Tom can be a challenging listen; he's not for everybody. But he has very few casual fans. Those who like his work, love it. I won't bother describing him, because if you don't know his stuff I can only describe it in terms of other music that you also don't know: picture Captain Beefheart on a three-day bender, and you're close to the mark. See? I'm sure that brings nothing to the table.
Suffice it to say that he challenges people's opinions about what beauty is; what that special quality is in music that connects people to their souls so directly. Like I said, I'm a gigantic Beatles sound. Their music has given me thousands of hours of pleasure - but it's never made me cry. Tom can make me cry, even still if I'm in the right mood. Even in the middle of the most abstract song, almost a tone poem with words just as unconventional, he can sometimes hit you from left field and leave you with a lump in your throat. Witness these lyrics to "A Little Rain:"
Well the ice man's mule is parked outside the barnThe song gives two verses and a bridge of that sort of weird, almost nightmare imagery, until the last verse slaps you into a stunning change of emotion that will absolutely crush you, even if you're ready for it:
Where a man with missing fingers plays a strange guitar
And a German dwarf dances with the Butcher's son
And tonight a little rain never hurt no-one
She climbed into a van with a vagabond
And the last thing she said was "I love you, Mom"
And a little rain never hurt no one
Powerful stuff - and a reading of lyrics doesn't really do it justice. You can listen to it here if you want:
But really, that's not the song I wanted to talk about today. That honor belongs, as I said earlier, to Picture in a Frame, about the closest thing Tom ever comes to a straightforward love song.
The lyrics are simple to the point that one could be forgiven for calling them juvenile, if one didn't see the frightening depth therein. The melody and the changes, too, are deceptively straightforward.
The whole point is that this song, such a small song, such a simple song, conveys a depth of emotion about a man's relationship with the woman he loves that the simplicity is forgiven, and indeed forgotten, and you are left with an idea of the earth-shaking love he has for that woman by a simple series of proclamations:
The sun come up, it was blue and gold
The sun come up, it was blue and gold
The sun come up, it was blue and gold
Ever since I put your picture in a frame
I come calling in my Sunday best
I come calling in my Sunday best
I come calling in my Sunday best
Ever since I put your picture in a frame
I'm gonna love you 'till the wheels come off
Oh, yeah
I love you baby, and I always will
I love you baby, and I always will
I love you baby, and I always will
Ever since I put your picture in a frame
I love you baby, and I always will
Ever since I put your picture in a frame
Ever since I put your picture in a frame
Please listen. Enjoy. And let the music show you what real beauty is.
I read this about Waits:
ReplyDelete(Waits) has a voice made of gravel, mixed with whiskey, and frozen with smoke.
That's about right. Then, marinated in a hobo junction, run over by the Union Pacific railroad, jilted by a woman, and kicked by a mule.
DeleteHaha, I guess Chris Rea really did remind you of Tom Waits. Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteHe did indeed. And that in turn reminded me that a Tom Waits post was long overdue.
DeleteYes, another clue that you are a brother from another mother. I listened to Tom Waits back in the 70s. Haven't heard these 2 songs you discussed. I'll have to check out his newer stuff on iTunes.
ReplyDeleteBack in my college days (mid-70s), I went to Passim Coffeehouse in Cambridge regularly. In the 1960s, folks like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan performed there. I saw acts like Mary McCaslin and Ellen McIlwaine. My first girlfriend went there one night to see Tom Waits. On the steps down into the club sat a bum who declared, "come on in, every seat's a good one." Imagine her surprise when Tom Waits came out on stage ... it was the bum! Wish I'd been able to take in that show.
Great Tom story!
Deleteyes, it is, isn't it, random stranger whose name I don't know...
DeleteI love music... I used to live for music but I've never had music move me to tears. I've cried to music because its expressed something I couldn't.
ReplyDelete