Product Description

Customer Reviews (19)

Great Book
I am a hardcore Waits fan, and I'm very impressed with mr. Jacob's seriousness and respect for his subject. Considering Wait's known tendency to keep his life private, mr. Jacob's concentrates on the professional side of Waits career. It is a very earnest book, informative and well written. I liked it a lot.

Wild Years: The Music And Myth Of Tom Waits
Wild Years by Jay S. Jacobs *****

Of all the musical biographies I have ever read (and I have read a lot), this is by far the best. Wild Years is painstakingly researched, never boring, clear cut, unapologetic, highly informative, and most of all entertaining.

The man that is Tom Waits, is far removed from his public persona. Wild Years kills all the rumours, and exaggerations, it releases the truth. Filled with the same humour as Waits' own music making Wild Years a thoroughly enjoyable and informative read.

Of all the waits biographies this is the one to get, and this edition as it has extra chapters.

Wild Years: Tom Waits
My husband and I both read this book. It is wonderful for the Tom Waits fans. We highly suggest it to other fans.

Good bio of a great musician
Tom Waits is one of my favorite musicians, and he is as an interesting as some of the characters he is famous for singing about. The author notes in the beginning of this book that many stories about Waits have been fabricated by Waits in various interviews. For instance, nobody knows where Waits was born, and Waits himself has given several different locations. But the stories, true or not, are great, sometimes really funny.

SUPERB in every way!
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. ... Read more

Product Description
With his trademark growl, carnival-madman persona, haunting music, and unforgettable lyrics, Tom Waits is one of the most revered and critically acclaimed singer-songwriters alive today. After beginning his career on the margins of the 1970s Los Angeles rock scene, Waits has spent the last thirty years carving out a place for himself among such greats as Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Like them, he is a chameleonic survivor who has achieved long-term success while retaining cult credibility and outsider mystique. But although his songs can seem deeply personal and somewhat autobiographical, fans still know very little about the man himself. Notoriously private, Waits has consistently and deliberately blurred the line between fact and fiction, public and private personas, until it has become impossible to delineate between truth and self-fabricated legend.

Lowside of the Road is the first serious biography to cut through the myths and make sense of the life and career of this beloved icon. Barney Hoskyns has gained unprecedented access to Waits’s inner circle and also draws on interviews he has done with Waits over the years. Spanning his extraordinary forty-year career from Closing Time to Orphans, from his perilous “jazzbo” years in 1970s LA to such shape-shifting albums as Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs to the Grammy Award winners of recent years, this definitive biography charts Waits’s life and art step by step, album by album.

Barney Hoskyns has written a rock biography—much like the subject himself—unlike any other. It is a unique take on one of rock’s great enigmas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Nothing New Here
The book reads like one long, badly written record review. Most info and quotes come from older interviews and other sources. In the second half of the book Hoskyns doesn't even try to hide his distain for Waits' wife and co-writer, tries to make her into some sort of controling gate keeper manipulating things from behind the scenes. Tom Waits has a gift and if this is the way he chooses to protect it, so be it. Listen to his music instead of reading this and enjoy the ride.

Certainly not what I'd call a "biography".
If you are looking for a 500 page review of Tom Waits' albums, this is the book for you.If you are looking for a good biography of Tom Waits, I'd look elsewhere.While this book does indeed include some biographical material, it is more a list of the songs on his albums, and some conjecture about what they mean.Really this is more a reviewer's take on Tom Waits then a biographers.I'm not really interested in being told which songs are the best on his albums and that his later work doesn't stand up to his early work.I'm also not interested in hearing the author's opinion on whether or not Kathleen Brennan ruined him, which he goes on at length to talk about.If you enjoy having your own opinions on the subject of Tom Waits, this is not the book for you.

A Life of Tom Waits?
More like a fraction of his life. It's a good account of Waits's younger days, but soon turns from a biography into the author's interminable opinions of the music--song by song by song--since he couldn't find out much of anything about his subject's adult life. Which apparently made him resentful, because we get a lot of foolish innuendo about the sinister control the Waits's have over their friends, and the even more sinister control Kathleen has over Tom. SUCH a wanker.

