Tom Waits on Leonard Cohen

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:04 pm

Here is an article by Tom Waits writing about his 20 all time favourite albums, at no. 9 is "I'm your man".

I'm Your Man by Leonard Cohen (Columbia) 1988
Euro, klezmer, chansons, apocalyptic, revelations, with that mellifluous voice. A shipwrecked Aznovar, washed up on shore. Important songs, meditative, authoritative, and Leonard is a poet, an Extra Large one.

Full article here....

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/stor ... 72,00.html

Rob

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 4:55 am

Yeah, I think Tom Waits has remarked on LC as being influential several times. They do/did have a similar feel for a while there. Certainly a 'from the edges' kind of music. I bet LC likes Waits also.

When I first became interested in Tom Waits (in the late 70s) it sounded as though it would hurt for this poor man to speak, let alone, sing. Or you know...sing his way....Still, after all these years of abuse, he can still do it. Remarkable, really.

Leonard is different, in that he needs more 'control' over is lyrics, I think. I can see why he might want to 'speak' more than actually sing and not sing loudly without a good back up singer.

I've always found them to be very similar overall. With Leonard getting more for his style and very cerebral look at life.

Linda.

Anne-Marie · Post by **Anne-Marie** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:37 pm

Well Tom Wait's has an album called "closing time"

Great CD.

Jinx · Post by **Jinx** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 2:01 am

Tom waits is one of the best artists ever...

I think he did a few covers of Leonard's songs...

Well, Nick Cave has done the most of them, anyway...

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 2:15 am

Hello Jinx,

Well, both Nick Cave and Nick Drake are well known to have covered LC material, although I'm not sure Tom Waits did. If so, I'd like to know which tunes he covered. If not, he's an artist and a fine writer on his own merit.
My favourtite Waits CD is 'Heart of Saturday Night', which has to be about 25 years old by now! I didn't think Tom Waits would get this far (in age), but neither did I think that about myself

Linda.

Jinx · Post by **Jinx** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 2:35 am

Well apart from "Greensleeves" which, of course, is a classic (Cohen covered it first) I think Tom Waits at least performed Cohen... I am not entirely sure though, and I am VERY drunk so don't take my word for it...

Maybe it's just me... Because Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits are my Top Three...

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 3:26 am

Leonard, Big Bob and Tom, do seem to be the 'big three' on a lot of peoples' lists. Leonard and Bob are practically under the microscope sometimes. I think Tom Waits is deservedly 'up there' as well.

Linda.

Jinx · Post by **Jinx** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 4:49 am

Yup and Nik (Cave) is the 4th

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 7:00 am

I think there is a point where a person could go off into several very different directions after the Leonard/Dylan split. Cohen and Dylan are something like the backbone of a particular type of music, mystique and imagination. After that, there are many choices, not necessarily even remotely like either one (except for Waits, of course). The rest being spun off of the original. If you get my drift?

Linda.

Jinx · Post by **Jinx** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:54 pm

Yep... I do, but stop drifting now

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 3:12 am

I feel myself drifting off to sleep....

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:36 am

I think Tom waits never covered Cohen, excpet if that was on some show never released.

On the other hand, Waits is Leonard's favourite artist

VAN · Post by **VAN** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 11:18 pm

My top three songwriters are Cohen, Waits, and Cave but in any particular order. There is something in their attitudes about love and life that is reflected in their songs that binds them together for me.

And I don't think Tom Waits ever covered Cohen.

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:07 am

VAN wrote:My top three songwriters are Cohen, Waits, and Cave

Welcome to the club!

Long ago, the trinity was: Dylan, Cohen, Young
Today it is: Cohen, Cave, Waits (plus late "American" Johnny Cash

)

Who's the survivor?

jurica · Post by **jurica** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:01 pm

Tom Sakic wrote:Long ago, the trinity was: Dylan, Cohen, Young
Today it is: Cohen, Cave, Waits (plus late "American" Johnny Cash )

says who???

the late Johnny Cash can't get near MY top50, and Cave is somewhere down there as well (i'd say somewhere between 40 and 50). come on, you can LIKE Cave, but he doesn't realy play in the same league, when it comes to poetry, does he?

i have more or less all of Tom Waits' albums, and i know by heart most of his songs. i'm quite a fan, you could say, but even he couldn't enter my personal trinity (Cohen, Dylan, Dedic)...

it's true, it seems, that Cohen fans tend to dismiss Dylan, but it's no wonder - he's so different from Cohen ("Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen represent two highly contrasting directions from which the attempt to restore significance and integrity of vision to the popular song can be made." --- Frank Davey). therefore, you can't judge who's trinity today from Cohen fandom's opinions. on a Bob Dylan forum, you'd barely see Cohen mentioned (Dylan fans tend to like Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Ochs...)