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60s
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60s
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Welcome to
60s & 70s Music Store!
Drunk
on the MoonTight
by Tom Waits
Slacked
clad girls on the graveyard shift
'Neath the cement stroll
Catch the midnight drift
Cigar chewing charlie
In that newspaper nest
grifting hot horse tips
On who's running the best
And I'm blinded by the neon
Don't
try and change my tune
'Cause I thought I heard a saxophone
I'm drunk on the moon
And the moon's a silver slipper
It's pouring champagne stars
Broadway's
like a serpent
Pulling shiny top-down cars
Laramer is teeming
With that undulating beat
And some Bonneville is screaming
It's way wilder down the street
(Chorus)
Hearts
flutter and race
The moon's on the wane
Tarts mutter their dream hopes
The night will ordain
Come schemers and dancers
Cherry delight
As a Cleveland-bound Greyhound
And it cuts throught the night
And I've hawked all my yesterdays
Don't try and change my tune
'Cause I thought I heard a saxophone
I'm drunk on the moon
Peace
LionHeart
February 2006
Tom
Waits
Tom
Waits Website
Thomas Alan Waits was born on the eighth anniversary of the bombing
of Pearl Harbor. He was born on December 7, 1949 in Pomona, California.
He and his two sisters grew up moving around from city to city in
California. His parents who are both school teachers divorced when
he was 10. They then moved to National City. Tom's grandfather was
christened Jesse Frank Waits and his father Frank Waits. Tom is Scottish
and Irish from his father's side of the family and Norwegian from
his mother's side.
Tom became interested in music early and began tacking up sheets of
Bob Dylan's lyrics in his room and even framed some in the rest of
his house. He would keep a pad of paper and pencil by his bed so that
he could remember the lyrics that he would think up in the middle
of the night. He taught himself how to play the piano at a neighbor's
house and then learned the guitar on a Gibson.
As well as creating music at an early age, the persona that Tom is
famous for soon appeared. He enjoyed entertaining his classmates and
his teachers as soon as his secondary schooling. An art class teacher
would let him play his harmonica for the class and sometimes he would
be asked to get up on the tables and do his version of a "soft
shoe". He also tried as soon as possible to grow a mustache and
a goatee. Sal, Tom's employer at "Napoleone's Pizza House",
used to joke that he had more hair growing wild on his ass than Tom
could cultivate on his face.
During his
adolescence, Tom spent quite some time keeping his cars running. He
first had problems with his '54 Ford station wagon that he called
a "bato wagon". He then worked on his '55 Buick which was
to be inspiration for the song "Ole '55" which the Eagles
covered. He then progressed to the '61 white volkswagen where he finally
learned how to drive a stick shift.
Waits got into the music business at an early age. In the summer of
1972 he was working as a doorman at The Heritage in San Diego. He
would get up between acts and perform on a small stage (I don't know
if this was part of the job or just something management let get away
with). These performances caught someone's eye, because Herb Cohen
had signed him on to Asylum records at the age of 22.
Early in his career he began living in the famed Tropicana Motel on
Santa Monica Blvd in LA which is somewhat near the corner of Hollywood
and Vine. He toured alot where he supposedly opened for such varied
acts like C&W superstar Charlie Rich, pianist Billy Preston, John
Hammond and Frank Zappa. During this time, Tom tried to live the lifestyle
that he portrayed in his songs. During this time of smoke and alcohol,
he also became involved with Rickie Lee Jones. This singer (who is
featured on the "Blue Valentine" album cover) and pal Chuck
E. Weiss were part of the same crazy scene that defined Tom's persona
in the seventies.
After too
many late nights, Tom realized that he could not go on the same way
for much longer. The persona he had struggled so hard to define would
now cause him problems. One of Tom's first trying times came after
he released Foreign Affairs and Blue Valentine. Critics seemed to
think these albums were just going down the same rut as the earlier
albums and without the same spirit. These albums are great albums,
but I think it was the beginning of a change for which people were
not ready.
At the same time Tom seemed to be struggling with what he wanted to
do, two good things happened in his life. The first was working with
Francis Ford Coppola and Zoetrope. He was to compose the music for
"One From The Heart" where alot of the story is told through
the music. Tom enjoyed this experience because Coppola showed him
how to sit down and actually write music. It gave Tom alot more control
over his life and his love of music. The second benefit for working
with Zoetrope appeared after he met a script editor named Kathleen
Brennan.
Kathleen soon caught Tom's eye and they began their unorthodox relationship.
Waits has stated that "She can lie down on nails, stick a knitting
needle through her lip and still drink coffeee, so I knew she was
the girl for me." They were married in August 1980 and honeymooned
in Tralee, Co. Kerry. When Patrick Humphries asked Tom Waits about
the marriage ceremony, he said: "I found the Marriage Chapel
in the Yellow Pages, right next to 'Massage'. The registrar's name
was Watermelon and he kept calling me Mr. Watts!" Tom not only
memorialized his love for her in songs like "Johnsburg, Illinois"
(her birth place), she would also become a major force and collaborator
in his music as well.
With these
new experiences, Tom ventured a little too far away from stable ground
for Asylum Records. His album Swordfishtrombones was just a little
too strange for what management expected. Waits took this album and
his music to Island Records where he found a new home. The next few
albums were a metamorphosis of his career. These albums were done
without the back streets and alley ways of his early albums. The lyrics
went a little deeper and the music expanded from his folk and jazz
roots into a bizarre combination of strange instrumentation. This
new style has never been played on the mainstream radio stations,
but it gained him a very strong reputation among other musicians and
the fans that remained with him became stronger than ever.
For
listen samples and reviews, click on CD cover photo. In new window,
click on CD photo again and scroll down.
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Closing
Time
The Heart of Saturday Night
Nighthawks at the Diner
Small Change
Foreign Affairs
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Blue
Valentine
Heartattack and Vine
One from the Heart
Swordfishtrombones
Asylum Years
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Rain
Dogs
Frank's Wild Years
Big Time
The Early Years
The Early Years Vol. 2
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Night
on Earth
Bone Machine
Real Gone
The Black Rider
Beautiful Maladies
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Mule
Variations
Used Songs (1973-1980)
Alice
Blood Money
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A
few film's that Tom has appeared in
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Bram
Stoker's Dracula DVD
Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere In America DVD
Paradise Alley (1978) DVD
Rumble Fish DVD
Wolfen DVD
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Warm Beer
and Cold Women
by Tom Waits
warm beer
and cold women, I just don't fit in
every joint I stumbled into tonight
that's just how it's been
all these double knit strangers with
gin and vermouth and recycled stories
in the naugahyde booths
with the platinum blondes
and tobacco brunettes
I'll be drinkin' to forget you
lite another cigarette
and the band's playin' something
by Tammy Wynette
and the drinks are on me tonight
all my conversations I'll just be
talkin' about you baby
borin' some sailor as I try to get through
I just want him to listen
that's all you have to do
he said I'm better off without you
till I showed him my tattoo
now the moon's rising
ain't got no time to lose
time to get down to drinking
tell the band to play the blues
drink's are on me, I'll buy another round
at the last ditch attempt saloon
warm beer and cold women, I just don't fit in
every joint I stumbled into tonight
that's just how it's been
all these double knit strangers with
gin and vermouth and recycled stories
in the naugahyde booths
with the platinum blondes
and tobacco brunettes
I'll be drinking to forget you
lite another cigarette
and the band's playing somethin'
by Johnnie Barnett
and the drinks are on me tonight
