“You could usually rely on finding a Taft in every town. Take me to the Taft! You walk in and there they are: the old men in the lobby.”
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Thomas Alan Waits is an American singer, songwriter, composer and actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underbelly and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the folk scene during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected the influence of such diverse genres as rock, jazz, Delta blues, opera, vaudeville, cabaret, funk and experimental techniques verging…
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entertainment · American musician and actor (born 1949) · singer-songwriter · singer · actor · composer · jazz pianist · writer · jazz guitarist · musician · also Tom Waits, Thomas Alan Waits, Waits
Born 7 December 1949 · Q184805
178 published statements · 0 followers
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“You could usually rely on finding a Taft in every town. Take me to the Taft! You walk in and there they are: the old men in the lobby.”
“s moral rights - which protect someone”
“for a songwriter, Dylan is as essential as a hammer and nails and saw are to a carpenter.”
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“She rescued me. Maybe I rescued her too; that”
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“You almost have to create situations in order to write about them, so I live in a constant state of self-imposed poverty”
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Released album “A Rider in the Rain: The Black Rider Sessions 1993”.
The Guardian: Massive Attack: Boots on the Ground (ft Tom Waits) review – first single in a decade is a dark hymn for our times
The Guardian: ‘I wanted to make people dance, or cry, or puke’: Marc Ribot, the wildcard sideman for Tom Waits, Robert Plant and more
Released album “Frankie’s Starter For…”.
Appeared as part of Italian public television channel RAI3’s The Human Factor series in the last episode, “The Last Ride”, where he read from his poetry book “Seeds On Hard Ground”, and performed a few of his songs
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The Guardian: ‘All these bulletproof songs, one after another’: remembering Tom Waits’s extraordinary mid-career trilogy
Joined Iggy Pop on the Confidential Show, where they swapped stories and songs
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Released ep “Grave Diggers: Tom Waits”.
Released album “Hanging on the Telephone”.
Released album “Tickets for the Bachelors (live 1977)”.
Released album “Sharp as a Razor and Soft as a Prayer (Live 1977)”.
Waits had a supporting role in Paul Thomas Anderson's coming-of-age film Licorice Pizza
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Released album “Orphans: Bastards”.
Released album “Orphans: Bawlers”.
Released album “Live on the Scene 1973 (live)”.
Released album “Orphans: Brawlers”.
Waits provided the recorded narration for performances of McDonagh's play A Very Very Very Dark Matter, which was performed at the Bridge Theatre, London
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Released album “The Archives”.
Waits had a feature role in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a Western anthology film by the Coen brothers, as the Prospector
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Released album “Under The Covers - The Songs He Didn't Write”.
Released album “Broadcast Collection 1973-1978”.
Waits pursued litigation against French artist Bartabas, who had used several of his songs as a backdrop to a theatrical performance
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Released album “Live in Boston @ Paradise Theater 1977”.
Sang "Take One Last Look" on the show's fifth to last broadcast
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Released album “Transmission Impossible”.
Waits performed at the 27th annual Bridge School Benefit concert in Mountain View California; Rolling Stone called his performance a "triumph"
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Joined the Rolling Stones on stage at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, to duet with Mick Jagger on Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster"
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Lent his voice to The Simpsons episode "Homer Goes to Prep School" as a survivalist
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Released album “Tales From The Underground Vol. 3”.
Waits had a supporting role in McDonagh's crime comedy Seven Psychopaths as a retired serial killer
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Released album “Bad as Me”.
Awarded Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2011).
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It was announced via Waits's official website that he had begun work on his next studio album
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Was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
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Released album “Original Album Series”.
Waits was reported to be working on a new stage musical with director and long-time collaborator Robert Wilson and playwright Martin McDonagh
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Released album “Glitter and Doom: Live”.
Released ep “Live”.
Released album “The Ghost of Tom Waits”.
Released the two-disc Glitter and Doom Live
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When Barney Hoskyns was researching his unauthorized 2009 biography, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, Waits and his wife asked people not to talk to him.
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Released album “Greatest Hits”.
Released album “The Unrealized Tom Waits’ Mohawks at the Diner”.
Released album “Daydreamer Man”.
The suit was settled, and Waits gave his proceeds to charity
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Released album “Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards”.
