The gravel-voiced poet of bar-room misfits and midnight carnivals, Tom Waits turned American songwriting inside out.
MOODS · gravelly · noir · melancholic · theatrical · boozy · poetic · eccentric · world-weary · carnival-esque · bluesy · introspective · raw
BIOGRAPHY
Tom Waits, born December 7, 1949, emerged from Los Angeles' early-1970s folk scene with his 1973 debut Closing Time, which featured 'Ol' 55,' later a hit for the Eagles. He built critical and commercial momentum through Small Change (1976), Blue Valentine (1978), and Heartattack and Vine (1980), establishing his signature deep, gravelly voice and focus on society's overlooked characters.
In 1983, working with Kathleen Brennan, he reinvented his sound on Swordfishtrombones, fusing blues, jazz, vaudeville, opera, and experimental rhythms. He later collaborated with director Robert Wilson on theatrical works including The Black Rider and Alice, won multiple Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, and built a parallel career as a film actor.
WHY THEY'RE COOL
Tom Waits occupies a category of his own: a songwriter whose gravelly voice and vivid character studies of drifters and outsiders reshaped American music. After early folk-rooted albums, his 1983 collaboration with Kathleen Brennan on Swordfishtrombones fused blues, jazz, vaudeville, and experimental sound into something critics describe as imitated but never replicated. His theatrical work with Robert Wilson, Grammy wins for Bone Machine and Mule Variations, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, and parallel film career make him a rare artist whose influence spans music, theater, and cinema.
