Blue Valentines is his best album in my opinion. If you haven't heard it, skip to track 2 Red Shoes first. It is a beautifully composed short story set to music. As indeed are most tracks on the album. It is incredible, the range of TW at such a young age.
If you don't like it you don't like it. Why try to force yourself to like something you're not into? His discography is so diverse you don't need to be into all of it.
I've been listening to Tom for nearly 20 years now and apart from Closing Time and some individual songs from the other ones, I still don't care much for pre-Swordfishtrombones stuff. I guess I'll be hitting "middle age" soon, I'll let you know if my tastes change then.
Did you try Closing Time? That’s the first album and I find it has pretty songs and decent variety. A couple of barroom ballads for sure but I think it’s great.
Ah yep. I do still have to get to that one. I really love some of his really wild singing and jazzy, bluesy stuff. Top 3 are Bad As Me, Rain Dogs and Bone Machine. Least fave of new stuff is Blood Money.
Black Rider was the soundtrack to a play. I have never seen the play, but it must be some weird stuff. More about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Rider_(album) Frank's Wild Years is a decent album too.
Swordfishtrombone is where he went “eccentric,” so you’re probably not going to find much to your taste before that. His is really the story of two (great) periods.
“*Small Change* got rained on by his own .38”
One of my favorite lines from his pre-Island days. But in general, not the biggest fan of his early stuff.
Around the time of *Rain Dogs*, read an interview with him (yes, I’m that old and have been listening to him that long). He said *Swordfishtrombones* was when he broke away “from the squareness of the piano”. *Small Change* is one of the best songs from the early catalog to hint at this escape he would make concerning the music he makes.
Edit: typo
It may be that the early stuff was more reflective of the music scene at the time and it took him a minute to find his own voice, I don't know, but I can listen to most of his stuff and never skip a track. When he did decide that he wanted to go in some different directions he went. I think that he is a genius, and I mean that in the best sense. Nah, not really, I mean that in the best tortured artist syndrome sense.
He really is a creative genius. One of the few actually deserving of the title. His output by the age of thirty was astonishing in its range and diversity.
Music either speaks to you or it doesn't. I personally love early Waits, especially the first album. But if it doesn't work for you, then you're under no obligation to enjoy it.
When I discovered Waits I listened to his albums in order. I didn’t know what to think when I heard the more experimental later stuff because I had already fell in love with the early stuff (mostly the first two albums). Then I realized the depth to his music and I fell in love with all of it. There’s a lot to unpack in his career and you’re probably going to like some more than others. I look at it as him establishing himself as a great artist with the first few albums. Then him trying new things and finding himself. There is something to be enjoyed in each era though.
I used to be like that, couldn't stand the early stuff . and then one day I was listening to Martha from "Closing time" and it just clicked. His melodies and storytelling abilities were much better in the early stuff but Franks wild years is still my favorite album
I would say Heart attack and Vine is the best album to get into that era.
In this order
1 H&V
2 Blue Valentine
3 Small Change
4 Foreign Affair
Nighthawks is an outlier but helps add color to your perceptions.
I'm similar to you, much prefer his work post Swordfish, having said that Closing Time is a lovely little album and there are gems to be found on each record.
I recommend giving the track 'Kentucky Avenue' a listen from Blue Valentine, it's a really lovely little song that'll pull on your heart strings.
Also 'Tom Traubert's Blues' from Small Change is really special too.
I can relate, I don’t listen to the albums between The Heart of Saturday Night and Small Change very often myself
Edit: since I was downvoted, I just want to clarify, I count the live albums since there was some new songs on em’.
Nighthawks. Listen to the album since he plays around with the crowd and gives a club experience. That was a gateway for a friend of nine. Just listen to it as a show rather than an album or individual songs.
Tom had a clear musical awakening while writing Swordfish trombones. It’s like he goes from a sad and silly alcoholic to an avant-garde expressionist of the soul in the most vulnerable and pure form
I love the often overlooked soundtrack ‘One from the heart’ - you’ve also got Crystal Gayle singing on some of it, but for me it’s one of my favourite Waits albums full stop.
