 1982 musical film, One from the Heart (which was not a very successful movie aside from the soundtrack).
As another indication that Tom Waits is quite successful and not as underrated as some might think, look at the consequences of his staunch refusal to let his songs be used for advertising. That position was well known even a quarter century ago when Frito-Lay produced a commercial based on his song “Step Right Up,” which is a “jazzy parody of commercial hucksterism.” Since it was known that Waits would not participate in the project, a sound-alike singer was found and the commercial was made and played on the radio. Tom sued and was awarded more than $2.5 million. On appeal, Frito-Lay claimed that Waits was not “widely known” enough to warrant legal protection of his “distinctive style”; but he Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. The quotes above about the bourbon and razor blade voice and commercial hucksterism are from that appellate opinion (which you can read here).
Ad agency folks seem slow to learn at times, and only a year later Levi’s used a version of Tom’s “Heartattack and Vine” in a commercial. Again he sued. The commercial was withdrawn and Levi’s publicly apologized in a full-page ad in Billboard. In the 21st Century, Audi ran a commercial in Spain with music very similar to Waits’ “Innocent When You Dream” (after Tom had refused to participate or permit the use of his music), and he recovered another judgment in the Spanish courts. In 2005, another car company, Opel, tried to persuade him to sing for their Scandinavian commercials, then hired a sound-alike singer when he refused. Opel claimed the commercials used music composed by Brahms. Hmmmm, it would be interesting to hear Tom sing Brahms. Anyway, Opel did settle the resulting lawsuit for an undisclosed sum, which Waits reportedly donated to charity.
Tom Waits has been married to Kathleen Brennan for nearly 35 years, they have three children, he has not drunk alcohol for several decades and he lives close to my good friend Annette and her husband Mark DeBacker in the lovely and thoroughly middle class town of Santa Rosa, California.
Now for the good news: next week is going to be another Break Week around here. I won’t be posting anything new for a couple of weeks. It seemed good to sail into Break Week with an old favorite. Here is Tom Waits’ ” Shiver Me Timbers” from the 1974 album, The Heart of Saturday Night. (For some reason this video goes on for a minute or so after the song ends, but it is just silent).
Shiver Me Timbers
By Tom Waits
My body’s at home, but my heart’s in the wind
Where the clouds are like headlines on a new front-page sky
My tears are salt water, and the moon’s full and high
And I know Martin Eden’s gonna be proud of me now
And many before me, who’ve been called by the sea
To be up in the crow’s nest, and singing my say
Shiver me timbers, cause I’m a-sailing away
And the fog’s lifting, and the sand’s shifting, and I’m drifting on out
Old Captain Ahab, he ain’t got nothing on me now
So swallow me, don’t follow me, I’m traveling alone
Blue water’s my daughter, and I’m gonna skip like a stone
So please call my missus, gotta tell her not to cry now
‘Cause my goodbye is written by the moon in the sky
Hey, and nobody knows me, I can’t fathom my staying
And shiver me timbers, cause I’m a-sailing away
And the fog’s lifting, and the sand’s shifting, and I’m drifting on out
And old Captain Ahab, he ain’t got nothing on me
So come and swallow me, follow me, I’m traveling alone
Blue water’s my daughter, I’m gonna skip like a stone
And I’m leaving my family, I’m leaving all my friends
My body’s at home, but my heart’s in the wind
Where the clouds are like headlines upon a new front-page sky
And shiver me timbers, ’cause I’m a-sailing away
I went to Ebbetts a few times. The two shows I distinctly remember were a Jesse Winchester show(you might have been there for that one) and a show that we went to to see Leon Redbone. The amazing thing was that Joan Armatrading was the opening act and I remember her more than Leon. Probably some others that I will remember as the medication wears off.
This may seem a little off-topic to begin with, but it should come back before too long.
Back when I was practicing law, I once represented two sort of well known bands for a very short time – the Association and the Average White Band. Neither one of them ever paid me, and based on the representations of their Los Angeles attorney I did not get any kind of retainer before I began. Anyway, the Association had played at a club in Aspen and had not been paid (either). I had to go to Aspen for a hearing, and at that time Annette was the librarian in Basalt so I stayed over there for an extra day to climb Mt. Sopris with her and the dogs. We were prudent and made it up the mountain before noon in order to get down in the trees before any thunderstorms blew in. As I was getting ready to leave, someone called Annette. When she finished the telephone conversation she told me that Jimmy Buffett was getting married near Aspen that evening, that the Eagles were going to play at the reception, and that she had the opportunity to attend by working for the caterer, who was the person who had called. I was also invited to work for the caterer.
However, Jesse Winchester was playing at Ebbetts Field that night and I had tickets. I chose to drive back over the mountains to see Jesse perform. I believe that is the time that you said I might have been there. Cathy and I both were, but neither Jimmy Buffett nor any of the Eagles have spoken to me since. I may have offended them by skipping the wedding.
Actually, none of those folks ever spoke to me before that, either.
You’ve hit on one of my favorite artists. As you probably know, Tom is a San Diego boy. As a young man he performed at a folkclub called the Heritage in Mission Beach. When I was in high school I went to the Heritage a couple of times but never saw him. Slow forward to Denver Colorado where I first heard him and his music in a radio interview(I don’t remember the station) promoting his appearance somewhere on Larimer street. I worked in a high rise (nearer the bottom than the top) near Larimer and I remember looking out the window and seeing Tom in a black suit and fedora carrying a guitar case walking across a plaza of some sort headed for a sound check I assume. I always regretted not leaving my post and running out to say something to him, but what would I say really. It would be several years later in Santa Barbara that I saw him in concert. He is definitely a unique singer/songwriter who expertly captures the heartache loneliness, resilience and humor of a whole lot of people that I expect to see in a Hopper painting. Thanks for the song and reminding me of those moments in my life.
Now you’ve reminded me of some times back in the mid-1970s when I was working in or near downtown Denver. There was a club in the Brooks Towers building called Ebbetts Field, which seated only 200 and some people but still hosted top national acts. The performers would stay nearby and from time to time I would see sort of famous people like Gene Clark or Eric Anderson or Emmylou Harris out walking around. Like you, I didn’t have anything to really say to them so I did not bother them. There were some great shows there with a lot live recordings still available. Personally, I did not attend too many of the shows because – to quote Lou Reed – “some people like to go out dancing/ and other people, well, they have to work/just watch me now.”