Fun:Tom Waits

From RationalWiki

Tom Waits is God. (Eric Clapton was God when he was younger)

If you didn't know, he's a musician. Singer-songwriter-poet sort of stuff. Important musician type dudes cancel appointments to do random percussion on his songs, that's how god-like He is.

He also appeared in the movie Coffee and Cigarettes, performing an improvised skit with fellow God (some of us believe in pantheons), Iggy Pop. A scientific analysis of the scene indicates it "rulzed". Unfortunately, another scientific analysis of the scene (indeed, the whole movie) indicated that it was "pointless". Even though that analyst is a fan of Steven Wright and The White Stripes, who also appear in the movie.

Due to his horrific rendition of "Downtown Train" as a cheerful song, Rod Stewart is considered by some to be Satan. ("Downtown Train" is, of course, a Waits original that can be found on the iconic Waits opus Rain Dogs.) Waits' songs have also been covered by such musical luminaries as Bruce Springsteen and the Eagles.

The early part of Waits' career was mostly your standard boozy barfly fare, filled with character sketches dedicated to exploring the lifestyles of the drunk and lonely. However, to the astonishment of all and the delight of many, Waits abruptly became a sort of avant-blues/industrial/Christ-I-don't-know savant in the eighties, and he has been releasing wonderfully off-kilter masterpieces ever since.

A comprehensive list of Waits' best songs would take far more time and effort than we really care to expend. However, some late-period Waits gems that we all agree you should run out and buy right now include "Going Out West" (the meanest, loudest, and most hilariously macho rock song ever recorded by a man named Tom Waits)), "I Don't Wanna Grow Up"^[1] (both from Bone Machine, worth owning in its entirety), "God's Away On Business" (a fantastic bit of blues-carnival protest), "Temptation" (the funniest piece of jazz crooning you'll probably ever hear), and "Jockey Full of Bourbon" (mean, groovy, and--screw this, I'm not a music major).

Oh, and the voice. Hmm...imagine the voice of the gruffest, roughest blueswailer you've ever heard in your life. (You could also imagine Captain Beefheart, if you're hep to his kind of jive, yo.) Okay, take that voice and run it through the cheesegrater of your mind's eye for a few hours. That's Tom Waits' voice.