Tom Waits
b. 7 December 1949, Pomona, California, USA. A gifted lyricist, composer and raconteur, Tom Waits began performing in the late '60s, inspired by a spell working as a doorman in a San Diego nightclub. Here he saw a miscellany of acts—string bands, comedians, C&W singers—and by absorbing portions of an attendant down-market patois, developed his nascent songwriting talent. Having appeared at the Los Angeles’ Troubador Amateur Hoot Nights, Waits was signed by manager Herb Cohen who in turn secured a recording deal with the emergent Asylum label. TOM WAITS revealed a still-unfocused performer, as yet unable to draw together the folk, blues and singer/songwriter elements vying for prominence. It did contain Ol' 55, later covered by the Eagles, and Martha, a poignant melodrama of a now-middle-aged man telephoning his first love from 40 years previously. THE HEART OF SATURDAY NIGHT was an altogether more accomplished set in which the artist blended characterizations drawn from diners, truckers and waitresses, sung in a razor-edged, rasping voice, and infused with beatnik prepossessions. Waits's ability to paint blue-collar American life is encapsulated in its haunting, melodic title track. NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER, an in-concert set, and SMALL CHANGE, closed the performer's first era, where the dividing line between life and art grew increasingly blurred as Waits inhabited the flophouse life he sang about. FOREIGN AFFAIRS unveiled a widening perspective and while the influence of Beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg still inhabited his work—as celebrated in Jack And Neal/California Here I Come—a duet with Bette Midler, I Never Talk To Strangers, provided the impetus for his film soundtrack to ONE FROM THE HEART. BLUE VALENTINE was marked by its balance between lyrical ballads and up-front R&B, a contrast maintained on HEARTATTACK AND VINE. A tough combo prevailed on half of its content. 
Elsewhere, the composer's gift for emotive melody flourished on Jersey Girl, later covered by Bruce Springsteen. The album marked the end of Waits's term with both Cohen and Asylum; in 1983 he opted for Island Records and signalled a new musical direction with the radical SWORDFISHTROMBONES. Exotic instruments, sound textures and offbeat rhythms marked a content which owed more to Captain Beefheart and composer Harry Partch than dowdy motel rooms. Waits came close to having a hit single in 1983 with the evocative In The Neighbourhood, complete with a stunning sepia video. Waits also emphasized his interest in cinema with acting roles in Rumble Fish, Down By Law and Ironweed, in the process completing the exemplary RAIN DOGS, which featured support from Keith Richards on Big Black Mariah. It also included Downtown Train, another in a series of romantic vignettes and later a hit for Rod Stewart. Waits’ next release, FRANKS WILD YEARS, comprised material drawn from a play written with his wife Kathleen Brennan and based on a song from SWORDFISHTROMBONES. BIG TIME, meanwhile, was the soundtrack to a concert film, since which the artist's recording career has been distinctly low-key. He continued his cinematic career with roles in Candy Mountain and Cold Feet and in 1989 Waits made his theatrical debut in Demon Wine. BONE MACHINE in 1992 was for many his finest album, although this perplexing genius still is only a cult figure. He entered into litigation in 1993 with his objection to the use of his Heartattack And Vine, with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins voice for a Levis television ad.