Tom Waits’ favourite Charles Bukowski book
If anyone in the music industry represents the ultimate bookworm, it’s Tom Waits. In the eyes of the poet himself, intellect is a necessary thing to acquire and something that’s only achieved through reading. Waits’ love for reading is anything but casual – in fact, he often immersed himself in the art until the early hours of the morning, looking for inspirational reflections of himself and the world around him.
To demonstrate Waits’ insatiable desire for literature, his ex-girlfriend Bobi Thomas once explained one of his stranger habits: staying up until around 6am because he couldn’t put a book down. “He’d tell me how inspired he was by some short story or other, and I think that was the source of his muse,” Thomas said, comparing Waits’ love of literature to the appreciation others have for movies.
Moreover, due to his vast expanse of influences on his music, from folk hero Bob Dylan to outside rpoet William Burroughs, it’s hard not to see various facets of each in Waits’ own writing. His melting pot of sources becomes his fast track to excellence and a major focal point as he continues divulging various aspects of niche and popular culture.
What’s different about Waits’ fixations, however, is that he often delves beneath the surface, embellishing his ability to get under the skin of his various fascinations. While working with Burroughs, for instance, everything about his demeanour inspired him, from how he presented himself to how he conducted his art.
“[He] was as solid as a metal desk and his text was the branch this bundle would swing from,” Waits explained. Continuing, “His cut-up text and open process of finding a language for this story became a river of words for me to draw from in the lyrics of the songs. He brought wisdom and a voice to the piece that is woven throughout.”
It’s no surprise, therefore, that the moment Waits discovered Charles Bukowski, he never looked back. His raw, unfiltered, and cynical writing style likely became a major influence on Waits, particularly when you consider Bukowski’s penchant for layering his work with both dark humour and brutal honesty. Discussing his favourite Bukowski book, The Last Night of the Earth Poems, Waits summarised his main appeal.
“[He was] one of the most colourful and important writers of modern fiction, poetry, prose, in contemporary literature,” Waits said. Considering the fact that The Last Night of the Earth Poems is packed with various potential avenues of inspiration, including themes of mortality, relationships, despair, and irony, Waits’ appreciation is completely justified.
As a skilled wordsmith himself, it’s likely that Waits saw a lot of himself in Bukowski, especially through his idiosyncratic musings and insights into the darker aspects of society. As two poetic titans, their work resonates with audiences who appreciate their raw honesty and unapologetic portrayal of the human condition.