Tom Waits

Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits, on December 7, 1949 in Pomona, California), is an American author, composer, interpret and actor. The first part of his career showed his roots as a nightclub singer, half speaking and half crooning ballads, often with either a soft jazz background. The 1975 album "Nighthawks at the Diner", recorded in a studio but with a small audience to capture the ambience of a live show, captures this phase of his career, including the lengthy spoken interludes between songs that punctuated his live act.

After leaving Asylum Records and his marriage with Kathleen Brennan (1980), his music became less mainstream. His trio of albums from the mid-1980s, "Swordfishtrombones", "Rain Dogs" and "Frank's Wild Years", all featured eclectic instrumentation to some extent, often marrying [soul music]? horn sections to avant-garde percussion or the distorted guitar of [Marc Ribot]?. The last of these albums, an off-broadway musical co-written with his wife and the later collaboration with William S. Burroughs on "The Black Rider" both demonstrated the increasing interest in theatre, which has resulted in a somewhat succesful acting career, as well as soundtrack work.

In the popular perception, however, he and his work remain mostly characterised by his rocky voice, his strong personality and theatrical presence on stage and the "late night smoky bars" humour of his texts ("I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.").

He has had several opportunities in movies, as a soundtrack composer, but also as an actor. In essence, however, and despite his songs having been covered by such famous stars such [Bruce Springsteen]? and [Rod Stewart]?, Waits remains a cult performer, steadfastly outside the mainstream.

Discography

• 1973 Closing Time
• 1974 Heart of Saturday Night
• 1974-75 Nighthawks at the Diner (Live)
• 1976 Small Change
• 1977 Foreign Affairs
• 1978 Blue Valentine
• 1980 Heart Attack & Vine
• 1983 Swordfishtrombones
• 1985 Raindogs
• 1987 Frank's Wild Years
• 1988 Big Time released. (Live CD, Movie and Video)
• 1992 Bone Machine (which gave him a Grammy Award for "Best Alternative Music Album")
• 1993 Black Rider (collaboration with William S. Burroughs
• 1999 Mule Variations

Filmography

• 1978 Movie debut as 'Mumbles' in Paradise Alley.
• 1980 Worked with Francis Ford Coppola on the soundtrack to 'One From The Heart'.
• 1982 Soundtrack of One From The Heart. Nominated for an Academy Award for best original score. Played petrified man in carnival in The Stone Boy.
• 1983 Played Buck Merrill in The Outsiders. Played Bennie the pool hall owner in Rumble Fish
• 1984 Played Irving Stark in The Cotton Club
• 1986 Starred as Zack in Down by Law
• 1987 Played Rudy The Kraut in Ironweed. Played Al Silk in Candy Mountain
• 1989 Played the 'Punch & Judy Man' in Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale. Starred as Kenny the Hitman in Cold Feet. Voice of the radio DJ in Mystery Train. Composer on Sea of Love
• 1990 Played a plainclothes policeman in The Two Jakes
• 1991 Played Wolf in At Play in the Fields of the Lord. Played a disabled Veteran beggar in The Fisher King. Wrote the score of Night on Earth (With Kathleen Brennan). Played Monte in Queens Logic.
• 1992 Composer (With Kathleen Brennan) on American Heart. Played R.M. Renfield in Bram Stoker's Dracula
• 1993 Appeared in conversation with [Iggy Pop]? in Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere In America. Played Earl Piggott in Short Cuts
• 1996 Composer on soundtrack of Dead Man Walking. Composer on soundtrack of The End of Violence
• 1999 Mystery Men -- played an inventor who specialized in non-lethal weapons.

/Talk