Tom Waits is an acquired taste, I think. A lot of people my generation don't know him. Or have heard of him, but still, don't know him. Don't care to. Some people a bit older than me, know some of his stuff. Like this song for example. Only one person I know puts him on a real pedestal, and has gone through the majority of his work with fondness. But this is far from resemblant of Waits' body of work. It's one example of the kind of style that he's tried tackling in his day.
His lyrics are often vagrant (and of them), his voice, a busted growl, as distinctive as you can get. For much of his work he's chosen the sounds of jazz and folk, string orchestra's and piano's. He's even ventured into experimental type music, like the critically acclaimed album, Swordfishtrombones(1983). Even I've got this one, and I get an odd kind of joy listening to it. I mean, just listen to the title track Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits
"Hold On" came out in 1999 and kind of feels like a Bruce song. Waits' even sings it like Bruce would. What's funny is Waits' released "Jersey Girl" in 1980, which Bruce in fact made a classic by using it frequently tour, and on the B-side of "Cover Me." Obviously Waits has spent a good amount of time in what would be considered Rock even though he'll always kind of stand alone in my book. Never belonging to a genre, but rather being some kind of enigma. That guy who's outside the box, even if he steps in once in a while. You gotta know in-the-box, in order to be outside of it. This is getting too philosophical for monday morning.
Listen to the song.
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