The lesser-known masterpieces Tom Waits thinks everyone should hear
Nothing Tom Waits ever wrote could really be considered average and ordinary. He has always been the true eccentric on the fringes of rock and roll, and while he flirts with the mainstream occasionally, Waits is far more at home when writing some of the wildest music he could ever think of. Waits didn’t get there without some great records paving the way for him, but some of his favourite albums are far from mainstream.
That’s not to say that Waits can’t appreciate more than a few great classics. When pressed about his favourite albums of all time, he did share his love for In the Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra, which could justifiably be called the first concept album given how many moods it packs into one project.
His first love was always about the kind of music that put people on edge just a little bit, and some of the lesser-known pieces in the mix are far more interesting than where he took his music. They may not jump out as anything close to what Waits could do, but by taking everything in as a whole, you start to see the picture of where albums like Rain Dogs came from.
Outside of the core sound of his guttural lows and amazing sonic performances, these albums he singled out for Amazon run the gamut of what constitutes a great Tom Waits composition. It might not be easy to take in all at once, and it might leave you with a few instances of whiplash, but then again, it wouldn’t be a good Tom Waits project if it wasn’t, now would it? See Waits’ personal recommendations below.
Obscure albums recommended by Tom Waits:
Y Los Cubanos Postizos – Marc Ribot
As far as Waits went, he was looking to focus on music from all over the world, like Y Los Cubanos Postizos by Marc Ribot. Compared to standard pop songs, this first foray into world music helped Waits gain an appreciation for different cultures, saying, “This Atlantic recording shows off one of many of Ribot’s incarnations as a prosthetic Cuban. They are hot, and Marc dazzles us with his bottomless soul. Shaking and burning like a native”.
That kind of spontaneity isn’t that far off from where Waits went during his career. The name of the game was always about giving it your all whenever you’re behind the microphone, and Waits took this kind of world music and turned it into second nature in just a few strokes.
Let The Buyer Beware – Lenny Bruce
For some of the greatest albums of all time, Lenny Bruce didn’t always stick out as a clear influence on Waits’ performance. When singling him out, though, Waits was more into how Bruce conducted himself on this album, stating, “Awesome in its scope and depth. Hal Wilner compiled this from thousands of feet of tape. It is the road that all comics of today are driving on”.
It’s not like Waits couldn’t have his own lane as a comedian, either. If you listen to his albums, there are some tongue-in-cheek humour sections that feel indebted to Bruce in some spots. They are far from reverent most of the time, but it’s pretty hard to turn your eyes away from them once they get going.
The Abyssinian Baptist Gospel Church Choir by the Abyssinian Church
The uninhibited sense of performance also came through in Waits’s love of gospel music. Although The Abyssinian Baptist Gospel Church Choir by the Abyssinian Church was far from the best-seller at the time, the right people were listening, with Waits recalling, “Tony Bennett said this is the greatest rock and roll record ever recorded. You can feel why in these wild, powerful performances. This choir is barely containable. It puts you in the choir with them. Astonishing, awesome. You will be saved”.
While not technically the same thing as pure rock and roll, this trip into gospel territory had all the hallmarks of what Waits was about. If you think about it, there’s not too much difference between that guttural howl of his and the kind of electrifying passion that gospel music puts into every single syllable they sing.
Purple Onion – The Les Claypool Frog Brigade
Compared to most other rockstars, Les Claypool feels like a kindred spirit for someone like Waits. Outside of Primus, Waits thought Claypool carried on his brand of weirdness, saying, “Les Claypool’s sharp and imaginative, contemporary ironic humour and lightning musicianship makes me think of Frank Zappa. ‘Dee’s Diner’ is like a great song your kid makes up in the car on the way to the drive-in”.
As much as Claypool might like the idea of sounding weird, it’s never at a disservice to the song, either. Waits had already established his sound before Claypool had even started inventing himself anyway, but the amount of strange avenues in his solo career sees him following in the footsteps of what Waits had suggested.
The Delivery Man – Elvis Costello
Who says a giant of rock and roll can’t try their hand at getting weird? Outside of his iconic albums in the late 1970s, Waits thought that Elvis Costello’s The Delivery Man was a work of genius, recalling, “Scalding hot bedlam, monkey to man needle time with his sharp. I’d hate to be balled out by him. I’d quit first. Grooves wide enough to put your foot in, and the bass player is a gorilla of groove.”
There may have been a new face for the Attractions, but that wasn’t a bad thing at all, bringing that sense of groove up to 11 whenever they played and making Costello look like a far more funky presence than he probably ever thought possible. It’s not always the Costello you’d expect, but it takes a strong album for someone like Waits to back out of a challenge.
Ompa Til du Dor – Kaizers Orchestra
Waits always wanted to make things sound slightly dishevelled, and there’s no better place for strange sounds than this album. When discussing Kaizers Orchestra, Waits likened the album to something you would hear in a fairground, saying, “Norwegian storm trooping tarantellas with savage rhythms and innovative textures. Thinking man’s circus music. Way out”.
That sound feels like the music that Waits would recognise in a heartbeat, though. If Kaizers Orchestra were looking to make circus music, Waits’s approach to music is the kind of sound you would get from that same circus equipment if it were dug out of an abandoned junkyard.
Flying Saucer Tour – Bill Hicks
And we find ourselves back at the golden age of comedy. While Bill Hicks tends to be fairly hit-and-miss with the comedic crowd, Waits knew that dry sense of humour all too well, stating, “Bill was trying to get free of the nagging hunger for mainstream acceptance. These gems were recorded in towns barely on the map, and he sometimes had to make a mad dash for the car, outrunning an angry mob”.
Then again, Hicks wasn’t saying anything that Waits hadn’t heard before. If anything, this was what Lenny Bruce would have sounded like if he was brought down to a more Everyman level, and when you listen to Waits’s music, he probably turned the unintended soundtrack to an album like this without really trying.
Masked Man – Charley Patton
For any kind of rock and roller, all roads lead back to the blues. While Robert Johnson is probably more celebrated in blues circles for the genre’s golden age, Waits thought Charley Patton deserved the same amount of attention, recalling, “[He’s] one of the pillars of the Delta Blues. Clearly not only a blues man but a songster as well and a teacher to all who would follow”.
Considering how Patton sets a scene, are we sure that Waits didn’t copy his entire schtick wholesale? It’s not a one-to-one comparison by any stretch, but if you listen to how Waits frames the characters in his songs, it’s not all that different from the morose side of life that Patton delivered in his finest work.
The Speciality Sessions – Little Richard
Blues may have come first, but Waits was still a rock and roller at the end of the day, and Little Richard is the blueprint we all look towards. Most may have been looking at Chuck Berry, but Waits was fascinated by what Little Richard did, saying, “The steam and chug of Lucile alone pointed a finger that showed the way. The equipment wasn’t meant to be treated this way. The needle is still in the red”.
Then again, the rules of keeping needles out of the red were always meant to be somewhat broken. Waits could have easily tried to mime along and make a more palatable version of what Richard does, but where would be the fun in that? It was more about making something caustic, and if that meant disturbing some people who wanted easy listening, that was their problem.
