Anyone Here Listen To...... TOM WAITS

[Gilbert]

Geeez it's embarassing when a new, young, employee introduces me to music that I feel I should be familiar with. Tom Waits has been around a hellofa long time, yet last week was the first time I'd ever listened to one of his albums.

Check it out..... TOM WAITS

If the link is a little too rough and tough, he's got lots of other stuff that's just too cool.

[seti]

Tom Waits is one of the greatest American song writers. I wanted to see him in Memphis last year but the tickets sold out almost immediately. When I first heard Tom Waits I flipped out and quickly devoured his entire collection.

[jheis]

Oh Yeah - local boy. Lives out in Sebastopol IIRC.

James

[Daddy Dee]

Nighthawks at the Diner is a favorite of mine.

[seti]

Always a favorite of mine. I like "Frank's Wild Years" and "Big Time." But we like pretty much all the albums. He is also a very creative musician who invents his own instruments and the like. Not a bad actor either.

He was really good in At Play In The Fields Of The Lord which is one of my all time favorites. Down By Law is a great movie as well Tom Waits is brilliant in this movie.

The stories he tells in between songs on the bootlegs are a riot. I think my favorite is about the union soldier and girl.

"...it seems a stray bullet actually pierced the ******** of a Union
soldier and lodged itself in the ovaries of a woman standing
approximately 100 ft. away. She's alright, the baby's doing
fine...of course the soldier's a little pissed off..."

[kev313]

oh yeah. In fact, a young Mr. Waits has been gracing the forum with his presence as my my avatar for 5 years. Enjoy!

[Video Guy]

If you like Tom Waits you may like the biography "Small Change A Life Of Tom Waits" by Patrick Humphries. I picked up a copy at the local thrift store for fifty cents, quite the score.

[kev313]

Funny the topic of Tom Waits should come up. I've always used his recordings to evaluate certain aspects of 2 channel systems. I don't find his albums to be particularly well-recorded, and it is my recollection that Tom is pretty much ok with that (recording parts of songs at times, it is rumored, in his bathroom). Anyhow, there is a lot of noise going on in his recordings and by that I simply means there is alot going on at the same time. When I had my Abbys with the little Fostex drivers, the "Waits Test" caused them to fall flat on their face. It was just horrible...I couldn't make heads or tales of it. Songs that I could love on my car radio were rendered unrecognizable by the Cain and Cains. It was a bit of a mini-education on the limits of this Voight based design. (For the record amplification was not limited to SET during that experiment, but also included a 15 watt PP el84 and, in a moment of weakness, my 50 or 100 watt Cary v12r...nothing worked). On my PHY-HP based single drivers loaded on a folded OB, Waits comes off much better. I'd be interested to hear, Mark, how your Tektrons do with Tom Waits. Tom's vocals can also be a challenge - a range from muddy or recessed to piercing and shrill, buried in the mix, unintelligible... I should note that my Cornwalls rocked Tom Waits. It was a g-r-e-a-t match.

[Groomlakearea51]

2:00 AM, the party's winding down, and Tom Waits doing Nighthawks, etc. is a great experience (or was back in the day). Tom's style and that raspy voice just cries out the BLUES. Great artist, great player!!

[seti]

Funny the topic of Tom Waits should come up. I've always used his recordings to evaluate certain aspects of 2 channel systems. I don't find his albums to be particularly well-recorded, and it is my recollection that Tom is pretty much ok with that (recording parts of songs at times, it is rumored, in his bathroom). Anyhow, there is a lot of noise going on in his recordings and by that I simply means there is alot going on at the same time. When I had my Abbys with the little Fostex drivers, the "Waits Test" caused them to fall flat on their face. It was just horrible...I couldn't make heads or tales of it. Songs that I could love on my car radio were rendered unrecognizable by the Cain and Cains. It was a bit of a mini-education on the limits of this Voight based design. (For the record amplification was not limited to SET during that experiment, but also included a 15 watt PP el84 and, in a moment of weakness, my 50 or 100 watt Cary v12r...nothing worked). On my PHY-HP based single drivers loaded on a folded OB, Waits comes off much better. I'd be interested to hear, Mark, how your Tektrons do with Tom Waits. Tom's vocals can also be a challenge - a range from muddy or recessed to piercing and shrill, buried in the mix, unintelligible... I should note that my Cornwalls rocked Tom Waits. It was a g-r-e-a-t match.

Recorded in his bathroom LOL.... That explains some things. I didn't really notice how much his recording styles varried until a friend gave me a collection of his favorite TW songs. The approach he takes to recording is rather interesting. I really liked the way Alice and Blood Money are recorded. In fact I am going to give them a relisten today. The tubes have warmed up by now.

[Gilbert]

I should note that my Cornwalls rocked Tom Waits. It was a g-r-e-a-t match.

Do'in some of that right now. All of the rawness is there baby....... the wife and kids are off to a birthday party, so I'm gonna do my vibrating gypsum tests...[6][A][8-|]