Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader

Book Description

Over the past three decades, Tom Waits has achieved the kind of top-shelf cult status most artists only dream about. In his varied career, he has acted alongside Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, and Lily Tomlin; his songs have been covered by artists as diverse as Bruce Springsteen, Sarah McLachlan, the Eagles, and the Ramones; he’s won two Grammys, a Golden Globe, and been nominated for an Oscar; he’s coined unforgettable phrases like “better a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy” and “champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends”; and he’s made anyone who’s ever listened to his music just that much cooler.

Here is Tom Waits in all his mischievous splendor. From a New Yorker “Talk of the Town” in 1976 to an interview by Terry Gilliam in 1999; from album reviews by Luc Sante and David Fricke to conversations with Elvis Costello and Roberto Benigni; from a recent profile in GQ to “20 Questions” in Playboy and reviews of Waits’s acclaimed new album, Real Gone, this is the must-have book for every fan of the artist Beck has described as a “luminary,” and for music fans everywhere.

Customer Reviews:

Keeping Track of Articles........2007-08-15

If you're a fan of an artist, it's difficult, time-consuming and expensive to keep track of all the interviews and articles written about your favourite artist. Fans of Tom Waits can rest assured - the most interesting articles and interviews are collected in this book, in chronological order, with a foreword by Frank Black of the Pixies.
Reading all these interviews and articles consecutively, you get a taste of the elusive Tom Waits - sometimes truthful, often wickedly confabulating and evading queries, but always amusing.
A must for Tom Waits' fans.

a must for tom waits fans........2007-02-10

this is a thoroughly enjoyable book consisting of all things tom waits: interviews, reviews, articles, and such. mr waits comments on his approach to songwriting were the most consistently interesting aspect of the book for me and should be of great interest (for freshness of/and or off-kilter approach to song building) to all aspiring songsters. lacking a biography or autobiography, the world, for now, will have to make do with this well done book for an insight into this amazing artist.

Step Right Up and have a chat with the man himself........2007-01-16

Excellent book. This book is a collection of interviews, show reviews and magazine and newspaper articles spanning Waits's career. Most of the interviews are from the perspective of the average reporter who has no way of getting at the center of the Waits Tutsie Roll Pop ("How many licks does it take to get to the center?") and that provides an interesting perspective in that the reader gets to see how Waits chooses to portray himself. However, some of the interviews are done by close friends, like Elvis Costello and Jim Jarmusch ("Down by Law" and "Night on Earth"), and the reader gets a glimpse of maybe who the true Waits is. It's a great contrast even if it wasn't intended to be the focus of the collection.
Another captivating aspect of the book is that the reader is provided details about all the unique methods Waits uses to make his music. For example, on "The Earth Died Screaming", sound effects are made by having people bang sticks and 2x4s on the pavement of the studio parking lot.
A must have for any Waits fan!
And it's nearly 400 pages long!!

Multiple perspectives on Waits.......2006-06-03

In the absence of an autobiography, this collection of 38 interviews and profiles is essential for the Tom Waits fan. It opens with a foreword by Frank Black and an introduction by Mac Montandon.

Part One: Early Years, contains the following amongst many others: The 1974 press release for Heart Of Saturday Night by Waits himself; A short interview with Clark Peterson of Creem magazine from 1978 titled The Slime Who Came In From The Cold; from 1976, there is an article from Sweet & Sour, a long Zig Zag interview and a New Yorker article.

The 1977 Rolling Stone piece by David McGee is very informative and from 1979 there is a short Washington Post article. This section also contains a poem by Charles Bukowski with a short introduction noting that it captures the entire Waitsian world.

In Part Two: The Middle Years, I found the following to be the most compelling: Peter Sabbag's in-depth 1987 article from the Los Angeles Times Magazine, a long formal question and answer interview by Glen O'Brien in a 1985 Spin magazine, 20 Questions from a 1988 Playboy and another question and answer interview from 1989 with Elvis Costello in Option.

