Tom Waits

Pbb,
I agree totally with your viewpoint.
That's not to say that there are no examples of artists producing a better version than the original songwriter-there are obviously cases where this is true but there are strongly in the minority imho,the whole album worth of cover versions is again imho a graveyard of creativity for most artists.
I'll probably get shot down for this but most Audiogoners (note most) are probably happier listening to safer,smoother versions of a lot of stuff.
In fact any occassional reading through of what music Audiogoners will throw the same lists over and over again-most audiophilles have stopped developing their musical tastes and are well happy listening to what they know.
It's interesting because the same people who accuse others of not realising what a top audio set-up can reproduce are in fact missing out on a whole world of music that is constantly being produced and released and whilst I wouldn't argue that anybody has missed out the new Beatles,the lack of investigation and open mindedness makes most music posts on this site extremely dull.
Again I like most of the stuff mentioned but life sure would be stale for me without searching out new music and not just the genres I know I like..........

One my favorite recordings is Tom Waits' "NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER".

I’ve been listening to Alice and Blood Money for a week now. Got ‘em on vinyl too.
What a great albums!
I’m with Mingus – IMHO, Holy Cole’s interpretation of TW’s songs is just boring. Thanks god Dana Kraal didn’t sing them yet.
For a good interpretation check out John Hammond’s Wicked Grin.

BTW, my 11 years old daughter likes Satisfaction sung by Britney Spears better then RS.

These are beautiful albums,'Im still here' almost reduces me to tears every time I play it,and I wish the wife and I had delayed our wedding until these albums were released,'Kommienzuspadt'would have been great as she walked down the aisle!By the way is this Yiddish or Berlin dialect written phonetically?

I think TW is an acquired taste, like sushi. People seem to either love him or dismiss him as too peculiar. I love the guy, and along with the 2 new ones have been listening to the wonderfully remastered "Used Cars", a compilation of songs from the early years. Beautiful, witty, sardonic, typical.Interestingly, he was interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air a couple weeks ago and it was a hoot. Very funny, listening to the interview was like listening to one of his song. But the apogee, for me, was when Terry Gross asked him where he gets his influences from. Early influences were from 30's and 40's music, including cabaret music, which he was into at 10-11 years of age. He found it more "interesting" than rock and roll. But asked about current influences he said he likes to listen to familiar music form different angles, and-this is where I laughed my ass off- " I like to listen to 2 radios at the same time."