My friend I feel this confused statement. I've came to realize its both and everything. Mr Tom is a prophet. A gift from the angels. Sad thing is not enough knew or will ever know. Luckily spirits dont die and we'll always be lucky to find it. If we're paying attention of course. We're all perfect strangers if we ignore

Me too!!! 6/10/24❤️

There is nothing special about him. He is overmade everything. American style.

@@andreychizov8201 Whether you intended this or not, to say Tom Waits is “nothing special" is exactly the point. He was born and bred in the “overmade, American style.” Tom Waits knows no matter how he lives his life, he would just be another cog in the machine of American culture. That’s why he wrote lyrics such as “Your life's a dime-store novel. This town is full of guys like you” (Song: Never Talk to Strangers). He’s just one of many American men to sit at a bar’s piano, light a smoke, take a drink, and sing the blues. Life has beaten into him that he’s a loser. And even though he accepts that, he keeps going. If you want to know why he keeps striving, that’s revealed in his music. If you dislike Tom Waits melancholy songs because they're too loathsome, I don’t blame you. But one day you’ll be humbled. And you’ll come to relate that embracing life to enjoy the small things - despite the messiness and grit - is the art of living.

Yes, my world!

@@andreychizov8201 Eh, just another fool who hates on Americans.

You have to listen to him for awhile to appreciate his style. His voice is not conventional and needs to grow on you. But once you get used to his tone, then you can appreciate his work more.

Agreed. A touch of genius? Nah, pure genius.

❤❤❤❤ he's a blessing.

BurmaShave..!Pkin up ciggy butts Either way its Tom.!&,If thats what connex us So be it.❤2you.freind.n.z.😊

❤ I SO understand You...

Thank You Jack Wright

Nice dude, thanks!

Thanks mate.

thank you

Thank you.

Thank you Andrea for sharing that with us :-) ❤️

Incomparable as far I'm concerned: the musical high point of the 20th century + IMHO.

+Bluemauvey agreed brother

The thinking mans poet.

. . . you know what, you can say it all again,and i'll listen, he's as close to god, as you get! i saw him in Edinburgh, no one else comes close. As good as a human gets!

wow guys, I grew up at moving parties, Tom and I were sent to the chalet there at the Castle in Hopeless Valley, NJ. He had made a few cuts and I didn't know him. We were all trippin on a 5 way Mr Natural. We each took a whole one, Tom, myself, a one armed political cartoonist, and 3 gorgeous women from Seaside Heights, brought me there to party and recite. So we jammed and we got carried away, scared the lil' puffy party crowd, and enjoyed it. I last saw him downtown at Logos buying used old books, we said hello, -everyone else was hanging around Eric Burdon. Some one asked me who was my buddy there, I lied and said he was Peter Frampton to one, and Bruce Springsteen to another (partied with Bruce, he was a regular guy) and don't you know, Tom signed for Peter and Bruce. Think he signed the next one, "Tom Waits for no one." Stole my line. Just human and very very sincere. Eccentric. One for fun, I run and gun and then I'm done... …by RaVen DaWn "E X I L E" I -AM -IN -EXILE! I am in exile, as I touch the Earth and become marble. I make a statue of myself and forget which is which. I am in exile, where my reflection stares at me glossy eyed …..and I turn to see it. EXILE! In an attempt to reflect eternity I face the mirrors exactly. Yet, in an effort to see forever my own face gets in the way. Here in my exile, lobotomy disagrees with me. The rivers running red as... propaganda peddlers pretend to be U.N. M.D.s; and with rusty razor blades perform mental vasectomies on misguided missionaries. I -AM -IN -EXILE!!! Where I mind you watching me, and I’ve planned my invisibility as you’ve planned my blindness. Exile! Where I feed you your dreams… …and you eat them, unknowing. Exile… where I stab a scab And I’m bleeding wax. Exile… where fragrant flowers grow lush over my grave but I am not in it. I -AM -IN -EXILE!!!

I am 18 and same here brother. It was fate.

@@alexlopresti1315 I apologize for the late reply. Had to come back to this legendary performance and saw your comment. Hope you are well brother. Cheers 🍻

Did Tom ever meet Bukowski face-to-face?

Agreed Love Bukowsky tooo

He's to music what Bukowski was to the written word.

yeah, i was watching interviews tonight and thought waits kind of effected Buk in them... musically I dont know

Weit gefehlt! Waits singt über Klischees. Bukowski schrieb über sich selbst!

2Juiceman Dear fellow Waitsian....Please could you cast an eye over the new video by LILA J, A LETTER TO MR TOM WAITS. It is our wish that he gets to hear it, somehow.....someday.......somewhere. Cheers! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nLejqreA3c-lnGw.html

Once in Dallas Leon Redbone opened for Tom. Mmmmaybe the best show ever?

*Bares

Welcome to the fraternity of Tom Waits fandom!!

He wrote "old 55" start there.. I have owned two dozen or more of his albums.

Yeah dawg

I like this old Jazzy stuff, I can't for the life of me get into his more modern stuff, too theatrical for me, his voice too over the top. Semi Suite is probably my favorite song he's done.

welcome to the other side of the musical matrix! I would say that my top 3 favorite bands are Morphine, Naxatras, and The Urban Voodoo Machine... and Tom Waits is off the charts. He's part of my family. I feel like he's my long lost uncle who is mysterious, the black sheep of the family, and the only one who really gets me...

