Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen, AKA, Wasted and Wounded

March 7, 2025 2:10 PM

75 yo Tom Waits performs "Tom Traubert's Blues" for Italian television, as part of the documentary Ultima Fermata, broadcast in February 2025. Here he plays it 48 years earlier.

And it's a battered old suitcase
To a hotel someplace
And a wound that will never heal
No prima donna, the perfume is on
An old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey
And goodnight to the street sweepers
The night watchman flame keepers
And goodnight Matilda, too

posted by growabrain (15 comments total)

Ah, Tom Waits, my patron saint. I have been lucky to see him live twice. I shall not be that lucky again, I'd wager.
posted by Kitteh at 2:16 PM on March 7 [10 favorites]

Tom Waits' voice has been 75 years old for the past fifty years. Thanks for this.
posted by phooky at 3:08 PM on March 7 [8 favorites]

This song never fails to bring everything to a stop around me (except, perhaps, for the tears)
posted by entropone at 3:23 PM on March 7 [6 favorites]

Beautifully said, entropone. ♡
posted by Lizard at 3:26 PM on March 7 [2 favorites]

Thank you for that. Guess he finally grew into that voice, huh?
posted by Paul Slade at 3:36 PM on March 7

Ah, Tom Waits, my patron saint. I have been lucky to see him live twice. I shall not be that lucky again, I'd wager.

I know that that was "live" with a long "i," but I read it as "live" with a short "i." It sounds like an aphorism, "Tom Waits lives twice," which reminds me of the band "Tom Waits for no man," which I have never heard but whose name I enjoy immensely. (In fact it seems to be two bands, if Facebook leads me aright: 1 2.)

This is timely for me, because I was just wondering the other day if Tom Waits might, Leonard Cohen-like, have a late-life spurt of activity (though hopefully not for the same reason) and gift us with another of his beautiful albums. One can still hope! In the meantime this is a lovely listen, and I will continue to listen sometimes to the much angrier song Hell broke Luce, which somehow is the one of his to which I keep returning.

(In the time when Tom Waits was giving hucksters a good name, as opposed to the current age when they are, hmm, somehow less amusing, I also enjoyed Step right up from his early work.)
posted by It is regrettable that at 4:39 PM on March 7 [3 favorites]

The whole episode is available here, and deserves a watch. We have failed each other as a society, and people who are unhoused are suffering for our failures.
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 5:49 PM on March 7 [2 favorites]

My intro to Tom Waits was Step Right Up and the first time I heard it was a religious experience. And to be honest, most of his other works fit that same slot for me. I can't hear a Tom Waits song without being affected somehow, sometimes indescribably so, but affected nonetheless.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 6:05 PM on March 7 [3 favorites]

"Chocolate Jesus" has become our family's travelling song, something we put on for the kids when we were going somewhere long in the car - something we still play now they are adults

"When the weather gets rough and it's whiskey in the shade
It's best to wrap your savior up in cellophane
He flows like the big muddy, but that's okay
Pour him over ice cream for a nice parfait"
posted by mbo at 10:40 PM on March 7

Mod note: A simply lovely share, thank you for posting! We've added it to the sidebar and the Best Of blog.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 2:53 AM on March 8

Great to see him looking (and sounding) so well! One of my big regrets is missing his last tour. Long may he continue playing.

(Required link for any Tom Waits thread: the times he sent tapes to Bob Dylan's radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, on various subjects ranging from Jewish curses to passenger pigeons.)
posted by fight or flight at 4:46 AM on March 8 [2 favorites]

Made me go looking for one of my earliest introductions and still a favorite Tom Waits tune - and my God was I stunned to see it's 45 years old and it was his seventh album. What an amazing and remarkable oeuvre.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 7:39 AM on March 8

I suppose the first contact with Tom Waits is unforgettable for a lot of people. This was mine.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:56 AM on March 8

Tom Waits for no man.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:36 AM on March 8 [1 favorite]

Thank you so much for this recent vid. I keep visiting his website, really just to have some news of the great man but there's not much to be found over there. Tom Waits is the main reason I've ever really wanted to understand the English language, mainly through his rambling speeches - but of course, also because of the song lyrics - on nighthawks at the diner. What a fantastic record. Thank you !
posted by nicolin at 2:13 PM on March 8 [1 favorite]