I've been meaning to write something about Tom Waits.
I've even been preparing something in my head. But it's still too big of a subject for me to tackle. Tom Waits represents just about everything to me: talk about a life-changing artist. For me, anyway. Sheesh. From getting turned on to Nighthawks at the Diner and Bukowski by high school dropout Ryan Rossi one summer, and then going off to spend a semester abroad and picking up tapes of The Heart of Saturday Night and Swordfishtrombones in foreign record stores. And then coming back to the States and fully embracing the ragged hobo Americanness of Waits' entire seventies catalog and image, from which by that time he had already fully distanced himself. I could write a whole fucking memoir about my relationship with Tom Waits.
So instead, I write nothing.
Comments
I have nothing to add either. (as you can see)-B
Isn't it sometimes better to simply let the music resonate?
You could get an article at least out of Ryan Rossi...
Did Tom ever go fishing with John?
yes, tom did go fishing with john. other people who appeared on "fishing with john": william dafoe, matt dillion, dennis hopper, jim jarmusch, and the series was narrated by robb webb. here's the synopsis from the criterion collection website (the folks that released the dvd version):"John Lurie knows absolutely nothing about fishing, but that doesn’t stop him from undertaking the adventure of a lifetime on Fishing With John. Traveling with his special guests to the most exotic and dangerous places on earth, John Lurie battles sharks with Jim Jarmusch off the tip of Long Island, goes ice fishing with Willem Dafoe at Maine’s northernmost point, braves the Costa Rican jungle with Matt Dillon, takes Tom Waits to Jamaica, and searches for the elusive giant squid with Dennis Hopper in Thailand."
What I (as a Brit) love about Tom Waits is his celebration of all that is great in the traditon of folk-americana, he is wild and romantic, old and modern, full of rich story-telling. Phew!
Check out the new GQ, there's a great Waits interview.
I totally agree with everything that Martin B just said. Can anyone link to the Waits interview in GQ? Why the hell would he be in GQ?
GQ often has good interviews, if you can find them among the fucking ads.
Phil: An attitude like that will never endear you to a publisher.
Interviews exist only to fill the space between the ads. The whole point of magazines is to offer advertisements, right?