The one eyed man is king

There are few voices in music as distinctive or idiosyncratic as that of Tom Waits.

Few talents as great as his or back catalogues as imposing.

I, however, am a relative newcomer to his music. I'm no expert. I can't claim to know much about him. Up until a few years ago, the most I knew, was his name and the fact that he was supposed to be pretty good. Something I've since learnt was a bit of an understatement. 'Real Gone' started it all for me. A Christmas present from someone I used to know. I was hooked the moment that low growl rumbled out of my speakers. A dizzying carnival of sounds surrounded it. A cavalcade of jazzy, percussion heavy grooves that answered to no-one but their master whether he barks, growls, roars or whispers. And slowly, I've found myself dabbling more and more into his back catalogue. Further. Deeper. Investigating. Delving. I'm still by no means an expert. I probably haven't even heard half of his output, but I'm getting there. And while I find myself drawn more to the noisier, wilder, untamed records, I can honestly say I haven't been disappointed by any of them.

Anyway, Tom Waits recently played a couple of gigs in Britain and as far as I can tell they've received pretty much universal rave reviews. It seems he was worth every single penny of the incredibly expensive tickets. And if you didn't have the good fortune of seeing him, these songs are just gonna rub your nose in it. They really are that good. So sorry about that. But hey, I didn't see him either so don’t be too mad at me.

**UPDATE - The audio has been removed as per a request I received. However, you can still hear the whole concert if you make your way over here. It's most definitely worth the trip.

mp3 / music / tom waits