The 'Bands I don't Get' thread (2 Viewers)

I'm watching a documentary about Tom Waits. I'm into the noir atmosphere, late night jazz, the production on the records & a lot of the stuff he references, but I could never get into his music. I just find his whole act & persona annoying. It's so self consciously contrived & studied. There's a array of celebs saying what great songs & lyrics he has. I'll have to take their word for it. I can't get passed that stupid voice he puts on.
I cant find it now but there is a clip of one of his first TV appearances and the audience and host are just laughing , assuming it's piece of comedy. Of course he would say something profound about life being a comedy and then tell a tale of old drunks in late night bars and we'd all coo and smile at his genius.

I don't dislike him him but yeah..what you said.
 
I'm watching a documentary about Tom Waits. I'm into the noir atmosphere, late night jazz, the production on the records & a lot of the stuff he references, but I could never get into his music. I just find his whole act & persona annoying. It's so self consciously contrived & studied. There's a array of celebs saying what great songs & lyrics he has. I'll have to take their word for it. I can't get passed that stupid voice he puts on.

The problem is once in a while he writes something stunning. Its kinda getting less frequent though. You don't need to listen to everything thought, like bottom of the world, back in the crowd are probably all you need from the last 15 years.
 
I've dipped into Tom Waits and had a few albums but ended up selling them all. He's grand but the tramp act is a bit too close to blackface for me, hearing him do his thing over Gavin Bryars' "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" was the musical equivalent of seeing David McSavage incorporate slagging a homeless guy when he used to do his act in Temple Bar. Distasteful, upsetting and just wrong.

My dislike for Tom Waits is further compounded by the fact that we have the same birthday so every year I open twitter on that day to see lots of lickarse posts about him.
 
first Waits album i got was Bone Machine (1992) which is great.
when i checked out his 70's stuff and the mid 80's records that made him popular
i couldn't get into them at all.
they sounded lightweight compared to Bone Machine.
 
I cant find it now but there is a clip of one of his first TV appearances and the audience and host are just laughing , assuming it's piece of comedy. Of course he would say something profound about life being a comedy and then tell a tale of old drunks in late night bars and we'd all coo and smile at his genius.

I don't dislike him him but yeah..what you said.
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a mate of mine got into the army cadets years ago, and i sent him down a tape of 'bone machine'.
he actually got punished for listening to it in his room, his commanding officer heard it and hated it so much.
 
Never got past Closing Time. He peaked there for me. The romantic loser persona resonated with me more than the mad vagrant. Few tracks off Heart Attack and Vine are ok.

Thats kinda essentially before and after he got married, and his wife is his collaborator - so its kinda like a new band with the same name in a lot of ways.

Was thinking - real gone came out when i was in the states, and parts of it are ok but I never revisit it, it was however a very important part of (people had CDs at this time) the 'i don't like president bush' starter pack. You'd go to drink cans at a house and if you saw that album lying around you could be pretty confident you werent in for the shock and awe treatment.

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I remember this one on no disco and it being revelation of sorts, back when there were only about 30 artists on earth. Makes a lot more sense in that era - romantic piano man wasn't gonnna breach the shortes mtv, weird old man was essentially being promoted by every grunge video already, one of them just had to start singing.
 
a mate of mine got into the army cadets years ago, and i sent him down a tape of 'bone machine'.
he actually got punished for listening to it in his room, his commanding officer heard it and hated it so much.

The friend of mine who introduced me to Tom Waits was also in the army cadets. Albeit a good few years after we were listening to Waits.
 
I was at a great show in the NCH with Lisa O'Neill. Nadine Shaw etc last year doing a bunch of Tom Waits songs. Very enjoyable night out. Haven't listened to Tom himself in years though.
 
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