Tom Waits

My roommate has been turning me on to Tom Waits lately...some of his stuff is great but I think some of it will have to grow on me (the stuff that sounds like evil clown music)...then again, the Grateful Dead didnt do much for me in the early 80's, but by 87, they were and are to this day my favorite band...I have a feeling that Tom Waits will gradually earn his way into my all time favorites

'Evil clown music'-I love it!If holly cole covers other peoples songs does that make her a musician or merely an interpreter.By the way there's a great piece on Mr Waits in this months GQ magazine

Waits produced a tune on a Primus disc. "Evil Clown Music" sounds like a somewhat appropriate description of that too. Sean
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Which Primus album? I'm also a big fan.

As a baseline I favour the writer as being the best interpreter of his/her own words. Even more so when the words come from a perspective that is so singular, so personal and from such an idiosyncratic person. We are not talking Yip Harburg or Cole Porter here. This does not mean I close my ears and mind to the versions of others. The reference to J. Warnes is timely. I will give Holly Cole a listen. I don't mean to sound dismissive, but again, to me, the limits of the performers voice, the lack of polish, the lack of training all contribute to what the performer is. Sorry about this "warts and all" approach, but I usually don't think that what we call in French a "chanson à texte" is in better hands when a more musical, better trained singer performs it. I find it usually loses something in the process. It sometimes work, but not often. I'm just as happy if the likes of Céline Dion never mangles a song with lyrics that go beyond the present equivalent of "moon" and "June". Believability is the one ingredient I can't do without. When the writing is so personal, the words coming out the mouth of someone else feels somewhat contrived to me. Not an absolute, just my own observation/prejudice.