Tom Waits suggestions

[Bart]

I need to broaden my Tom Waits horizons and I'm looking for suggestions.

 

I have Rain Dogs which I love and I used to have have Nighthawks At The Diner which I can no longer find.  Based on "Wilco Me" in another thread, I'm all set to buy Heart Attack and Vine and Small Change.

 

Are there any other must haves that I need to have?

 

 

[i'm only sleeping]

Swordfishtrombone

[RainDogToo]

70's - Small Change, Blue Valentine

80's - Rain Dogs, Frank's Wild Years

90's - Bone Machine, Mule Variations

00's - Real Gone, Orphans

[LouieB]

There is very little in the Waits catalogue you can go wrong with. I would start with the material from the 70s and work your way forward.  All the Asylum material is great.  I would stay away from the Early Years disks until later, but they are fun too. 

 

I would stay away from The Black Rider and both Alice and Blood Money at this point. All three are concept albums which have some weak material on them.  Bad As Me from a couple years ago is great though.

 

LouieB

[Magnetized]

 

I also think Mule Variations is kind of great. Take It With Me alone is worth the price of admission, but there's also Big in Japan, Come on up to the House, Get Behind the Mule, Chocolate Jesus. Hell, it's a great album.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Definitely Swordfishtrombones.

[Bart]

Thanks folks!  More orders will be placed.

 

Is there a consensus on the greatest Tom Waits album?  I know it's an impossible question but I'm asking it anyhow!

[RainDogToo]

That is impossible to answer! My favorite is constantly changing. But the album I to go back to most often is Rain Dogs.

[LouieB]

Best of albums are just that. There is one of his Asylum years that has a bunch of great songs on it. 

 

Of the slightly later i would concure with Swordfishtombone or Raindogs. Mule Variations is some of the best of his later years.

 

LouieB

[lost highway]

It's a totally different Waits, but his debut Closing Time is gorgeous.

 

I always felt like Blood Money, and Alice don't get the love they deserve.  They both have a good balance of the satanic carnie and the piano weeper.

 

I could listen to 'Misery is the River of the World' and 'Coney Island Baby' from Blood Money every couple weeks for the rest of my life.  Cool stuff.

http://youtu.be/Jp-gX5C3vZI

[Vacant Horizon]

Waits is definitely one of the most consistent artists EVER.  people are right when they say it's all good.  i really like the first album and Mule Variations.  What's He Building in There is a family favorite.  GENIUS!  Real Gone is also great.  His most harrowing, as far as I'm concerned.  I know this would never happen, but I'd love to see him do a solo piano tour with his bass player.  I could listen to him rap and tickle the ivories all night.

It's a totally different Waits, but his debut Closing Time is gorgeous.

 

I always felt like Blood Money, and Alice don't get the love they deserve.  They both have a good balance of the satanic carnie and the piano weeper.

 

I could listen to 'Misery is the River of the World' and 'Coney Island Baby' from Blood Money every couple weeks for the rest of my life.  Cool stuff.

http://youtu.be/Jp-gX5C3vZI

 

I love Blood Money...the songs you mention are excellent.  Love the cover too.

[howdjadoo]

Label: Island
Year: 1988
Tracks: 18

Tracklist:

01. 16 Shells From A 30.6
02. Red Shoes
03. Underground
04. Cold Cold Ground
05. Straight To The Top
06. Yesterday Is Here
07. Way Down In The Hole
08. Falling Down
09. Strange Weather
10. Big Black Mariah
11. Rain Dogs
12. Train Song
13. Johnsburg, Illinois
14. Ruby's Arms
15. Telephone Call From Istanbul
16. Clap Hands
17. Gun Street Girl
18. Time

[quote name='William Ruhlmann]Big Time is an 18-track live album running nearly 68 minutes' date=' its material drawn mostly from Tom Waits' trio of recent studio albums, Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, and Franks Wild Years. (One track, "Falling Down," is a previously unissued studio recording. The performance of "Strange Weather" marks Waits' first recording of a song he and his wife, Kathleen Brennan, wrote for Marianne Faithfull.) It's challenging music, made somewhat more accessible in a live context. Waits' performances tended to be somewhat over the top on the studio versions of these songs, but before a live audience his theatrics seem more appropriate, and he even includes a mini-set of piano ballads. Still, it takes him until the seventh tune, "Way Down in the Hole," to bring the audience to life, and he rarely speaks, in marked contrast to the earlier live-in-the-studio album Nighthawks at the Diner. But Big Time makes a useful sampler of Waits' later work that might enable a listener to determine whether to invest in the studio recordings.[/quote']

 

[Lammycat]

Best "Tom Waits suggestions" I've heard:

 

1. "Smoke 'em if you got 'em!!"

2. "Get yourself a lot of hobo hats."

3 "Never gargle!"

4. "At all costs, avoid playing in tune."

5. "Write all your songs about freaks and the downtrodden."

[RainDogToo]

Love Big Time... film and album! Best recorded versions of Rain Dogs, Time, Train Song, Cold Cold Ground and Shore Leave!

 

Best "Tom Waits suggestions" I've heard:

 

1. "Smoke 'em if you got 'em!!"

2. "Get yourself a lot of hobo hats."

3 "Never gargle!"

4. "At all costs, avoid playing in tune."

5. "Write all your songs about freaks and the downtrodden."

Haha! That's great!