Part Three: These Days, offers inter alia the following informative pieces: A 1999 Billboard review of Mule Variations and a short 1999 live review by Jon Pareles from the New York Times. From the same year there is a short review by Luc Sante in The Village Voice and an engaging conversational piece by David Fricke in Rolling Stone. There is also a short question and answer session from a 2004 Vanity Fair.

This section concludes with Nirvana, a 1992 poem by Charles Bukowski. It was included because in an interview with Soma magazine in 2002, Waits referred to this as his favorite poem. The book concludes with a Discography and a Timeline from Waits' birth on 7th December 1949 to the release of his 2004 album Real Gone. The book documents his entire career and is perhaps better than any biography as it contain so many perspectives from so many different writers.

If Tom's Work Intrigues You...........2006-03-16

Tom Waits is enigmatic and flies under the commercial music radar. His work is interesting and deals with a part of life few people really care to discover. It's cool to read anything about Tom and try to discover what makes him tick. He's a human-interest story. The thing I think is weird about the book is that it seems most of the authors adopt a writing style imitative of Wait's work. It makes the authors seem pretentious and unauthentically(word?) bohemian. It is interesting reading because of the subject matter.

Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits

Average customer rating:

SUPERB in every way!
Can you really write good biography of Tom Waits?
Excellent book!
A Well-Written Examination of a Persona
Examining the Music of a Private Man

Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits
Jay S. Jacobs
Manufacturer: Ecw Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1550227165

Book Description

Legend. Bum. Genius. Con Man. Devoted husband and father. Myth. Storyteller. Inspiration. Drunk. Visionary. Tom Waits is all of these things.

Waits is the lifeline between the great Beat poets and today’s rock & roll heroes. He’s old enough to be your dad and cool enough to be your hero. One of the few truly original musicians recording today, he’s also the rare singer who can actually act, and he has put together a respectable body of work in movies.

Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits retraces the long road that Waits has traveled and explores the music that made him a legend. Jay S. Jacobs looks at the towering myth that Waits has created for himself.

Jay S. Jacobs follows the fate of one of Americas pre-eminent artists, a very private man whose career embodies a quirky array of fulfillment and loss, beauty and strangeness.

This revised and updated edition includes a new chapter, with insight on Waits’ career in the 21st century thus far, as well as the most complete discography available in print. Toms Wild Years – a poignant, revealing celebration of the man and all his myths.

Customer Reviews:

SUPERB in every way!.......2007-05-09

An enjoyable read! Great stories, details about landmark albums, and just enough personal background to satisfy the reader without getting boring. Not to mention the most detailed discography on the planet. Great investment for the Tom Waits fan.

Can you really write good biography of Tom Waits?.......2007-01-31

To really answer that question, one should first ask himself why shouldn't it be possible? After all, even a "living myth" like Tom Waits is actually a real person. Born and raised, breathing and drinking (more drinking than breathing I should think :), so it would be perfectly possible for anyone, with enough acces to data, to write a biogrpahy of Tom Waits. But what kind of biography that would be, and would it actually put some light on his songs? My answer is, however you will judge it, as that you cannot.

But Jacobs tried as best as he could.

To write about Waits is to write about every character ever portrayed in any of his songs. Every one has it's own story, however sad, drunken, miserable or, eventually, happy character it actually is. and writing stories about one life is hard enough in itself. And Waits is as real as his characters and his songs are. To forget about them means concetrating about factography of Waits's life, and every factography is boring as hell without some kind of story to support it. Starting that story puts one in a risky state, in which he may find himself not being able to finish what he started.

And this is exactly what happened to Jacobs. Somwhere along the way, he loses the perspective and starts to talk about Waits in a manner of a hardcore fan. Finding himself lost, not being able to return himself to a storyline that he left behind, Jacobs loses his critical perspective and starts to make out statements like "very good" "best" "legendary" without any manner of backing up those words. Whole biography suddenly starts to be too much factual and thing dissolves in itself. Magic of Tom Waits is lost.

One useful thing, though, is a helpful discography of Tom Waits's records which can help one alot if he tries to collect all of it. But even so, that can hardly be reason for buying a book...

