History Music / TomWaits

* CoveredUp: Waits' records have never made the top 40, but Music/RodStewart's version of "Downtown Train" made it to #3 in 1989.
** "Jersey Girl" was recorded by Music/BruceSpringsteen and initially released in 1984 as the B-side of the single, "Cover Me". It wound up getting a lot of radio airplay and was later re-released on Bruce's live box set. The song is more associated with him than it ever was to Waits--probably because of Bruce's deep identification with New Jersey, which the Californian Waits couldn't match (and the generous Tom wouldn't want to, as long as he got his writer's credit).
** Everyone recognizes "Way Down in the Hole" as one of his, but also regards the Blind Boys of Alabama's cover as a superior version.
** Know Music/TheEagles' song "Ol' 55"? ... not so fast. Waits is not exactly a fan of the Eagles' take on it, which he regards as "fairly antiseptic".

* TheDanza: Will occasionally sing from the POV of characters named Tom, e.g., Tom Traubert, Tom Frost from "Martha".

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Those of the cellphone generation may be confused by references to asking an operator for a phone number and a fee for a long distance call from 1973's "Martha."

* ''Music/{{Alice}}'' (2002)

->''"We all hear our own stories in our favorite songs (that is why Tom Waits sings in werewolf language--you can pretend it is about anything you want!)."''
-->-- '''John Hodgman''', ''Literature/MoreInformationThanYouRequire''

* NotChristianRock: References to God, the Devil, Jesus, and other religious motifs are fairly common in his lyrics (notably "Way Down in the Hole," which was even covered by the Gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama), but whether that's a statement of faith or just the influence of Gospel/Americana style is [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory anybody's guess]]. After all, this is the same man who once opined: "...there ain't no Devil/There's just God when he's drunk."

* ''Literature/Ironweed'' as Rudy

With that out of the way, Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an innovative musician, generally classified as [[AlternativeRock alternative]] but borrowing heavily from European and American folk music, gospel, lounge music, pop, the blues, cabaret, and occasionally country and even rap (he beatboxes on the 2004 album ''Real Gone'' and Atmosphere's ''When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold'', and he appears on N.A.S.A's "Spacious Thoughts").

--> "Well usually about 2.30 in the morning you've ended up taking advantage of yourself. There ain't no way around that you know. Yeah, making a scene with a magazine, there ain't no way around. "

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: [[UpToEleven Great Scott.]] The genres can change at the drop of a hat, often within the same album.

With that out of the way, Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an innovative musician, generally classified as [[AlternativeRock Alternative]], but borrowing heavily from European and American folk music, gospel, lounge music, pop, the blues, cabaret, and occasionally country and even rap (he beatboxes on the 2004 album ''Real Gone'' and Atmosphere's ''When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold'', and he appears on N.A.S.A's "Spacious Thoughts").

[[DescribeTopicHere Describe Tom Waits here]]. Okay... but how? Well, everyone seems to use the [[ReviewerStockPhrases cliched phrases like "whiskey-soaked", "gravelly-voiced", "barfly", "hobo", "raconteur", and "troubadour".]]

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/183538_1_f.jpg]]

[[DescribeTopicHere Describe Tom Waits here]].

Okay... but how?

Well, everyone seems to use the [[ReviewerStockPhrases cliched phrases like "whiskey-soaked", "gravelly-voiced", "barfly", "hobo", "raconteur", and "troubadour".]]

* SunglassesAtNight: "Burma Shave". Complete with RealityEnsues.

Vote for your favourite Tom Waits album by heading over to the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/Sandbox/BestAlbumTomWaits Best Album crowner]]!

* ImproperlyParanoid: The narrator of the poem "What's He Building In There?" is paranoid of his neighbor, with increasingly weird ([[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness maybe imagined,]] maybe not) factoids that present the neighbor as evil such as never waving as he passes, never watering his lawn, sending a lot of packages, supposedly working before in Indonesia, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and the narrator swearing he heard someone moaning inside the house]]. The poem ends with the narrator saying "we have a right to know", meaning he's about to barge into the neighbor's house and get answers (whichever they are, of course, remains a RiddleForTheAges).

* ''Film/TheImaginariumOfDoctorParnassus'' as Mr Nick

* ''Film/TheBalladOfBusterScruggs'' as Prospector

* AntiLoveSong: Several examples.

References to Waits were a RunningGag on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.

* BadassBoast: "Goin' Out West" from ''Music/BoneMachine'' is all about his character boasting about his looks and how badass he is, specifically saying he knows karate and voodoo and can handle himself in a high speed chase. He's got the scars and chest hair to prove it.

* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: His version of "[[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Heigh Ho]]" has been described as "the theme tune for midget slave labor." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUokR-lXmlc Take a listen and see if you don't agree.]]

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUokR-lXmlc Here's]] the most disturbing cover of [[Disney/SnowWhite a Disney song]] ever recorded. Appropriately, the album's called ''Stay Awake''.

* SoundtrackDissonance: A meta example. À la Music/PinkFloyd and ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', a fan synced Waits' albums ''Foreign Affair'' and ''Blood Money'' with, unbelievably... Disney's ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}.'' The scariest part? It works ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGc2qHfS--o perfectly.]]''

* [[spoiler:SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: At the end of "The Piano's Been Drinking", the ''entire song'' is revealed to be one.]]