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Tom’s wild years
The transition from motel Sinatra to Brechtian carny did wonders for Waits.
By Jim Irvin.
Method in the madness: Tom Waits recording Swordfishtrombones, Sunset Sound, LA, August 1982.
TOM WAITS may be our greatest method singer. Raised in a nice middleclass San Diego home, almost all he hung onto of his background was his name, as he rose to prominence by living the life of his protagonists, troubled edge-dwellers subsisting on hard liquor in LA. He’d seemingly ruined his voice with booze by 26, all the better to resemble the grizzled souls he conjured on 1975’s live-in-the-studio Nighthawks At The Diner. Even the live recording was a put-on, you’ll notice. Adopting a persona in popular music is not unusual (“Paging Mr Zimmerman!”), indeed it’s almost essential for survival, but Waits went for it to such a degree that sur vival didn’t appear to be his motive.