Comments on: Well I've lost my equilibrium, my car keys and my pride

Well I've lost my equilibrium, my car keys and my pride

BrotherCaine — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:25:47 -0800

By: Iron Rat

Iron Rat — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:44:07 -0800

That was nice, I have not listened to him in years.

By: fish tick

fish tick — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:47:53 -0800

Nice! Maybe a bit *too* nice to be Waits-related; it needs some cigarette butts and unidentified puddles, and the people should be less wholesome and more urgent, but a great find, for sure.

By: signalnine

signalnine — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:50:33 -0800

Great stuff. I loves me some Tom Waits.

By: brevator

brevator — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:57:14 -0800

thx.

By: motty

motty — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:00:49 -0800

Wow. Thank you.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:01:28 -0800

Ditto what signainine said.

By: Down10

Down10 — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:14:00 -0800

Wonderful! I love to see these types of pre-digital age animation/MTV-era videos. There's a great page documenting its origin and filming here: Tom Waits For No One.

By: xammerboy

xammerboy — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:14:13 -0800

Wow. I LOVED that. Is that what MTV should be like?

By: billysumday

billysumday — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:23:22 -0800

Funny, earlier today I was looking for Jersey Girl on YouTube and found this priceless live performance. The man is a marvel.

By: NationalKato

NationalKato — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:05:13 -0800

That man can growl.

By: juiceCake

juiceCake — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:06:59 -0800

Nice. I haven't listened to Waits in about three weeks. Time I resumed.

By: rollbiz

rollbiz — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:31:04 -0800

Nice find, thank you. If a man swallowed a backwoods driveway, could he carry a more gravelly voice than Mr. Waits?

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:47:03 -0800

Tom is my favourite - when I grow up I want to be just like him. A frightening drunken circus clown spouting the undeniable brutal truth about your mother and death and the meaning of life. Downtown Train Goin out West What's He Building God's away on Business And my very very favourites, the ones I have had surgically installed on the inside of my skull: It's All Right With Me 16 shells from a Thirty-Ought Six

By: ms.jones

ms.jones — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:31:41 -0800

good find!

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:32:16 -0800

I haven't listened to Waits in about three weeks. Since last night, here. But later, more difficult Tom, I do admit to my shame, I find harder to enjoy as much when I'm drinking, which is primetime Waits time. Perhaps I need to drink more, or harder. But damn it, I'm not as young or as thirsty as I used to be.

By: sparkletone

sparkletone — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:41:59 -0800

If a man swallowed a backwoods driveway, could he carry a more gravelly voice than Mr. Waits? I've often considered taking up smoking, drinking the hardest liquor I can find, and paying someon to kick me in the throat once a month. I still don't think my voice'd come out that damaged after a decade of that. As someone or other put it: that dude's voice is a broad-spectrum assault weapon. His most recent Letterman performance. My favorite of his Letterman appearances. And on top of that gravel and barking, the motherfucker can still break your fucking heart.

By: neuron

neuron — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:58:10 -0800

His most recent Letterman performance. I saw that one. I LMAO'd during the interview. Somewhere recently, maybe there, I heard an interview with Waits in which he discussed how he writes songs for films. It was brilliant.

By: arto

arto — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:15:10 -0800

Fantastic.

By: arto

arto — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:20:49 -0800

By: hippugeek

hippugeek — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:34:41 -0800

I've often considered taking up smoking, drinking the hardest liquor I can find, and paying someon to kick me in the throat once a month. Close, sparkletone. I hear the real formula is "soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car." I'm a big fan of this old variety show appearence. The hosts aren't in on the joke quiiite enough.

By: JT

JT — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:55:47 -0800

Kentucky Avenue (1979) --This song is pretty much guaranteed to bring tears to my eyes.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:56:58 -0800

The hosts aren't in on the joke quiiite enough. Actually, the entirety of Fernwood 2night was a joke, a satire of regional talk shows, featuring an unctuous host who wasn't quite as with it as he thought and a sidekick that was totally clueless. Tom Waits was an ideal guest for Fernwood, as he's the exact sort of performer that would totally bewilder the hosts of Fernwood, were it a real regional talk show. It was an offshoot of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and Fred Willard has been playing versions of this same character ever since.

By: sparkletone

sparkletone — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:31:08 -0800

I hear the real formula is "soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car." I have heard this too, but I am not certain it's canonical. On top of that, varying the formula should produce something less than a complete rip off. It's a good thing I kinda like my singing voice the way it is most of the time, otherwise I'd be quite put out.

By: twistedonion

twistedonion — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:53:58 -0800

Kentucky Avenue (1979) --This song is pretty much guaranteed to bring tears to my eyes. I remember playing that at my college radio... never lived it down. It may have brought tears to my eyes but no one else in the College. Anyone know if Tom is going to tour outside America with the new album?

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:26:09 -0800

I'd never understood the appeal of Tom Waits until now. Will have to educate myself.

By: krakedhalo

krakedhalo — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 07:20:38 -0800

The Day After Tomorrow from his appearance on The Daily Show a few months back. There are links to the interview there too, where Stewart says something like, "I used to listen to your albums and think, 'Man, I want to be passed out in a gutter somewhere with that guy.'"

By: Milkman Dan

Milkman Dan — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 07:52:34 -0800

Mmm, Tom Waits is pretty much the best. I made a mash-up with a sad song by him and another sad song by Sarah Slean this one time.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:27:51 -0800

I was all set to derail my own thread with a discussion about how much mashups suck, but that was actually really good Milkman Dan.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:31:02 -0800

hippugeek and sparkletone, dont forget getting punched in the throat, gargling acid, and/or doing heroin.

By: hippugeek

hippugeek — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:59:52 -0800

Thanks, Astro Zombie. I know Fernwood was a joke, but thought Waits was still operating a bit above the hosts' radar. But perhaps I don't give them as much credit as I should, not having seen other episodes. I was laughing and snorting aloud through that whole interview, krakedhalo. "I used to listen to your music and think, 'Boy, I'd love to lie in the street nearly dead with that guy.'"

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 10:27:20 -0800

Great vid, great links. Wait's ability to convincingly project rustic squalor and urban dissolution - or is it rustic dissolution and urban squalor? - with humour, empathy, and dignity never ceases to amaze me.

By: djfiander

djfiander — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 10:35:33 -0800

*bookmarks this thread to follow all the links at home*

By: progosk

progosk — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:32:03 -0800

i'll always believe tom, despite his tendency to "lie to me" (flash or mp4 here).

By: davy

davy — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:51:55 -0800

Y'all do realize Tom Waits has been on the wagon a while, right? He brags in interviews about not having a drink since 1994. His is one rare case of an artist's output improving after s/he "seeks help"; poor Stephen King's predicament, sidewinding into pseudomythological moral- mongering "spiritual" bullshit, is more usual. Can't anybody simply stop drinking/drugging without chugging and spewing that goofy 12-step crap?