I think I always knew that Tom Waits was going to be a part of my musical life. When I was young, I remember flipping past the Island labeled records on my dad’s album shelf, looking for something I’d heard of. Years later I was back again, having just finished reading Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs. The simplicity of the Island label caught my eye once more, and I pulled the album out to reveal The Black Rider, a musical about the devil-at-the-crossroads-selling-magic-bullets story, written by Burroughs, music by Tom Waits.

That was the catching point for me, and once I wore that record out, I returned to the rest of the Waits catalog. Swordfishtrombones was a treat and Rain Dogs was the same. The first track off of Rain Dogs is my favorite, and is perhaps a good indicator of the unique music that is Tom Waits.

Tom Waits – Singapore[play] [buy]

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Do you see why I like this? The atonal guitars, the smoke-riddled throat of the singer, the general clacky-bones sounds, they all swirl around your head and draw you into that Tom Waits world of rusting metal shopfronts, one-eyed dwarf captains, and red light streaming from every window. Far from polite society, not so far from the grave, this world is dirty and full of regrets, yet each soul is fixated on the present in a way that only sailors and lovers generally are. Rough and tumble they may be, but one can forgive them this since they’re bold enough to travel to Singapore and return with the silks and spices we Nobles can’t seem to live without.

Away, boys.