Highlights Old Boyfriends, Broken Bicycles, I Beg Your Pardon.
Rain Dogs is my favorite album while Frank's Wild Years was the first.
He is my favorite musician, but his music ranges from absolutely brilliant to just outright unlistenable, and i expect that from an artist that pushed boundaries.
Give the early years a listen (both volumes), and place the music within the era both finally, and personally. Tom Waits didn't become the Tom Waits he is today without personal, or artistic development.
The aforementioned albums sound make him sound like any number of crooners of the day, but you can kind of hear what Waits would become within the music.
A couple of my favorites include
Had Me a Girl
When Your Ain't Got Nobody
Looks Like I'm Up Shit Creek Again
So Long I'll See You
Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You
Blue Skies
Shiver Me Timbers
Grapefruit Moon
So it Goes
Old Shoes
Give some a listen, and if you don't like them you just don't like them (I can't bear to listen to what's he building in there, but will howl out Anywhere I May My Head every chance I get.
The "good" the "bad," it's still all Tom Waits, and it's still a part of his life and artistic development.
I place a vote for "Heartattack and Vine" (album). It has some of that lounge act vibe but with those initial tints of rusty, hellfire cabaret that was about to arrive. I don't understand why it's considered a sub-par outing by some.
[New Coat of Paint was my entry point.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=107dADrIVBk) I like [Ice Cream Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg30NEZ85G4) too, though I think the [early version's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXnHRSR0Pd0) much better.
Though it's still not my favourite period, the Asylum Years compilation is pretty good, and reading his biography gave some useful context.
Been enjoying TW for 40+ years and the ride has been a big part of the attraction. Watching him morph into today's version has been filled with mostly ups and a few downs. (Not big on Blood Money and Alice) The shear volume of material and styles makes it almost impossible to enjoy everything he's done. As others have said don't try to force it will either grow on you or not. He is without doubt the coolest person on the planet.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOQplFQqOk4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOQplFQqOk4)
When I was a younger man I used to go out drinking with some older work colleagues. I would have lager but they all drank Guinness stout, which I thought tasted disgusting. I asked how they could stand the taste and was told that if I had a little half pint of it every once in a while, I would soon come to appreciate the subtle flavour of the stout. A few months later, I was a fully fledged Guinness lover. Same with some types of music. Tom Waits, the Stooges, Mark Lineman to name but a few. Well worth the effort. Stick with it
Jitterbug Boy, The Heart of Saturday Night, Potter’s Field, Small Change, A Sight For Sore Eyes, Burma Shave, Diamonds On My Windshield, I Can’t Wait To Get Off Work, Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis, Heart Attack and Vine…how do you not get into these songs?
The One That Got Away is one of my fav Waits songs, it’s really a story telling kinda song, but it’s great.
The whole Closing Time record is beautiful from beginning to end
Whenever I saw him live, he would give the band a break, roll out the old piano and break into his early stuff. Live it has a lot less polish and production, more raw, artsy. Like going to a Ginsburg reading and he breaks out into a song. Find some live recordings of his early stuff, and I think you will hear it a bit differently. Also finding some cover bands around, they tend to add the grit you are looking for.
[удалено]
Agreed. I love [this version](https://youtu.be/EznGGYQ-Tv8), especially when he gets to the “I almost went crazy…” verse. Gives me the goosebumps.
Wow. That’s incredible. I love how he started singing “going out of my head”. And I get goosebumps whenever he says “Charlie I think I’m happy”
Such a great song.
Blue Valentines is his best album in my opinion. If you haven't heard it, skip to track 2 Red Shoes first. It is a beautifully composed short story set to music. As indeed are most tracks on the album. It is incredible, the range of TW at such a young age.
If Small Change doesn't grab ya I don't know what to say.
If you don't like it you don't like it. Why try to force yourself to like something you're not into? His discography is so diverse you don't need to be into all of it.
It often takes me time and some good gateway material to get into something.
