Tom Waits To Release Cover Album
In a surprising career move legendary singer-songwriter Tom Waits announced yesterday that his new release will be an album of covers – of Tom Waits songs! Waits said that he had avoided some of his older songs in later years for various reasons and that it was time to give his earlier works a makeover.
„Some songs are like old relatives“, the gravelly-voiced singer explained. „There´s the funny uncle that made you laugh as a kid, and embarrassed you as a grownup. But as you get older you start to see that maybe there´s something more to Uncle Billy – something dark.“
To help re-invent the songs Waits has chosen to work with younger musicians who are not too respectful towards the early Waits songbook.
„Some of my songs have become a little cocky over the years“, says Waits. „You have to get in there with a whip and a bullhorn. These songs need to learn how to behave.“
Helping Waits to whip the songs into shape are musicians as disparate as guitarist Vogg from the death metal band Decapiated, Finnish avantgarde accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen and Malian n´goni wizard Bassekou Koyate.
The songs on the album include classics numbers like „Ol´55“, „I Wish I Was In New Orleans“ and „Jersey Girl“ but also little-heard obscurities like „Barber Shop“ and „Mr. Henry“.
All of the songs have gone through radical re-working. For instance, the smooth swaggering piano blues of „New Coat Of Paint“ has been transformed into a dark industrial hymn with an orchestration that Waits call „the sound of a chain gang building a skyscraper in the dark“. On the other hand the formerly hard as nails blues of „Heartattack And Vine“ has become a gentle lullaby, with Waits voice accompanied only by toy piano and stroh violin. The lyrics „liar liar with your pants on fire“ take on the sound of an abandoned child in a schoolyard singing to himself – albeit a child with a voice like crumbling rocks.
But the most controversial of all, at least to Waits´older fans, is the new version of what might be Waits´ most famous composition, „Tom Traubert´s Blues“. The tear-drenched piano ballad has been reborn as a spoken word piece. Gone are the piano and the lush strings and, shockingly, the classic Waltzing Mathilda refrain.
„I was young and drunken down under and I guess I kind of sneaked their unofficial national anthem with me through customs“, says Waits with a chuckle. „I thought it was about time I gave it back.“
And what is Waits´wife and songwriting partner Kathleen Brennan´s role in all of this?
„She´s the lifeguard“, says Waits. „Sometimes I get into really deep water, and I´m not a good swimmer. She´s there to throw me the lifebuoy.“The album Tom sings Waits will be available in stores on November 11. A limited vinyl edition with 8 additional tracks will be released on the same date by Epitaph/ANTI-records.
(Sonof Lee Marvin)
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