Tom Waits - Did You Know?

April 23, 2018

Music facts, music trivia, interesting stories and much more. Introducing the "Did You Know" page about American singer and songwriter, Tom Waits.

Enjoy!

 

 

Tom Waits is an American singer, songwriter, composer, musician and actor. He has a distinctive voice that was described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding as though "it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car".

Tom Waits has a trademark which is his growl, which also helped build his musical persona along with his incorporation of pre-rock music styles like: jazz and vaudeville, blues  and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music.

So how all of it began? Well, in 1971, manager Herb Cohen stumbled upon Tom Waits in a venue by the name of The Troubadour, and suggested that the two of them work together.

Later on that year, Cohen helped Waits negotiate a contract with Bizarre/Straight Records, and started recording demos. Them Waits switched to to Asylum Records the following year. Throughout the '70s, Tom Waits released 6 albums, toured extensively, and became something of an alcoholic.

Tom Waits was influenced by Bob Dylan and the Beat Generation, and his lyrics frequently present atmospheric portraits of grotesque, often seedy characters and places. However, Waits had also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads.

Waits is listed on the lists of 100 Greatest Singers, and 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, done by Rolling Stone magazine.

In 2011, Tom Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 

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