Quote:
Originally Posted by Batchainpuller78  I like Bone Machine a lot but prolly my favourite is Franks Wild Years
totally beautiful from beginning to end.
what did happen to his voice? because if you listen to the early years it's a clean singing Tom |
I did a project on Tome Waits' vocal style about a year ago. I could probably post it up here if anyone is interested but in short response to this question:
Waits had always had a fascination with pre-60's music and this shows through a lot of his work. The comment that everything you can hear in Waits you can hear in Beefheart is unfair on Waits in my opinion. Waits experimented a whole lot more with his voice and once described his style as 'Louis Armstrong meets Ethel Merman in hell'. It's true that he did get some inspiration from Beefheart but he also drew inspiration from a lot of other places.
From a very early age he always wanted to be an old man and used to wander around with a walking stick trying to speak in a low gruff voice. His first few albums (Closing Time, Heart of Saturday Night etc.) his voice certainly is a lot more clear and crisp. The first real change came on the album 'Small Change' where his voice becomes a lot more gravelly and gruff. He had been touring almost consistently, drinking cheap spirits and smoking cigarettes constantly. This album was kind of a look back on his heavy drinking days and I believe that this is when he stopped drinking for good. However, the biggest change came when he met his wife Kathleen Brennan and his music instantly changed and became more percussive and experimental. His album 'Swordfish Trombones' was the changing point in his discography, moving from simple jazz to very experimental music. Some people believe that Brennan is just as important as Waits in regards to his songwriting and performance. It is definite to say that she has a large influence on his music and still co-writes most of his songs with him to this day.
Anyway, sorry it's a bit of a scatty post, have only just woken up from a very long recording session. If anyone is interested in that essay I will try and post it up. It's entitled, 'How does the vocal style of Tom Waits affect the potry of his lyrics.'