You can never go wrong with Tom Waits, or right for that matter

Your lucky day mate 😉

I heard him when in my early 20's, I immediately became 71 years old, with him haunting me in a gritty peaceful manner.

@@ms-iz9ye He is how you express yourself with a bad liver and a broken heart.

In the past 50 years, the two best USA music artists are Prince and Tom Waits. Of course, Waits is is with us.

.

Channeling Satchmo fa sho

ahahaha great picture, Fatih Kan! lovit

Most excellent response!

I'm seeing all your regardings on my comment. they come from deepest point of my mind and vanish. I don't believe even in myself How did i say something like that. What did i feel in that particular moment. feelings have no words. We're just suffering in no explanation of feelings. We're trying to express our feelings with the words for objects.

genius. i feel the same but can rarely put it in words

Patoumpalou you can feel it is what is really important. You're sensitive and special too. We are slowly movers. We don't have a rush at all. that's why we can see better than others.

***** He seems to appeal to people who are not easily entertained.

+Shane Saleker don't forget dr parnassus imaginarium.

+Shane Sleeker what that got to do with waits? i mean its a good movie.

+Shane Sleeker i get it now... didn't notice before somehow

paddyman33 Dear fellow Waitsian....Please could you cast an eye over the new video by LILA J, A LETTER TO MR TOM WAITS. It is our wish that he gets to hear it, somehow.....someday.......somewhere. Cheers! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nLejqreA3c-lnGw.html

He is on my list. If I don't see him before he's done, I'll cry

Mike O'Flannigan I feel the same way. I've seen Dylan 8 times, never seen Waits. After seeing the new song he performed on Letterman, I think we'll see a tour relatively soon.

Mike O'Flannigan Saw him almost thirty years ago and it still rings in my ears and soul...

Paul Lord 'My life is a dime store novel...' '...only suckers fall in love with perfect strangers...'

Have been lucky to see Tom live 4 times in action on tour with different musicians around him (Raindogs: Amsterdam 1985, Mule Variations: Toronto 1999, Real Gone: Amsterdam 2004 and Glitter and Doom: Paris July 2008). You may want to check whether there would be an appearance in California where he joined a benefit concert event several times in recent years. Electrifying it is - always. Fingers crossed.

what missteps? (I'm not disagreeing with you, just curious)

Wtf are you on about? This is pure gold! Tom at his best.

+Tyler Smith Oh.. I was pleased to see / hear this ... you must of come in after midnight dude.. We all step in wrong places... Tom made his songs out of all these "Wrong places" .. this is just raw... just pure and beautifully raw.

Wtf you talking about? I love this era of Waits personally. It's not that you have a suffering opinion that confuses me. It's your opinion itself: I dunno what the heck your point is

Tyler wrote a little poetry right here: "You don't have to win every moment, you just have to keep getting closer and closer til you don't really win or lose anymore. You just are. Just gotta rack up more good days than bad at the end of all" IMHO.

George Gerakanakis zh dt'

In my younger years, my buddy and I would put on “The Heart of Saturday Night, go out bar hopping, shooting pool, and so on until closing time. Then we would put on the “Ghosts of Saturday Night’, and head over to the Pantry, the Atomic Café, Gorky’s Café, or some other after hours joint for breakfast at 2:30 AM.

0 years old to be exact

Go back where you came from.

Human Bean, you shouldn’t talk to one of your fathers like that! You’ll never get any of the other 50 on Jerry springer for that DNA test with that attitude!

@@JayHarrisGuitarLessons Jerry Springer? What are you, a dinosaur?

Human Bean maybe but I’m not a asshole. I don’t troll people and tell them to go back where they come from unless they deserve it, so why don’t you go back where you came from! By the way if you can afford cable you can watch Jerry Springer tonight and You don’t have to be a dinosaur you only have to have common sense but if you don’t have that just say something stupid like you have been doing it seems to work for you!

makes me wana smoke something else, but I feel ya'

doing it. I did a hit in your honor :)

Smoking has always and will forever be cool

I was just thinking the same thing , ha ha

I think of Bukowski too.

You said a mouthful. No, really. It was a mouthful. 😉

great comment, makes me think of Walter Mosley

philip9106 A very fine writer. His characters such as Easy Rawlins, the terrifying Mouse and "Fearless" Jones could all appear on a Tom Waits album.

Ginsberg

rowan volvo And also Jack Kerouac/ Neal Cassidy. A good observation.

let us not forget dear ol Bukowski

where does he talk about Memphis I can't remember

?? 1) A song of his is included on the album Free the West Memphis 3. 2) TW is in the film Mystery Train, which is set in Memphis.TN

mystery train... good memories... RIP Pat !!!

I thank thee

In a way, I envy you. You have some amazing discoveries ahead, (not just songs, whole albums). Just wait until you hear Rain Dogs for the first time.

seconded

Also Closing Time and songs like Alice, Long Way Home, Tom Traubert's Blues.

For sure, amigo !

I was about 11 or 12 when i first saw him perform on tv here in the underworld. He had a cigarrette in one hand, a drink in the other; whilst he was playing Postcard from a Hooker in Minneapolis; On The Piano.lol. I was instantly hooked.