I haven't featured Tom Waits in, like, forever. He is, beyond a doubt, my favorite songwriter, arranger, and singer - and, yes, I said singer. His voice isn't bad, it's just harsh, deliberately created (according to an interview I heard with Terry Gross on NPR) because, as a child, Waits grew up listening to people like Sinatra and Dean Martin. As a boy, he tried to imitate them (adding in the scratchy sounds of some 78s and the general noise from LPs) and it made his voice rough. Of course, smoking a pack or two of unfiltered cigarettes a day also can do things to the vocal chords.
Even more than Dylan, Waits is the singer-songwriter for me. While Bob Dylan does have a sense of humor, the near-deification that has created BOB DYLAN has forced so much of his natural humor and sense of self-deprecation under the protective shell of his natural shyness. To be honest, I don't blame the guy. Waits, on the other hand, continues to do what he has always done - write songs about hobos, drunks, paranoids, and occasionally hopeful songs for children and the children in all of us - and pays very little attention to a press corps that, not understanding him or his music, ignores him. His fans love him and his songs. Sometimes it sounds like someone is banging on an old cast-iron heating register to keep the beat. The guitars, and banjos, and pianos all sound like they are just about to slip out of tune. It's wonderful stuff, and while I know he takes some getting used to, once you have fallen under his spell, it's impossible to deny his brilliance and sheer musical genius.