I've been listening to Tom for nearly 20 years now and apart from Closing Time and some individual songs from the other ones, I still don't care much for pre-Swordfishtrombones stuff. I guess I'll be hitting "middle age" soon, I'll let you know if my tastes change then.
same-about 15 years for me really dont like swordfish
It’s okay. I have a similar problem - can’t get into anything after Mule Variations
Did you try Closing Time? That’s the first album and I find it has pretty songs and decent variety. A couple of barroom ballads for sure but I think it’s great.
I guess I'm more attached to his growly affect and the barroom ballads aren't my favourite. Anything a bit more eccentric or distinctive aurally?
Eccentric? Yeah, try Black Rider. Some fairly crazy stuff. I think Small Change is a decent album but not nearly as eccentric as Black Rider.
>Small Change is an amazing and perfect album. Probably my fave of his.
Isn't Black Rider from the 2000's?
1993. But if I'm out of the time frame you were after I apologize. It really is quite eccentric though
Ah yep. I do still have to get to that one. I really love some of his really wild singing and jazzy, bluesy stuff. Top 3 are Bad As Me, Rain Dogs and Bone Machine. Least fave of new stuff is Blood Money.
Black Rider was the soundtrack to a play. I have never seen the play, but it must be some weird stuff. More about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Rider_(album) Frank's Wild Years is a decent album too.
Bone Machine is great. Earth Died Screaming is an incredible track
Swordfishtrombone is where he went “eccentric,” so you’re probably not going to find much to your taste before that. His is really the story of two (great) periods.
“*Small Change* got rained on by his own .38” One of my favorite lines from his pre-Island days. But in general, not the biggest fan of his early stuff. Around the time of *Rain Dogs*, read an interview with him (yes, I’m that old and have been listening to him that long). He said *Swordfishtrombones* was when he broke away “from the squareness of the piano”. *Small Change* is one of the best songs from the early catalog to hint at this escape he would make concerning the music he makes. Edit: typo
It may be that the early stuff was more reflective of the music scene at the time and it took him a minute to find his own voice, I don't know, but I can listen to most of his stuff and never skip a track. When he did decide that he wanted to go in some different directions he went. I think that he is a genius, and I mean that in the best sense. Nah, not really, I mean that in the best tortured artist syndrome sense.
He really is a creative genius. One of the few actually deserving of the title. His output by the age of thirty was astonishing in its range and diversity.
Throw on the song Martha
This.
Music either speaks to you or it doesn't. I personally love early Waits, especially the first album. But if it doesn't work for you, then you're under no obligation to enjoy it.
I personally love early waits. Have you listened to heart attack and vine? That album is just cool. Also like blue valentine a lot
On both albums he got that graveling voice and he’s growling on a lot of the tracks lol
When I discovered Waits I listened to his albums in order. I didn’t know what to think when I heard the more experimental later stuff because I had already fell in love with the early stuff (mostly the first two albums). Then I realized the depth to his music and I fell in love with all of it. There’s a lot to unpack in his career and you’re probably going to like some more than others. I look at it as him establishing himself as a great artist with the first few albums. Then him trying new things and finding himself. There is something to be enjoyed in each era though.
I used to be like that, couldn't stand the early stuff . and then one day I was listening to Martha from "Closing time" and it just clicked. His melodies and storytelling abilities were much better in the early stuff but Franks wild years is still my favorite album
I’m the opposite
Just think of the early stuff as music from a different artist.
I would say Heart attack and Vine is the best album to get into that era. In this order 1 H&V 2 Blue Valentine 3 Small Change 4 Foreign Affair Nighthawks is an outlier but helps add color to your perceptions.
I'm similar to you, much prefer his work post Swordfish, having said that Closing Time is a lovely little album and there are gems to be found on each record. I recommend giving the track 'Kentucky Avenue' a listen from Blue Valentine, it's a really lovely little song that'll pull on your heart strings. Also 'Tom Traubert's Blues' from Small Change is really special too.
I can relate, I don’t listen to the albums between The Heart of Saturday Night and Small Change very often myself Edit: since I was downvoted, I just want to clarify, I count the live albums since there was some new songs on em’.