Excellent book!.......2004-01-14

Jay S. Jacobs has done a remarkable job drawing us closer to the mystique and enigma that is Tom Waits. It's an extraordinary story. Expertly researched and immmaculately detailed, "The Wild Years" is just that, an absolutely riveting and engaging look at one of music's most provocative and insightful characters. A marvelous and thought provoking read.

A Well-Written Examination of a Persona.......2002-05-10

This is the finest book on Waits to date, especially as it focuses on his "myth" rather than his "life", which would have been a foolish and flawed undertaking from the beginning, especially with such an archetypal American character (as others have shown).

My main misgiving is that the book, while essentially well-written, contains a little too much common-knowledge and obvious "filler" paragraphs--but it's well worth the purchase, nonetheless, and I enjoyed it and learned much as a result of having read it.

Examining the Music of a Private Man.......2002-02-26

Waits' fans are no strangers to paradox -- his music, steeped in its own history yet undeniably original, deeply textured as corrugated steel yet with a compassionate heart that doesn't quit, songs that reveal humanity's every weakness, and in doing so somehow redeem it. His music revels in its own originality without falling prey to self-indulgence.

So it shouldn't have surprised me that Tom Wait's biographies have been as badly written, speculative, and poorly directed as his music has been insightful and original. From his early years Waits portrayed the piano playing drunk, the street poet, the loser with dreams, and seemed to love using that voice to speak to the press. Interviewers were treated to long yarns about his life, loves and friends, yarns spun from a humorous imagination by a private man. Books trying to build on this paper foundation have fallen flat as last night's beer, and if some fans (and reporters) were annoyed by his evasions and stories, more were entertained by the them, and willingly accepted Waits as the character he portrayed, a seedy addition to American mythology.

Waits is not the first artist to use a stage persona as a privacy screen, but he was one of the most successful. It is my opinion that this avoidance was not so much a personal aversion to the limelight, but a desire to proect his music from himself. To that end, he only revealed the parts of himself that supported his music, and, like any good thespian, hid the machinery with the scenery.

Finally, someone got the point. Jay S. Jacobs writes about Waits from a thoughtful perspective unseen in previous biographers. Guiding us with a wink and a smile past the many myths and tall tales, Jacobs brings us backstage to the artist without knocking down his front door. Those looking for juicy details and scandalous stories will be disappointed-- the basics of his private life are related only in context of his musical career. Jacobs makes no attempt to analyse or interpret Waits' personality.

That being said, those looking for a portait of Waits the artist will be amply rewarded. The details of his career are recorded here as nowhere else; details of projects he's worked on, creative decisions and how they related to his goals and situation at the time, inspirations for songs both factual and fantastic, interviews with producers and musicians he has worked with broaden our view. Here too we see that the easygoing streetpoet is defended by an uncompromising artst who picks his fights carefully: his refusal to sell his music rights to sell products; his lawsuit against Frito Lay; his legal action against police officers who mistook him for someone they could abuse.

With each successive project, with each professional decision, we are given a block-by block construction of a remarkable career, which fell short (or steered clear?) of the commercial fast track in favour of a more winding road to a more unique, enduring and (I suspect) satisfying destiny.

Product Description

Forty-seven songs including: The Fall of Troy from the Dead Man Walking soundtrack, Frank s Wild Years, Good Old World, Jockey Full of Bourbon, A Little Rain, Shoreleave, Rain Dogs and many more.

Customer Reviews:

no wating on waits.......2007-07-30

The man is a barroom genius, writing the scripts for the aftermath of back alley brawls and suds soaked sentiments. Flophouse Rock mixed with Death-drama waltzing and toss in some growling regret flung out of a half empty bowl of peanut shells from where you lay half in the bag by the swinging front door.

