by Bevin Dooley
Okay, so by now, all of you have probably figured out that I am obsessed with Tom Waits (Nighthawks at the Diner, anyone?) but it's not a blind sort of obsession. I consider him a poet in his own right, because he has a handle on language that I think is rare; he pins words down, fucks them roughly and then drags them, first into an ice-cold shower, then out for a night on the town that wraps up in a whiskey-induced fog at some 24-hour diner, around 7 o'clock in the morning. If you don't believe me, go listen to Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street). You will not be disappointed.
I remember being about 15, and some friend of mine - a musician whose girlfriend I desperately wanted to be - introduced me to Tom Waits. Wanted to increase my chances of hooking up, and having heard down the line that he once broke up with a girl for not liking Bob Dylan, I tried to track down some Tom Waits. I needn't have looked far because my English teacher also happened to be obsessed with Tom Waits, and in anticipation of Halloween, decided to play the Mule Variations for us. This was the track he played:
I have never been so goddamned fucking afraid for my sanity at 9:30 on a Monday morning. Ever. But the pay-off of creeping warily around my house for a week when I was the only one home is that now, not only I have a huge appreciation for Tom Waits as an artist, but I have a potential excuse to use this song.
ps. That musician and I never hooked up. I'm still kind of sad about it.
1) whats with you and musicians ( I remember ICE)
ReplyDelete2) I just want to say that this film is really inspiring for me, it tells a whole story even outside of the lyrics which is very much our piece.