Waits issued Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, a 54-song three-disc box set of rarities, unreleased tracks and new compositions; he said that the music is "songs that fell behind the stove while making dinner
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Waits was a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he played "Day After Tomorrow"
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Released album “Little Drops of Poison: Rarities”.
Traveled to Italy to appear in Benigni's The Tiger and the Snow
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Released album “Tomcat Waits to Smoke”.
Waits sued Adam Opel AG, claiming that, after having failed to sign him to sing in their Scandinavian commercials, they had hired a sound-alike singer
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Released album “Real Gone”.
Waits related that "Wilson is my teacher
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Waits released his fifteenth studio album, Real Gone
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Released album “My Set Purpose”.
Released album “Alice”.
Released album “Blood Money”.
“Our Father, who art in Cribari, hallowed be thy glass. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in the lounges. Give us this day our daily splash, and forgive us our hangovers as we forgive those who continue to hangover against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil...and somebody give us all a ride home.”
The songs from them were released on the albums Alice and Blood Money
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Released album “We're All Mad Here: A Conversation With Tom Waits”.
Released album “Used Songs: 1973–1980”.
Released album “Straight From the Horse's Mouth”.
Released album “Tales From the Riverside”.
Released album “Tales for the Audience 2”.
Waits began writing songs for Wilson's adaptation of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck, which had earlier inspired Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck (1925)
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When Audi approached him, asking to use "Innocent When You Dream" for a commercial broadcast in Spain
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Released album “Tales From the Underground 5”.
Released album “Mule Variations”.
Released album “At the Terminal: Burbank Airport ’99”.
Released album “Remasters, Volume 8: Live in Austin 1999”.
Released album “Tales From the Underground 4”.
Appeared in Kinka Usher's comic book spoof Mystery Men as Dr
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Released album “Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years”.
Island released Beautiful Maladies, a compilation of 23 Waits tracks from his albums with the company, selected by Waits himself
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Released album “Super Stars Best Collection: Tom Waits”.
Released album “Tales From the Underground 3”.
Released album “Tales From the Underground 2”.
Released album “Tales From the Underground”.
Released album “Drunk on the Moon”.
“a very special writer, my kind of writer.”
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Released album “The Black Rider”.
Released album “A Nickel's Worth of Dreams”.
Released album “Bone Machine”.
Released album “TV Dinner”.
“adult songs for children, or children”
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Waits quit drinking alcohol and joined Alcoholics Anonymous
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Released album “Downtown Blues”.
Released album “The Early Years, Volume 2”.
Released album “The Early Years, Volume 1”.
Released album “Night on Earth”.
13 of Waits's 1971 pre-Asylum Records recordings were released for the first time on the first volume of Tom Waits: The Early Years
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Waits and his family moved to the outskirts of Sonoma
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Released album “Mainstreet”.
Collaborated with theater director Robert Wilson on the musical The Black Rider, the songs for which were released on the album of the same name
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Contributed a song to the HIV/AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Blue and later appeared at a Wiltern Theater fundraising show for the victims of the 1992 Los Angeles riots
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“And if you think that you can tell a bigger taleI swear to God you’d have to tell a lie… (ang.)”
Spin magazine named it the second greatest album of all time
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“We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness....We are monkeys with money and guns.”
“Go out to the meadow;Scare off all the crowsIt does nothing but rain here,And nothing will grow. (ang.)”
“Call no man happy 'til he dies. (ang.)”
“Bloody moon rising withA plague and a floodJoin the mob, join the mob. (ang.)”
“I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.”
“Who are the ones that we kept in charge?Killers, thieves, and lawyers. (ang.)”
“And I know Martin Eden’sGonna be proud of meAnd many before meWho’ve been called by the sea. (ang.)”
“God’s Away On Business. (ang.)”
“I’m leavin’ my fam’lyLeavin’ all my friendsMy body’s at homeBut my heart’s in the windWhere the cloudsare like headlinesOn a new front page skyMy tears are salt waterAnd the moon’s full and high (ang.)”
“I know you can’t speak, I know you can’t signSo cry right here on the dotted line. (ang.)”
