Tom Waits blows chunks.

coceng wrote:Whenever I think of Tom Waits, I would think of Crystal Gayle !
I don't know why...
Anyone ?

Tom's long, flowing hair?

kerble wrote:

Angus Jung wrote:

burun wrote:Hey, I like Tom Waits.

A lot.

He's tough to describe to the uninitiated, but I think syntaxfree's is a decent stab at it.

Perhaps I should clarify, then. I think Tom Waits sucks.

THANK YOU.


jesus christ does he get on my nerves. I love "affected singing" with "trying too hard" mixed in! it's great! pack it in, Waits.

I'll keep Swordfishtrombones, for "Johnsburg, Illinois" but no thank you for everything else.


also, you sucked in Dracula.

I have a copy of Rain Dogs someplace. It's all right. The romantic in me likes "Blind Love" but mainly for the beautiful guitar playing on it by Keith Richards. Because it's such a good song, I can ignore Waits' performance on it . . . because his mannered, exaggerated shtick is even worse than Bruce Springsteen's. In another era, they'd have both been performing in blackface.

Angus Jung wrote:I really love all of the musicians that he rips off. And some of the Beat novelists and poets that he rips off.

He has good taste in rip-off.

He's derivative as hell, but as you point out, tastefully so.

clocker bob wrote:

coceng wrote:Whenever I think of Tom Waits, I would think of Crystal Gayle !
I don't know why...
Anyone ?

Tom's long, flowing hair?

Coppola's One From the Heart, no?

clocker bob wrote:

Angus Jung wrote:I really love all of the musicians that he rips off. And some of the Beat novelists and poets that he rips off.

He has good taste in rip-off.

He's derivative as hell, but as you point out, tastefully so.

I don't think AJ was pointing out that Waits did anything tastefully.

Waits is tacky and heavy-handed. No taste to his delivery, just his influences.

kerble wrote:

clocker bob wrote:

Angus Jung wrote:I really love all of the musicians that he rips off. And some of the Beat novelists and poets that he rips off.

He has good taste in rip-off.

He's derivative as hell, but as you point out, tastefully so.

I don't think AJ was pointing out that Waits did anything tastefully.

Sure he did- what do you call the statement 'he has good taste in rip-off'? But he also posted that "Waits sucks"; if AJ wants to say that Waits rips off good artists but then proceeds to make crap stew from his influences, then that's his opinion. For me, if I like the end product, I don't beat up the thief for his borrowing, because I consider theft nearly unavoidable in pop music. Jung doesn't like the end product.

Anyhow, this is worth reading to know where Waits goes to for ideas:

In the first of an occasional series in which the greatest recording artists reveal their favourite records, Tom Waits writes about his 20 most cherished albums of all time.

Waits does praise Dylan's Basement Tapes, which does have Waits' fingerprints all over it.

kerble wrote:

Angus Jung wrote:Perhaps I should clarify, then. I think Tom Waits sucks.

THANK YOU.


jesus christ does he get on my nerves. I love "affected singing" with "trying too hard" mixed in! it's great! pack it in, Waits.

I'll keep Swordfishtrombones, for "Johnsburg, Illinois" but no thank you for everything else.

Has Tom Waits gotten a lot worse since September 22, 2004, when you added this to the Waits Crap/Not Crap?

kerble wrote:His name is a sentence.






Not Crap.

Were you 'right' then, or is Kerble right today?

Earlier, people. Small Change and Nighthawks is where it's at.

clocker bob wrote: Has Tom Waits gotten a lot worse since September 22, 2004?

That's like asking if the pile of dogshit out in the backyard has worsened in the summer sun. OF COURSE he's gotten worse!