I’ve got a much bigger fish to fry later today, but to get things rolling I’ve been chewing on the following thought: Does Tom Waits‘ performance in Jim Jarmusch‘s Down By Law overshadow his entire musical output?
To be clear, I own and enjoy 5 Waits albums: The trio of “junkyard” albums that first caught my attention in the mid-’80s, Rain Dogs, Swordfishtrombones, and Frank’s Wild Years, and then 2 earlier albums that an old friend taped me after I’d finally given this artist the time of day, The Heart of Saturday Night and Nighthawks at the Diner. Oh, I also own the live album that came out last year, Glitter and Doom Live. There’s much I dig in Waits’ music and lyrics, even though his hobo hipster delivery are a bit too much for me to take on a regular basis. I consider his albums Tuxedo Albums, that is, classy, intelligent albums I can pull out once a year for a special occasion.
Unlike a Coffee Table Album (eg, any box set of an artist performing in a genre I typically don’t care about but feel I can cover in one broad stroke, such as the Patsy Cline box set I bought years ago to get my wife and all other country music fans off my back) or an Olive Branch Album (ie, my RTH-approved Jackson Browne album, Late for the Sky), both of which are meant to advertise my musical depth, diversity, tolerance, and whatnot, my Tom Waits Tuxedo Albums make me feel really good about myself whenever I need to “clean up” and pop one on my turntable. I’m sure I’ve got a few friends and acquaintences who think better of me for having seen me in the light of the album-closing version of “Innocent When You Dream.”
However, for all his fine musical tailoring, Waits’ music feels intellectually dishonest and showy. His performance in Down By Law, on the other hand, is One From the Heart, to quote the title of a Copola movie he worked on. My eyes are flooded with tears of laughter any time Waits appears in that movie. I’ve never gotten half that meaningful an emotion out of a single Waits song, but man can that guy play his role in Down By Law!
It’s a shame. Tom Waits has done a lot of quality music—and I know people who’ve traveled to East Jabip to see one of his rare live performances—but I don’t know if he can ever top his role in Down By Law. Maybe he’s been in the wrong business all these years. What do you think?
I think I disagree, but for right now I’m fascinated by the regionalism “East Jabip.”
Yeah, “Japip” must be an East Coast thing. My mom, who was born in Queens, NY, but has lived in the Philly burbs since she was around 8, says it a lot.
Oh, and I credit Bone Machine with blowing my mind when I was a freshman in high school, but as an adult there is a lot of posturing that bothers with Waits. But I still have a soft spot for that album, as well as stuff like “Martha” and most of Swordfishtrombones.
As an actor, he can enliven even mediocre films like Mystery Men.
Good actor, no interest in his music whatsoever. “Intellectually dishonest and showy”–maybe. Dishonest is a little harsh. Showy I think is fair. It just doesn’t do anything for me and never has. He’s good in Altman’s Short Cuts, too.
Incidentally, there’s a new Bowie bio out, reviewed in today’s Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/books/david-bowie-starman-by-paul-trynka-review.html?_r=1&ref=books and there’s also an article that relates to a recent topic, female-fronted rock tribute acts http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/arts/music/misstallica-and-lez-zeppelin-all-girl-metal-tribute-bands.html?ref=music (I don’t work for the New York Times or get kickbacks for providing these links.)
Until a few weeks ago I can’t recall the last time I referred to East Jabip. Our youngest son is currently fascinated with geography. He knows all the state capitals and all that jazz, but much more. Because of his other obsession – tracking eBay auctions for rare Lego sets, which he saves money for and has me bid on (I’m really good – call me Human Snipe) – he learns about all sorts of small towns across America, going on Wikipedia for said towns to look up facts. Sometimes he’ll say something like, “Daddy, tell me a rock musician’s name and I’ll look up where he was born.” So, he now knows, for instance, way more than I would ever conceive anyone of knowing about Hibbing, Minnesota. Anyhow, a few weeks ago he asked me some geography-related question that spurred an “East Jabip” reference. He also asks me a lot expected time-related questions, which give me the opportunity to sing the chorus of a song I hadn’t heard or thought about since childhood, “The Twelfth of Never.”
Oh, no, not Down By Law again. I have tried, really tried, to watch that movie. I have never made it through it. I will sit through The Tree of Life again before I attempt to watch DBL again. This is one of Mr. Royale’s favorite movies, and he too chuckles just thinking about it, but I just can’t get in to it. So, Mod, you are setting a pretty low bar.
I love Tom Waits. I’ve love his ability to write in different styles, his choices of instrumentation, the different ways he uses his voice, and that ugly mug of his. Plus, the man really knows how to wear a hat. But really, the things I like the best about him are his odd lyrics and his characters. Eye Ball Kid? Box Spring Hog? Chocolate Jesus? “What’s He Building In There?” “Frank’s Wild Years?”
