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Tom Waits Bio
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Tom Waits
Thomas Alan Waits was born on December 7, 1949 in Pomona, California. He is of Scottish, Irish and Norwegian descent. Waits began developing his musical style in the 1970’s while working as the doorman for the Heritage Nightclub in San Diego. Some of his favorite artists included Bob Dylan, Lord Buckley, Raymond Chandler and Stephen Foster. He combined their music to create a unique sound of his own that incorporated both song and monologue.
Waits took a brief break from the music world while he served in the U.S. Coast Guard. He then recreated his act and began performing at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. By 1971, Tom moved to Los Angeles and was signed to Asylum Records at the age of 21 under the management of Herb Cohen.
Tom’s first record, Closing Time was released in 1973 to positive reviews. At this time he began touring with other acts such as Charlie Rich and Frank Zappa. He developed a cult following and quickly became a critically acclaimed musician. His sound was a mix of nightclub singer, blues, jazz, ballads, country and rock. By the end of the 1970’s, Waits had developed a working relationship with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola who would later ask Waits to come up with music for his film, One From the Heart.
Waits met Kathleen Brennan on the set of One From the Heart and the couple married in 1980. After they were married Brennan began co-writing songs with Waits and he gave her credit on many of his future albums. He also says that she introduced him to the musician Captain Beefheart. The couple currently lives in Sonoma County California with their three children.
In his later albums, Waits begins to explore with more experimental sounds. Traditionally he would always play the piano or guitar on his albums, but he branched out and began playing instruments like the bassoon and waterphone. His later albums become an eclectic mix of pump organs, horn, percussion and obsolete instruments.
By the 1990’s, Waits began to branch out even further in his expression. He began collaborating with photographer Sylvia Plachy on her book, Sylvia Plachy’s Unguided Tour where he included a short record meant to accompany the photographs and text. Tom’s most recent musical project is a three-disc box set of previously unreleased material that is entitled Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, released in November of 2006.
Waits has filed quite a few lawsuits throughout his decades-long career surrounding his material. He refuses to let anyone use his songs in commercials and files lawsuits against companies that use his material without permission. He is also publicly negative toward those artists who choose to do so.
Tom’s first lawsuit was filed in 1988 against Frito Lay when they used a musician who sounded like Waits to sing a similar song to one of Waits’ singles in their commercials. The judge ruled in Tom’s favor, awarding him $2.6 million.
To keep with his image, Waits has often moved to smaller and more independent record companies throughout the years, running from more commercial companies like Warner Bros. and Elektra Records. Throughout his career he has worked with Asylum Records, followed by Island Records and finally switched to Anti Records.
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