Worthy for fans with some misgivings
If you are a "big time" Waits fan, then this book is worth reading. It doesn't poke any substantial holes in Waitsian mythology and folklore by protesting too much, although I admit that I felt a bit sheepish reading it with the knowledge that Waits would not approve. There are some that might say biographies are always fundamentally flawed from subjectivity, point of view, and the effect of time on recollection. If so, the only true biography for Tom Waits is an auto-biography, which will never happen. And if it did, it'd be deliberately more apocryphal then this effort, but certainly more fun. It'd be a raconteur's treasure trove of wonderful metaphors and tall tales. Tom's truth is not factual.

As it is, to classify this book as an (unauthorized) biography is a stretch---it's less a biography than a very long (borderline tabloid) essay with the author too-often upstaging his subject matter. We are forced to read what Barney Hoskyns personally thinks about Waits and his music with specific judgments of which songs work and those that don't, which is very questionable given this book is supposedly about Tom's life---it's even in the title. As another reviewer mentioned, I don't want to know what Hoskyns thinks about the album Real Gone or the song Lucinda, and I don't care. This information doesn't belong here. These are regrettable flaws to what is, overall, a decent and difficult effort given the subject matter. It's certainly better than all of the other bio-Waits attempts save Jay S. Jacobs's book Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits, who is a more disciplined writer overall and leaves far fewer traces of himself. Jacobs has more respect for the subject and the subject matter, and takes more of a tack toward the music than on Waits's personal details.

Biographies have their place, but it's better to focus on Wait's music. And with this approach, I'd say David Smay's review of Swordfishtrombones in the 33 1/3 book series is probably the best Waitsian book out there so far next to Jacobs', and at only 7" x 6" and 126 pages. This is because Smay doesn't try to infiltrate the artist or his confidants, or lackadasically accept every anecdote he stumbles upon, which are presumptuous at best and filler at worst. Smay addresses the art itself, which is all you really need when it comes to Waits. He respectfully separates the artist from the man. And Smay doesn't present his book as anything other than his own editorial POV, unlike Hoskyns, who veers into literary paparazzi territory from time to time.

Still, I'd wager that the curious id in each Raindog wants to know more about Tom and even more about the mysterious Kathleen, as if deconstructing the duo might reveal some secrets or a little more of Tom's unique soul to us. Much of Lowside does indeed offer much more than other Waits biographies, and for this reason the curious cat in me did find it satisfying overall, if only superficially so. How accurate is it? We'll never know, and in a way I'm glad for that.

Consumer bottom line: Buy a used version of Lowside after reading David Smay's and Jay S. Jacob's books first.

I had high hopes
Some good anecdotes contained within but it was rather annoying to have to read Barney's opinion on nearly every Waits song ever released.No offence intended to Mr. Hoskyns but I am not interested.

He doesn't seems to enjoy Tom's most recent work, says things like "was Tom Waits finally chasing his own musical tail?" in regards to Real Gone [long answer: No], and when he went out of the way to slam songs like "Make It Rain" & "Lucinda" I tossed it into the trash. ... Read more

Product Description
A pocket-sized collection of Tom Waits songs, in chord songbook format, with complete lyrics and guitar chords diagrams. 84 songs include: Alice * Chocolate Jesus * Downtown Train * Hold On * I Wish I Was in New Orleans * Jersey Girl * Long Way Home * Martha * The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) * Soldier's Things * Warm Beer and Cold Women * and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Tom Waits Little Black songbook
This book is a very good collection of Tom Waits songs.It contains 80 songs. All of the wonderful lyrics of his songs are included. The format is for instruments that use chords.Their is no individual notes for melody, the chords are positioned over the lyrics where a change is made. The print is small. I use the book with my ukulele.But have also found myself just taking it out to read as a poetry book.Blue Valentine: " She sends me Blue Valentines, All the way from Philadelphia, To mark the anniversary, of someone that I use to be."

Great Book
Great buy for Waits fans.Chords are pretty accurate (as far as I can tell).

