Tom Waits - Real Gone
 

Anyone else diggin' Tom Waits' latest release?

I bought this CD and wasn't around a stereo for like a day and a half afterwards, but I felt like I'd gotten my money's worth just reading the insert inside the CD jacket. Honestly, I really do not think there is a lyricist in music on the same level as Waits... as big a fan of Dylan as I am, I never thought I'd say that. Dylan still rules all in terms of pure songwriting, but the images and language Waits uses is second to none.

"How's it Gonna End?" is one of the coolest songs I've heard all year. The entire album is just world class poetry being barked out by one of the most fascinating voices in music, on the strength of a pot-and-pans band led by Primus' bassist Les Claypool.

the only thing i have from waits is Mule Variations (i think that's the name of it...). i like most of the stuff on it, and most of the other things i've heard from him (like when i've seen him on letterman, for example), but i have never taken the step to becoming more familiar with his career. do you have a recommendation for a good place to start? maybe this release?

I really enjoyed it.

Mule Variations is an excellent album, and probably the one I would have recommended, since it's like a bridge between the two sides of Tom Waits.

Back in his earliest years, like 30 and more years ago, he had more of a piano-soothing-melodies kind of sound, which is great stuff, and two good albums for that would be Closing Time or Small Change. If you wanna try to download a song or two, Heart of Saturday Night is a good one, as is The Piano Has Been Drinking, or Ol' 55.

Then there's this maniacal barky funky sound he developed in the 1980's, which is more of where he's at right now. On Real Gone in particular, there's almost nothing that's pleasing to the untrained ear, and by that I mean an unassuming person putting it on as background music. I hope that sort of makes sense... you can see it Mule Variations anyway.

Either way, he's always been a mind-blowing lyricist, you can count on that.

cool, thanks for the words of wisdom, LS. :)

I have it, but haven't had much of a chance to spin it yet. I like what I've heard, though. I just wish he would tour.

Yeah I'm with you there, he looks like such a good entertainer on TV, like that VH1 special he did a while ago, or even his recent performance on Letterman. He's just the funniest funniest man, and he's so bizarre in everything he does... he told this story before playing Train Song, about this bullet being shot through a soldier's testicle and impregnating a chick.

I was lucky enough to catch him on his Mule Variations tour. He's doing/did a short tour this fall, just a show or two in Canada and off to Europe. You really have to keep your ear to the ground though, his shows always sell out within 30 minutes.

What I really want is a time machine to the 70s so I can catch him drunk at a piano in a small show.

Grendel - with such a body of work it's hard to know where to start. I and most of the people I know first picked up Rain Dogs - a disc that had me hooked the first time I heard it. It's very freaky-cool though, and a person could hate it and love his earlier stuff like Blue Valentine or Closing Time.

Rain Dogs is one that is high on my list... i've heard good things about it. thanks!

Not yet! But I've heard a few tracks off of it.

swordfishtrombones is right up there with rain dogs..........

Does anyone have his VH-1 Storytellers episode on tape? I believe it was around 2000/2001 when "Mule Variations" was released.

This album is worth the price of admission just for Day After Tomorrow! The rest of the album is pretty good but that song....that song.....well, just listen to it and you well know what I mean.

So does he have Marc Ribot doing his guitar work on this one? I agree with everything that's been said about Tom Waits as a lyricist, but, I think that because he is so very brilliant, Marc Ribot's guitar genius gets largely overlooked. Check out "Black Market Baby" on Mule Variations, or "Goin Out West", "In the Colesseum", or "Black Wings" on Bone Machine".

The other thing I am concerned about is how this one compares to Blood Money and Alice, which I thought were comparatively weak.

This one is not like Blood Money or Alice at all, IMO.

His album "Beautiful Maladies" features the song "Way Down in the Hole," which is the song they've used as the opening theme on HBO's "The Wire," covered by different artists.

Bone Machine is my favorite Waits album. Real Gone reminds me a lot abot Bone Machine. So far it has not disapointed one bit, but as someone already pointed out, it does demand quite a bit.

This is definitely not easy listening. :)