Tom Waits' Top 20 Albums
Ever hear that quote “talking about music is like dancing about architecture?” I think Steve Martin said it. Well, when Tom Waits talks about his top 20 albums, it’s like watching a 5-part interpretive dance cycle about Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s absolutely beautiful. Case in point (about Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica):
The roughest diamond in the mine, his musical inventions are made of bone and mud. Enter the strange matrix of his mind and lose yours. This is indispensable for the serious listener. An expedition into the centre of the earth, this is the high jump record that’ll never be beat, it’s a merlot reduction sauce. He takes da bait. Dante doing the buck and wing at a Skip James suku jump. Drink once and thirst no more.
Comments
“seasick and sacrilegious” is my new favorite phrase.
When I first heard it, it was so loud, I wanted to go outside and listen through the door, and it was jazz.
LISTEN THROUGH THE DOOR?! So cool.
I’m glad to see I have a few of these albums already, but I’m making a point of getting the others. Tonigh.
Yeah, I just started grabbing them from what.cd last night.
Off topic a bit, but have you guys seen “Wristcutters: A Love Story?” Tom Waits is in it. And it’s actually pretty cool, I just saw it this weekend.
Yeah, Sam suggested it to me. It’s a great story and Tom Waits steals the damn show.
I’ve got it coming up next on my Netflix, actually. Sam also recommended it to me
Also, Waits is playing the Devil in the new Terry Gilliam movie. Of course, the movie’s cursed and was starring Heath Ledger as it’s star, so if it ever gets finished, it should be awesome.
So I’m listening to this Sinatra album that he recommends and I’m thinking “wow… I’m really loving this! It sounds like… like Chet Baker! It’s a whole side of Sinatra I’ve never heard before!” There’s no boisterous big band (though they’re there, they’re very subdued), no party to be found. Just amazing sweet songs with him truly crooning away, just like Chet Baker. And wouldn’t you know, one of my all-time favorite Chet Baker songs comes on, I Get Along Without You Very Well. I still prefer the Chet Baker version, with the Mr. Rogers-themey glockenspiel, but the classic 50’s love song strings here are a nice touch.
Also, I wish I’d listened to Exile on Main Street a long time ago. It seems to avoid the one thing I really never liked about the Stones: great singles, shitty album. Exile actually seems to flow like a really solid album and I didn’t want to skip anything.
Thanks, Tom Waits!