Waits began planning a collaboration with Robert Wilson, a theater director he had known throughout the 1980s
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“To fortepian pije cały czas,Nie ja, nie ja, nie ja…”
“Misery Is The River Of The World. (ang.)”
“Well, you know when you're the opening act for large groups? Sometimes you feel like a rectal thermometer, you're going out there taking the temperature of the audience.”
“I don’t believe you go to heaven when you’re good. (ang.)”
“Don’t you know there ain’t no devil, there’s just God when he’s drunk. (ang.)”
Released album “Big Time”.
Released album “1987-12-05: Audimax, Hamburg, Germany”.
Released album “Franks Wild Years”.
And later by Rod Stewart, where it reached the Top 5 in 1990
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Joined Springsteen, Elvis Costello, k
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Appeared as a master of ceremonies on several dates of Elvis Costello's "Wheel of Fortune" tour
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“She's been married so many times she's got rice marks all over her face”
Took a small part in Candy Mountain, as millionaire golf enthusiast Al Silk
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Released album “1985-11-16: Paris At Midnight, France”.
Released album “1985-11-08: De Doelen, Rotterdam”.
Released album “1985-11-08: De Doelen, Rotterdam, Netherlands”.
Released album “1985-11-07: Buitensociëteit, Zwolle, Holland”.
Rolling Stone named Waits its "Songwriter of the Year"
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Released album “1985: Something About Paris, France”.
Released album “Rain Dogs”.
Released album “On Broadway”.
Released album “Asylum Years”.
Released album “Anthology of Tom Waits”.
Released album “Swordfishtrombones”.
They live in Sonoma County, California, and have three children: Kellesimone Wylder Waits (born 1983), Casey Waits (born 1985), and Sullivan Blake Waits (born 1993).
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Waits appeared in three more Coppola films: as Benny, a philosopher running a billboard store in Rumble Fish; as Buck Merrill in The Outsiders; and as the maître'd in The Cotton Club
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Released album “Shadows of Intolerance”.
Released album “One From the Heart”.
And included it on his retrospective "Live/1975–85"
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“Disneyland is Vegas for children. When I went with the kids, I just about had a stroke. It's the opposite of what they say it is. It's not a place to nurture the imagination. It's just a big clearance sale for useless items. I'm not going back, and the kids won't be allowed to return until they're eighteen, out of the house. And even then, I would block their decision.”
Released album “Bounced Checks”.
Released album “Heartattack and Vine”.
Waits married frequent collaborator Kathleen Brennan
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Waits married Brennan, split from his manager and record label, and moved to New York City
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Released album “1979-05-11: Beacon Theatre, New York, NY, USA”.
Released album “Live in Sydney, Australia – May 2nd, 1979”.
Released album “Australia 1979 - Fast Women and Slow Horses”.
Released album “Remasters, Volume 3: Live in Sydney”.
Released album “Romeo Is Bleeding”.
Released album “Remasters, Volume 2: Live in Austin”.
Released album “1978-11-21: Warner Theater, Washington, DC, USA”.
Released album “Blue Valentine”.
Waits entered the world of film, where he met Kathleen Brennan
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Released album “The Ritz Memphis - TX”.
Released album “Foreign Affairs”.
Released album “Remasters, Volume 1: Live in Bremen”.
Released album “Invitation to the Blues”.
“a spectacle and entertaining”
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Released album “Live at the New York Bottom Line – December 18th, 1976”.
Released album “Small Change”.
Released album “Nighthawks at the Diner”.
Released album “Troubadour Nightclub”.
Released album “Remasters, Volume 5: Live in Denver 1975”.
Released album “The Heart of Saturday Night”.
Released album “Remasters, Volume 4: Live in Denver 1974”.
Released album “Closing Time”.
Where he worked as a songwriter before signing a recording contract with Asylum Records
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Was hired as an occasional doorman for the Heritage coffeehouse, which held regular performances from folk musicians
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At age 18, Waits dropped out of high school
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At an outdoor theatre in San Diego and it was indescribable
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His parents separated and his father moved away from the family home, a traumatic experience for the 10-year-old Waits
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Born 1949-12-07.
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In Pomona, California, in the Los Angeles County metropolitan area
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“a proletariat story ... about a poor soldier who is manipulated by the government”
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