Tom Waits credits Bukowski for Frank (1 Viewer)

man I'd love to see tom and buk at a bar together, closest we came was tom and iggy...


and what's buksmas and how do I celebrate?
 
-those wanting to separate Buk from Kerouac will not be pleased. Now that it's in cnn print-it may be gospel.

it's not new, that Waits is a fan of Kerouac. He stated that several times. I still like him though.

The words concerning 'Franks Wild Years' is no gossip. I have this promo-CD. He obviously was thinking of 'The Shoelace' (and not a short-story, as he stated).

igloo:
'buksmas' is the birthday of our hero tomorrow.
feel free to celebrate as you wish.
 
For some strange reason, the author of the CNN story seemed intent on isolating the song "Frank's Wild Years" out of the dozens and dozens of songs in Tom's catalog; it's a nice spoken verse number but it is hardly representative of Waits's innovative musical stylings (many different styles, if you wanna get right down to it) and only one of many stories in verse than can be said to be derivative of Bukowski.

In any event, yes, Waits did claim that "a Bukowski story about the little things that drive men mad" inspired the song in the 1983 press kit for the Swordfishtrombones album but he also claimed in '83 that "He was a real estate agent that I met. It's a salute to the kind of guy l want to grow up to be some day Frank hung his wild years on a nail he drove through his wife's forehead. It's a cathartic dream." Later that same year, he told Melody Maker magazine that Frank's Wild Years was inspired by an "Insurance investigator in California. Just eavesdropping. Added my own funhouse mirror."
 
My little girl just told me about the article Jimmy Snerp. She's looking out for me.

"It's like hey, we don't talk about this guy enough." my daughter is a fan of Tom Waits.
 
so she doesn't seem to be so 'little' any more.
How old is she?
My friend Gerard, You seem to have the great - and rare - opportunity, to keep your daughter Over the times, when you saw her as a child ...

first: stop calling her "my little girl". (she sure doesn't like that)
second: take her serious. she sure takes You serious.
3rd: has she ever read the Waits-bio by Patrick Humphries? - if not: this will be the Perfect gift for a birthday, christmas or just to please her!
 
so she doesn't seem to be so 'little' any more.
How old is she?
My friend Gerard, You seem to have the great - and rare - opportunity, to keep your daughter Over the times, when you saw her as a child ...

first: stop calling her "my little girl". (she sure doesn't like that)
second: take her serious. she sure takes You serious.

Roni, me guess's that you are a young man, (a cigar smoker I see!, ahhhh,) I have two "little girls" aged 25 and 37. believe me, once they're you're baby's, theyr'e always your baby. and niether them, or ourselve's (fathers) would have it any other way:). I hope that you may enjoy the same one day. it really just dosen't get any better. rick.
 
so she doesn't seem to be so 'little' any more.
How old is she?
My friend Gerard, You seem to have the great - and rare - opportunity, to keep your daughter Over the times, when you saw her as a child ...

first: stop calling her "my little girl". (she sure doesn't like that)
second: take her serious. she sure takes You serious.
3rd: has she ever read the Waits-bio by Patrick Humphries? - if not: this will be the Perfect gift for a birthday, christmas or just to please her!

Roni; she's going to be 20 on that day in October and she likes to be called my little girl. She will always be my little girl although she's taller than my wife. Just a while longer and no more teenagers.
To be perfectly Frank about it.;)
 
1fish + Gerard:
i sure see the point on the 'little girl' for parents.

of course a 20 yo or older makes no big thing about this anymore. i was more thinking about teens:

i remember quite well from my own times how i hated it, when my parents treated me like a little child, when i was 14 or 16 or ...
and i'm pretty sure, that the 14 yo daughter of my last girlfriend wouldn't appreatiate me calling or treating her like a 'little girl', eben though she totally loved to act as if she were my own child, when she was younger.

so i guess people are just different.
nothing new under the sun.
 
I enjoy a few Tom Waits songs. Quite a few. But he rings a little hollow for me a lot of the time.
I agree completely on this. He doesn't sound hollow, but somewhat contrived. That strained circus-voice he has used in his later years... a direct opposite to Buk's motto: "Don't try". Reminds me of what Buk wrote about the falseness of the human voice in opera. I love the early more bluesy whiskey voiced Waits. But whenever you hear his songs interpreted by someone else you can hear what a good songwriter he really is. Like the theme song from the TV-show The Wire. What a great version: (Damn! this should have been on the Ipod-thread!)
Waits can write, but as of late, he can't perform.
... in my opinion... heh heh heh
 
Not only are you on the money, Erik, but many music critics agree with you, pointing to "Swordfishtrombones", I believe, as the turning point or, more apt, the point of no return. My Waits collection includes early albums as well as more recent recordings. His vocals on his early albums are strong and smoky but then this drunken, Dante-esque persona took hold and instead of using it until it played out (David Bowie and his Ziggy Stardust persona, for example) he held onto it until he ran it into the ground. I can't tell you how many times I listen to more recent Waits recordings and think, "Goddamn, that's a beautifully written song but I wish someone else would handle the vocal chores."

It is important to bear in mind, however, (if my sources are correct and I have no reason to doubt them) that one part of the Waits persona that is not contrived is the drinking. He is a world-class drunk. Put a musical genius in a recording studio with a case of rye and you get what you get: a perambulating drunken monkey with a calliope in the background. Sometimes it works, more often it doesn't. But, for balance, look at songs like "Beautiful When You Dream" and "Tom Traubert's Blues" ... priceless. I mean, how many of his contemporaries are writing waltzes? None, that's who. The guy writes beautiful waltzes, for fuck's sake. If Waits is not a musicologist, he certainly should be bestowed with an honorary degree.
 
it's not new, that Waits is a fan of Kerouac. He stated that several times. I still like him though.

The words concerning 'Franks Wild Years' is no gossip. I have this promo-CD. He obviously was thinking of 'The Shoelace' (and not a short-story, as he stated).



igloo:
'buksmas' is the birthday of our hero tomorrow.
feel free to celebrate as you wish.

You still like who? Waits, or Kerouac?
 
I just want to add though I think Waits image is a bit of a put on, I have no problem with that. I think that's a legitimate artistic decision and music folks I really like i.e. Alice Cooper, Bowie did this. And I think our friend Buk did that also (in a very limited manner.) I think he exagerrated a wee bit.

And by the way, Boston had a band called the Bags that still exist and started in the later 80's. In my opinion and others they are one of the better bands to exist in Boston and pre-dated the whole grunge thing in Seattle by at least 5 years.
 
Tom Waits on Bukowski - radio-interview 1976


at 2:20 he talks a little about Hank.
but the sound is shitty as hell!
 

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