Play Tom Waits Radio
Tom Waits
34,114,731 plays (707,628 listeners)
Listening now: trueSpooN
Pomona, Los Angeles CA, United States (early 1970s – present)
Tom Waits (Thomas Alan Waits, Pomona, California, December 7, 1949 ) is a prolific American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor.
He started his career in the early 1970s as a singer in spit ‘n’ sawdust bars. Initially, he was deeply influenced by the beat generation (poets like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs). He could not make a living from his music, although he was well accepted by the critics. The people at that time didn’t like his classical bar music, pre-rock and americana styles reminiscent of musical genres of the 40’s and 50’s, such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville.
Waits has a devoted cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters, despite having little radio or music video support. In fact, his songs are perhaps best known to the general public in the form of cover versions by more visible artists, such as the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, and Rod Stewart.
Although Waits’ albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries.
Lyrically, Waits’ songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of bizarre, seedy characters and places, although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional and touching ballads.
While opening for Frank Zappa, the audience catcalled and refused to listen to him. It appeared that Wait’s classical americana and Zappa’s avantgarde jazz Rock were a less than a perfect match. Waits’ voice back then was soft, warm and clear. He sang songs about the losers on the streets: alcoholics, junkies, prostitutes and social outcasts.
He started his career in the early 1970s as a singer in spit ‘n’ sawdust bars. Initially, he was deeply influenced by the beat generation (poets like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs). He could not make a living from his music, although he was well accepted by the critics. The people at that time didn’t like his classical bar music, pre-rock and americana styles reminiscent of musical genres of the 40’s and 50’s, such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville.
Waits has a devoted cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters, despite having little radio or music video support. In fact, his songs are perhaps best known to the general public in the form of cover versions by more visible artists, such as the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, and Rod Stewart.
Although Waits’ albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries.
Lyrically, Waits’ songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of bizarre, seedy characters and places, although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional and touching ballads.
While opening for Frank Zappa, the audience catcalled and refused to listen to him. It appeared that Wait’s classical americana and Zappa’s avantgarde jazz Rock were a less than a perfect match. Waits’ voice back then was soft, warm and clear. He sang songs about the losers on the streets: alcoholics, junkies, prostitutes and social outcasts.
Top Albums
-
Rain Dogs
Tom Waits
Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $6.99
- 7digital $12.99
- iTunes $11.99
- Buy Album
- Amazon Search
- eBay Search
-
Closing Time
Tom Waits Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $6.97
- 7digital $7.77
- iTunes $9.99
- Buy Album
- Amazon $41.98
- eBay Search
-
Swordfishtrombones
Tom Waits Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $6.99
- 7digital $7.77
- iTunes $9.99
- Buy Album
- Amazon Search
- eBay Search
-
Bone Machine
Tom Waits Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $9.49
- 7digital $7.77
- iTunes $9.99
- Buy Album
- Amazon $40.98
- eBay Search
Top Tracks
| 1 |
|
Singapore
full track
|
|||
| 2 |
|
Jockey Full of Bourbon
full track
|
|||
| 3 | |||||
| 4 |
|
Downtown Train
full track
|
|||
| 5 |
|
Rain Dogs
full track
|
|||
| 6 |
|
Cemetery Polka
full track
|
|||
| 7 |
|
Time
full track
|
|||
| 8 |
|
Big Black Mariah
full track
|
|||
| 9 |
|
Tango Till They're Sore
full track
|
|||
| 10 |
|
Hang Down Your Head
full track
|
|||
| 11 |
|
Gun Street Girl
full track
|
|||
| 12 | |||||
| 13 |
|
Dirt in the Ground
full track
|
|||
| 14 |
|
Anywhere I Lay My Head
full track
|
|||
| 15 |
Shoutbox
-
dollmassacre wrote:
Love love love this man!
-
mexicoman wrote:
Rain Dogs
-
Quasimoto wrote:
Tom Waits doing hiphop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnRyF-nqgTo
-
martinjoose wrote:
martha
-
MelvinfromHell wrote:
The new live-Album is pretty heavy stuff. I adore it. ;)
-
yllwstrwy wrote:
vote for warm beer and cold woman: http://www.last.fm/music/Tom+Waits/+images/38183285
-
100PunkClub wrote:
I just love him. :)
-
noeh91 wrote:
Orphans is pretty cool!
