So, I am a huge Tom Waits fan, and this was the first album of his that came out after I had become a fan,so I was extremely excited about it, even though after hearing "Make it Rain" on the local public radio station before the album dropped, I was a bit underwhelmed.
After buying the album and listening to it, I was a little disappointed. It wasn't a bad album, but it in now way lived up to his previous releases, Alice and Blood Money. It felt like a glib facsimile of Bone Machine. But after years of listening to it, my opinion has totally changed. Although other albums of his have a song or two or three that are just all-time great, Real Gone kind of lacks that.
However, in this iTunes generation where music is taken in piecemeal, it would be easy to overlook the brilliance of this album. I really feel, as time goes on, that this is Waits's best album. There is just something about it. It is so inspired. And for what the tracks lack individually, they definitely make up for as a collective. I only realized how great the album was when one day I wanted to hear 'Hoist that Rag', but instead just played the whole thing straight through. It works, It works so much better as a whole.
I know this album is often seen as not one of Wait's best, and I think that is truly a tragedy. It is definitely one of his best. It just really is one of those albums (like most great albums) that need to be listened to from beginning to end. It is so much more compelling that way.
As for this thread, feel free to discuss this album, Waits in general, albums that you feel work much better when listened to in their entirety or albums by artists which you feel are their best works, but that most generally feel are mediocre.
>>61128818
>glib facsimile
>>61128849
Ben Solo kills Poodle Murphy.
Your post makes me want to sit down and really get into Real Gone. I've listened to it piecemeal, and enjoyed it. But never too seriously.
I am obsessed with Hoist That Rag, though. Particularly the Live in Atlanta version. That's the number one song a group of my friends and I play when we're hanging out.
>>61129030
Dat solo. Marc Ribot I think.
>>61129030
See, I was pretty much the same way. I really loved 'Hoist that Rag' and it was always my go-to cut off that album. But like I said, the day I just let it play through to get to Hoist, I just let it keep playing and I really found the flow there. Skipping through the tracks is just as much a way to ruin the album as skipping through scenes of a movie, or skipping through parts of a long song. There are peaks and valleys, and the album builds up to things, it takes you places if you let it. There is definitely an arc there.
>>61129149
Yeah, I saw him live here in Louisville, and he must have had a different guitarist, because he played a completely different solo and I don't know that it was terrible per se, but it was nowhere near as brilliant as the album version.
Last year on NYE I listened to Small Change and drank two bottles of wine before falling asleep under my desk.
>>61129030
Great song.
>>61128818
I know that the concensus is that The Velvet Underground and Nico is their best album, but I always felt that White Light/White heat was far superior.
>>61128818
Green Grass and The Day After Tomorrow are two of the saddest songs I have ever heard. They always give me maximum over-feels.
This is by far their best album, but none of their enlightened, intellectual, spiritual, evolved fans appreciate because it doesn't have Alex Grey artwork or songs about DMT.
>>61128818
Great post man. Just got into waits and am currently replaying Bone Machine and Swordfishtrombones until they're embedded in my mind.
>>61130020
I have two recommendations for you.
The first is the concert movie he made Big Time.
The second is the Austin City limits he did in 1976 I think. You can watch the whole thing on youtube.
If you haven't seen him perform live, you have no idea what you are in for. He is so much better live. A hell of a performer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COcySbGg9Mk
>>61129939
Agreed. Great fucking album. I hate their newer shit.
In the last few days I've been revisiting Mule Variations in a similar way, and while it's still not my favorite Tom Waits album, it has definitely now established its place in my top five. Every time I listen to him I'm reminded that he's one of a very few artists who simply refuses to decline in quality, musically speaking. Every album, decade after decade, rivals some of his best work. It gets to the point when I don't even know what his best work is anymore. Waits seriously is one of a kind.
>>61130020
Swordfishtrombones is probably my favorite album of his.
>>61129787
House Where Nobody Lives is it for me.
>>61130606
This is so true. That's why I was thinking that Real Gone might be his best. I mean,it's Amazing to think that Alice and Blood Money were released at the exact same time, and they are arguably better than anything he had done up to that point.
I always find it sad that so many people have no idea who Tom Waits is. So much so that he even wrote a song about it.
>>61128818
Completely agree. It's one of my favorite albums of all time and he's one of my favorite artists.
>>61130684
When was the last time someone told you what their favorite Tom Waits album was and you thought, "Seriously? Weird choice, but alright." That just doesn't happen with that guy cause there are no bad albums in his discography, and yet he's been constantly evolving as a musician since the early 70s. It's crazy to think about.
>>61130825
>>61130825
Except for Foreign Affairs, that's a bit of a clunker. Some good tracks on there though
Top of the Hill is GOAT
>>61130970
Well yeah, he's had some that aren't quite as amazing as others, but can you really name a bad Tom Waits album? Like one that just sucked the whole way through? That's kind of what I mean. He's going into his fith decade of music now. It's hard to name any other artist who can say that about themselves.
>>61129684
I feel like they're both 10/10s and TVU is one of the only bands to ever make two objective masterpieces one after the other
>>61131290
Honestly I do think Foreign Affairs is pretty weak. I think he went a little too far and became too much of a parody of himself with the drunken jazz soliloquies. Definitely some good songs on there like I Never Talk To Strangers, A Sight For Sore Eyes and Burma Shave
>>61129684
I've always thought S/T was their best. TVU&N and WLWH are great too though.
>>61131357
That's definitely fair. Still, amazing output for one career. I can't wait for his next album.
>>61130712
Which song?
>>61130197
Yo, thanks, this guy is fucking nuts
>>61131573
Big in Japan
>tfw you thought the new song he played on letterman was a sign of a new album in the works, but have heard nothing about it since
>>61131757
It's coming, anon.
In terms of lyrical imagery, you can't go wrong with Mr. Siegal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH4KM1uYPq8
>>61132895
Even when he barks into the mic, Tom Waits is so chill.
>>61130825
If you said The Black Rider, I'd think you were being willfully obtuse.
>>61130606
Mule Variations was the first new Waits album after I became a fan and it has certainly gone up in my evaluation since then
Real Gone on the other hand I think of one of his weaker albums, maybe I should give it another shot
>>61133970
In some ways it feels like his saddest album to me. Some of the more piano based songs are very somber. Great album.
>>61134128
in general I'm not a big fan of his songs that have been inspired by real events like Georgia Lee, but Picture in a Frame and Take it with Me are beautiful songs
>>61128818
make this thread 10-20 hours later and Ill have not only a decent response but good feedback and rec's. I'm way too tired and drunk at the moment but I have a lot of input for op
>>61134158
>Picture in a Frame
I've been listening to this one nonstop. My favorite song on the whole album though is House Where Nobody Lives.
