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June 3, 2008

Tom Waits Week: Cross My Wooden Leg And I Swear On My Glass Eye

Filed under: Tom Waits Week, fnord, music, wisdom — Tags: bone machine, fnord, keith richards, music, that feel, Tom Waits, Tom Waits Week — admin @ 12:30 am

It Will Always Come To Find You, It Will Always Hear You Cry

This song, with Keith Richards for added legitimacy, is one of my favorite ever. Again, Tom sings in myths, he hums like a detuned radio. Dear God, there’s so much of me that’s lain dormant.

You say that it’s gospel, but I know it’s only church.

Many miles away, something crawls from the slime, at the bottom of a dark Scottish loch. It’s a great song. It gets to me the way the Pogues can, sometimes. Ah, well. So, I’m a bit maudlin. Swaha.

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May 31, 2008

Tom Waits Week: Some Say He Once Killed A Man With A Guitar String

Filed under: Tom Waits Week, fnord, music — Tags: Black Wings, bone machine, fnord, music, mythology, poetry, Tom Waits — admin @ 7:51 pm

I don’t love Tom Waits, per se. I love an era of Tom Waits’ career. I love from Rain Dogs through Bone Machine. This particular swath of Tom’s career really speaks to the addict in me. The Irish. This song is from Bone Machine.

One look in his eye, and everyone denies ever having met him.

This song is pure Storyteller mythology. Tom is a pure genius. I will say that. I don’t like his barfly music of the 70’s, nor his clip/clip megaphone noise of latter day material, but that’s my problem, not his. Tom Waits is the hood ornament of the pink Caddy that Elvis drove out of Hell on Halloween night. You don’t have to like his voice. Listen to the flow of words, the rhythm, the cadence. Listen to the goddamn words themselves. He tells a story without once revealing who the subject is. Those wings of which he speaks… are they feathery or leathery?

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