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Tom Waits
35,589,921 plays (731,283 listeners)
Listening now: meandmysister, Turban12, Bongo128
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
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Rain Dogs
Tom Waits
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Closing Time
Tom Waits Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $6.99
- 7digital $7.77
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Bone Machine
Tom Waits Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $9.49
- 7digital $7.77
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Swordfishtrombones
Tom Waits Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $9.49
- 7digital $7.77
- iTunes $9.99
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Top Tracks
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Singapore
full track
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| 2 |
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Jockey Full Of Bourbon
full track
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| 3 |
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Downtown Train
full track
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| 5 |
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Rain Dogs
full track
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| 6 |
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Time
full track
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| 7 |
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Cemetery Polka
full track
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| 8 |
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Tango Till They're Sore
full track
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| 9 |
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Big Black Mariah
full track
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| 10 |
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Hang Down Your Head
full track
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| 11 |
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Gun Street Girl
full track
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| 14 |
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Anywhere I Lay My Head
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| 15 |
Shoutbox
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Hayzi22 wrote:
Tom Waits is my favorite.
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AlexTheRedeemer wrote:
Rain Dogs is probably the best album of the eighties.
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cl-ag wrote:
Mr Waits makes one very charming devil in the new Terry Gilliam film. Amazing performance. [2] And here's group for fans of this film: http://www.lastfm.pl/group/The+Imaginarium+of+Doctor+Parnassus+Fans
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Tilaton wrote:
Say what?
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xnaaq555 wrote:
============ http://ta.gg/3yu ============== fr ee sh i pp ing (jordan shoes) $32 (air max) $34 +++ wow
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BlackCoffeeDuck wrote:
Tom Waits is my favorite. [2]
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lallasupertramp wrote:
how do the angels get to sleep, when the devil leaves the porchlight on?
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WerBack wrote:
New live album is insane.
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fkingly_fine wrote:
"Mr Waits makes one very charming devil in the new Terry Gilliam film. Amazing performance". You got it.
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masked_mouse wrote:
Singapore is the most played track because Rain Dogs is his most popular album and Singapore is the first track on Rain Dogs. The top 15 are dominated by the first handful of tracks from Rain Dogs, so we can conclude that many Tom Waits listeners just throw on Rain Dogs, and some of them don't make it all the way through it. But if you even want to TRY and listen to Rain Dogs all the way through, you have to listen to Singapore.
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gEEEERa wrote:
coney island baby at 118, you fucks :(
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bullroarer wrote:
Mr Waits makes one very charming devil in the new Terry Gilliam film. Amazing performance.
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Narache wrote:
Probably a lot of people are listening the new Glitter and Doom live album. Singapore is absolutely awesome live :)
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anarchoqueer wrote:
Why do people think he has weird vocals? A lot of black blues singers sound like him. People must not have heard any blues.
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lunatykowaty wrote:
i love you Tom, damn i love you.
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gEEEERa wrote:
somewhere on earth there's a dead guy with his itunes playing Singapore on replay i guess
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juhast wrote:
just don't understad why "singapore" is the most played track week after week :I
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ChrisJHutchins wrote:
Love Tom Waits work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrfiYAvdUuQ
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thommyrotten wrote:
i'm watching "big time" tonight <3
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Beat_C wrote:
oh, i just realized he turned 60 a few weks ago - congratulations!
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!
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12 Oct 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/tomwaits -
13 May 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/tomwaits -
18 Jun 2008 | from blog.myspace.com/tomwaits
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Recent Activity
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AudleySpeex, Nicriley, greentara13 and 3 other people added Tom Waits to their libraries. 46 minutes ago
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mecha tagged Tom Waits with singer-songwriter and blues. 3 hours ago
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ericathehalibut, GregNicholson, bookwrm10 and 6 other people added Tom Waits to their libraries. 3 hours ago
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Rifugium wrote about Tom Waits in My official Top 100 favorite albums, 2000-2009. 7 hours ago
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tomaqlf, joanabatista, gimote and 13 other people added Tom Waits to their libraries. 7 hours ago
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kevinhankey tagged Tom Waits with blues and alternative. yesterday evening
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kevinhankey, Anti-Pat, Patryknapczyk and 26 other people added Tom Waits to their libraries. yesterday evening
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auntchilada wrote about Tom Waits in top albums?. yesterday evening
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auntchilada wrote about Tom Waits – Swordfishtrombones in top albums?. yesterday evening
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LieveK tagged Tom Waits with experimental, american, blues and one other tag. yesterday evening
Related Journals
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My official Top 100 favorite albums, 2000-2009
by Rifugium |
3 Jan 2010 | Add comment
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top albums?
by auntchilada |
2 Jan 2010 | Add comment
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by mymusic101 |
2 Jan 2010 | Add comment
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