Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters (Musicians in Their Own Words)

ISBN 10: 1569763127 / ISBN 13: 9781569763124

Published by Chicago Review Press, 2011

About this Item

Gently read once. No marks of previous ownership; not an ex-library copy. Binding tight; spine straight and smooth, with no creasing; covers clean and crisp. Minimal signs of handling or shelving. 100% GUARANTEE! Shipped with delivery confirmation, if you're not satisfied with purchase please return item for full refund. Ships USPS Media Mail.

Seller Inventory # OTV.1569763127.LN

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters (Musicians in Their Own Words)
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1569763127
• ISBN 13: 9781569763124
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: like_new

About this title

Synopsis

Tom Waits, even with his barnyard growl and urban hipster yawp, may just be what the Daily Telegraph calls him: “the greatest entertainer on Planet Earth.” Over a span of almost four decades, he has transformed his music and persona not to suit the times but his whims. But along with Bob Dylan, he stands as one of the last elder statesmen still capable of putting out music that matters.

            Journalists intent upon cracking the code are more likely to come out of a Waits interview with anecdotes about the weather, insects, or medieval medicine. He is, in essence, the teacher we wished we had, dispensing insights such as: “Vocabulary is my main instrument;” “We all like music, but what we really want is for music to like us;” “Anything you absorb you will ultimately secrete;” “Growth is scary, because you’re a seed and you’re in the dark and you don’t know which way is up, and down might take you down further into a darker place . . .;” and “There is no such thing as nonfiction. . . . People who really know what happened aren’t talking. And the people who don’t have a clue, you can’t shut them up.”

           Tom Waits on Tom Waits is a selection of over fifty interviews from the more than five hundred available. Here Waits delivers prose as crafted, poetic, potent, and haunting as the lyrics of his best songs.

About the Author

Paul Maher Jr. is the author of Jack Kerouac's American Journey and Kerouac: His Life and Work, editor of Empty Phantoms, and coeditor (with Michael K. Dorr) of Miles on Miles.