Sure there are some misfires – Alice was a pretty dull album. But I can always find something I like on a TW album.
I thought it funny that the NYT reviewer admitted hating the “mainstream” Bowie of the 1980s. His 70s hits were always on the radio where I grew up, so I always think of him as mainstream.
How could I forget his role in Short Cuts!?!?! Definitely another example of what I’m getting at.
That said, I think Jarmusch is immensely overrated.
He’s theatrical (in the real sense, not the Starlight Express version most “theatrical” musical acts indulge in), and if you consider that to be dishonest then we have nothing to talk about. I’ve seen him live twice. There was NOTHING dishonest or bullshit in any way about those performances. Honestly and with no reservation, I can say those were two of the best shows I’ve ever been to. I can understand people not liking the voice or the persona (the really gave up any “hipster boho” thing he had going on by 1981, though people still want to peg him as that). There’s nothing “tuxedo” about my appreciation of Waits’ music – he writes great songs and the presentation is always interesting to me. So, to answer your question, no.
It is not the brightest review I’ve ever read. He complains, as I read it, about the author writing a bio instead of a critical guide and then disingenuously says “One can’t blame an author for not writing a book he didn’t write.” And it is as if he is begging Trynka, the author of the bio, to take him by the hand and tell him which Bowie records he should like and why.
I also like him as an actor. He makes a great talk show guest, too. And probably a good cup of coffee. Always entertaining (to me, at least).
I know I’m probably in the minority with my opinion, so I’ve got no beef with your own sincere feelings on Waits, but your mention that he’s given up the “hipster boho” thing made me say, HUHHHHH??!?!? Please identify the departure from his general Look since Day 1 from the following Google search images:
http://www.google.com/search?q=tom+waits&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=823
BTW, I take no issue with his Look. I think it’s always been pretty cool. It’s the hipster boho stance that I find a little tiring…in his music, I must add. In his acting roles it’s a joy.
I just mean the whole, “I’m an ol’ drunken hipster jazzbo beat-poet” persona he started with (in his twenties!). He doesn’t put that act on anymore (well, he doesn’t smoke or drink anymore, either. A friend of mine worked for him on the Glitter & Doom tour. He’s basically a family man…a really eccentric family man, but still…) Yeah, he still wears suits and hats, but he doesn’t put on that persona he used to. He’s himself now, which is more original, and at the same time, weirder.
Yeah, not a great review. (Maybe get someone who knows a little more about Bowie’s music, huh?) But the book doesn’t sound like great shakes either. It’s not exactly a revelation that “Starman” sounds like “Over the Rainbow” and “Life on Mars?” was an attempted rewrite of “My Way.” Then again, maybe the author doesn’t dwell on that stuff; but the reviewer honed in on them.
I’ve spent much time this year with Spare Change, Foreign Affair, and Blue Valentine, and I think they’re absolutely brilliant: mutated LA singer songwriter outsider music.
As for Jarmusch, he’s not overrated at all. A lot of people (I’m looking at you, Tarrantino) owe him massive royalty checks. Check out Stranger Than Paradise (in my top 10 best films) and Mystery Train (great performance by Joe Strummer). Down By Law is okay, but raises the question: why is Waits wearing a hairnet?
That’s cool – and again, I love his modern-day, wiser, gentler persona. I especially like seeing it in movies and on talk shows. His gives good print interviews too.
It’s encouraging to sense how many Townspeople are considering agreeing with me on this issue – not you, but even we have an understanding.
Wow didn’t know he quit drinking. He was known for the quote — “No, I don’t have a drinking problem except when I can’t get a drink” or something like that.
I think his absolute winners are this one and Ghost Dog. Dead Man is really cool on a visual/mood level. Then I like a couple others and hate most of what’s left. Jarmusch too, by the way, is a welcome presence for me whenever he shows up in a movie, such as Straight to Hell and, if memory serves, Johnny Suede. (Or maybe not, on that last point: I just looked up that film’s cast on IMDB and there’s a TOM Jarmusch. Is that who I was thinking of?)
I think he’s been sober for a dozen years or more, right?
I really like Mystery Train. Broken Flowers with Bill Murray, Sharon Stone, and Julie Delpy is pretty good.
He also didn’t put on that “stance” in any movie other than “Down By Law”. He didn’t play Renfield in Coppola’s “Dracula” as a hipster…
What I’m getting at is the difference in the way he carries himself. Look at these two talk show clips, one from ’76 and one from ’88. The interviews both start at around 4:04 (but his performance style is very different, too) –
http://youtu.be/QAAzhm1YBBY
http://youtu.be/EVQYtKyN0Jg
dr. john, I’m not saying he has no merit just that he is overrated. (Perhaps I should retract the “immensely.” Just overrated.) You are absolutely right that he influenced a number of people and that should be duly noted. Mystery Train was okay but no great shakes. Night on Earth? Bad. I know Greil Marcus looooved Dead Man but that’s a mixed blessing, it seems to me. I confess I haven’t seen the last several, maybe they’re terrific but Coffee and Cigarettes sounds like a parody of a Jarmusch movie (and maybe that’s the idea, I don’t know). I’d like to see Broken Flowers: how is it?