-
dancetoska wrote:
Name a thing cooler than copy-paste. OH WAIT YOU CAN'T!!
-
dancetoska wrote:
TOM WAITS' gold-certified triple-disc masterpiece ORPHANS: BRAWLERS, BAWLERS & BASTARDS (Anti-) will be reinvented on December 8 as a limited edition vinyl set, complete with a deluxe 12" booklet and six new bonus cuts. The collection totals 62 tracks over seven full length LPs, all pressed on 180 gram vinyl. (In the original CD collection, the package contained 30 new recordings which have now been upped to 32 with two newly recorded tracks as part of the bonus 6 on the vinyl set.)
-
palijer wrote:
lol... mingus vs waits.... well mingus also did try to break his piano players hands with the hatch didn't he?... plus the whole recording with lou gerhrings near the end of his carrer.
-
mackypaige wrote:
Check out this music video off of the new Bob Dylan Christmas CD! http://bit.ly/449KiL
-
Bamlaflamme wrote:
Mingus is definitely cooler than Coltrane or Davis, solely based on the fact that when his trombonist was giving him sass, he reacted the right way. Mingus vs Tom Waits is a tough one.
-
knuropatwa wrote:
No. Mingus and Coltrane are cooler than Davis.
-
lKlT wrote:
After 13 copy-pastes there must be an answer: His last name be Davis, his first name be Miles.
-
macijikralj wrote:
Yeah!
-
maitokahvii wrote:
Name a cooler guy than Tom Waits. OH WAIT, YOU CAN'T! [13]
-
Nightwork wrote:
please stop that
-
QuietThings430 wrote:
Name a cooler guy than Tom Waits. OH WAIT, YOU CAN'T! [12]
-
MatheusMB wrote:
Name a cooler guy than Tom Waits. OH WAIT, YOU CAN'T! [11]
Videos
See more
News
Pre-Order 'Glitter and Doom Live'
13 Oct 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/tomwaits
Glitter and Doom Live hits stores on November 24th and is currently available for pre-order in a whole slew of different bundles! Take a look below to see everything that's offered!
…
-
12 Oct 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/tomwaits -
13 May 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/tomwaits -
18 Jun 2008 | from blog.myspace.com/tomwaits
Listeners
-
VoidPoland
Listening now
to Town With No Cheer -
Don_G
Listening now
to Heartattack and Vine -
AiffA
Listening now
to Fannin Street -
xhemi
Top Listener
-
BaggedMilk
Top Listener
-
gonzofury
Top Listener
Recent Activity
-
bburger32492, johnlrichardson, zzhebra and 5 other people added Tom Waits to their libraries. 8 minutes ago
-
Junkhead_541 connected Tom Waits to the group coffee and cigarette lovers. 56 minutes ago
-
mattdboy, fugubot, giantsfan26 and 1 other person added Tom Waits to their libraries. 1 hour ago
-
rusty_a tagged Tom Waits with decadence, singer-songwriter and blues. 2 hours ago
-
amfmcruster, ziggycash, chefstopher and 12 other people added Tom Waits to their libraries. 2 hours ago
-
MontanaSacra tagged Tom Waits with folk, experimental, alternative and 2 other tags. 5 hours ago
-
MontanaSacra added Tom Waits to MontanaSacra’s library. 5 hours ago
-
Mrs_Etc tagged Tom Waits with blues and singer-songwriter. 5 hours ago
-
iniminimayni, The1EyedNord, rustros and 13 other people added Tom Waits to their libraries. 5 hours ago
-
sdrev41 uploaded Tom Waits jardin to Tom Waits’s images. 7 hours ago
Related Journals
-
Playlist for Things that Are Square on KUCI 11/19/09
by Wormwood37 |
20 Nov 2009 | Add comment
-
Last.fm milestones, mer' nincs jobb dógom :D
by JigsawJohnny |
20 Nov 2009 | Add comment
-
Hein'z Decade Lists: Best Live Acts I've Seen In The 2000s (That Means In My Life)
by HeinJr |
19 Nov 2009 | Add comment
Groups (605)
-
Tom Waits
3,263 members
-
The Blues House
38 members
-
Insensatez
33 members
-
Drinking Music
120 members
-
Beatniks and Hipsters
166 members
More Information
- Links
- Labels
Email Newsletter
Get exclusive tour, release & promotion updates on Tom Waits from Universal Music.