Gotta love this guy. especially if you've ever howled at the moon after finishing a quart of jack

Pianists Beware.......2007-03-27

Tom Waits' ballads are the gems of this compilation, but the piano parts in the transcriptions do not match the recordings. This would make sense where the piano was absent in the original version, as in much of the more raucous material...but the songs in which Waits sings over his own piano accompaniment (Whistle Down the Wind, Soldiers' Things etc.) should have been more faithfully rendered. Only a basic outline of the chord progressions is preserved, with sections missing in some cases. Fortunately, most of Waits' solo introductions are transcribed relatively faithfully. A competent pianist could reconstruct the parts by studying the recordings, but I'm disappointed at what seems to be laziness on the part of the publisher in producing accurate transcriptions.

Great songs, bad transcriptions.......2006-11-10

The compilation of songs represented in this book is amazing - all the best of Waits's golden years, you've got to love his art. But the transcription stinks: terrible, over-simplified arrangements for piano. All the funky pieces sound lame, and the only ones that work are the few simple, originally piano-driven slow songs like Innocent When You Dream. It's a lost opportunity that the book was done this way, a talented musician with vision and style could have made good adaptations of these brilliant songs.

An obvious resource for guitar-playing fans.......2001-06-19

The below reviews pretty well nail it, but I wanted to mention a couple other things:

1. There are a few pages of Waits photos at the front of the book you can tear out, if you like, and put on your wall or wherever. Some of the photos are really good, and it's a great bonus.

2. Don't expect to be able to play about half of these songs without some kind of accompaniment. "Filipino Box Spring Hog," for example, is definitely NOT the kind of song you can effectively belt out with just the tab provided. But if you're just looking for a springboard to do your own arrangement, this is certainly the place to look.

Great songs, great transcriptions, great price. Reccommended.

outstanding collection.......1998-04-08

This is a HUGE collection of great songs, in piano/vocal/guitar format. Contents include: 16 shells from a thirty-ought-six / anywhere i lay my head / back in the good old world / big black mariah / black wings / the briar and the rose / cemetery polka / cold cold ground / dirt in the ground / downtown train / earth died screaming / fall of troy / falling down / filipino box spring hog / frank's wild years / gun street girl / hang down your head / hang on st. christopher / i don't wanna grow up / innocent when you dream / i'll shoot the moon / i'll take new york / jesus gonna be here / jockey full of bourbon / johnsburg, illinois / the last rose of summer / a little rain / lucky day / murder in the red barn / november / rain dogs / shore leave / singapore / soldier's things / straight to the top (vegas) / strange weather / tango till they're sore / telephone call from istanbul / temptation / that feel / time / train song / underground / walk away / way down in the hole / whistle down the wind / who are you / yesterday is here

Average customer rating:

hardly worth considering
invitation to the blues

Tom Waits Anthology
Tom Waits
Manufacturer: Amsco Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0825625033
Release Date: 1988-12-31

Book Description

Complete piano/vocal arrangements with chord diagrams of over 20 of this poet/songwriter/ actor`s greatest hits including: Ol' 55, Jersey Girl, and Shiver Me Timbers.

Customer Reviews:

hardly worth considering.......2002-10-30

For starters, the piano parts are so watered down it is difficult to figure out what they originally sounded like. This is par for the course as far as printed versions of popular music go. What really sets this book apart is that the piano part are no only watered down, they are bad. Any half-decent pianist could do better faking it. Not only that, but the rhythms on the printed vocals are often nowhere close to those on the albums. To top it all off, large sections are completely cut out of many of the songs (Considering the quality of the piano parts, however, these missing instrumental sections will hardly be missed). The song selection is good but not enough to balance all its faults. Overall, I could only consider recommending this book to beginning piano students who are hard-core Tom Waits fans. Otherwise, save your money, cross your fingers, and hope a book containing decent transcriptions of these songs becomes available.

invitation to the blues.......1999-05-18

A wonderful collection of Waits rubato numbers (mostly), in piano/guitar-tab/vocal format. Invitation to the Blues, Tom Trauberts Blues, Wish I was in New Orleans, Annie's Back in Town, Old Boyfriends, Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis, Foreign Affair, Blue Valentines, more. Nice transcriptions of the piano introductions. Best of all, there's NO overlap with the Beautiful Maladies collection, so you can buy them both without hesitation.