To keep his process from takin’ a recess?
I think Jarmusch has a pretty solid track record, too. Tarantino’s a friggin’ hack.
I like Mystery Train a lot.
And his son is a pretty good musician.
Yeah, I believe he got sober in the early ’80s, around the time he got involved with his future wife & collaborator, Kathleen Brennan.
Yeah, Casey. He was the drummer on the last tour and has played on the more recent albums, as well.
I’ve never had much use for Tom Waits, so Down By Law is a-okay by me. And if you like obscure place names, there’s a book about inflammatory toponyms, called “From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meados” an overview of which can be found here: http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/mon2ier/e_reprints/collecting20cemaps.pdf
My friend I saw Broken Flowers with HATED it, but he has a very low tolerance for the sad Bill Murray (he hated Lost in Translation too). I liked it, but I loved Night on Earth. Another friend and I were in a video store once (remember them?), and I talked him into renting Coffee & Cigarettes. After 20-30 minutes he pulled the plug. It seemed ok to me, but I never saw the rest of it. So I have direct experience of Jarmusch’s polarizing effect.
This weekend my Bill Murray-hating friend and I were watching a DVD (Kieslowski’s Decalogue), and whatever company distributes it has a little scene every time appear every time you insert the DVD. Three guys sitting around silently playing cards, and one of them says “Ever get the feeling you’re in a Jim Jarmusch film?” The other two guys don’t react. End scene.
In movies as in life, I like it when not much happens. Not everyone does.
Broken Flowers has some really good lines in it — it is sort of like Big Lebowski to me — funnier on repeated viewings. Wait for second trailer on this YouTube video (its funnier).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgfA-eD7LaQ
The difference is that he’s learned by the second clip that it’s ok to have an act and that you don’t have to live the act 24/7. I wonder what Glenda Jackson (who knows a bit about acting) thought.
Also — to conclude my portion of “film talk” — I gave some money to a Kickstarter project called Color Me Obsessed — a Replacements documentary that will be screened in Philly in September.
http://www.phillyfmfest.com/
I liked Broken Flowers, and I loved Lost in Translation – after not liking it for possibly the first two thirds of the movie, as I’m wont to do. I never saw Night on Earth. I so disliked Mystery Train and a few other “short films within a single film” movies that came out at that time that I figured I needed a long break from the genre. I’m still not keen on the 3 films within a film thing.
I’m really torn by Tom Waits. I saw him open for Frank Zappa in 1975, and I’ve heard most of his albums and even have some in my collection. He’s a thoughtful and talented storyteller and musician. But his “singing” voice is a real obstacle.
I’m a huge Waits fan. I don’t really care for his hipster beatnik shtick from the 70s but I love his stuff starting with Swordfishtrombones. He uses junkyard arrangements and his, ahem, non-traditional voice to accentuate the songs and inhabit their characters. I’m not a big fan of theatrics normally but Waits is the exception. And at the core of it all, a lot of his songs, if stripped of the distractions (as interesting as I find those distractions to be) are just classically written pieces of american popular music.
I like his acting too although his Letterman interviews are more entertaining.
Ladymiss, I like Alice, especially the title song which I think ranks up there with his best.
Finally, and a bit off topic, does anyone remember Fishing With John? John Laurie had a show where he would travel to an international destination and go fishing with with someone and they would just shoot the shit. Jarmusch was in one episode. And Waits got seasick and then stuck a fish in his pants when he was on it. Kind of a mesmerizing show in a very slow moving way.
I should mention that I probably have more albums by Tom Waits than by anybody else (Stones and GBV are the only real competition).
I was a Fishing With John fan!
I loved that show! The Waits episode and the Willem Dafoe episode are hilarious! “Chickenfish!”
As far as solo artists go, that’s probably true for me, as well.
I loved it, too! I look for the episodes on Net Flix but so far no luck.
That’s from the song, “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart,” on Small Change.
You really should see Stranger Than Paradise. No multiple plots. No celebrities. Just John Lurie who plays a character trying to act like a jaded hipster and not succeeding–at all. Incredibly funny.
Maybe the problem is that he is “acting” in his records? I think by “showy” what you are getting at is that he seems to be playing roles rather than inhabiting his own space. Playing roles works better in the movie medium.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3GRtOkmOo4
You’re welcome.