History Music / TomWaits

Albums with their own pages:

Selected filmography:

His work can be divided into two periods, his jazzy, lounge singer period, lasting from the '70s to the early '80s, and the reinvented, experimental sound of 1983's "Music/{{Swordfishtrombones}}" album on, and his shift to a mysterious, Carnival-and-Sinister-Junkman persona. This shift was caused by his abandonment by Asylum Records, his breakup with Rickie Lee Jones and his marriage to his co-songwriter and muse Kathleen Brennan. Brennan introduced him to the music of Music/CaptainBeefheart, whose influence can be seen in "Swordfishtrombone" and later albums.

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Well, everyone seems to use the [[ReviewerStockPhrases cliched phrases like "whiskey soaked," "gravelly-voiced," "barfly," "hobo," "raconteur troubadour."]]

** A very strange example. ''Army Ants'' is taken from a book about insects, but the way he reads it, sounds like the ramblings of a ConspiracyTheorist.

* ''Real Gone'' (2004)

** "Jersey Girl" was recorded by Music/BruceSpringsteen and initially released in 1984 as the B-side of the single, "Cover Me". It wound up getting a lot of radio airplay and was later re-released on Bruce's live box set. The song is more associated with him than it ever was to Waits.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Some people who were introduced to him during his Island Records/ANTI-Records years find his stuff from the '70s through the early '80s to be this. The early stuff is actually mostly ''less'' weird.

* CoveredUp: Waits' own recordings have never made the charts, but Music/RodStewart's cover of "Downtown Train" went to #3. Music/BruceSpringsteen's cover of "Jersey Girl" was only released as a B-side, but got lots of radio airplay and is more associated with him than with Waits.

He has also acted in several films, notably ''Film/CoffeeAndCigarettes'' as himself, ''Film/DownByLaw'' as a radio DJ who gets framed, ''Film/MysteryMen'' as a MadScientist, ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' as [[TheRenfield Renfield]], and ''Film/WristcuttersALoveStory'' as Kneller, whose dog is missing. He plays Mr. Nick (the Devil) in ''Film/TheImaginariumOfDoctorParnassus'', which also happens to be HeathLedger's last film, and he was a bird named Virgil in Rosto A.D.'s ''MonsterOfNix''. He also played one of the eponymous ''Film/SevenPsychopaths''.

With that out of the way, Tom Waits is an innovative musician, generally classified as [[AlternativeRock Alternative]], but borrowing heavily from European and American folk music, gospel, lounge music, pop, the blues, cabaret, and occasionally country and even rap (he beatboxes on the 2004 album ''Real Gone'' and Atmosphere's ''When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold'', and he appears on N.A.S.A's "Spacious Thoughts").

* SopranoAndGravel: Pretty much any time he performs a duet, probably most notably with Bette Midler and Crystal Gayle.

* TheWindyCity: Appropriately titled song "UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}".

** "Everything Goes to Hell" and "God's Away on Business" from his version of ''Woyzeck'' and its soundtrack album, ''Blood Money''

* VocalEvolution: His trademark harsh style wasn't exactly what he started with, but he quickly began to adopt it after his first two albums in '73 and '74.

* CoveredUp: Waits' own recordings have never made the charts, but Music/RodStewart's cover of "Downbound Train" went to #3. Music/BruceSpringsteen's cover of "Jersey Girl" was only released as a B-side, but got lots of radio airplay and is more associated with him than with Waits.

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

* Literature/{{Child Ballad|s}}: He has his own version of Ballad #10, "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twa_Sisters The Twa Sisters]]," from his album "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards." [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzuPT5NqXGY Take a listen]].

* GutturalGrowler: Does this even need to be said?

--> (Audience groans)

* RockOpera