Learn to play guitar before a live audience!
Good wholesome dose of Tom Waits fakebook. Plenty of songs, including many new ones from Real Gone and Orphans. Wish there were more Rain Dogs but, hey, I'll take what I can get. Good selection, easy easy to read, excellent binding: survived a few road trips in better condition than me. Recommended for the musically challenged.

Great Book for the Tom Waits fan
Just like I said in the title, this little book provides the basic chords to all or most of your favorite Tom songs. If you have a good ear, or two if you are lucky, you can pick of the chord structures off of the record or disc. If you don't just delude yourself into thinking the audience can't tell the difference. ... Read more

Product 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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Repetitive, But Still Entertaining and Informative
This book is not a biography.It is a collection of articles and interviews in which The Man, Tom Waits, is sole subject.Since Waits has remained private about his life, you can count on wondering about many of the answers he provides for writers during interviews.But then again, this is typical Waits, and if you seriously mind it, you're probably not a huge Waits fan in the first place.

The articles cover about thirty, thirty-five years of Waits' career, describing here his difficulty finding an audience early on and there his inimitable stage antics and style.Many of the articles themselves note how he has remained quiet about his personal life but the writers still find reasons to ask him questions to which they probably know they won't receive straight answers.Expect a lot of chatting, expect a lot of humor in place of honesty.Expect frankness and self-deprecation.In short, you have to love him in order to read this book.If you don't like his music (and frankly, anyone who likes sound should listen to his records) then you'll probably put this book down almost immediately.

But you're probably interested in this book and reading this review because you happen to like his music.Good, that's a start.Well, you, dear fans, will love the stories, even if some of them you've heard before.I have found, listening to almost his entire discography, that Waits repeats his yarns or puts different spins on them, uses the same jokes, etc.So what.Anyway, you'll find some of them here.And you'll probably read the whole thing anyway because you want to know everything there is to know about him.In that case, I have to admit, the book does, besides providing the occasional in-depth writings that reveal interesting things (whether about Waits, music or life in general), the book is made up partially of a great deal of filler, some short articles remarking on his history.Several articles and reviews, in light of Waits recording again or releasing a new album, simply jot down his discography and tell little of anything new.You probably know some of Waits' songs were made into huge hits by other artists ("Ol' 55" covered by the Eagles, "Downtown Train" by Rod Stewart... you're going to learn that several, several times).So expect repetition, because you're going to get it.

As for everything else, hey, it's Tom Waits.Who knows what to expect?

Timely andpretty
Arrived in a great condition and didn't take too long. The front cover had a small crease on the bottom corner, but seeing as it was used and spent some time in the post, I can't complain. Thanks for adding to my collection!

Keeping Track of Articles.
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.
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.
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!! ... Read more

Product Description

Known for his growling vocals and for the distinct poetry of his lyrics, Tom Waits has amassed over the course of three decades a devoted cult following. The Early Years collects the lyrics—formative and classic—from the first ten albums of this true bard of hard living. A celebration of both his words and of the artist himself, this lyrical biography charts the course from Wait's emotional debut album, Closing Time (1977), to the experimental stirrings in Heartattack and Vine (1991) and One from the Heart (1992). Here the words achieve a new potency, adding further dimension to this singularly gifted artist.

Customer Reviews (3)

Only if you're old enough
I'm caught between the extant reviews. The key is to be old enough to have heard these songs, even if it's years since the experience. What great fun to find out what he really said in pieces like "Step Right Up" and "Pasties and a G String".
Those of us who've crossed the bar of a half-century will take "Martha" so much more to heart, now that our own Martha's are gone. We know the 'Heart of Saturday Night' - Saturday night back then - is still the best that could ever be. Pity the youngsters who never had the brilliance of a slow dance, who never had three or four too many but made it to work the next day and kept going because your 'baby' was waitin up for you. Get it, recall it, make up your own melodies when the memory's going fuzzy - it's all to the good.

