Tom Waits

OK, if we're talking Waits lyrics, the first I really heard and listened to, which knocked me sideways: "9th and Hennepin", from "Heartattack and Vine". An extract below. How does this guy do it???

"And all the rooms they smell like diesel
And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept here.
And I'm lost in the window, and I hide in the stairway
And I hang in the curtain, and I sleep in your hat...
And no one brings anything small into a bar around here:
They all started out with bad directions.
And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear:
One for every year he's away, she said.
Such a crurabling beauty...
Ah, there's nothin' wrong with her that a hundred dollars won't fix.
She has that razor sadness that only gets worse
With the clang and the thunder of the Southern Pacific going by..."
 
To each his own, of course. Blue Valentine has just always felt a bit too much like "Small Change: With A Vengeance" to me, I guess. And even if you don't like SFT much, it should be understandable why it's so highly regarded. It's the album where Tom totally changed his style around. I suppose the style shift was present on Heart Attack And Vine a bit, but SFT was where he really went off the deep end, to the benefit of us all.
 
I'd have to say Bone Machine is my favorite from Tom Waits, just a really great album from start to finish. Guess he's got a little something for everyone eh.
 
"The Piano Has Been Drinking" is the best song ever.

I don't care about this Tenacious D song being the greatest song ever in opinion or whatever $hit they talk about.
Tom Waits is the best man alive.
 
Really? I'd be 50:50 as to whether or not it's better than Rain Dogs, it's like a brilliant beatnik take on Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska or Gil Scott-Heron.
 
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