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Everything this guy does is great

undo wrote:

jesus jones wrote:currently jamming trans canada highway

might fuck around and only listen to boards of canada today

This was a good reminder to me that I still have never listened to anything by this guy and I really ought to do something about that.

this is incredible

Why the fuck would anyone ever listen to Billy Joel when the world gave us Tom Waits? I'll never understand this.

You coulda stopped the question at, ‘Why the fuck would anyone listen to Billy Joel?’

I don't like him but there's a contingent of people on this board who love him and they've listened to more music than I have, so I don't know what to think.

Can't wait for him to die, though.

Yeah, I don't give a shit about Billy Joel but I know that some people on here really like The Stranger. It probably isn't a very interesting observation but I feel like my problem with American popular culture of the last generation is that they do not really appreciate their true artists because they are obsessed with the kitschy bullshit of people like Billy Joel.

What are the boards favorite Tom Waits albums and/or tracks? I have been really into him for the last four years and in that time I have just slowly absorbed all of his material. There is so much great shit. I love listening to his live albums as well. It took me a while to get into Rain Dogs, which seems to be the album most critics gravitate towards. There are still some tracks on there that I struggle with (the first one especially), but the highs on that album are sublime.

undo wrote:

Can't wait for him to die, though.

Why. Has he committed a sin I'm unaware of other than making shitty music (I don't even have the evidence to support this claim but I'm probably not going to investigate)

That's a fair question.

I'm probably thinking about it with a lot of superstition, like Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder or Bob Dylan don't really have to be the next Rock N Roll Legends to die, he could take their place and we could spend more time on this planet together with them instead!

I also don't like him on a personal level but I really need to ask myself if that's worth bringing up here.

WP64 wrote:

What are the boards favorite Tom Waits albums and/or tracks? I have been really into him for the last four years and in that time I have just slowly absorbed all of his material. There is so much great shit. I love listening to his live albums as well. It took me a while to get into Rain Dogs, which seems to be the album most critics gravitate towards. There are still some tracks on there that I struggle with (the first one especially), but the highs on that album are sublime.

One of the many wonderful things about Tom Waits, imo, is that it's all good. Literally all of it. I definitely prefer his music once it becomes truly strange - Swordfishtrombones and after - but I'll say yes to all of it and always buy any used vinyl when I come across it. Some albums I really like that get a little bit less critical play:

Franks Wild Years
Bone Machine
Real Gone


I don't generally think of Waits in terms of tracks - I tend to put his music on when I'm in a general Tom Waits mood - but here are various cuts I enjoy and can think of right now:

Cold Cold Ground (FWY)
Innocent When You Dream (FWY)
Jockey Full of Bourbon (RD)
Downtown Train (RD)
I Don't Wanna Grow Up (BM)
Day After Tomorrow (RG)
How's It Gonna End (RG)
Hoist That Rag (RG)
Hold On (MV)
Hell Broke Luce (BaM)
New Year's Eve (BaM)
Long Way Home (Orphans)

realizing these are mostly his moody, quiet tunes. Maybe I like those the best? Dunno.

I agree that it's all good but I haven't been in the mood for most Tom Waits for a very long time and Closing Time is the only one I ever want to listen to. This is my favourite song, absolutely criminal that the acoustic guitar demo version is better known

Tom Waits is a boss motherfucker, and so was Billy Joel. Not only is Songs in the Attic one of the best live albums ever released, but it's also the only reason we ever got Appetite for Desctruction out of Axl Rose. To say nothing of "November Rain"!

Tom Waits sounds like Cookie Monster I cant believe people like that shit LOL.

Mule Variations kills so hard. “You May Be Right” is one of the best pop rock songs ever recorded.

But yeah everything about this page is confusing as shit cept for a thing or two Zappo and Michael K wrote.

Blue Skies is sick too so salute to Soma on that. Maybe I’ll try to weigh in with actual thoughts when my brain is working again.

One of the things I like best about Tom Waits is his acting ability. So, while some people might write him off as a sort of insincere dude playing some mystery fantasy drifter shit, the performance as a thing actually makes him more intriguing to me and adds to the music. Which I also love the hell out of. I cannot pick a favorite Waits album. At times Rain Dogs, Swordfishtrombones, Heart Attack and Vine, Franks Wild Years, Mule Variations, and Bone Machine have all occupied that spot, and so many of his other albums are right up there as well. He's great. He's an artist I love unreservedly. I like the scene in Coffee and Cigarettes where he's sort of a dick to Iggy.

Billy Joel is a bit of a guilty pleasure. I like him both ironically and sincerely...  Stuff like The Stranger, Glass Houses or yeah, Songs in the Attic are good records. Some of his later stuff is...  not great, but I still fuck with it. Like, "Keeping the Faith" is so hokey and dumb, but I'm down with that uplifting horseshit. We didn't start the fire is dumb, but not dumb enough. Fuck that shit, might as well listen to "we built this city on rock and roll."


*Kathleen Brennan is one of the most underrated living artists, and I have no concrete evidence, but I'll die on this hill.

I’m sorta indifferent to Tom Waits. I get his place in American cultural history but I’ve never given him much of a listen. Seems like a low rent Captain Beefheart from afar.

Billy Joel ain’t no good, man. Mentioning his name will make everyone in our house, including my son who is 12, laugh out loud. I appreciate that some of you guys like him but that will not change my opinion. Why would you listen to Billy Joel when Elton John exists? I guess you could like em both but personally I only have room for one 70s white piano man.

I only have room for one, undo.

nice I love Randy Newman

I kinda feel like BGWaves and Nick about Tom Waits, but I kinda understand that it probably comes from a place that feels like being "A guy who's into Tom Waits" is kind of a dangerous path to walk, and I'm kinda done with worrying about what other people think about what I like, so maybe I've been unfair to him. That said I've yet to explore the discography of Jodeci, for instance, so I don't see much urgency in giving Waits a chance.

The most surprising thing I've learned about Billy Joel in this thread is that people have opinions about him.

Heard "November Rain" on the radio the other day for the first time in maybe a decade. That dude sure was trying to get into heaven on that one, huh.

been on a butthole surfers kick all day and it’s been great

Ned Braden wrote:We didn't start the fire is dumb, but not dumb enough. Fuck that shit, might as well listen to "we built this city on rock and roll.

Two literally perfect songs!

Completely agree, Zappo.