Tom Waits
He has an endless musical back catalogue of the dirtiest blues, the grimiest jazz and the most wonderful poems, musicals and short stories every to be assembled in a recording studio. The first time I heard Tom Waits was when I lived in Exeter in 2003, I can remember hearing a cavalcade of organ blasts, weeping violins and a husky deep voice calling me through the walls of my university accommodation. The album my flat mate was playing was called ‘Alice’, which is a musical interpretation of the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ tale. On this album, Tom Waits takes on the role of every character and manipulates the original story with his compelling song writing into a heart warming tale of love, sorrow and social divide. Since first hearing Waits several years ago, I have collected a series of his albums, from the catchy blues assembly of ‘The Heart of Saturday Night’, to the enigmatic experimental powerhouse ‘Mule Variations’.
Copyright Daniel Emmerson 2008 all rights reserved