Haunting writing, reads well as poetry
I find some of the songs haunting.Tom has a great feel for a symbol that cuts deep. The song Broken Bicycles is especially good.Heartattack and Vine, etc. are classics for Tom Waits buffs.I found myself yearning for the music and atmosphere that Tom creates in his work.Nonetheless, the lyrics all on their own a worth reading.

Song Lyrics Not So Interesting in Print
I think song lyrics in general
suffer from being read
without hearing the presentation
Waits is no exception to this rule
Buy it if you love his music
Skip it if you haven't heard it ... Read more

Product 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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

thank you so much!
it was in perfect condition and got here really fast. thank you for that because that took a lot of worry off my mind.
all in all id give you a 10 out of 10.

thank you so much.

hardly worth considering
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
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, BlueValentines, more. Nice transcriptions of the piano introductions. Best ofall, there's NO overlap with the Beautiful Maladies collection, so you canbuy them both without hesitation. ... Read more

Product Description

Tom Waits's distinctive, bourbon-soaked growl, his unique persona, and his incorporation of musical styles from blues to experimental to vaudeville have secured for him a top-shelf cult following and an extraordinary critical respect. The idea of the Wanderer - someone who seeks an escape from all of life's problems, and dreams himself into oblivion - serves as the fundamental personality type around which all Waits's music revolves. Ten years of producing and touring with Waits's macabre folktale adaptation across Canada and the U.S. has given author Corinne Kessel direct access to his work, creative process, and his associates. In this comprehensive analysis, Kessel examines all of the many characters that have appeared throughout the course of Waits' musical career, from Closing Time (1973) to Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards.

His raw form of expression and his evocative lyrics work together to form an emotional chronicle of society's misfits, outcasts, and lowlifes. He is not the sort of composer to chase after shiny red fire trucks to awesome blazing fires, but instead looks after the intangible dreams found dissipating in the last wisp of smoke from a cigarette, held in the weathered hands of a broken soul. Here, author Corinne Kessel pursues Waits into this distinctly murky and unsettled atmosphere to address in particular Waits's enduring questions of reality, landscape, and identity.

Customer Reviews (2)

TOP HIGH BOOK READ ABOUT TOM WAITS WORLD
I've read many books about Tom Waits both in italian and english language (I'm writing from Italy)almost 11.
This is the best one related to the analysis of Tom Waits sounds-world creation and lyrics deep check, the fact that Mrs Kessel is a musician help very much the whole thing moreover considered that she had cooperate with Tom in BLACK RIDER.This book is the deepest text about the Tom Waits style all over his own 40 years of music career,in many book lines while I was reading I've found the exact description of my own feelings felt while I was listening that song considerated.
Mrs Kessel take a wide look also on the process of creation and on the double side: Waits as a man and Waits as an istrument of expression taking into consideration the voice, sounds landscapes, styles, periods of creation and all the needful details for define the "TOM WAITS WORLD".
After more than 12 years of listening and descovering Tom Waits this is the most helpful book to go into and deep inside his own music.Only one thing: there is no Tom Waits contribution to this book and no "thanks" by Mrs Kessel to Tom Waits and these two aspects sounds a little bit strange knowing Tom way of view about things that involve his music and works.
However I sugget this book to all the fans that has the needing to know that "...something more" about Tom Waits.

Supremely Intelligent Thoughts on the Lyrics of Tom Waits
Sorry..keeping this short. Corrine goes further than any other writer, including Barney Hoskyns, in delving into the world of Tom Waits lyrics. A true sense here of a real master's thesis, and not another tell all, review, or regurgitation of Tom's life. This book is actually a challenge. Thanks for making it. Andre in S.F.
(Mosses........) ... Read more

Product Description
Two entwined narratives run through the creation of Swordfishtrombones and form the backbone of this book. As the 1970s ended, Waits felt increasingly constrained and trapped by his persona and career. Bitter and desperately unhappy, he moved to New York in 1979 to change his life. It wasn't working. But at his low point, he got the phone call that changed everything: Francis Ford Coppola tapped Tom to write the score for One From the Heart. Waits moved back to Los Angeles to work at Zoetrope's Hollywood studio for the next 18 months. He cleaned up, disciplined himself as a songwriter and musician, collaborated closely with Coppola, and met a script analyst named Kathleen Brennan - his "only true love".

