SPIN explores the robust discography of troubadour Tom Waits, who remains weird and wonderful more than 50 years into his career.
is perhaps the quintessential cult artist, despite recording for large labels alongside successful commercial acts for his entire career. Widely regarded as one of America’s finest songwriters, Waits is known for his harsh and gravely voice, eccentric production methods, and taste for exotic and obscure instrumentation. These attributes certainly make him an acquired taste — one without anything resembling a radio hit in 50 years of music making.
Jim Jarmusch is another renowned filmmaker who befriended Waits in the ‘80s and has cast the singer in several features over the years, from 1986’s, a collection of vignettes about taxi drivers and their passengers that starred Winona Ryder and Rosie Perez. Waits only sings on three tracks on the otherwise instrumental soundtrack, so if you detest his voice but enjoy the creepy pump organ grooves of his mid-period albums, this may be the album for you.
Waits has only mounted a handful of relatively short tours over the last 40 years, and was never a frequent presence on MTV. His 1988 concert filmhad negligible box office receipts and received middling reviews from film critics, but director Chris Blum’s sole feature is a creatively staged film capturing the surreal spectacle of Waits onstage almost as well ascrystallized the essence of Talking Heads.