Born on December 7: Tom Waits, poet-singer with gravelly voice

Attention legend! Born in Pomona, California, in 1949, the American songwriter never topped the charts, but like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, his often cynical lyrics and minimalist music place him in the firmament of 20th-century poets.

During his teens, he learned to play the trumpet and then the guitar. In the early 70s, he was spotted by Frank Zappa's manager (another out-of-the-box artist), who put his foot down. From the onset, his style proved to be unclassifiable. His 1973 debut album, “Closing Time”, was essentially based on haunting, smoky jazz ambiences: piano, double bass, trumpet (often muted) and a few wisps of electric guitar, along with his rocky voice, sometimes hemmed in by heart-rending choruses, outlined the contours of his style. One of his classics was already out there: “I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love”. Tom Waits' essence is already there, at least in the watermark. With a helping hand from the Eagles, then on the rise, who covered his “Ol'55”, the singer began to find his own audience.

Refractory to labels that are too restrictive in his eyes, Tom Waits nonetheless collects several, but always in small doses: jazz, of course, and blues without a doubt, but also a little folk, bluegrass and a few references to vaudeville, notably for the offbeat, humorous staging of his all-too-frequent concerts. So much for separating the wheat from the chaff in the man's repertoire. The twenty or so studio albums he has recorded deserve to be patiently savored. They include two Grammy Awards: “Bone Machine” in 1992 and “Mule Variations” in 1999. Personally, I've always had a particular fondness for “Rain Dogs” (1985), no doubt because for me it's the gateway to the man's offbeat universe.

Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of the singer's career is that his greatest hits have been covers by others, such as Bruce Springsteen's “Jersey Girl” and Rod Stewart's “Tom Traubert's Blues”.

On the silver screen, Tom Waits has played a number of iconic roles in keeping with his character. He answered Francis Ford Coppola's call (“Dracula” in 1992), Robert Altman's (“Short Cuts” in 1993), Terry Gilliam's (“The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus” in 2009) and above all Jim Jarmusch's for a trilogy that sticks to his skin: “Down By Law” in 1986 alongside Roberto Begnini, ‘Coffee And Cigarettes’ in 2003 where he meets Iggy Pop for the chapter entitled ‘Somewhere In California’ and finally ‘The Dead Don't Die’ in 2019. These three feature-length films can be enjoyed as if they were songs written by the master himself. Tom Waits has also lent his voice to several TV series, including “The Simpsons”, where he plays a survivalist determined to escape the apocalypse!

Now aged 75, the artist has kept a very low profile over the last ten years.

(Stéphane soupart - Transl.: MH - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Tom Waits on stage at Bozar in Brussels (Belgium) as part of the “Rain Dogs” tour, November 11, 1985.