They married within 2 months at the Always and Forever Yours Wedding Chapel at 2am. Swordfishtrombones was the first thing Waits recorded after his marriage, and it was at Kathleen's urging that he made a record that conceded exactly nothing to his record label, or the critics, or his fans. There aren't many love stories where the happy ending sounds like a paint can tumbling in an empty cement mixer.

Kathleen Brennan was sorely disappointed by Tom's record collection. She forced him out of his comfortable jazzbo pocket to take in foreign film scores, German theatre, and Asian percussion. These two stories of a man creating that elusive American second act, and also finding the perfect collaborator in his wife give this book a natural forward drive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great Book About a Great Album
I write this as a huge Tom Waits fan and a moderate fan of the 33 1/3 series (i think the idea is often better than the execution).Of the five or six books in the 33 1/3 series i've read, this one is hands down the best.It's written with a wry wit and humor, but also depth of insight (alot like a Tom Waits song!).i would recommend this for any fan of Tom Waits.

Too much Smay, not enough Waits
This book was an extremely disappointing addition to the 33 1/3 series. After reading the excellent 33 1/3 book about Paul's Boutique, I moved immediately to this one. While there is some information about how the songs were written and recorded, to get to it you have to slog through pages and pages of David Smay's made-up "Chuck Norris Facts"-like tales of Tom Waits. Click the Search Inside link above and read the first chapter to see what you're in for - the whole book is like that. Maybe this is great for David Smay fans, but Tom Waits fans are better off reading a different book.

I Know David Smay
The writer of this book, David Smay, is a friend of mine. I've always enjoyed his writings in Scram Magazine. He once did me the honor of asking me to write a chapter in one of his books. That's my one claim to fame. Now, back to David: He's a true music lover, all genres. I didn't know what to expect when I received his book Swordfishtrombones. I read the book in one night. It's well-written and has a lot of info about Tom Waits. What makes this particular volume of 33 1/3 so unique is the way David ventures off on historical wonderland paths. His knowledge has no bounds and the way he makes connections with everything in the universe make this a fascinating read. If you want a good read that never talks down to the reader, get this book and hold onto it forever. Read it at least once a year. I only have one other book that I read once a year: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Absolutely no connection between the two books, but they're both on planes of their own. David: call me. gk

Come on, any book about most any Waits album is welcome
And it turns out, this one keeps the spirit of the album by not being a dry reporting or an academic exercise.The author honors this key turning point album in Waits' career with the creative dignity it deserves.I kept finding info bits in it that I liked, that I didn't know and I'm a bit Waits fan.As per the 33 1/3 series he breaks down the album song by song and appears to strive to not have any bland sentences.Don't think I found one.Glad I bought it.If yer a fan, you really should. If yer not into Tom Waits, forget it, this is a fan's delight. ... Read more

Product Description
The matching folio to Tom WaitsÂ’ 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, IÂ’m Still Here. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

TOM WAITS _ never fails
As always - he produced a great album.I have all of his albums and this is ONE OF MY FAVES!If you love WAITS - buy this! ... Read more

Product Description
This full length biography is the first comprehensive account of a truly legendary artist. It covers every aspect of the life and career of a man who has never seemed to be in the slightest danger of losing his credibility to mainstream success. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Don't bother
Amen! to all those other 1 and 2 star reviews. This is a book about Patrick Humphries, not Tom Waits.The Introduction and the first chapter are all about the author and who cares?Among the many ridiculous statements, here's one to aggravate anyone who was around at the time:he claims that the Kingston Trio single-handedly brought about the folk movement!

Avoid this book.