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Carny: Americana on the Midway
Peter Fenton
Manufacturer: Umbrage Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1884167667

Book Description

Virginia Lee Hunter traveled throughout the United States for a decade photographing a slice of Americana, documenting the lives of carnies and carnival-goers alike in a body of work that is part coming-of-age chronicle, part road movie. Capturing colorful images of picaresque county fairs, Carny goes behind the bright lights into the elusive, lurid carnival milieu, sneaking a peak into the tawdry and sometimes menacing world behind the carny's garish public spaces, while simultaneously illuminating the county fair every American has burned into their childhood memory.

The walk on the wild side brings Hunter in intimate proximity to the ordinary attendees and workers, as well as freaks and lowlifes that populate this world. Accompanying the images are illuminating interviews with carnival families, youths who have traded hometowns for the adventures of the road, and lone men and women seeking a place to hide, yet belong. Peter Fenton, author of Eyeing the Flash: The Education of a Carnival Con Artist, shares an insider's glimpse into the shadowy world of the carnival. Carny celebrates the midway as a living, breathing entity, both transient creator of nostalgic romance for the towns in which it sets up a temporary fantasy of rides and games, and a space of eternal refuge for those in need of employment, acceptance, or escape. This unique view of an ageless American netherworld shares our nostalgia for its garish tinselly glamour, and savors its atmosphere of outsider surrealism.

The accompanying documentary film Carny will be broadcast in June 2007 on the Sundance Channel in the United States, Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, and TV Ontario in Canada.

Average customer rating:

change into a 9 year-old hindu boy

Tom Waits: Mule Variations
Music Sales Corporation
Manufacturer: Amsco Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0825617561
Release Date: 1999-12-31

Product Description

Including: Big In Japan, Lowside of the Road, Hold On, Get Behind the Mule, House Where Nobody Lives, Cold Water, Pony, What s He Building, Black Market Baby, Eyeball Kid, Picture In A Frame, Chocolate Jesus, Georgia Lee, Filipino Box Spring Hog, Take It With Me, and Come On Up to the House.

Customer Reviews:

change into a 9 year-old hindu boy.......2000-01-03

If you're a fan of the album and a musician (or at least pretend to try and be), this songbook is a must-have. The blow-ups of the album artwork are great!

Average customer rating:

This book is amazing.

Sylvia Plachy's Unguided Tour
Sylvia Plachy , Tom Waits , and England) Cornerhouse (Gallery : Manchester
Manufacturer: Aperture Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0893814318

Customer Reviews:

This book is amazing........2002-11-09

i absolutely am in love with this incredible book. buy it if you have the money. now.

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Tom Waits: Alice
Tom Waits
Manufacturer: Amsco Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0825619424
Release Date: 2002-05-01

Product Description

The matching folio to Tom Waits critically acclaimed 2002 album Alice. 15 songs, by one of the most gifted singer-songwriters of our time, are arranged for piano, vocal and guitar. Includes: Alice, Table Top Joe, Watch Her Disappear, I m Still Here.

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These Skates Just won't Wait
child loves it!

Wait Skates (Rookie Reader)
Mildred D. Johnson
Manufacturer: Childrens Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding

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ASIN: 0516020390

Customer Reviews:

These Skates Just won't Wait.......2006-12-09

The first time this little boy put on roller skates they went out, they went in, they wouldn't wait for him in this delightful little Rookie Reader book that will have your child laughing as he or she learns thirty new words. I like this book, but then I like all the Rookie Reader books. They are just a great way to get a little pre-schooler started on his or her reading career. And an early start is so important in today's world. Children need every advantage they can get, so if you're a parent or guardian of a precious little one, I highly recommend Rookie Reader books. The dividends they will pay in the long run will be priceless.

child loves it!.......2002-11-11

My daughter LOVES this book. We found it at the library and she was able to read it by herself. When we moved cross country she searched it out at the library and now has monopolized it. I now have to buy this book so she can have it FOREVER! What is even greater is that she sees "no color" with this book as we all should!

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Really the Blues
Mezz Mezzrow , and Bernard Wolfe
Manufacturer: Payback Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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