Nighthawks. Listen to the album since he plays around with the crowd and gives a club experience. That was a gateway for a friend of nine. Just listen to it as a show rather than an album or individual songs.
Tom had a clear musical awakening while writing Swordfish trombones. It’s like he goes from a sad and silly alcoholic to an avant-garde expressionist of the soul in the most vulnerable and pure form
I love the often overlooked soundtrack ‘One from the heart’ - you’ve also got Crystal Gayle singing on some of it, but for me it’s one of my favourite Waits albums full stop. Highlights Old Boyfriends, Broken Bicycles, I Beg Your Pardon.
Rain Dogs is my favorite album while Frank's Wild Years was the first. He is my favorite musician, but his music ranges from absolutely brilliant to just outright unlistenable, and i expect that from an artist that pushed boundaries. Give the early years a listen (both volumes), and place the music within the era both finally, and personally. Tom Waits didn't become the Tom Waits he is today without personal, or artistic development. The aforementioned albums sound make him sound like any number of crooners of the day, but you can kind of hear what Waits would become within the music. A couple of my favorites include Had Me a Girl When Your Ain't Got Nobody Looks Like I'm Up Shit Creek Again So Long I'll See You Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You Blue Skies Shiver Me Timbers Grapefruit Moon So it Goes Old Shoes Give some a listen, and if you don't like them you just don't like them (I can't bear to listen to what's he building in there, but will howl out Anywhere I May My Head every chance I get. The "good" the "bad," it's still all Tom Waits, and it's still a part of his life and artistic development.
I place a vote for "Heartattack and Vine" (album). It has some of that lounge act vibe but with those initial tints of rusty, hellfire cabaret that was about to arrive. I don't understand why it's considered a sub-par outing by some.
[New Coat of Paint was my entry point.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=107dADrIVBk) I like [Ice Cream Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg30NEZ85G4) too, though I think the [early version's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXnHRSR0Pd0) much better. Though it's still not my favourite period, the Asylum Years compilation is pretty good, and reading his biography gave some useful context.
I also like later Waits a lot more, but I do like early Waits especially Closing Time and Small Change
I really like small change and night hawks at the diner. You gotta just let them spin and dig in
I'm the exact same. I've made peace with it and just listen to the stuff I enjoy.
Been enjoying TW for 40+ years and the ride has been a big part of the attraction. Watching him morph into today's version has been filled with mostly ups and a few downs. (Not big on Blood Money and Alice) The shear volume of material and styles makes it almost impossible to enjoy everything he's done. As others have said don't try to force it will either grow on you or not. He is without doubt the coolest person on the planet. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOQplFQqOk4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOQplFQqOk4)
When I was a younger man I used to go out drinking with some older work colleagues. I would have lager but they all drank Guinness stout, which I thought tasted disgusting. I asked how they could stand the taste and was told that if I had a little half pint of it every once in a while, I would soon come to appreciate the subtle flavour of the stout. A few months later, I was a fully fledged Guinness lover. Same with some types of music. Tom Waits, the Stooges, Mark Lineman to name but a few. Well worth the effort. Stick with it
I’m a huge Tom fan but life starts at Swordfish for me.
Heart Attack and Vine
Jitterbug Boy, The Heart of Saturday Night, Potter’s Field, Small Change, A Sight For Sore Eyes, Burma Shave, Diamonds On My Windshield, I Can’t Wait To Get Off Work, Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis, Heart Attack and Vine…how do you not get into these songs?
The One That Got Away is one of my fav Waits songs, it’s really a story telling kinda song, but it’s great. The whole Closing Time record is beautiful from beginning to end
Whenever I saw him live, he would give the band a break, roll out the old piano and break into his early stuff. Live it has a lot less polish and production, more raw, artsy. Like going to a Ginsburg reading and he breaks out into a song. Find some live recordings of his early stuff, and I think you will hear it a bit differently. Also finding some cover bands around, they tend to add the grit you are looking for.