About 40% actually about Waits
Like everyone, I was overjoyed when I came across this book. Finally, a biography of my favorite musical artist. Sadly, author Patrick Humphries does an astoundingly mediocre job of it. I'll admit that Waits is probably not the easiest person to write about, as he is well known for keep his personal life private. Humphries seems to realize that there isn't enough information about the man to fill a full-length book, so every chance he gets, he pads it with long tangents about any subject or person that resides in the same solar system as Waits. Some, such as Jack Kerouac and Francis Ford Coppola, make sense in the grand scheme of things. But over FOUR CHAPTERS are dedicated to Coppola, and long, rambling anecdotes are devoted to Lewis Carroll, Lenny Bruce, Soho in the early eighties, Robert Altman, and the author's bizarre obsession with shoes.

Even worse is Humphries opinions, which he gives on EVERYTHING. He admits that his only encounter with Waits was one interview over 25 years ago, and he seems to think that this makes him the consummate authority of the man's work, not just another obsessed, clueless fan (which he is). He bashes great songs, goes out of his way to ridicule the films he appears in (except, of course, Waits' own performance), and just takes shots at anything he doesn't particularly like. If I want to see what some random jackass thinks of an album, I'll look at Rolling Stone, NME, or, well, Amazon.com. I bought this book to learn about the man whose work I enjoy so much, and while there is some good information here, the writer's opinions, attempts at wit, and weird English appropriations of American terms and phrases just make it a not enjoyable read. I know fans will jump at any book on Tom Waits, just as I did, but trust me; this is a book will piss you off as much as it informs you.

Patrick Humphries has never met Tom Waits
What is with this guy? Big book, yes, lots of words, some pictures (none interesting) but the banal style of writing, the endless, useless details are what really weigh it down. I'm sorry I paid full price for what I thought would be a decent read. If you want to learn about Tom Waits, this is not the book to read. In my opinion Patrick Humphries is a wanker who likes to pontificate, but cannot entertain, nor educate. Buyer beware, prepare to zzzzzz.

Even worse than I expected--sheesh!
How this sorry excuse of a book ever got published is a mystery.As others have mentioned, it's laughably unreliable.I only read the first few chapters in a bookstore the other day.But that was more than enough.Humphries apparently has never been to California.He locates the Rio Grande River a few miles away from the Waits home in National City (actually, Waits lived in Chula Vista and worked his first job in National City--oh, and the Rio Grande forms part of the border between Texas and Mexico, about 1000 miles east of San Diego).Humphries mentions The Heritage folk music club that Waits first started performing at (and where he got a job as the doorman in 1970) --but he places the club in Los Angeles.The Heritage was actually located in Mission Beach, a neighborhood of San Diego.Humphries pretty much elides Tom's early performing in the folk clubs of San Diego with his first gigs in L.A.

And here's a minor point, but one that tells you plenty about Humphries' imprecise use of language: he says that when TW got his job at National City's Napoleone's Pizza, his duties included "grilling pizzas"!Yum.

I can understand some of the problems that a biographer would face with a subject like Waits, who carefully protects his private life and is himself the source of a lot of the colorful myths about his life.But you'd think a writer with a bit of self respect would at least do a bit of cursory research.There's no evidence here that Humphries did any fact-checking.

Save your money.The best source of biographical info about Tom Waits by far is the online Tom Waits Library .

Waits of time.
Humphries is more concerned with how well he comes off to the reader than about Tom Waits' life.He struggles to write intelligently and impressively, and by trying to do this, he goes off on many tangents.He'll tell a joke, and try to make it as inaccessible to the average reader as possible, in order to make himself come off as more 'academic' in some way.It's a tedious read.It reads more like a freshman college English major's work than a professional.Humphries writes as if he has something to prove.Man, we are Waits fans.We didn't buy this book because we want to be impressed by your writing flair.For all of his pretention, he makes many mistakes in recounting Waits' life.The guy is a joke.What I wanted was a book about Tom Waits' life.What I got was, "What Patrick Humphries thinks of Tom Waits."I pee on this book. ... Read more

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

Customer Reviews (6)

no wating on waits
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
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
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
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
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 ... Read more

Product Description
Traces the life and career of Tom Waits, who writes about those down on their luck, looks at his major albums, and describes his work as a motion picture actor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

