World Folk-influenced Rock: Tom Waits' Big Time

Where do you put Tom Waits? In the Music Spectrum, who else sounds like Tom Waits? No one has such a gravely, garbled voice. No one really has such strange tales. Tom Waits is like gothic circus train music. That’s a category that will never have anyone else in it. He is like a miner’s musician, the whole band following the workers into the dark hole in the earth. (OK, I might be influenced in thinking about mines because of Waits’ contribution to the Disney tribute album, Stay Awake, on which Waits contributed a stirring version of “Heigh Ho (The Dwarf's Marching Song)”).

But really, with that pulsing rhythm, the China boy/bell in the percussion, you can imagine a circus train going past as Tom Waits narrates, telling the stories of the circus workers. Long time ago I had a copy of Rain Dogs on a cassette tape that I either lost or—geez, really?—sold for a pittance when I needed some cash. Why would I ever sell Tom Waits? I think I was stuck in a period of not recognizing the beauty of his work. ‘Cause, you know, that on first listen, there’s not always a lot to sing along with, this isn’t danceable really, this is music for a dark room where everyone is drinking whiskey and absorbed completely in the world and thoughts of the bard holding forth.

So I was “Tom Waits-less” for many years, always remembering though that there was truly something special about that music. Then there was a track from his album Blood Money on the Uncut sampler “Best of 2002.” Then the Blind Boys of Alabama had Waits join them for “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” the title track of the 2003 Christmas album. Then I knew—it was time for the Spectrum to have some Tom Waits in it.

Thanks to my brother-in-law, Jamie, I got the 1988 live album, Big Time, for Christmas. A great collection of early favorites recorded during a series of concerts, this was a good way to kick off getting some Tom Waits into my collection.

But what to do with it? Where it would ever fit? Create a Circus Train Music section? Create a Miner’s Worksong section? Where would it fit? I looked at my current categories, scanning them while listening to the album. I jumped back and forth from Jazz-influence Rock (for his use of horns, sort of scat singing, and jazzy/bluesy rhythms) and American Folk (because Waits really is a singer/songwriter telling us his stories). Neither of those seemed right, though.

Then while listening to “Clap Hands,” I decided to yes, create a new category, but maybe one that would include others later on. World Folk-influenced Rock. The rhythms come from so many different places in the world—blues, jazz, folk, rock, samba, worksongs, Western. This new category would acknowledge Waits’ eclectic sound. Of course, I may always be tempted to call it the Circus Train/Miner’s Worksong category.

For now, I’m going to put Tom Waits on the shelf just after Full Confession 3, a World Folk sampler from Six Degrees Records and just before cities 97 sampler, a set of live tracks from a Minneapolis radio station, an album that begins the American Band Rock category. I’ll wait for the day when they release the Big Time film on video or DVD again (soon, please!). I’ll put Tom Waits in the CD player, and be transported to a place of dark apartments, dark tunnels, dark people, but with a light shining out saying that there’s some hope in the midst of our dark life. “The Gospel in Tom Waits,” that’ll have to be a discussion for another day.