Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
In the absence of an autobiography, this collection of 38 interviews and profiles is essential for the Tom Waits fan. It opens with a foreword by Frank Black and an introduction by Mac Montandon.
Part One: Early Years, contains the following amongst many others: The 1974 press release for Heart Of Saturday Night by Waits himself; A short interview with Clark Peterson of Creem magazine from 1978 titled The Slime Who Came In From The Cold; from 1976, there is an article from Sweet & Sour, a long Zig Zag interview and a New Yorker article.
The 1977 Rolling Stone piece by David McGee is very informative and from 1979 there is a short Washington Post article. This section also contains a poem by Charles Bukowski with a short introduction noting that it captures the entire Waitsian world.
In Part Two: The Middle Years, I found the following to be the most compelling: Peter Sabbag's in-depth 1987 article from the Los Angeles Times Magazine, a long formal question and answer interview by Glen O'Brien in a 1985 Spin magazine, 20 Questions from a 1988 Playboy and another question and answer interview from 1989 with Elvis Costello in Option.
Part Three: These Days, offers inter alia the following informative pieces: A 1999 Billboard review of Mule Variations and a short 1999 live review by Jon Pareles from the New York Times. From the same year there is a short review by Luc Sante in The Village Voice and an engaging conversational piece by David Fricke in Rolling Stone. There is also a short question and answer session from a 2004 Vanity Fair.
This section concludes with Nirvana, a 1992 poem by Charles Bukowski. It was included because in an interview with Soma magazine in 2002, Waits referred to this as his favorite poem. The book concludes with a Discography and a Timeline from Waits' birth on 7th December 1949 to the release of his 2004 album Real Gone. The book documents his entire career and is perhaps better than any biography as it contain so many perspectives from so many different writers.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader

Get 28% OFF

Click here for more information about Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader

Read More...

Tom Waits: Mule Variations Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The scariest thing about buying a songbook is wondering how well it matches the actual music - beginners don't want anything too complex, but serious musicians want the legitimate scores. Personally, I was very pleased to find that this songbook matched exactly what was on the album, but it isn't unapproachable for beginners.
A lot of the songs really aren't that hard to figure out, and so if you have a decent ear you might not have much of a use for this book. It is helpful for the trickier bits though, on songs like Take It With Me and Black Market Baby, and the chords are always dead on if you just feel like being lazy. Also, as anyone who has studied Tom's piano playing knows, there are a lot of songs in less common keys (like Eb, Db, Ab, etc.). Most songbooks seem to cater to guitar players by charting the chords in capo'd format, which is damn obnoxious to piano players, or else to piano players by using the proper chords, which is damn obnoxious to guitar players. This book, however, utilises both the proper chords and capo'd chords ( A7 / Bb7 for instance), which is helpful for playing together with a few friends.
There is no tablature here, so don't go looking for guitar solos or fills. And songs like Cold Water take a little experience and intuition to get right. Some music is so outdated that it will be difficult for beginners to play, but it's not because anything is lacking from the book. Overall I would definitely recommend getting this if you have been considering it, no matter your skill level. Some songs will be very easy (like Hold On or Picture In A Frame) but others will be a real [...] if you don't have much experience.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Tom Waits: Mule Variations

Including: Big In Japan, Lowside of the Road, Hold On, Get Behind the Mule, House Where Nobody Lives, Cold Water, Pony, WhatÂ's He Building, Black Market Baby, Eyeball Kid, Picture In A Frame, Chocolate Jesus, Georgia Lee, Filipino Box Spring Hog, Take It With Me, and Come On Up to the House.

Click here for more information about Tom Waits: Mule Variations

Read More...