More a collection of the author's opinions than a bio.
Fans of Waits are sure to be disappointed by this book which pretends to be a bio. It's actually mostly a collection of the author's own enthusiastic essays about Waits. Read a Dave Marsh bio of Springsteen to get an idea of the flavor. Direct quotes from Waits are mostly familiar, having already appeared in well known magazines. Save your money or buy a spare copy of a Waits CD instead.

more fanzine than fact filled
Tom Waits is one of the great iconoclasts of the late 20th Century.Hislyrics are brilliantly subversive laid over a simple jazzy sound.I boughtthis book hoping to gain some insight into Waits the man but I found thebook to be somewhat abbreviated and abridged.This is more like a pulpy,fanzine type of bio that doesn't really probe the depths of this complexmusician.It will feature small morsels of info but for the most part, itdoes little to get down to the heart of the matter.It does have momentsbut it doesn't quench one's thirst for knowledge and understanding of TomWaits.

An extended fan-mag article
The author tries to match Waits with his metaphor magic and of course fails. This kind of punchy "clever" writing might work for a magazine but is very hard to read for an extended period time, as in abook. There are lots of weird mistakes (is the author English and missingsome things?) and the font used is almost illegible. Still it's the onlybook I know of and somewhat helpful if you can find the facts among thefluff.

the wrong author for the job
Mr. Humphries is a big fan of Tom Waits. Unfortunately, he's mainly a fond of the early Tom, and spends a great deal of this book trying to explain why Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs and everything that followed don't liveup to Small Change. Tom deserves to have a biography written about him thatdoes justice to his mid-eighties and later work as a period of astonishinginnovation and creativity, rather than seeming almost apologetic that hedared to stray from the bars and back alleys of his early work at all.

More a collection of the author's opinions than a bio.
Fans of Waits are sure to be disappointed by this book which pretends to be a bio.It's actually mostly acollection of the author's own enthusiastic essays about Waits.Read a Dave Marsh bio of Springsteen to get an idea of the flavor.Direct quotes from Waits are mostly familiar, having already appeared in well known magazines.Save your money or buy a spare copy of a Waits CD instead. ... Read more

Product Description

Auch nach 20 Alben und einer Legion begeisterter Fans hört der unbeirrbare Waits nicht auf, immer wieder neue, mal zärtlich poetische, mal raue wüste Songs voll magischer Faszination zu produzieren, die andere Pop-Artisten wie Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, The Eagles, Elvis Costello, Meat Loaf, The Ramones and Johnny Cash reizen, diese in eigenen Versionen zu interpretieren.

Der spröde und aufrichtige Sänger, Komponist und Gelegenheitsschauspieler mit der rauen Reibeisenstimme hat eine der ungewöhnlichsten Karrieren der Popmusik hinter sich. Diese Biographie wird ihm in jeder Hinsicht gerecht. Dieses Buch ist ein gründlicher und kritischer Überblick über Leben und Werk mit vollständiger Discographie und Filmographie.

Patrick Humphries schreibt seit 1976 über Pop Musik. Seither hat er zahllose Bücher, unter anderem über Nick Drake, Richard Thomson und Paul Simon geschrieben. Als Journalist arbeitete er für den New Musical Express, The Times, Mojo und den Guardian.

Product Description
The companion songbook to Tom WaitsÂ’ 2002 album release, Blood Money is the matching folio containing 13 of his best songs. Based on WaitsÂ’ retelling of the classic tale "Woyzeck", songs include Misery Is The River Of The World, Coney Island Baby, All The World Is Green, Knife Chase, Woe, Calliope and A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Arranged for piano, vocal and guitar. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pretty accurate!
This is a good purchase for anyone wanting the true structure to the songs on the Blood Money album.

When I first opened it, I closed it again to look for the 'easy play version' printing on the front. I couldn't find it, so I opened it again warily and began to play.

The piano parts are grossly bare, but they provide an amazingly accurate platform to build on, which ought to get you pretty close to the end production of Blood Money in its audio format. Instrumentals are missing altogether, and left hand instructions could be read by a committed student in their second year of learning. But there is enough printed to recognise the pieces, and their is a lot of space in the writing to allow for individual treatments or improvisations to work out where the real interpretations lie. In defense of the producer, to produce a book that is note for note the artist's work would mean a 534 page production that looks messy and is near on impossible to play at a glance. There would be painists out there still trying to work their way through the second piece eight months after purchasing the book if it were offered in that format!

