Tom Waits

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Pomona, California (early 1970s – present)

Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949 in Pomona, California) is an 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 (poets like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs). He could not make a living from his music, although he was well accepted by the critics. The people at that time didn’t like his classical bar music, pre-rock and americana styles reminiscent of musical genres of the 50s and 40s, such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville.

Waits has 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 by more visible artists, such as the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, and Rod Stewart.

Although Waits’ 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’ songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of bizarre, seedy characters and places, although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional and touching ballads.

While opening for Frank Zappa, the audience catcalled and refused to listen to him. It appeared that Wait’s classical americana and Zappa’s avantgarde jazz Rock were a less than a perfect match. Waits’ voice back then was soft, warm and clear. He sang songs about the losers on the streets: alcoholics, junkies, prostitutes and social outcasts.

1	Clap Hands full track	1,586
2	Jockey Full of Bourbon full track	1,544
3	Singapore full track	1,410
4	Downtown Train full track	1,233
5	Cemetery Polka full track	1,221
5	Time full track	1,221
7	Rain Dogs full track	1,208
8	Hang Down Your Head full track	1,138
9	Big Black Mariah full track	1,099
10	Tango Till They're Sore full track	1,073
11	Anywhere I Lay My Head full track	1,011
12	Gun Street Girl full track	993
13	Underground full track	849
14	Union Square full track	843
15	Blind Love full track	806

Top Albums

Rain Dogs
Tom Waits
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Swordfishtrombones
Tom Waits
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Orphans
Tom Waits
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Alice
Tom Waits
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Shoutbox

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MrMusicVibe wrote:
3 hours ago

Where the heck is temptation????!!!!!!!

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DominEl wrote:
yesterday morning

Geez, pretty much the entire Rain Dogs album is the top played.

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jilstudio wrote:
yesterday evening

Powerfully moving stuff...

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Justin1983 wrote:
Tuesday evening

I don't know if it's been said in this shoutbox before, but Tom Waits' performance is pretty much the only redeeming part of Short Cuts.

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Ciacchi wrote:
Tuesday evening

tom waits is the joker. and what you mean talking like waits? I wanna talk like waits too!

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foreign_affair wrote:
Tuesday morning

perfect perfect perfect!

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kitchendancing wrote:
Tuesday morning

I think "clap hands" deserves its rank.

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Prouders wrote:
Monday evening

One of the all time greats

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praisingfolly wrote:
Monday afternoon

Oh wow, Orphans is far better than I expected.

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badoom_bum wrote:
Monday afternoon

it's hard not to be affected and inspired by Tom. I mean, after a while you start speaking like him and you can't help. I wonder if that would be alright if I weren't a woman.

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mrfrufru wrote:
Monday morning

Oh yes, his music is just awesome. And it wouldn't be surprising at all, if he was, too. (;

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destro987 wrote:
Sunday evening

awesome man...

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MetalhedxGurl wrote:
Sunday evening

I really love this music.. its so different.

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praisingfolly wrote:
Sunday evening

The recording of the Atlanta performance on the Glitter and Doom tour is very good.

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sipoflife wrote:
Sunday afternoon

I just saw the movie "Down by the Law" by Jim Jarmusch.....didn't realise Tom Waits was the actor until I just saw this page !

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hozein wrote:
Sunday morning

Holy WAITS!

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Joebob91 wrote:
Saturday morning

Fucking pirate music.

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gryzli wrote:
7 days ago

Choć twórczość Waitsa zaliczona jest do rocka, najczęściej poetyckiego nurtu progresywnego (eksperymentalnego), to w jego muzyce krzyżują się wpływy jazzu, bluesa, folku I rock and rolla i tradycyjnego popu. Ech, ja bym w ogóle nie szufladkował takiego gościa jak Waits. On gra po prostu bardzo dobrą muzykę ;]. 'FACT: if you like Tom Wait you are automatically better than 50% of the worlds population.' Ha, ha! :D Waits is great! Great music!

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knox44 wrote:
8 days ago

well this is just a thought but it deals with the joker comment. tom waits and heath ledger were working on the imaginarium of dr. pamassus together at the time of heath's death. i was wondering if anyone else thought heath got a lot of inspiration from tom. the way he talks and delivers the speeches and everything.

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verabaxter wrote:
8 days ago

www.lastfm.es/music/vera+baxter Nuevos temas de Vera Baxter en lastfm !!

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