Jon Pareles has an excellent profile on Tom Waits in today’s New York Times.
While I confess to perfering Waits’ early drunken ballads for their melodic qualities, I find all of his music very interesting, if sometimes challenging. He’s got two new releases—“Blood Money” and “Alice”—coming out on Tuesday.
Pareles’ interview with Waits is wide-ranging. Here are some excerpts:
Waits on his musical influences:
“Most songwriters, you can trace back what they’ve been listening to. It’s like you can go through the entrails of any animal and tell what the last three days were like. How do you reconcile your irreconcilable musical desires and dreams and wishes and memories? You may not be able to make one thing out of it. I think I feel more comfortable trying to visit different places. I don’t know if I have anything that I’ve made that’s a synthesis of the things I love. I don’t think I leave it in the blender long enough.”
On the major record labels:
“The big companies are more like countries than companies. Or they are like jellyfish. They have no anatomy. But they sting. Record companies are no longer interested in maintaining or nurturing or supporting the growth of an artist. They want you as a cash cow on the day you get there. And then, when you stop making milk they want you on the barbecue right away.”
On the songwriting process:
“Sometimes they’re coming so fast there’s not enough to catch them in. And other days you have to do a rain dance for it. You wait. I’ve got tape recorders all over the house. I can scribble notes on a napkin. But what I’ve really done is learn to exercise my memory. If I have a melody in my head, my challenge is to keep it in my head all day. And then try to sit down to dinner, forget it and then go back in the car and see if I can remember it again. I think if this is a really good melody it’ll never leave me. Some you lose. A lot of them get away. Those are the best songs, the ones that got away.”
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