I actually found the guitar chording to be of better or more immediate value. I've been able to take these chord charts straight from the book into a busking or live performance situation, and they are spot on. I have found that Tom Waits on acoustic guitar is a completely different game, but one that is a lot of fun. This book has opened new doors musically and creatively for me, not where I expected it (at the keys), but where I went experimentally (guitar).

All in all, this is a great purchase for someone wanting to learn how to follow Waits' form or writing style (for this album, anyway!), or for someone who is familiar enough with his work to fill in the gaps. For anyone just wanting to be able to belt out a few Waits numbers (on piano or guitar) to impress family and friends, this production will let you do this in about eight minutes after you open it. Absolutely no strings instructions, or brass, which is understandable in a guitar, vocal, piano book... but can you buy the brass/strings book anywhere? I think not. :-) ... Read more

Product Description
The influential Louisiana bluesman, Lead Belly, wrote and performed some of the best-loved songs of the twentieth century, including "The Midnight Special," "Rock Island Line" and his signature song, "Goodnight, Irene," which became an international hit in 1950, eight months after his death. John A. Lomax, the esteemed Library of Congress folk music anthropologist, discovered Lead Belly serving time (for assault and murder) at the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in 1934. He immediately saw that Lead Belly was a walking anthology of African-American music, and arranged for him to come to New York, where he created a sensation. Reporters followed Lead Belly everywhere, theaters clamored to book him and celebrities thronged to his concerts. His influence on a later generation of popular musicians was massive: Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, Van Morrison, Robert Plant and Beck have all paid their respects.
Lead Belly: A Life in Pictures is a treasure trove of rare, unpublished photographs, news clippings, concert programs, personal correspondence (including letters from Woody Guthrie), record albums, awards and other memorabilia retrieved only recently from a basement trunk in New York.

Lead Belly, born Huddie Ledbetter on a Louisiana farm in 1888, won international fame as an interpreter of African-American folk songs and blues. For 15 years he performed folk songs, spirituals, blues and ballads to enthusiastic audiences at night clubs, political rallies, universities, concert halls and private parties. In 1988 Lead Belly was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where he was the subject of a major retrospective in 2004. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Beautiful pictures
We gave this book to my brother and he absolutely loved it.He is obsessed with Lead Belly and all the music of that era, and he spent a long time thumbing through the pictures and can't wait to read it.He wants to rip the pictures out for his wall!(We pleaded with him to leave the book intact).

Labor of Love
Many people have loved Lead Belly and his legacy, but none perhaps so much as John Reynolds, one of the listed authors of this book.Although John is listed last of the 4 contributors to the book, this is really his project, and one that he has labored on for many years to bring to fruition.Lead Belly (or Leadbelly) was a seminal force in our understanding of 'American' music, and his influence has informed even those who have never heard of him.

This book is a beauty, and is not meant to be an exhaustive biography, but rather a celebration of the man, his times, his influence, and his music.As such, it succeeds spectacularly.I highly recommend that you search www.youtube.com for Lead Belly videos to accompany your journey through this book.It will add much to the experience, and actually enhance the fact that this book is a wonderful keepsake and motherlode of visual delights and insights in our understanding of this man.

My favorite page was "The Leadbelly Method" by contributor Glenn O'Brien.

Outstanding Pictorial Biography of Lead Belly!
Whether you favor the two-word or the single word version of his name, this pictorial biography of Leadbelly is just outstanding! Truly a labor of love by the authors and it should be well received by all Leadbelly fans as well as by any who are interested in folk-music and blues. Particularly poignant are the photos showing Leadbelly just months before his death holding Alvin Singh and/or his guitar.This book is highly recommended! ... Read more

Product Description
One of a series about musicians whose careers have resisted easy classification and whose success is measured more by their influence on popular culture than chart placings. ... Read more